A slight interesting story showing a view far from the battle lines but still affecting people:
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It frustrates me when people talk about Communism (in the Soviet/USSR sense) as though it is synonymous with totalitarianism. I really wish that people would see that the USSR and its ilk were nothing more than totalitarian dictatorships that simply wrapped themselves in the veneer of communism. No differently than right wing dictatorships/ideologies such as Falangism and its ilk (including especially many right wing scumbags such as the American religious conservatives) who have wrapped themselves Catholicism/Christianity whilst doing just as many evil/despicable things. They are all in the same bucket though similarly, one should be able to disassociate the real underlying good intentions (be those socialism, good real religious actions) from the scum who mis-appropriate these things for their own twisted intents.The very definition of totalitarianism, and the bridge that connects far left communism to far right fascism, changing the political spectrum into a circular continuum.
It frustrates me when people talk about Communism (in the Soviet/USSR sense) as though it is synonymous with totalitarianism. I really wish that people would see that the USSR and its ilk were nothing more than totalitarian dictatorships that simply wrapped themselves in the veneer of communism. No differently than right wing dictatorships/ideologies such as Falangism and its ilk (including especially many right wing scumbags such as the American religious conservatives) who have wrapped themselves Catholicism/Christianity whilst doing just as many evil/despicable things. They are all in the same bucket though similarly, one should be able to disassociate the real underlying good intentions (be those socialism, good real religious actions) from the scum who mis-appropriate these things for their own twisted intents.
I accept that but it still frustrates me when I see comments that essentially boil down to simple Communism or Socialism = evil. I would just as easily say that Christianity = evil if I used historic events carried out in its name. Both are wrong though.To paraphrase Steven Weinberg, without ideology, good people will do good things and bad people will do bad things -- but it takes an ideology to make good people do bad things.
I accept that but it still frustrates me when I see comments that essentially boil down to simple Communism or Socialism = evil. I would just as easily say that Christianity = evil if I used historic events carried out in its name. Both are wrong though.
I think ideologies act so powerfully upon some people not because of the doctrine but because of the individual in question.
If the peanut butter jar says SKIPPY on the label "we of the great unwashed" can be forgiven for assuming that's what's in fact in the jar.I really wish that people would see that the USSR and its ilk were nothing more than totalitarian dictatorships that simply wrapped themselves in the veneer of communism.
Well it is a duty to read more than the book cover.If the peanut butter jar says SKIPPY on the label "we of the great unwashed" can be forgiven for assuming that's what's in fact in the jar.
I think plenty of them are thoroughly and happily brainwashed, too. Writing off an entire nation of 144 million people is not only unfair, it's almost certainly wrong, as it's based on slipshod "thinking".
I accept that but it still frustrates me when I see comments that essentially boil down to simple Communism or Socialism = evil. I would just as easily say that Christianity = evil if I used historic events carried out in its name. Both are wrong though.
TrueChange historic to never ending and you would be more accurate.
Same applies to another nation of 330 million.
Russia says troops close to claiming full control of Luhansk
Russia's Defence Minister says Moscow has almost taken full control of Ukraine's south-eastern region of Luhansk, one of two regions it says are independent and has vowed to liberate.www.abc.net.au
There is no need for writing off the nation, of course. Just manage the expectations and hope for a better future for that nation. Until that future comes, prepare for the worst that might come from their side and battle what has come already.I think plenty of them sense the fact that their propaganda is bullshit. I think plenty of them are thoroughly and happily brainwashed, too. Writing off an entire nation of 144 million people is not only unfair, it's almost certainly wrong, as it's based on slipshod "thinking".
There is no need for writing off the nation, of course. Just manage the expectations and hope for a better future for that nation. Until that future comes, prepare for the worst that might come from their side and battle what has come already.
I do feel sorry for my fellow Russians. But I know that majority of them, including my friends and even relatives, will not blink if my whole family is wiped from the face of the Earth by Russian weapons. They didn't blink when it happened to thousands of others here in Ukraine.
Most of our former friends and relatives in the Russian Federation, with a few exceptions, did not send a simple "how are you" message to us when our city was under missile strikes. Even worse, one of the aunts of my wife called on day 1 of the invasion to say something like that: "this is for 8 years of your Nazi government bombing the Donbas". "Auntie", my wife said tiredly, "our place just have been attacked". "No!" screamed our kind and lovely aunt, "you know nothing, you are bombed by your nationalists!"
So... until some sunny day. In the meantime, praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.
It will never happen. There's something in the Russian sense of self that both holds an inferiority/siege complex and seeks a strongman. It's in their DNA.I hope the Russian people can find their way to some form of democracy and free expression…
It will never happen. There's something in the Russian sense of self that both holds an inferiority/siege complex and seeks a strongman. It's in their DNA.