Usually, yes. However, in cases like the Bolivarian revolution, the millitary sides with the people. It’s a bit more complicated than that.

A lot of the Nazis are staying closer to Kiev, leaving conscripts to die on the frontlines. That’s why hundreds of thousands of conscripts have deserted or fled to Belarus.

and that a people with its own culture and language have the rights to have nation.

This is why Donetsk and Luhansk seceded from Kiev, though, as they are primarily culturally Russian, and Kiev, post-Euromaidan, began suppressing the Russian language. If you genuinely hold the values you do, then you should support the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics against Kiev.

The annexation of Crimea happened after Euromaidan. Yanukovych, the democratically elected president, was faced with a loan from the IMF and a loan from Russia. The IMF loan required austerity, privatizing social services, etc, while the Russian loan did not. Yanukovych went with the Russian loan, which sparked anti-government demonstrations due to the far-right not wanting to be closer to Russia.

The west backed the Banderites, who committed the Maidan Massacre, coup’d Yanukovych, and this sparked Donetsk and Luhansk to secede (as they were regions that majority supported Yanukovych). Fast forward to 2022, and a decade of civil war later, Donetsk and Luhansk asked Russia for support, to which they agreed. This sparked the modern phase of the war.

In all cases, the origins were in a decision made by a democratically elected president to reject western forced austerity, which enabled the rise of the Banderites to state power.

The key distinction with Ukraine is that the Banderites actually are in control of the state, and the various neo-Nazi groups are empowered by said state. Every state has Nazi groups, but Ukraine stands out in that said Nazi groups took power in a coup in 2014.

The EU is also fascist, as imperialism is declining they are surging to the right to force austerity at home. Same with the US Empire. The west is overwhelmingly fascist.

Edit: Oh, I do remember now,I had forgotten that tidbit. I just reread the thread!

Please explain the “long list of crimes” the communists are ignoring. There aren’t paid actors here. What “basic facts” are the communists ignoring?

Further, “brainwashing” doesn’t exist. People license themselves to believe that that which they think benefits them is good, you can’t force people into believing something against their will.

That’s why I just browse locally on my 3 accounts, haha.

(Lemmy.ca is defederated from Grad, comrade. You might wanna swap to your Lemmy.ml account).

Nobody says China is perfect, just that western perceptions are comically off-base and that the US Empire is indeed far, far worse while China is actively improving.

BRI isn’t imperialist, because it results in mutual development. Where the west goes in and plunders and underdevelops the global south, countries in BRI see rising wages and industrialization, escaping the endless trap of imperialism. Does China benefit too? Absolutely. Is it imperialism? No. Here are some good articles:

• Five Imperialist Myths About China’s Role in Africa

• China debt trap? PH an ‘expert in bad loans,’ Locsin says

• Deborah Brautigam Debunks the Chinese Debt Trap Theory in New Research Paper

• China’s Debt Relief for Africa: Emerging Deliberations

• Is China doing colonialism in Africa?

I don’t know about opinion polls to measure China’s democracy. The CCP have ways of “persuading” citizens to feel like the government respects them. According to the World Press Freedom Index, China actually has the third worst freedom of press in the world, ahead of only North Korea and Eritrea.

The CPC’s “ways of persuasion” are continuously improving living conditions and development. China does restrict private press, yes, because it’s a socialist country and doesn’t want the capitalists it keeps in check abusing the press to undermine the system. Further, data on public support for China is accurate, and isn’t the result of any undue manipulation.

The idea of Russia getting a free pass as better than the US simply because it can’t do as much damage is interesting, sort of like an equality vs equity argument, but at the moment Russia’s the only one throwing around literal nuke threats like christmas cracker jokes.

The US Empire is the one plundering the entire global south at the moment. Russia doesn’t get a “free pass,” but the idea that it’s worse than the US Empire is deeply misinformed.

The meme comparing Xi Jingping to Winnie the Pooh has its origins in China, so it’s nothing racial.

It exploded in the west far more than in China, and is most commonly used among racist right wingers.

Since you mentioned that Chinese propaganda isn’t good either, I know you’re arguing in good faith. I’ll also say that before 2025 I would have said China was easily worse than the US, but now I’m not so sure. Either way, it’s comparing mouldy apples to mouldy oranges.

