- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
- videos
- breadtube@lemmy.ml
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The first half of the video criticising the resurgence of social conservatism in Russia is decent and brings up absolutely valid (if unoriginal) points, however where it veers off into nonsense is when it tries to claim that Russia is "pursuing imperialist interests" in various countries where it is actually countering western imperialism, including of all places Syria! This is patently absurd and completely misunderstands the geopolitics of Russia and the region, as such it arrives at the incorrect conclusion about Russia's anti-imperialism. The segment following this is even worse, trying to portray Putin as somehow running a comic book villain style brainwashing operation on Russians.
Sorry if this sounds harsh but this video purporting to analyze Russia from a leftist perspective might as well have been made by a run of the mill liberal for how shallow and lacking in materialist analysis it is. I half expected to hear them even give credence to the Russiagate conspiracy theory.
Do you know of a video that does a good analysis on modern Russia?
Honestly no, not on such a broad topic as just "modern Russia" as a whole. I could maybe recommend videos on individual topics related to Russia if you narrow it down, but for this sort of general overview most videos i've seen have glaring weaknesses one of two ways - either they get the geopolitics wrong because they don't like Russia's reactionary social tendencies and this makes them susceptible to the liberal geopolitical narrative, or they get the geopolitics right but they fall into reactionary garbage on the social issues either due to their own conservative biases or out of pure contrarianism. In both cases you see black and white thinking that is incapable of dealing with the existence of contradictions.
For instance Marxist economists Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson have repeatedly discussed the nature of Russia's economy and its relationship to the Global Majority (Global South) and to the imperialist West on Ben Norton's excellent Geopolitical Economy Report channel. I would advise regularly listening to their discussions.
Secondly, concerning Russia's supposed "imperialism", this article from back when the new phase of the Ukraine conflict started in 2022 does a good job of succinctly summarizing the issues with that accusation, one of the most important of which is that modern Russia's economy in reality resembles much more that of a neocolony exploited by the imperial core than that of an imperialist nation.
The only thing that has changed since then which is no longer valid in their analysis is that Russia, as a result of the fortuitous sanctions imposed by the West which acted as a protectionist barrier for the Russian economy, has actually finally started to reindustrialize, something which Putin's fundamentally liberal government would otherwise never have done.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Don't give views and clout to imperialist propaganda mouthpieces by linking them please.
If you have something to say on the Russia/Ukraine conflict know much has been said and your sources will be closely scrutinized for whether they are good Marxist and/or anti-imperialist analysis or just more run of the mill equivocating left-lib pablum propaganda that is so abundant and which we have all heard.
I question what if any value this brings and thus whether it even belongs here (though the community has no rules, this is basically reactionary content). The points in the first half have been made by dozens of much better people and most people here are well aware of Russia's social values and persecution of the LGBTQ+ community so really it's only a way of smuggling in the latter points (falsely calling Russia imperialist) behind a veneer or progressiveness. That makes it worse and more dangerous than simply coming right out with those false points as it lulls naive viewers in with things they find hard to disagree with and which are valid problems then connects them with straight up lies and western propaganda. I suggest you blocklist this youtube channel as unreliable propaganda and avoid posting anything from this person again.
Neither Washington nor Moscow/Beijing is a well worn tactic by the CIA and their false western anti-Marxist, Anti-Soviet, Anti-Chinese "left".
You guys make good points. I am going to leave the video here though, in case new leftists stumble on it, they can read the comments and learn something.
I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
