Right now it’s hard to say given that Ukraine is in war time and its men are conscript slaves but before the war it seems obvious that Ukraine was a much freer and more open society than Russia in terms of freedom of expression, press and competitive political parties.
Ukraine still has state media and censorship, and the censorship isn't just related to the war. For example, Zelensky's government made "Holocaust Denial" illegal. Russia also has "Holocaust Denial" laws, so this is an area where Ukraine is just as bad as Russia, but not worse.
I haven't seen anything to indicate that there's much more freedom of expression or freedom of press in Ukraine than Russia.
2. I don't like Putin. I'm not sure whether it was justified or not.
Putin shamefully betrayed the Armenians. He allows mass immigration of muslim barbarians into Russia. He seems too quick to go to war, but I don't know all the intel behind the Georgia and Ukraine invasions, so I can't be sure about whether it was justified or not.
"The average Ukrainian citizen has no more freedom than the average Russian citizen.” This claim is asserted but not argued for. Care to elaborate?
The only meaningful difference between being ruled by puppeteers in Moscow or Washington is, with Moscow you aren't being kidnapped off the streets by TCC slavecatchers and you don't have to pay all those impossible loans the Washington puppets ran up.
"I oppose Ukraine’s cause in the war because Ukraine is fighting to expand the EU and the EU is an evil totalitarian regime. Russia is not much (or really any) better than the EU, but the EU is currently more powerful than Russia, so it would be good for Russia to win in order to preserve a balance of power."
This seems absolutely mad to me.
1) In what way is the EU totalitarian?
2) What is your problem with the EU in general?
3) In what way is Russia better (both as a country to live in and to be influenced by externally)?
4) How would this balance of power be beneficial to anyone other than the Russians?
The EU regime promotes rape. A German woman who insulted a rapist was sentenced to prison for the insult. Her prison sentence was longer than the rapist's.
3. I didn't say it was better I said it was an alternative, and it's better for there to be two competing powers rather than one single power. However, there are some ways in which Russia is better than the EU. Russia is much better on child transgender mutilation for example.
4. It's better for anyone who doesn't want the whole world to be taken over by the evil people who run the EU.
If you are in favor of top down and centralized government that are largely unelected by their constituencies, then you are in favor of the European Union. The individual nation states of the European Union decided to form exactly what I just described. Most of if not all of the representatives from the individual nation states within the European Union are unelected. They do not answer to the people within the individual nation states of that body. This makes the European Union largely an undemocratic effort. It is as I described, a top-down and centralized style of government that deemphasizes the individual and their concerns and liberties. And in the formation of that top down and centralized body, they are still depending on a completely different nation located on another side of the planet to form the basis for the majority of their own defense. This is the foundation for a very unfortunately rigged shell game or perhaps even a better described zero-sum game for the people of Europe.
This is what makes this Russian Ukrainian conflict nothing more than globalists versus Russia. It is a collection of globalists/collectivists that are using the people of Ukraine as fodder to see their goals realized. This does not exempt in any way shape or form the imperialist goals of the Russian federation. What this means is that there is no good side in this conflict. There is no winner in the end, but there are losers. And the losers are the poor people being forced to fight the war on both sides.
Good article. People need to have a sense of realpolitik and realize that spheres of influence are still a thing, no matter how much the leaders or clients of those spheres may try to deny it.
1. You claim that in the eyes of the defenders, Zelensky can do no wrong. And yet, it seems, in your own eyes, Trump can do no wrong. Even if Zelensky was being rude, the lack of statesmanship exhibited by Trump and Vance is embarrassing and politically autistic - the classroom-bully display removed the power of ambiguity essential in negotiations. Russia should not have had the advantage of knowing Trump’s position and no seasoned and self-disciplined diplomat would give that away.
2. Sovereignty is not a binary state. Arguably no country is completely sovereign, much like no person is completely free. By binarising this concept without subtlety you are left with the unconvincing claim that being a client of the EU is much like being a client of Russia. The EU has some horrid totalitarian legislation and equally horrid technocrats, but it is far less malevolent to its client states than is Russia. The famine in Ukraine under Soviet dominion led to the deaths of millions of Ukranians. The EU, with all of its incompetence, corruption and totalitarian legislation, has never caused a member state to suffer a million deaths by starvation and violence.