I don’t agree that it’s comparing mouldy apples to mouldy oranges. It’s comparing late-stage imperialism to early-mid stage socialism, a dying empire vs a rising socialist power. Socialism doesn’t mean free from problems, but it does mean that it’s fundamentally different and regularly improving.

If you want to learn more about China’s system, I recommend Roland Boer’s Socialism with Chinese Characteristics: A Guide for Foreigners. If you want to learn about Marxism-Leninism, which is what China and other socialist countries use as their baseline ideology, I made an introductory reading list.

Oh duh! Should’ve thought of that /s

China can do wrong, though. I wish they were stronger when it came to foreign policy, and they are lagging in queer rights. However, both the ideas that China is imperialist and that China is worse than the US Empire are absurd.

The US Empire plunders the global south, expropriating vast amounts of resources and super-exploiting foreign labor, while China engages in mutual cooperation and win-win development. Countries imperialized by the US are underdeveloped, while countries in BRI have rapid development. The US has hundreds of overseas millitary bases, and the PRC has no more than 3. The US Empire is kidnapping leaders and threatening to annex Greenland, while China is engaging in mutual trade.

It doesn’t matter what the country pretends to want to be, as soon as it gets too powerful you always end up with some asshole dictator

This doesn’t logically follow. There’s nothing about size of country that correlates to having dictators, Cuba under Batista was small but dictatorial, while China is a democracy with 1.4 billion people. The vast majority of Chinese citizens believe the government represents their interests:

Russia couldn’t be as bad as the US Empire even if it tried, as it lacks the ability to do so. China is a socialist country. The US is the world hegemon and a dying empire. Entirely different scales of evil here.

pooh Bear

I don’t see why it’s funny to use a yellow bear to describe a Chinese man.

So with that said, why the China worship, why the pretence they China can do no wrong? This is literally “US propaganda baaaad, China propaganda goooood”

Nobody believes China can do no wrong or that Chinese propaganda is good. If your entire argument relies on strawmen, then it’s not really anything useful.

What is link aggregation? Just combining network connections of a cloud? What does that have to do with lemmy?

Think reddit, you post links to articles, videos, etc. for the majority of posts.

Why would there by different servers in the first place doesn’t that make the social media smaller for everyone?

Instances can talk to each other, like email. gmail accounts can talk to yahoo accounts. You have a Lemmy.world account, but are talking to me on a Lemmy.ml communiity with my Lemmy.ml account.

What is an instance?

Kinda like a server. Your instance is Lemmy.world, mine is Lemmy.ml. Instances are their own websites with their own communities, but can see other instances they are federated with. Local browsing is your instance, all browsing is for everything you’re federated with.

Isn’t the point of a federalized social media to be better connected?

Yes and no. Not everyone wants to be connected with everyone.

Can I use my account I just made for Lemmy in something like Mastodon?

Sort of. You can interact with Mastodon users, but not in the Mastodon format.

How can I access content from different social media?

Not sure what you mean. Lemmy is a link aggregator, and you interact via Lemmy.

Right now we are on the lemmy.world server, can I take my same account and go to another one?

Lemmy doesn’t support true account migration, but you can open new accounts.

Why would I change my server when there are already different communities here? Isn‘t changing your server more tedious than just clicking on another community?

Some instances are themed, like Mander.xyz is themed around science, Lemmygrad.ml is themed around Marxism-Leninism, etc. Scrolling locally can curate your experience. Lemmy.world has defederated from some instances such as Hexbear.net and Lemmygrad.ml, so you can’t see their content from your account, while I can from Lemmy.ml. It’s worth checking the vibe of an instance before joining for the long term.

Excellent! Glad to see it, it’s nice to have a space where this is the norm.

Yep, communists were here from the start.

Communists created Lemmy, and have been here since the start. Not sure why you’re surprised that communists are on Lemmy.

The EU is imperialist though, and as the US Empire is falling they fall with it. China’s better than both, as it isn’t imperialist and instead is trending upwards. I agree with Vietnam, though, it’s similar to China in that both are rising, both are socialist, and neither are imperialist.

Understood, I just wanted to build on your comment.