brain_in_a_box [he/him]

And that matters more to you than every single Ukrainian life put together.

Incorrect. In the past I had been a dues paying member of socialist/leftist organizations, I went to school for politics and philosophy, I’ve spent years of my life having conversations with people like you and reading arguments and following these topics. I’m not done because I’m ignorant or unwilling to face a truth

Didn’t ask, don’t care.

I’m going off the actual content of your statements, and that content is that you take liberalism as axiomatically true and you fundamentally are unwilling to examine that axiom, instead writing off anyone who challenges it as “not rational” or even “insane” and refusing to engage further.

By any objective measure,

A bold claim that I’d love to see you substantiate

Still waiting to hear where you got that “people run down by tanks” thing.

Russia is “allowed” to do it for the same reason the US was “allowed” to invade Iraq.

You were saying that these workers were representative of workers in general.

It’s not splitting hairs, it’s literally the entire point of the discussion. I understand that you’ve had the idea that there’s some fundamental, qualitive, difference between the authoritarianism of Western counties and the authoritarianism of foreigners so deeply instilled in you that the idea of questioning it, or even having to justify it, is absurd to you. But the fact of the matter is that it is perfectly reasonable “legitimate conversation” to actually ask you to back up your claims, and you trying to assert that it’s just “obvious” that you’re right and if anyone tries to argue “you’re just done” just makes it clear that you’ve never actually examined why you hold these beliefs and you refuse to do so.

There’s a difference between the United States and Pol Pots Cambodia, and if you’re gonna try to argue that they’re the same then I’m done

You’re right, there is a difference: an order of magnitude more people have been killed and emiserated by the USA.

And you disagree why?

That’s my assumption, yes.

Abstract principles really do matter more than human lives to you libs. Don’t talk about “legitimate interest in fewer Ukrainians dying” when you wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice every last one of them for one inch of soil.

While we’re on the subject of propaganda: what was it that made you believe China “ran down its own citizens with tanks”? What is the actual source of this belief.

Yeah, what they should have said is that authoritarianism as a term is mainly used as a truncheon against non Western countries in order to increase support for Western hegemony, which it absolutely is.

When a nations primary mode of function is in authoritarian action it ceases to be a country I would consider something anyone should aim to emulate

All nations primary mode of function is authoritarian action, and all revolutions too.

It is fine to point at those countries and say “hey for all of their faults they managed to do X pretty well”

It really isn’t, I can tell you from personal experience that this will absolutely get you labelled a tankie.

If the majority of your employees are on track to be fired, that’s your fault as a company.

That doesn’t change the context at all. Dissent from the capitalist class is still dissent.

If most of the workers are on track to get fired, that sounds like a structural problem with management