If being pro-Russia means that you think a Russian victory in Ukraine is preferable to an American one, both for the people living in the former Ukrainian SSR and in a wider geopolitical perspective then I'm pro-Russia.
If being pro-Russia means that you think Russia is an amazing place to live and that everything the Russian government does is good and based then no, I'm not pro-Russian by any stretch of the imagination. Those reactionary shitstains has little to be proud of.
If Russia wins here, there will be no independent trade unions, no human rights organizations, no grassroots structures for self-defense against the arbitrary rule of officials and the police. [...] There are no other options but armed resistance to the fascist regime that attacked Ukraine today. And you have to understand that today's war in Ukraine opens up a huge field of opportunity for anarchists which is important not to miss. For the first time in almost 100 years, we can now create a major political-military organization. [...] We are well aware that after the war, we will have clashes with the ultra-right, and with the state, which will attack the freedom and rights of the people. We understand very well that in the future the experience we will gain here, these structures, which we have to create here now, will be useful to us in our further struggle for a free Ukraine. [...] Another path awaits us - a dangerous path, full of compromise, full of pain in suffering and loss. But it is a path that can lead us to the emergence of a new, powerful, liberating movement, which can then change the whole picture in the region, later in Europe, and maybe in the whole world. [...] The last thing I want to say is to appeal to our Western comrades: we don't need your westsplaing, we need your solidarity.
Which seems like pretty persuasive reasoning to me.
Can you break down the reasoning for me? I just read the paragraph and all I can pull from it is they think Russia is fascist and that's why they need to help their own fascists fight back, plus an acknowledgement that if they win they will be fighting Ukrainian fascists afterwards. Doesn't seem like a very persuasive reason to help the fascists in the first place, particularly when Russia itself is extremely harsh on real fascists while Ukraine has never even attempted to do so and even today glorifies their fascist history.
edit: also I think it's always important to remember that this war's basic outcome has been clear from day one - Ukraine does not have the ability to prevent Russia from holding any territory they want. Fighting that inevitability doesn't seem very good or humanitarian.
...They are? My impression was that Russia had a real problem with reactionaries. In any case, the core idea of the paragraph is that Russia is at least for now harder to resist in. That's what I found persuasive, but I'm also realizing how ignorant I actually am about what leftist resistance in Russia is like, beyond what decades of yet-to-be-unlearned indoctrination have insisted it's like.
Fighting that inevitability doesn’t seem very good or humanitarian.
So basically just, "give up already"? That doesn't sound very... uhh... some sort of... relevant word.
[crickets]
Alright, just imagine whichever argument feels like something an ignoramus would put there. I'm not going to pretend to know anything about anything.
I haven't got the sources at hand but likely another hexbear user will be by soon to drop some sources on modern Russian anti-fascist prosecution in their country. Don't get me wrong, I don't think being a leftist in Russia is a cakewalk, but they're not black vanning communists like Ukraine is. They're also not putting up statues and waxing poetic about explicit antisemitic fascists and nazis like the Banderite government of Ukraine does.
Just to comment on the "don't fight Russia" point, consider the situation: Russia is invading with one of their goals being de-Nazification, and if you live in or near Ukraine and are a leftist you surely know that Ukraine is basically the beating heart of Europe's neo-Nazi problem. A sober look at the Ukrainian military and performance as compared to Russia leads to the inevitable conclusion that if Russia really wants to take some land in Ukraine, they can and will. Does it really make sense to fight shoulder to shoulder with the nazis who hated you before, hate you now, and will kill you or push you into a minefield at the first opportunity? That land is going to be owned by foreign capitalists or Russia, there's nothing you can do to stop that. If you have to pick up weapons, might as well aid Russia and help them remove the Nazi rot from your country - particularly when Russia's never had any demonstrable interest in controlling all of Ukraine. All they ever wanted was no NATO membership and an end to the civil war.
My impression was that Russia had a real problem with reactionaries
To be precise
Russia is extremly Reactionary & yes Russia has real Problems with specific "White supremacy Nazis ,
you have to see it with view on Russias Demographic composition reactionaries and "Bloodline Ethnic Nationalist" are therefore an inherent danger to the State , it cracks down on them ... they dont wanna catch the Leprosy that is Ethnic Nationalism , you can look at Ukraine for a Demosntation on how you loose all your Minority Territories if you deciede that those living there are Subhuman and not deserving of Rights ..
