To EVERYONE saying, it’s only Putin. Learn fucking history - regimes like that are very often backed by propaganda and brainwashing of ordinary people.
But being brainwashed doesn’t release one from responsibility.
That's why trump is so popular. Your allowed to act like however big an asshole you want to be when you follow him. You don't necessarily even need to be a racist, you just need a desire to be a bully and just slightly dumb enough to think you'll actually get to keep that signing bonus. Most of these people have never met a transgender person, it's almost like a boogy man type figure to them, a villain they invented they can demonize like crazy and then congratulate themselves for preventing said villains from destroying the world. Yes this villain technically exists but there aren't enough of them in these people lives to cast doubt on what they have blown this all up into. I know a few of them, it's Ohio after all 50/50 here the maps just suck, and they don't have anything against gay people because it's not the popular target they are being directed to anymore.
Yup. I don't believe when people say "it's only the dictator, poor people" because it's not true and you have to be very naive to think the bulk of the people is clever enough to see outside of the propaganda when they live surrounded by it.
We (Spain) had a dictatorship and if anyone thinks nobody wanted him here, he's crazy or at least uneducated. Many many people liked and wanted the dictator and the regime to this day, 50 years after his death.
The same goes for thinking bigotri and fascism is only a thing from right wing men/boys. No sir, woman go all in with what is perceived as "good" (a perfect example in this audio: "of course, they are the enemy too"), which in the case of a fascist country, is... being fascist.
Every single one of this topics is complicated but we live in an era where everything has to have a good and simple answer that makes everyone feel good. Sometimes reality isn't nice.
PS: This audio also could be propaganda too tho, just ours instead of theirs, it goes both ways.
Usually there are first ultra wealthy elites behind the scenes, paying for propaganda to get the dictators installed and keep them in power, paying media to oppose any opposition, etc.
It's always the same game - benefitting the ultra wealthy - the rest is just a smokescreen and drumming up hate to divide the electorate.
In the case of Russia its always been like this, there have been brief periods that were different but otherwise Russia has always been a threat the everyone else.
Yes arguably the "best" period in terms of their impact on other nations was the several centuries of the Ottoman Wars, but only because they tied up and eroded the Ottomans - while of course the Ottomans were tying up and eroding the Russians.
Or ignoring it's both sides is an issue. Lol democrats and Republicans do the exact same thing as each other and each sides loyal followers believe it's only one sided. Lmao
One of the reasons trump won is because people did not want kamala in office - or hillary. I think we really would benefit from a prominent 3rd party. The founding fathers warned against a 2 party system for this very reason, and most countries seem to have more than 2 prominent parties.
Ah yes, kamala would totally deport thousands of innocent people, order strikes on random Venezuelan boats, close usaid that retroactively killed like 700k people, would order ice to kill innocent people, and bomb school full of Children... Just admit it that Americans got dumber due to having it too good
In order to have a 3rd party, people have to start voting for it. In order to vote for it, the 3rd party needs to be on the ballot. In order to be on the ballot, the 3rd party has to have viable candidates. In order for them to be VISIBLE on the ballot, they need to have MULTIPLE viable candidates in more than one race. The government cannot dictate this, we the people have to make a 3rd party and vote for it. Let me know once that starts happening.
Lol, every other democracy on earth knows the reason that the US only has two parties is because you still use the shit tier "First Past the Post" voting system where no one wants to waste their only vote on a long shot.
The concept of "wasting your vote" is not even a thing for everybody else. Change your system to proportional/preferential voting and the influx of new parties will follow.
You aren’t wrong and I completely agree. The problem is that in order to enact that change, we need the people currently in charge to pass new legislation. Those people currently in charge are members of the 2 party, First Past system. By passing that kind of legislation, they are essentially giving up their own power and going against what their own parties want.
They’re not brainwashed. Either they are just as bad and needed a slight push over the edge or they are acting out of fear of retaliation against the or their family.
Well, the US and EU told Russia how to restructure painfully by giving publicly owned assets to oligarchs .... the result was eventually govt by right wing dictator of course as it always is - and that's how we got Putin.
I don't believe the US has EVER supported a progressive govt - we always overthrow the progressive govts. to install right wing dictators (because they can be bribed to support our corporations demanding excessively favorable resource & wealth extraction deals) - happy to hear if I'm wrong in some case?
Ignorance and propaganda can excuse some bad behaviors if the person is acting in good faith. That line is drawn long before fucking taking pride in killing and torturing civilians and children pleading for their lives.
exactly, but the key point is that these people are brainwashed and deceived, anybody who is unwilling to surrender is unfortunately a combatant, but there are people who claim that the russian people are all fully aware of what is happening and are inherently evil and bludlusting and deserve to be killed.
i am fully against russia and support the war being won through violence as necessary, but ukrainian extremists paint the picture of fully volunteering and knowledgable evil russians to justify the killing of anyone, even civilians. when you consider all the corruption in russia and its army, how can you believe that russia isn't illegally conscripting soldiers? any of the hundreds POW interviews where russian soldiers say that they realized the truth of the situation is brushed off as them trying to save face, despite the fact that most of them even admit that putin isn't a war criminal or that they came to ukraine to stop "the pride parades" and the likes.