3. I agree that Russia was, in part provoked. But the entity responsible for that provoking, in my view, was the USA and NATO, not Ukraine.
Even speaking as someone who voted to leave the EU, it's hardly an evil totalitarian state. Probably the rudest criticisms are that it smothers democracy beneath bureaucracy, and that it regulates first and asks questions later. But you'd have to be crazy to prefer living in Russia.
Censorship has been a growing problem in Europe, and there has been a reluctance to confront migrant crime trends. But generally the EU is a good place to live, for now.
I could publish the most vicious screed against Keir Starmer and expect no consequences. If I was living in Russia, could I do the same against Putin? That's a significant difference.
In Russia you could publish screeds against black criminals or homosexuals and expect no consequences. You could not do the same in the UK.
The Western European governments want to act like criticism of the chief executive is the only metric of free speech. But freedom to criticize groups, religions and government policies is at least as important as freedom to criticize a single politician.
Okay, so there's many ways to measure freedom. You might well argue that being able to go about your business as a sexual or ethnic minority is an important freedom, to give another example.
To get back to my main point, I think if you tally all the upsides and downsides of living in the EU/UK versus living in Russia, the former group does better. But mileages may vary.
1. “The average Ukrainian citizen has no more freedom than the average Russian citizen.” This claim is asserted but not argued for. Care to elaborate?
2. An invasion can be provoked without being justified. Do you believe Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was justified?
1. What specifically do you have in mind? In what specific way do you think Russians are less free than Ukrainians?
Right now it’s hard to say given that Ukraine is in war time and its men are conscript slaves but before the war it seems obvious that Ukraine was a much freer and more open society than Russia in terms of freedom of expression, press and competitive political parties.
That's not obvious to me at all.
Ukraine still has state media and censorship, and the censorship isn't just related to the war. For example, Zelensky's government made "Holocaust Denial" illegal. Russia also has "Holocaust Denial" laws, so this is an area where Ukraine is just as bad as Russia, but not worse.
I haven't seen anything to indicate that there's much more freedom of expression or freedom of press in Ukraine than Russia.
https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-passes-antisemitism-law/31473362.html
Before the war Ukraine had elections were you decided which set of oligarchs looted the state.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2022/02/16/against-all-odds-has-zelensky-failed-ukraine/
If you were Russian you were an orc and they punished even using the Russian language.
Ukraine was a democracy the way all third world shitholes are democracies. It’s just a way incompetent kleptocrats trade power every few years.
Russia had 3x its per capita gdp, it was clearly the superior state.
2. I don't like Putin. I'm not sure whether it was justified or not.
Putin shamefully betrayed the Armenians. He allows mass immigration of muslim barbarians into Russia. He seems too quick to go to war, but I don't know all the intel behind the Georgia and Ukraine invasions, so I can't be sure about whether it was justified or not.
"The average Ukrainian citizen has no more freedom than the average Russian citizen.” This claim is asserted but not argued for. Care to elaborate?
The only meaningful difference between being ruled by puppeteers in Moscow or Washington is, with Moscow you aren't being kidnapped off the streets by TCC slavecatchers and you don't have to pay all those impossible loans the Washington puppets ran up.
"I oppose Ukraine’s cause in the war because Ukraine is fighting to expand the EU and the EU is an evil totalitarian regime. Russia is not much (or really any) better than the EU, but the EU is currently more powerful than Russia, so it would be good for Russia to win in order to preserve a balance of power."
This seems absolutely mad to me.
1) In what way is the EU totalitarian?
2) What is your problem with the EU in general?
3) In what way is Russia better (both as a country to live in and to be influenced by externally)?
4) How would this balance of power be beneficial to anyone other than the Russians?
1 & 2. This man was put in prison for criticizing the EU's state ideology. (UK)
https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/03/04/the-tyrannical-jailing-of-sam-melia/
Woman prosecuted for blasphemy. https://www.newsweek.com/calling-prophet-muhammad-pedophile-not-protected-free-speech-court-rules-1189031
The EU regime promotes rape. A German woman who insulted a rapist was sentenced to prison for the insult. Her prison sentence was longer than the rapist's.
https://nypost.com/2024/06/29/world-news/german-woman-given-harsher-sentence-than-rapist-for-defamation/
3. I didn't say it was better I said it was an alternative, and it's better for there to be two competing powers rather than one single power. However, there are some ways in which Russia is better than the EU. Russia is much better on child transgender mutilation for example.
