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Ukraine Invasion Day 371: drone attacks near Moscow [1]
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Date: 2023-02-28
(h/t @marsanges)
tankie-ness is another form of imperialism in denying the lived experience of the peoples at the non-Western "periphery", and indeed denying those places are real places (with real oppressions and resistance) (By Chenchen Zhang)
Why so many Western leftists support Russia's invasion of Ukraine and China's potential annexation of Taiwan? The root lies in their West-centrism. I know they say they are against the US/Western hegemony and etc. But 1/
But when they assume the US is the only problem worth condemning in the world and any other regime is better than the US, they are implicitly saying only the suffering of the Western people are worth caring about. 2/
People like Branko Milanovic may take overthrowing capitalism as their foremost objective, and it's great if that's actually what they want. But they seem to think if Ukrainian, Taiwanese, Russian and Chinese suffer during the process of Russia and China challenging the West, 3/
that's just an acceptable cost, or worse, that's something totally not worth the attention. You can just ignore their problem because hey, China and Russia are striving towards a larger goal: taking over the West and end the West's evil capitalist system. And if that 4/
And if that can happen so that the Westerners no longer suffer from the alienation of capitalsim, which of course these people think is the most important problem on earth, who cares about the dying of petty Asians and East Europeans? And of course if 5/
if there are people questioning them, just throw whataboutism everywhere and tell people the US government has done worse. They can do that because they don't care about those people. They only care about whether the West is there to blame. And of course it is. 6/
In a word, for people like Milanovic, anything that takes on the US is good. The question of "at what price" simply doesn't concern them.
I couldn't believe I would say this one day but: Turns out Slavoj Zizek is the only true leftist! 7/7
I was obviously joking when I said Zizek was the only true leftist. For what I know, Terry Eagleton, in his usual witty language, has published one of the best takes on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Take a look: Vladimir Putin's war on chaos
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Behind Putin’s assault on his neighbours lies one of the worst ideas humanity has had for a long time: the Romantic-nationalist demand that there should be a precise fit between politics and ethnicity, so that an ethnic ‘people’, whatever that means, is entitled to its own sovereign state, and should extend this sovereignty to those of its own kind currently living under different regimes.
The result of this doctrine has been political havoc. The English have a right to self-determination, but not because they are English. Scottish independence is a question of democracy, not a genetic or patriotic affair. Colonised nations from India to Mozambique have thrown off their colonisers, but this is a political matter, not an ethnic one.
Colonialism is objectionable even if those who have plundered your resources are of the same ethnic origin as yourself. There are Republicans in Northern Ireland who oppose the partition of the country because they would prefer to live with their fellow Gaels over the border rather than with a bunch of benighted Ulster Scots who believe the world was created only 6,000 years ago. There are, however, better reasons for opposing partition than that. Ethnicity in the West is mostly a matter of ensuring equal rights, and is thus to be affirmed; yet ethnicity on a more general scale has piled the bodies high, and continues to do so as I write.
unherd.com/…
There are five groups that are actively or tacitly supporting Russia, or at least tolerate Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The first one, the most despicable and intellectually dishonest, is the tankie left, as Wang explained here Unroll available on Thread Reader
The 2nd group, the US hard right. These people share Putin’s “anti-woke” ideology and admire his authoritarian rule as a way to restore white Christian conservative way of life. Such as @TuckerCarlson and Donald Trump
https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/05/putin-ukraine-invasion-white-nationalists-far-right These people share Putin’s “anti-woke” ideology and admire his authoritarian rule as a way to restore white Christian conservative way of life. Such asand Donald Trump
The 3rd one, China, the only country capable of challenging US dominance of world order. It sees US as the ultimate enemy in thwarting China’s plan to take over Taiwan and achieve “national rejuvenation”. Beijing hopes to have Russia as an ally in the final showdown. Unroll available on Thread Reader . It sees US as the ultimate enemy in thwarting China’s plan to take over Taiwan and achieve “national rejuvenation”. Beijing hopes to have Russia as an ally in the final showdown.
The 4th group, the Global South (India, South Africa..). They see the war as Euro-centric (let white people fight each other) and unrelated to their own core national interest, which is to develop their economy and raise their people’s living standard Ukraine war: Is the West out of touch with the Global South? – DW – 02/25/2023 They see the war as Euro-centric (let white people fight each other) and unrelated to their own core national interest, which is to develop their economy and raise their people’s living standard
The 5th are the so called “realists”. They treat geo-politics as a chess game. The super powers are the players in control and the small countries are only pawns having no agency of their own. Therefore Russia merely reacted to NATO expansion. Who cares what Ukraine thinks.
If there are any others, feel free to add
The 6th group are the appeasers, who maintain an air of neutrality in the face of Russian atrocity. They perhaps genuinely care about Ukrainian sufferings, but are convinced that the only way to end the war is to stop supplying weapons to Zelensky ...
..so as to force Ukraine to accept Russia's territorial demands and make peace. Their main concern is global economy and trade. As long as everyone is making money, Ukrainian sovereignty and European security can compromise.
the 7th group, the uber China hawks, believes that the ONLY threat to American security is from China.
's position is: Russia's threat to European security is HERE, REAL and CURRENT; if the US doesn't have the resolve to deal with it NOW, what guarantee does the Asian allies have that the US can meet China's FUTURE threat? The problem with Senator @HawleyMO 's position is: Russia's threat to European security is HERE, REAL and CURRENT; if the US doesn't have the resolve to deal with it NOW, what guarantee does the Asian allies have that the US can meet China's FUTURE threat?
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/28/2155420/-Ukraine-Invasion-Day-371-drone-attacks-near-Moscow
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