this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2024
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[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Russia isn’t that far off from the same imperialist thinking

Where is your evidence? How do you know what "Russian thinking" is? This is just orientalism. Look at the actions of Russia not your crystal ball or phrenology chart.

Russia didn't just invade ukraine because they wanted the land or resources. Russia wanted a neutral neighbour as a buffer between itself and the imperialists. They dont want Ukrainian land or resources. Russia already had more of everything that ukraine has. They spent decades telling nato that eastern expansion was an existential threat. Russia spent 9 years trying to get ukraine and nato to uphold negotiated signed peace deals. Those are not imperialist methods. The war in ukraine was started by imperialism from nato. Resisting imperialism is anti-imperialist.

Russia's involvement in South Ossetia is anti-imperialist too. Ossetia was granted independence from the Georgian SSR by the USSR. When the USSR was dismantled Georgia tried to re-annex Ossetia against the Ossetian people's will. Georgia's claims over Ossetia are imperialist in nature. It is not a land grab. Russia has floated the idea of offering Ossetia membership in the Russian federation but not without a referendum and consent of the people. Russia does have troops in Ossetia but they were invited by the Ossetians.

Russia is by no means a socialist nation, reactionary ideas abound and there is legitimate concern that they could become imperialists if the USA were out of the picture BUT... right now the reality is they are opposing imperialism. Russia's close ties with China and the fact that they will likely never be able to match China mean any imperialist dreams that Russians might have will be just dreams.

china i actually do like. They might value life a little less

WTF is this? thats just mad levels of racist, more orientalism, and again not based on material reality. If China doesn't value life why have they raised the average life expectancy faster than every other nation in history? If they don't value life why are they responsible for installing more green energy than the rest of the western world combined several years in a row?

Kill the racist in your brain. Its poisoning your thinking. Stop telling yourself you understand the "thinking" of entire nations. Look at their actions.

Honestly China sucks at anti-imperialism. They don't further imperialism or profit from it directly but they also don't do much to slow it down. They don't confront the west on their imperialism. They barely finger waged the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. They learned the wrong lesson from their mistake supporting Pol Pot and now they don't intervene on behalf of anyone even socialists in their back yard. They seem to think the best way forward is to wait the imperialists out but in the meantime there are 5 billion people crushed under the imperialist boot. Its a reactive plan with no guarantees and a certain ethical dubiousness.