4. It's better for anyone who doesn't want the whole world to be taken over by the evil people who run the EU.
If you are in favor of top down and centralized government that are largely unelected by their constituencies, then you are in favor of the European Union. The individual nation states of the European Union decided to form exactly what I just described. Most of if not all of the representatives from the individual nation states within the European Union are unelected. They do not answer to the people within the individual nation states of that body. This makes the European Union largely an undemocratic effort. It is as I described, a top-down and centralized style of government that deemphasizes the individual and their concerns and liberties. And in the formation of that top down and centralized body, they are still depending on a completely different nation located on another side of the planet to form the basis for the majority of their own defense. This is the foundation for a very unfortunately rigged shell game or perhaps even a better described zero-sum game for the people of Europe.
This is what makes this Russian Ukrainian conflict nothing more than globalists versus Russia. It is a collection of globalists/collectivists that are using the people of Ukraine as fodder to see their goals realized. This does not exempt in any way shape or form the imperialist goals of the Russian federation. What this means is that there is no good side in this conflict. There is no winner in the end, but there are losers. And the losers are the poor people being forced to fight the war on both sides.
Good article. People need to have a sense of realpolitik and realize that spheres of influence are still a thing, no matter how much the leaders or clients of those spheres may try to deny it.
Not massively convinced:
1. You claim that in the eyes of the defenders, Zelensky can do no wrong. And yet, it seems, in your own eyes, Trump can do no wrong. Even if Zelensky was being rude, the lack of statesmanship exhibited by Trump and Vance is embarrassing and politically autistic - the classroom-bully display removed the power of ambiguity essential in negotiations. Russia should not have had the advantage of knowing Trump’s position and no seasoned and self-disciplined diplomat would give that away.
2. Sovereignty is not a binary state. Arguably no country is completely sovereign, much like no person is completely free. By binarising this concept without subtlety you are left with the unconvincing claim that being a client of the EU is much like being a client of Russia. The EU has some horrid totalitarian legislation and equally horrid technocrats, but it is far less malevolent to its client states than is Russia. The famine in Ukraine under Soviet dominion led to the deaths of millions of Ukranians. The EU, with all of its incompetence, corruption and totalitarian legislation, has never caused a member state to suffer a million deaths by starvation and violence.
3. I agree that Russia was, in part provoked. But the entity responsible for that provoking, in my view, was the USA and NATO, not Ukraine.
1. Trump was not rude (during the meeting). Vance and Zelensky were rude and Trump handled the situation well, given the circumstances.
2. Russia isn't the USSR. If the worst thing you can find was from 80 years ago, that's not very convincing.
3. I agree.
Even speaking as someone who voted to leave the EU, it's hardly an evil totalitarian state. Probably the rudest criticisms are that it smothers democracy beneath bureaucracy, and that it regulates first and asks questions later. But you'd have to be crazy to prefer living in Russia.
It's a lot more serious than just smothering democracy.
https://simonlaird.substack.com/p/ukraine-is-not-a-sovereign-country/comment/97228091
Censorship has been a growing problem in Europe, and there has been a reluctance to confront migrant crime trends. But generally the EU is a good place to live, for now.
A good place to live in terms of having a high GDP? Sure. But in terms of freedom it's not much better than Russia
I could publish the most vicious screed against Keir Starmer and expect no consequences. If I was living in Russia, could I do the same against Putin? That's a significant difference.
In Russia you could publish screeds against black criminals or homosexuals and expect no consequences. You could not do the same in the UK.
The Western European governments want to act like criticism of the chief executive is the only metric of free speech. But freedom to criticize groups, religions and government policies is at least as important as freedom to criticize a single politician.
Okay, so there's many ways to measure freedom. You might well argue that being able to go about your business as a sexual or ethnic minority is an important freedom, to give another example.
To get back to my main point, I think if you tally all the upsides and downsides of living in the EU/UK versus living in Russia, the former group does better. But mileages may vary.