Western countries have absolutely earned a lot of the criticism they get.

Yup, for instance they’ve earned the critism that they have no business claiming their opposition to Russia has anything to do with principles or morality.

None of that makes Russian aggression suddenly noble. Pointing out Western hypocrisy doesn’t magically turn Putin into a principled anti-imperialist.

Never said it did, so I can only assume you’re saying this to attack a strawman.

He’s running an authoritarian system that jails dissent, murders critics and wages a war built on territorial revanchism complete with deliberately targeting civilians.

Which are all things that Europe both do and support when it’s them and their allies doing it. What is your point?

If I have to choose between flawed democracies with internal pressure valves, independent courts and protest movements

All things that Europe emphatically does not represent when it comes to the middle east. Millions of Iraqis, Libyan, and Palestinians did not get to vote in your shitty rigged elections or get protected by your biased, billionaire owned courts when Europe decided to massacre them.

For that matter, Europe doesn’t even grant those things domestically to people with actual leftist politics; the moment an actual leftist party attains any real viability, it’s getting banned and it’s leaders arrested. The moment you try to an effective protest movement that might actually affect change, you’re getting beaten and arrested by armored storm troopers.

then I’ll stick to pushing the countries and systems I’m actually part of to live up to their ideals.

And by that you mean,: spruik them as righteous world police while demonizing their geopolitical enemies. You haven’t achieved one iota of movement in pushing them to live up to their ideals and you’ve already moved on to declaring how much better they are then their enemies.

Let’s be honest here; you’re support for Europe comes from the fact that you personally benefit from their policies, not because their policies are more beneficial in general.

Hypocrisy is a problem, but open militaristic authoritarianism is way worse.

Mate, the hypocrisy is Europe’s open support for militaristic authoritarianism! See, this is what I mean; you don’t think open militaristic authoritarianism is a problem when Europe does it; you just don’t like that the hypocrisy undermines Europe’s self-granted Mandate from Heaven.

The answer to western failures isn’t to excuse someone else’s.

No one said it was, though you seem to be saying that the answer to Russian failures is to excuse the West.

Oh my God. Please tell me you’re a teenager and not an adult who thinks any of this pablum is wise or profound.

Sounds like you need to keep better company

Things are seldom black and white in this world, pure good and pure evil do not exsist. Is it easier for you to see things in absolutes?

Jesus, you’re really doubling down on the unthinking and insipid takes.

I think it’s not so much him as a person

Gates is in the Epstein files.

Shitlibs complain about .ml censoring them and then when you actually look it’s them getting a comment removed (not even a ban) for calling people evil Russians and telling them to kill themselves

Fucking Europeans are in no position to complain about other countries grabbing land by force and getting away with it. It’s rank hypocrisy to act like the antipathy to Russia has anything to do with principled opposition to “bullying neighbours” or “making the region less safe” when Europe is still shoveling money at Israel, protecting the people who butchered Iraq, Libya, Syria, and plenty more, and never found an American invasion they didn’t support until they realized it might negatively affect them.

Did you reply to the wrong comment?

And why would they not do that again?

Lol. Ok, bigot, sorry we can’t keep up with your genius reasoning like: “slurs are ok, because language is just a social construct!”

Ok, you bigoted piece of shit.

That was my point, genius.

So now you’ve shifted to the position of “slurs are fine because language is, like, just made up, maaaan.”

Found Ben Shapiro’s Lemmy account

“There’s nothing wrong with being Jewish or having a big nose, so calling someone a Big-Nosed Jew as an insult isn’t bigoted!”

Least obviously disingenuous bigot.

Yeah, definitely no significant history to those…

In other words, they categorically schooled you and you’re to much of a stubborn baby to accept that.

How do you people manage to be so ignorant but also do confidently wrong?

And how are you going to fix things with no framework to analyze and determine how? You’re just going to “buckle the fuck down” and…? What? What specifically are you going to do to “fix the shit that’s wrong”?

What exactly is your point? If they undermined and dismantled the second reconstruction, why wouldn’t they the third?