‘This is not about Ukraine at all, but the world order,’ said Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, a month after the invasion. ‘The unipolar world is irretrievably receding into the past … A multi-polar world is being born.’ The US is no longer the world’s policeman, in other words – a message that resonates in
Ya know, when I first got here/to GenZedong a year ago, I was very skeptical of the takes we had. Felt sort of conspiracy theory-ish, like a weird alt-right pipeline type of thing. Then I realized it was just fog of war and living in the West where the majoirty of the world’s opinion is discarded and we’re pounded with propaganda everyday.
How the fuck did you all get it right? I mean, be honest! Not just the obvious “Russia is going to win,” but even the slow acceptance by the west, the changing world order/de-dollarization happening, the European winter issue, etc. Luck? Or is DiaMat/HisMat/MLism that legit?
Welcome to true, non-grifty, non-reactionary world of socialism.
I already had a whiff, a taste of corporations and capitalism being horrible since years, being a data hoarder, preservationist of retro games and internet information and being a tech nerd as a kid. Hongkong riots being quite coloured opened my eyes, and its easy for me to trace the process of calm collected socialist thinking, even though I still cannot put it in words. Its beautiful, and also makes you happy being actually smarter and grounded to earth compared to like 90% world out there, who claim they are better just because they earn too much or scored high at college exams.
A lot of capitalists, the ones that are honest, i.e. Jeffrey Sachs get this stuff right too. Sure, a tankie perspective helps but I think a lot of people that get it wrong confuse (a)wanting something to be true such as America is benevolent and cares about human rights and never does anything wrong and (b) something being true such as American economy is built on misery and next to free resource extraction.
It’s science. With good enough observations, experiments and models, scientists can predict everything to a certain degree. However, the ruling classes have always tried to silence those scientists whose findings they did not like or felt threatened by.
Lol I know half of my comments are probably me telling people to read Michael Hudson. Really helped me stay level-headed during the hysteria of the first few weeks
I was HYPED when Ben Norton came out saying his media outlet is gonna be hosting Hudson every other week. And thankful he introduced me to Radhika Desai!
Some people were following events in ukraine since before 2014 and saw what McCain etc wanted out of them - more provocations with Russia. To them, the “Putin’s war of aggression” propaganda is laughable. But people have a tendency to be blinded by their hatred of the Ukrainians - who are nazis and torturers for sure, but you have to keep a clear mind and explain the history. I learned about this after the war started.
I read some world systems theory which you may have a tidbit of already seeing the core/semiperiphery/periphery classification of countries people throw out. It is rooted in historical materialism. It’s exciting to see mistakes that Marxists and others like Wallerstein have made because it shows us work remains to be done!
The west’s media monopoly, and how it pretends to be “the international community”, is very quickly being peeled away, now that other countries are no longer as afraid as they used to be of the US, because of its declining power.
Ya know, when I first got here/to GenZedong a year ago, I was very skeptical of the takes we had. Felt sort of conspiracy theory-ish, like a weird alt-right pipeline type of thing. Then I realized it was just fog of war and living in the West where the majoirty of the world’s opinion is discarded and we’re pounded with propaganda everyday.
How the fuck did you all get it right? I mean, be honest! Not just the obvious “Russia is going to win,” but even the slow acceptance by the west, the changing world order/de-dollarization happening, the European winter issue, etc. Luck? Or is DiaMat/HisMat/MLism that legit?
Marxism-Leninism gives both the power and the curse of Cassandra (for real it’s just diamat applied after deprogramming from western propaganda)
Welcome to true, non-grifty, non-reactionary world of socialism.
I already had a whiff, a taste of corporations and capitalism being horrible since years, being a data hoarder, preservationist of retro games and internet information and being a tech nerd as a kid. Hongkong riots being quite coloured opened my eyes, and its easy for me to trace the process of calm collected socialist thinking, even though I still cannot put it in words. Its beautiful, and also makes you happy being actually smarter and grounded to earth compared to like 90% world out there, who claim they are better just because they earn too much or scored high at college exams.
A lot of capitalists, the ones that are honest, i.e. Jeffrey Sachs get this stuff right too. Sure, a tankie perspective helps but I think a lot of people that get it wrong confuse (a)wanting something to be true such as America is benevolent and cares about human rights and never does anything wrong and (b) something being true such as American economy is built on misery and next to free resource extraction.
It’s science. With good enough observations, experiments and models, scientists can predict everything to a certain degree. However, the ruling classes have always tried to silence those scientists whose findings they did not like or felt threatened by.
Reading Michael Hudson. He knew all about what was going on before Russia even invaded.
Hahahahaah I was just about to say
Lol I know half of my comments are probably me telling people to read Michael Hudson. Really helped me stay level-headed during the hysteria of the first few weeks
I was HYPED when Ben Norton came out saying his media outlet is gonna be hosting Hudson every other week. And thankful he introduced me to Radhika Desai!
Some people were following events in ukraine since before 2014 and saw what McCain etc wanted out of them - more provocations with Russia. To them, the “Putin’s war of aggression” propaganda is laughable. But people have a tendency to be blinded by their hatred of the Ukrainians - who are nazis and torturers for sure, but you have to keep a clear mind and explain the history. I learned about this after the war started.
I read some world systems theory which you may have a tidbit of already seeing the core/semiperiphery/periphery classification of countries people throw out. It is rooted in historical materialism. It’s exciting to see mistakes that Marxists and others like Wallerstein have made because it shows us work remains to be done!
https://vid.puffyan.us/playlist?list=PLDAi0NdlN8hMl9DkPLikDDGccibhYHnDP
new episode of geopolitical economy hour dropped :) check it out
I’m too queer for the bourgeois propaganda to stick lol
The west’s media monopoly, and how it pretends to be “the international community”, is very quickly being peeled away, now that other countries are no longer as afraid as they used to be of the US, because of its declining power.