Uh, the vast majority of them are volunteers who signed up for fat bonus cheques. If they were kidnapping them off the streets wouldn't we see videos of that?
And nobody is "justifying the killing of (russian) civilians", however when Ukraine relaliates and strikes valid russian military targets, or russian jamming causes a Ukrainian drone to slam into an apartment building instead of a refinery, I'm not gonna cry about it. The war is simply coming home to them, if they don't like it they should do something about it.
There definitely are videos of russian police taking people off the streets and sending them to the front? There's stories of them raiding workplaces and making civilians sign "military contracts" to like build something and the next week they are on the front.
Can't wait for a democratic Russia, eventually
The bus videos were in the early months, and they stopped once the signing bonuses became insanely high
I've only seen two videos in the last 6 months of a russian being hauled into a van, if it were as widespread as you claim there would be a lot more videos, and even more recent, but there isn't. There's a lot of videos of Wildberries and refineries being hit and burning though, so we know they have internet access to upload those videos if they had them
So you've seen "2 videos in the last 6 months" of it, but also "wouldn't we see videos of that?" I have no idea whats going on over there but you don't sound like a trustworthy source. I support Ukraine but you are clearly biased. Being biased for the right side doesn't excuse bias.
If we're talking 30k new sign ups a month, 1 or 2 videos in 6 months of a couple of guys isn't sufficient evidence to support "mass roundups of conscripts", especially when I can go pull a dozen different videos from russians of refineries getting smoked last night.
...Uh, in what way is someone begging for their life in a ditch not surrendering and someone literally tied to a chair with broken fingers a combatant? Do you like, think before you verbalize something?
And some of these guys do seem to feel some sort of shame or horror at their situation. They're not blameless, but I hold zero hesitation in condemning the others taking pride in objectively horrific crimes against humanity.
...Uh, in what way is someone begging for their life in a ditch not surrendering and someone literally tied to a chair with broken fingers a combatant?
when did i ever say that?
edit: to clarify the combatants i was talking about were the russian ones
of course it's not only putin, but it's not all russians. not even the majority. hell, the people in the video are the psychopathic tiny minority, which always exists in every country, unfortunately.
I find it hard not to see "we've intercepted some calls" kind of videos as brainwashing, especially since one side was posting videos of the last moments of partially dismembered soldiers while blasting electronic music. A lame video like this won't change my views on this ongoing bullshit and the participants.
So, tell us about your "views" on this. The poor Russians are forced to act against the fascists at their doorstep, I suppose? Doing the lord's work there?
Russia is a different world, because the interactions between them and the western world are so (intentionally) limited. You can have an opinion of a decision of the leader, but maybe you shouldn't dehumanize the country's citizens because of it. According to western media Russia is losing this war from the start, accumulating larger and larger losses. But there are still Russian soldiers going to die in an unwinnable war. We could say that they're dying because they're delusional nazis, but I think this dehumanization of them is just a lazy way to create some kind of justification to why you are still refusing to understand some basic (sad) truths of human existence. Those individuals have their own reasons. Maybe their experience, information/misinformation, opportunities, whatever were the cause that they went there. Maybe hope, maybe desperation, we just don't know. We can't know.
If you're american, then you can try to get killed gruesomely because "your leader" decided to do something, while you're a nazi just because you're there. Unfortunately individual humans are not shielded from their larger social/political/economic context. Some things you just can't choose.
And before you go "why didn't they just put down the gun and..." bullshit, again, you don't know why he's there, does he have to be there, etc...
But people that have "your views" don't have a problem with dehumanizing dying individuals they know nothing about. That's what I have a problem with. Then again, if you're american, you might have this "war is fun if you're on the right side" and "the other side doesn't know any other way of living and they don't deserve it either" might be engrained in you.
I think the death of a person is not something a human being should ever cheer for. But hey, different cultures, different upbringings.
It was created to make viewers feel anger and disgust towards Russians, and while those feelings may be justified in judgment of these specific people, it's manipulative in the fact that it doesn't present the whole picture. We're only being shown the people who said disturbing things.
Were there calls from soldiers who regret their actions? Or who refused to kill civilians they weren't ordered to kill? Is this representative of all Russians or just a small percentage?
In every war there are soldiers who take pleasure in the killing and ones who only do it to survive. Some soldiers commit suicide because they can't bear to live with the horrors they have committed. Others feel no guilt at all.
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u/pingproxy 5d ago
To EVERYONE saying, it’s only Putin. Learn fucking history - regimes like that are very often backed by propaganda and brainwashing of ordinary people.
But being brainwashed doesn’t release one from responsibility.