this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2024
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/22447069

The difference between Russian and American authoritarianism

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 weeks ago

Propaganda ---> government approved news

[–] [email protected] -1 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

invasion -> intervention

The US has done some bad things foreign policy wise, but none have come close to what Russia is doing in Ukraine right now. Even in Vietnam or was like 1/10th the amount of deaths, and that's after over a decade of war vs Russia in a few years. Not to defend Vietnam cause that was ridiculously stupid and cruel. But Russia is in fact taking it to a new level in both regards.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago

Where are you getting your numbers from? Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed range from 970,000 to 3 million. The numbers vary, but so far about 100,000 Ukrainian soldier and civilians died. This is a tragedy indeed. But please fact check next time.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago

US killed 3 million Vietnamese. Russia hasn't come anywhere near that in Ukraine. Do you pull all your facts out of your arse?

[–] [email protected] -3 points 4 weeks ago (3 children)

Communists, go live in Russia if you think America is so bad. I will take my good quality of life in capitalist America over any communist shithole all the live long day.

Communism is only good for impractical fantasy ideas and authoritarian shitholes. Prove me wrong if you can.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago

You know Russia's been capitalist for like 35 years now right?

[–] [email protected] -4 points 4 weeks ago

You just don't get it!

People in the Lemmy bubble are smarter and have more self control than anyone in history!!

They can make it work!!

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Russia isn't a communist country lmao

[–] [email protected] -1 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

I don't know about that but I heard there's No True Scotsmen there.

Alternative option: Communists, move to China if America is so bad.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago

What happened? I thought we were talking about Russia? What does China have to do with this?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 weeks ago

Words mean things. Russia isn't communist.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago

Dont forget, it all starts with:

Greed/avarice = rational self-interest

Greed is a character deficit, a personal failing, and a destructive force. We've made it our primary practiced cultural value. We deify the greedy instead of condemning them for their greed. We've made greed a virtue, having largely abandoned the term in favor of self-masturbatory, complimentary terms for it.

You don't get to a place where empathy is a foreign concept, where your capital score is more important than the social contract, without demanding far more resources than most would need for a hundred lifetimes being tolerated by society.

The Gordon Geckos, Ebenezer Scrooges, and Mr. Potters were cautionary tales about bad people with bad values, villains. Yet Oliver Stone supposedly gets letters from fans who thank him for creating their fictional role model.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Haha my dude you are comparing gulags to prison in the USA?

LMAO 🤣 i don't want to say Lemmy is disconnected from reality but this kind of posts and the ones blaming Latin Americans and minorities for the election lost just makes everyone here look unhinged

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Would you like more information on the guy who died from bedbug bites without being charged or the forced labor or the heat strokes or the murders? What's specifically not comparable?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Would you like more information of the Soviet gulag system? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulag

An estimated 1.6 MILLION people died in detention. And that's not even considering that most of the people imprisoned were just enemies of the Soviet/Russian state.

How much God damn Russian propaganda are you consuming to consider these things even remotely close? The US prison system is a disgrace, but these are not even remotely comparable.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

How much God damn Russian propaganda are you consuming to consider these things even remotely close?

Shit fuck goddamn bitch ass hell piss your mother cunt fuck ass shit

I mean, none that I’m aware of. You?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

LOL you are literally posting Russian propaganda and you are pretending you're unaware... Or maybe you really are too dumb to tell. Pretty pathetic either way.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

How long you been in the FOP?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 weeks ago

The old USSR gulags are more like Guantanamo if anything. Today's Russian prisons correspond to today's US prisons pretty much.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Gulag's name means force labor camp, but there is a lot more context to it than that. A gulag is less about labor and conditions and more about it being a hole in the ground at an undisclosed location where people go in and never come out. People that the soviets put in Gulags were sometimes criminals, but they were prosecuted by secret courts after being arrested by secret police during the World War Era and until about 1961.

Of course the USA absolutely has its fair share of dirty laundry, around the same timeframe they were prosecuting crimes for "Black Laws" and sending them to mines.

I think that in this regard both countries have made a lot of progress but still have a long ways to go. Also Russia is worse.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Except anybody who shits sideways on the toilet can call themselves an "Entrepreneur", can't say the same thing about being an Oligarch.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 4 weeks ago

ok, but is it really that easy to shit sideways though? Like are you shitting on a toilet that's sideways (probably easier), or are you trying to like half-plank laying down on the toilet and shitting?

[–] [email protected] 31 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Really just outright playing 'bothsides' games with Putin's Russia already. Great.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 weeks ago

Move to Russia then tell us how equal it is 🙄

Tankies 🤦‍♂️

[–] [email protected] 31 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Yet, one is clearly still a lot worse than the other. It's Russia and by a lot. Still glad not living in either country tho.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

So, I believe the same thing, of course. But I think it's worth taking a moment to think about what we base those beliefs on. For me personally, it's based almost exclusively on what I read / see in the news, and maybe a stray meme here or there. Posts like OP make me wonder to what extent my beliefs are justified. Because the post is entirely correct, right? For the same exact thing, the news media will use one term when it's the bad guys doing it, and another term when the good guys are doing it. The war crimes that the US was committing in Iraq were called collateral damage at the time (and they were grievous, we're talking the act of disappearing people, torture of thousands, murdering hundreds of thousands with cluster bombs and napalm, bombing hospitals, cutting off water to entire cities, truly heinous and extensive). Collateral damage. There were headlines in mainstream media calling the invasion "Operation Iraqi freedom". In contrast, the Russian invasion of Ukraine was immediately (and rightly) called out as such, as well as their war crimes. I wonder to what extent my opinion of Russia is actually influenced by these differences in terminology and reporting. I don't think I'm immune to propaganda.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

That is a lot of word salad to say the US portrays itself as the good guys and Russia is portrayed as the bad guys. Guess what, they are both bad. You know who isn't bad? The people of Iraq and Ukraine who get caught up in this bullshit.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

Yes they are both bad, the fucking point of the post is the hypocrisy in how the media portrays them. What are you even trying to say? Also, I'm sorry that my comment was longer than you're able to grasp, that wasn't very inclusive of me.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago

It is called word salad. Try using spacing to break up your thoughts.

I was just summarizing your post to be helpful for others so they don't have to strain their brains trying to understand.

I do completely agree with you.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 weeks ago

Reminds me of the two spies.

An old CIA agent and an old KGB agent, both retired, are having a drink together, talking about old times. The CIA agent says, "The Russian propaganda is fantastic, you can convince most of your people that whatever you do is the right thing using tv, radio and everything!" The KGB agent responds, "Thank you, but the American propaganda machine is the greatest ever, most of your people don't even know they're being brainwashed!"

The CIA man says, "But we don't use propaganda..."

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago
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