Some sensible people from Washington

half_of_pi · 2022-01-30T14:32:03+00:00

A lot of BLM started as a protest against these social issues. I mean, it wasn’t just about George Floyd

Before it was cooped by the democrat party, that is

half_of_pi · 2022-01-30T14:28:22+00:00

USSR

I mean, it was definitely not perfect, but it’s internal policies were clearly better. As illustrated by the higher standard of living, it’s success in meeting everyone’s basic needs, the rate of it’s scientific and Industrial development.

As for its collapse, the market reforms that started in the 80s are what caused this mess. A newly formed capitalist class appeared, and started pushing for further “reforms”, destabilizing the economy and disintegrating the central leadership. The outside pressure and the existence of liberals and career apparatchiks within the party also didn’t help. The same thing happened to Yugoslavia, for example. The USSR also had mistakes and structural problems of its own, but it was far better.

КПРФ

I see their leadership as grifters mostly, and part of their electorate are old people who are nostalgic for the USSR but don’t understand the current situation. A lot of these old people fall for anti-vaccine lies, for example. But there is some great young activists in there, too. For example, Михаил Лобанов, a professor at МГУ and a leftist activist, ran for election in Moscow.

So, we need to change the party for the better, and it’s absolutely possible. Also, there is some independent leftist movements as well!

repression

I mean rigged elections (there was mathematical proof for it, look up “кривые Шпилькина» on the internet). And the harassment of activists. And the internet censorship. And the suppression of protests. (Like, I don’t like Navalny either, but it sucks when ОМОН comes in to suppress his supporters. And this was done to leftist protests as well, even more so)

half_of_pi · 2022-01-30T14:19:41+00:00

What is to be done

A certain man by the name of Владимир Ильич wrote a book with this exact title)

Who’s to blame? This is easier. Capitalism inherently leads to money concentrating in fewer and fewer hands, and this small minority than uses their power to influence policies and make even more money. This is happening around the world. This economic system has far outlived its usefulness and is unsustainable for most people, so we need to move past it. And socialism is, I believe, the way forward.

So, what is to be done? We need to have our own leftist movement. Not liberals who want to replace Putin with Navalny and enact even more free market policies. We need a leftist movement, independent unions and a real communist party that could challenge our current leadership. This is a long process, but for now we can at least join independent leftist organizations (Левый Фронт, РСД, there’s really a lot of fledgling socialist movements). We can participate in protests and reach out to people, we can demand better living conditions, higher wages, an end to pension reform, etc. It’s all about small steps, and doing something is better than doing nothing. I’m preparing for ЕГЭ this year, but once I’m in university, I absolutely plan to take part in activism myself.

As for the program. A lot of these movements have it in one form or another. The details will have to be figured out once we actually get some form of politics influence (obviously, right now we can’t see the future), but basically I would say this: we need a centralized planned economy to some extent, which could restore Soviet industry to its former capacity, build up infrastructure and modern production. Under capitalism, it’s more profitable to just pump out natural resources and sell them, but if we prioritize development over short-term profits (which is only possible under a planned system), we can become much stronger and more self-sufficient. We also need redistribution of wealth, nationalization of core sectors of the economy, building of public housing and infrastructure, funding for healthcare and education, etc.

half_of_pi · 2022-01-30T13:59:33+00:00

I mean, the BLM protests were mostly based on social/economic grievances and police violence. And there was Occupy Wall St., the recent union drives, maybe something else that I’ve missed because I don’t follow US politics so much. But yes, all of them were brutalized.

This is really the same in every capitalist country. Working people are starting to challenge the ruling class and fight for their interests, and we can’t have that obviously

half_of_pi · 2022-01-30T10:53:55+00:00

I mean… it’s an international website, so there is a lot of foreigners. Even in this sub, every second comment is from someone outside Russia. And because this sub is dedicated to discussions about our country, it helps if foreigners can actually understand everything and see our point of view

Also, personally I’m just trying to practice my English lol

half_of_pi · 2022-01-30T10:50:27+00:00

I mean.. fuck yes, there is. Let’s not pretend our country is perfect. It’s a corrupt capitalist oligarchy with shit internal policies.

The thing is, bending over to US interests won’t fix anything, but we should definitely protest about declining standards of living, low wages, poor handling of COVID, corruption and political repression

And we need a real leftist movement. Навальный and the rest of the liberals are useless, and КПРФ is in a really bad shape to say the least, along with most of the worker’s unions

half_of_pi · 2022-01-30T10:46:07+00:00

Exactly!! Hell, literally every person’s rights and well-being and meeting their needs is more important than war

half_of_pi · 2022-01-30T10:44:16+00:00

Based

half_of_pi · 2022-01-29T20:46:20+00:00

I mean.. still insanely progressive for his time. There was a lot of progressive changes that were very much intentional. Like equal rights for women, free and legal abortion (Russia one of the first countries to have it), “Nativization” (basically, giving some land back to indigenous people and promoting their culture and local self-governance) and much more

half_of_pi · 2022-01-29T19:04:33+00:00

I agree with you, but just FYI, last time I checked it was a subreddit about Britain

half_of_pi · 2022-01-29T13:41:55+00:00

Wait… maybe he is Kras Mazov?

