vovchik_ilich [he/him]

[…] is a provocation worthy of military invasion?

See, that’s an entirely different statement. Threatening to join Russia’s geopolitical rival’s military alliance while bordering Russia, is provocation. The acts in Donbas since 2014 are provocation. Is it “worthy of military invasion”? I don’t believe so. The proto-fascist Russian government is clearly not acting entirely out of pure will and self defense, and I’ll be the last to defend it since I have loved ones directly suffering under that government. But it’s important to frame things correctly, and yes, threatening to join NATO while bordering Russia is a huge provocation.

Particularly, NATO has no history of defensiveness (as far as I know it has never intervened for the defensive purposes it’s supposed to uphold), but it has a history of offensiveness. Yugoslavia and Libya can both attest to that, and extra-officially (technically not NATO interventions even if many NATO members participated one way or another), countries such as Iraq can also attest. The case of Iraq is a perfect example of what unprovoked invasion in modern times is, and we are still forced to see libs fall heads over heels for a fucking Dick Satan Cheney endorsement to Kamala “most lethal army in the world” Harris.

So, yes, when a country bordering you chooses to join a historically aggressive military alliance that openly challenges you, that’s huge provocation. And it’s important to state so when we talk about the war in Ukraine.

completely unprovoked

considering joining NATO

Those two statements are in the same phrase… My god

Not very hopeful but it’s something

I highly recommend that you get yourself a copy of the book “Human rights in the soviet union” by Albert Szymanski. It discusses the access to goods, healthcare, education, publications in local languages, and much more, for different republics within the USSR, for the period from 1917 to 1980 approximately. There was a famine in Kazakhstan, but how many famines were there in Kazakhstan before communism, and how many were there during?

In the book (which you can probably find online, ehem Anna’s Archive ehem), go to the chapter that discusses the central Asian republics, and look quickly through the tables discussing these metrics, and comparing them to (historically similar pre-1917) countries of the region such as Afghanistan or Pakistan. You’ll see how communism brought literacy, education, healthcare, pensions, women’s rights, and material well-being to central-Asian republics.

Russia’s Putin as opposed to…? Just funny phrasing

I’ll never forget, about a year ago, reading on Reddit some people affirming that “America is the most diverse country in the world”. Like, dude, the entire school system is in English, half the people in the country will get mad if you talk anything else in their vicinity, and you have like 3 major ethnicities.

I know, right? I will never cease to be amazed at people being surprised by this. I’m Spanish, and the concept of “tapas” has been twisted when exported to other countries. You don’t pay for tapas, tapas are the free food you get with the drink you order. The food you order to share are raciones. Don’t get me wrong, tapas aren’t a big thing everywhere in Spain (they’re amazing in Granada for example), but I cringe at being amazed at discovering that this is an alien concept for many people…

My home country was invaded the previous century by rabid hordes of orcs… I mean Ruzzians. The literal foundational myth of my country is independence from a totally historically continuous Russia, from the Russian Empire to Soviet Russia and now we’re escalating weaponry against modern Russia as any good european superior race member would do. If you deny my foundational myth you’re literally hitler, whom I actually don’t mind as much as the red fash hordes from the east. We need to arm the local fascists to fight the fascism from Ruzzians that wants to conquer my beautiful and flawless home country.

If only my home country would have been a monarchy or a liberal democracy instead, I’m sure that way we could be more leftist by participating in unequal exchange and exploitation of the third world…