Ethnic fascism is an inherent Realpolitical danger to the Russian state in a Way in which it just isnt in the more "Nationstaty" European States... thats why Russia has a Real Problem with "White Supremacy" , no problems with hunting down LGBTQ+ and this "ethnicity neutral" nazi shit...
( and thats also why the West curts Navalny and other russian nazis .. they know as well that white supremacy is a danger to to Russian statehood... why not amplify, you know they always post their "russia decolonized" maps ...
If being pro-Russia means that you think a Russian victory in Ukraine is preferable to an American one, both for the people living in the former Ukrainian SSR and in a wider geopolitical perspective then I'm pro-Russia.
If being pro-Russia means that you think Russia is an amazing place to live and that everything the Russian government does is good and based then no, I'm not pro-Russian by any stretch of the imagination. Those reactionary shitstains has little to be proud of.
Why are we feeling that a Russian victory in Ukraine is preferable? I had heard a Belarusian anarchist fighter reach the exact opposite conclusion:
Which seems like pretty persuasive reasoning to me.
Can you break down the reasoning for me? I just read the paragraph and all I can pull from it is they think Russia is fascist and that's why they need to help their own fascists fight back, plus an acknowledgement that if they win they will be fighting Ukrainian fascists afterwards. Doesn't seem like a very persuasive reason to help the fascists in the first place, particularly when Russia itself is extremely harsh on real fascists while Ukraine has never even attempted to do so and even today glorifies their fascist history.
edit: also I think it's always important to remember that this war's basic outcome has been clear from day one - Ukraine does not have the ability to prevent Russia from holding any territory they want. Fighting that inevitability doesn't seem very good or humanitarian.
...They are? My impression was that Russia had a real problem with reactionaries. In any case, the core idea of the paragraph is that Russia is at least for now harder to resist in. That's what I found persuasive, but I'm also realizing how ignorant I actually am about what leftist resistance in Russia is like, beyond what decades of yet-to-be-unlearned indoctrination have insisted it's like.
So basically just, "give up already"? That doesn't sound very... uhh... some sort of... relevant word.
[crickets]
Alright, just imagine whichever argument feels like something an ignoramus would put there. I'm not going to pretend to know anything about anything.
deleted by creator
I feel like my third eye is being forced open like that one scene in A Clockwork Orange (positive intent)
deleted by creator
Thank you for your patience, teacher.
I haven't got the sources at hand but likely another hexbear user will be by soon to drop some sources on modern Russian anti-fascist prosecution in their country. Don't get me wrong, I don't think being a leftist in Russia is a cakewalk, but they're not black vanning communists like Ukraine is. They're also not putting up statues and waxing poetic about explicit antisemitic fascists and nazis like the Banderite government of Ukraine does.
Just to comment on the "don't fight Russia" point, consider the situation: Russia is invading with one of their goals being de-Nazification, and if you live in or near Ukraine and are a leftist you surely know that Ukraine is basically the beating heart of Europe's neo-Nazi problem. A sober look at the Ukrainian military and performance as compared to Russia leads to the inevitable conclusion that if Russia really wants to take some land in Ukraine, they can and will. Does it really make sense to fight shoulder to shoulder with the nazis who hated you before, hate you now, and will kill you or push you into a minefield at the first opportunity? That land is going to be owned by foreign capitalists or Russia, there's nothing you can do to stop that. If you have to pick up weapons, might as well aid Russia and help them remove the Nazi rot from your country - particularly when Russia's never had any demonstrable interest in controlling all of Ukraine. All they ever wanted was no NATO membership and an end to the civil war.
deleted by creator
To be precise
Russia is extremly Reactionary & yes Russia has real Problems with specific "White supremacy Nazis ,
you have to see it with view on Russias Demographic composition reactionaries and "Bloodline Ethnic Nationalist" are therefore an inherent danger to the State , it cracks down on them ... they dont wanna catch the Leprosy that is Ethnic Nationalism , you can look at Ukraine for a Demosntation on how you loose all your Minority Territories if you deciede that those living there are Subhuman and not deserving of Rights .. Ethnic fascism is an inherent Realpolitical danger to the Russian state in a Way in which it just isnt in the more "Nationstaty" European States... thats why Russia has a Real Problem with "White Supremacy" , no problems with hunting down LGBTQ+ and this "ethnicity neutral" nazi shit...
( and thats also why the West curts Navalny and other russian nazis .. they know as well that white supremacy is a danger to to Russian statehood... why not amplify, you know they always post their "russia decolonized" maps ...
Ukraine already killed, arrested, or drove into hiding all the ukrainian leftists
As I am now aware.