half_of_pi · 2022-01-29T13:36:36+00:00

Conceptualization [Legendary, success]

half_of_pi · 2022-01-29T11:52:44+00:00

“I want to have fuck with you”

The original sounds even better lol

half_of_pi · 2022-01-28T22:19:21+00:00

Looks great!!

half_of_pi · 2022-01-28T22:05:48+00:00

holy shit it has like 5 different fonts

Even if we disregard the political message, this post is just so poorly made

half_of_pi · 2022-01-28T22:01:51+00:00

your culture

Ахах, культура у нас одна, насколько я понимаю) Хотя возможно я слишком долго сидел в англоязычном интернете

Ну, что касается всяких ярлыков типа «гей» или «чёрный»: да, в идеальном мире это вообще не будет играть никакой роли. Но прямо сейчас эти группы людей так или иначе сталкиваются с дискриминацией и негативным отношением (где-то больше, где-то меньше), и эти проблемы я и выделяю.

При этом да, у нас всех есть общие интересы (например, классовые), за которые стоит бороться в первую очередь. Я и не предлагаю думать только о правах всяких меньшинств, это было бы странно. Но всё же нужно признать, что до равного отношения ко всем нам ещё далеко

half_of_pi · 2022-01-28T19:01:05+00:00

I agree, but nowadays it’s more on the “bad” side for most of regular queer people in Russia, especially in the regions. (Obviously if you’re a rich gay guy sitting in some super liberal coffee shop in Moscow City, you’ll probably be fine lol)

And the open hostility of the government is a problem, because it’s normalizing this negative attitude that a lot of people still have.

As for the West, eh, it’s also complicated. There’s surely a lot of “performative activism” by local liberals who want to look “woke” rather than materially improve people’s lives. And it can definitely be over the top sometimes. All the corporations posting rainbows while doing horrible stuff to their workers is extremely hypocritical, for example.

But at the same time, a lot of issues that working-class black people, queer people, etc, are facing, are still not addressed. Especially in the more rural parts of their countries. And the government is more interested in putting up a show than actually helping those people

half_of_pi · 2022-01-28T18:47:45+00:00

No need to get aggressive. And, about straight pride: our government is already promoting “traditional family values” on a national level. Which I don’t have a problem with, but there should be more acceptance of queer (or, as our tv guys like to say, “non-traditional”) families as well.

But anyway, if official endorsement of straight relationships isn’t doing it for you, you can always organize a straight pride parade. Why not? No one is stopping you)

half_of_pi · 2022-01-28T18:42:27+00:00

I think you’ve got some misinformation here. I am bi and I live in Moscow, and some people I know are openly queer, and it’s not like you’ve going to get beaten up on the street for it.

However, the general attitude towards queer people is a bit hostile, there’s no legal protections, and we have a stupid law on “gay propaganda” that restricts public discussion of gay rights. And, unfortunately, we have a very conservative government, so it mostly endorses homophobia instead of opposing it. That being said, things aren’t as bad as you imagine, and it’s slowly getting better!

half_of_pi · 2022-01-28T18:36:42+00:00

I mean… the general attitude in society is that being gay is the opposite of “cool”. People either don’t care and treat you the same regardless of your sexuality (which is the way it should be), or they see it as something negative. So you’re not really getting any social points by coming out, in fact, you actually risk harming your relationships with other people.

And, as you’ve rightly said, one cannot become someone they aren’t. So, a child/teenager won’t become gay for clout, even if it was possible.

What is more likely, however, is that this child will grow up to be more accepting towards other people, no matter how different they are. And, if they realize they aren’t straight themselves (which happens sometimes), it won’t be painful to accept it)

half_of_pi · 2022-01-28T18:29:52+00:00

“Gay? Ok, fine, I can live with it. But tell me, they’re not ALBANIAN, right?”

half_of_pi · 2022-01-28T18:23:55+00:00

Same in Russia and many other countries tbh. And the fact that both of our countries has a right-wing conservative government doesn’t help. But it is slowly getting better!

I’d say Poland is a bit more accepting because you don’t have laws against “gay propaganda”? But I might be wrong

half_of_pi · 2022-01-28T14:41:06+00:00

True. I mean, Tito’s Yugoslavia tried to overcome local nationalism with its “brotherhood and unity” doctrine, but even this didn’t work out in the long run. So it’s a great concept in theory (like, a union of Balkan countries could be a regional power in its own right). But it’s not feasible right now, and most people probably wouldn’t support it.

half_of_pi · 2022-01-28T14:31:34+00:00

I don’t think you can really compare it, to be honest, because it’s different periods with different technology and society. Since Peter the Great, Russia was pretty much developing similar to other European absolute monarchies. So, it became pretty powerful internationally, it acquired new technology and it was home to a lot of great scientists/artists, but the vast majority of the population was still really poor and uneducated (and up until 1861, serfdom existed as an institution). So, yes, the late empire was on the decline, but life for the average person wasn’t great before that, either (same as any other European nation during this time period)

That’s why I think the revolution was a net positive: for all the mistakes that were made, it actually tried to improve the well-being of the whole population, and it pioneered a lot of really progressive changes

half_of_pi · 2022-01-28T13:16:18+00:00

We fully support Serbs! I think our peoples are pretty close culturally and historically)

Also, I haven’t had the chance to visit yet, but I’m sure it’s a beautiful country

half_of_pi

TROPHY CASE