Title, I'm a leftist but after reading some things on lemmygrad and here it seems I might have been lied to all my life. I have talked with some people from Cuba and Venezuela (expats) that support the west narrative about poverty and mismanagement. I "believe" that Russia is attacking Ukraine for selfish reasons and that China censors access to foreign information using the Great Firewall, please prove me wrong. Furthermore, it ultimately depends who do you want to believe or there are hard facts from reputable sources that are simply a hidden by the mass media?
EDIT: Thanks everyone for your very civil responses. I'll answer as many as I can!
Replaced by election, replaced fairly. In the case of Russia, I've heard those elections aren't fair, or transparent . For example, Putin in power for so long with huge voting polls in his favor, his opponents attacked and assassinated even. Another concern I have, given my connections with non-binary family members is little to no tolerance for gay people , for example. I'm more skeptical of Russia than I am of China, because I personally "feel" (through media reports) that the country is serious about making progress overall for its people, even though negative perceptions do make themselves known . Again, no argument from me that there are many in positions of power in the USA who are pushing for similar measures in the USA.
But who are these opponents and would they stand a chance in a 'free and fair election'? If you really look into why and who these people are, the reason Putin goes hard on them is because they are likely mostly shells propped up by American and British intelligence services. I'm not going to argue that it's the correct way to deal with them, but generally speaking it serves as a warning. Don't deal with Western intelligence services and we will leave you alone. The former communist party operates electorally unscathed, if unpopular, as do several further right-wing parties who have been incredibly critical of Putin's Ukriane invasion (in that they want even further commitment of troops), even other members of the liberal opposition operate unimpeded, as long as they aren't directly involved with the West. However, more problematic than that is that the oligarchs control the media, even the opposition media, so creating any kind of real change in status quo between worker and bourgeoisie is going to be an uphill slog.
I agree that Russia has huge problems with the arbitrary prosecution of gay and lgbt activists. However, members of the protest group Pussy Riot were given light sentences that, if they had done the same actions (namely having public sex in a church) in the U.S. they would not only face up to 20 years of prison, but also mandatory sex offender registration, and likely a lengthy probation. Both Russia and the U.S. are incredibly arbitrary in their prosecutions and laws around these social things.
Russia is not a country that I would personally want to live in. However, portraying it as some sort of backwards nation of despots and savages is incredibly inaccurate. They are an oligarchic capitalist nation with huge interests in promoting their local bourgeoisie at the expense of foreign capital interests.
I don't want to be too overbearing on this, but the most standard radlib position is "I disavow the USA while believing 99% of what it says about its enemies through its media mouthpieces". When people point to the US being bad, it's not because they think you wouldn't "disavow" it but that your perception of enemies of the US are necessarily mediated by the US and its allies, who control the vast majority of media you have ever been exposed to if you've lived your life in their borders.
Fair enough. That's why when I'm getting into a discussion, I always like to ask what constitutes acceptable sources. It's a bit of a negotiation I guess, but better that than shouting over one another. I'm totally willing to be shown new realities, for example with Russia. I would love to be shown that the country is a pillar of human and worker rights, and that the stories I've heard are all media lies. So far though, even as I search, I haven't found that. I actually find the topic of sources to be altogether vexing, fascinating, frustrating and interesting. It really is the rub of it, in my opinion.
You've gotten pretty consistent feedback on Russia and it's not what you propose as a counterfactual there. The Putin and the party that backs him are rhetorically rightwing on a range of issues and in practice seem impressively unideological in favor of cold pragmatism, but because of their position in the world order, with the US continuing to menace Russia with NATO even after the dissolution of the USSR and the gutting of every member state's economy and welfare infrastructure, Putin has found himself in a place where what benefits him the most is to oppose western hegemony, and the best strategy for that is pursuing multipolarity. At the core, that's all it is, but the US can never say that, so it just lazily paints him as another Hitler to rally the west against him.
I think he's a mafioso and, if one of us was in a room with him and he thought it beneficial to kill us (unlikely but whatever), he would not even blink as he signals to his secret service that we are to be stabbed with a ricin pin or whatever. But that is not so, and he is just as ready to help other states that the US has also made an enemy out of, including socialist states.
Sorry I don't understand.
No worries. You said:
So I was simply saying that no one here claims Russia is a pillar of any kind of rights (beyond, arguably, local self-determination). The government doesn't intrinsically give a shit about any of that, so it maintains basic protections for members of the majority population as long as you don't go out of your way to get on its bad side. It is at best unremarkable in this regard afaik.
Got it. Thanks for that