“The people of Ukraine didn’t choose that path, the oligarchs did.”

It’s true Ukraine has a history of oligarchic influence, but the 2014 Maidan protests were a massive, popular uprising. Ukrainians were fed up with Yanukovych’s corruption and his decision to abandon the EU agreement for closer ties with Russia. This wasn’t just oligarchs pulling strings; millions of Ukrainians demonstrated for a future that aligned with Europe, seeking more autonomy from Russia.

“Russia would be imperialist, but isn’t right now.”

I would argue that Russia is acting imperialistically. The annexation of Crimea, the war in Donbas, and now the invasion of Ukraine are clear examples of Russia asserting control over its neighbors. Even if it’s not globally imperialist like the U.S., these actions align with a regional imperialism that Marxists should still oppose.

Ultimately, this isn’t about picking sides between oligarchies, but supporting the principle of self-determination for Ukraine, including resisting imperialist aggression from any direction.

Yes, Ukraine has ties with the U.S., but sovereign nations have the right to choose their alliances. Ukraine’s Western integration stems from its desire for self-determination, not just U.S. influence. Russia’s aggression isn’t justified merely because Ukraine sought NATO’s support.

Bias exists everywhere, but dismissing “Western” sources wholesale, while elevating openly ideological ones, doesn’t strengthen the argument. Marxist critique should apply equally to all capitalist states, including Russia, which operates under an oligarchic system that exploits its own people. 1 2

While far-right elements in Ukraine are real, they’re a small part of the picture. Reducing Ukraine to these groups oversimplifies the conflict. Most Ukrainians are fighting for sovereignty, not fascism.

Russia’s actions are imperialist too, and as a Marxist, you should critique imperialism wherever it emerges, not just from the West.

1. NATO Expansion: The argument that NATO’s eastward expansion “provoked” Russia is often linked to Gorbachev’s 1990 talks with Western leaders. However, this promise was tied to Germany’s unification, not a blanket prohibition on expansion. And importantly eastern european countries sought NATO membership because of their historical (and justified) fears of Russian imperialism (a dynamic Marxists should understand as nations seeking sovereignty free from external dominance.)

2. Western Involvement in Ukraine: The U.S. supporting a regime change in Ukraine in 2014 is thought to be imperialism. But ignores the agency of Ukrainians, who led the Maidan protests because of already existing deep dissatisfaction with Yanukovych’s corrupt, oligarchic regime and his pivot to Russia. Supporting popular uprisings against oligarchs should align with Marxist values even if “the West” has its own interests

3. The Role of Fascism in Ukraine: Yes, Ukraine has issues with far-right groups like so many countries but exaggerating their influence as a justification for invasion serves to divert attention from Russia’s own reactionary politics. Far-right elements in Ukraine do not define the country’s political landscape, nor do they justify imperial aggression from another state. Russia has its own history of fostering right-wing authoritarianism.

4. Minsk Agreements: While the West" and Ukraine could be criticized for their handling of the Minsk agreements, Russia also violated these accords by continuing support for the separatists. Both sides share blame for the failure of Minsk, but it doesn’t make Russia’s invasion justified. Ukrainians didn’t provoke a full-scale invasion; they were defending their sovereignty.

5. NATO as a “Defensive” Alliance: Criticism of NATO’s imperialistic behavior is fair its actions in places like Libya show it isn’t 100% defensive. But in this case, NATO’s expansion was driven by countries seeking security from a historically imperialist power. Ukraine wasn’t “provoking” Russia by wanting self-determination; it was trying to secure its future.

You’re trying to push this “Actuall, but Ukraine DID provoke” narrative by mixing in unverified, ideologically biased material with references that are legitimate, but isolated incidents. Like linking far-right activity to justify the war conveniently ignores Russia’s (I should probably say everyone’s) own far-right issues. Marxists should reject imperialism in all its forms, including Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

“propaganda”? Oh. You mean like Russia started a full blown unprovoked war with a peaceful nation? That “propaganda”?

Sucks others got caught in the crosshairs, but that’s just what happens when your authoritarian government launches unprovoked wars and gets sanctioned.

And you don’t either

And re: phones—you can see that’s a camera. Also, they have a bright LED that indicates recording. These glasses do not.

Umm when was the last time you…you know what, let’s do an experiment, start recording a video on your phone, flip it over and look at the back and tell me where the red recording LED is LOL

Anyways, the other commenter here cited specific cases and a supreme court ruling which tied recording in a public space as a 1st amendment issue (which I didn’t know either) so now short of a new federal law passed by congress, it ain’t changing. It’s not my opinion, it’s a fact.

Lol that has nothing to do with the other, and courts have already set precedent for recording in public spaces and have generally ruled that with current laws there’s no expectation of privacy in public spaces.

The fact the camera being on someones face is almost assuredly going to be an insignificant factor in any future court case considering the sheer amount of cameras pointing at you as-is from phones (How do you know if someone is just on their phone or recording?) and security cameras and now that businesses are heavily investing in ever more cameras for their AI BS…yea, sorry to say, but nothing is going to change on that front for the foreseeable future.

Source on that? Last I checked it was nationwide that there was no expectation to privacy in public places

Google Glass was way back in like 2013, 10 years later people just expect to have cameras everywhere in public since nearly everyone now has a good camera in their pocket that they’re also using to actually take pics and videos all the time of food, places, buildings, scenery, selfies etc.

Each one of us is probably in the background of who knows many peoples pictures by now

105 gigs is nothing, you can get a 1TB external drive for ~60$

I’m getting to the point of becoming a data hoarder

What’s wrong with that‽ Join us on the dark side (according to giant corporations anyways), we have milk and cookies!

Just a simple lowly troll, nothing of importance to see here

Yea if nothing else hopefully it’ll at least point you in the right direction

don’t tell me what to do!

Its a joke lol, why are you so serious all the time

Sorry, I’ve already posted the new internet rules and they took immediate effect, I’ll have to report this incident to…the council.

Clearly we need an Arch version of rule 34 and rule 35

Rule 34a: If linux software exists, it’s in the AUR. No exceptions.

Rule 35a: If linux software is not in the AUR, it will be made available in the AUR.

Are you saying because Graphene is unrootable and 150k choose it means user space is fine?

Because those 150k made a choice to switch to a custom rom with the features built-in that they would typically need root for on ANY stock OEM rom, such as effective system-wide Adblocking

Ofc userspace is just fine in that scenario

Now, if you’re saying only 150k people choose to flash a custom rom out of billions of Android devices that userspace is just fine and dandy, that’s just misleading. An absolute ton of those billions of devices are most likely Samshits, which is actively hostile to user choice and rooting and does everything they can to stop it. Up to and including (like someone else commented here) using Knox to brick the phone.

Living with userspace because you can’t or don’t want to overcome your choosen OEMs blockers/hostility is NOT evidence that user space is just fine.

BLASPHEMY!

On paper, but it’s pretty hit or miss IME on its implementations

Lol I love the “You don’t need root on modern Android, it does all the things you used to root for!” People. No, no it doesn’t lmao