Right? I comsider myself fairly far-left, but Putin and Xi are oligarchs abusing their respective positions of power to enrich themselves at the expense of their countrymen and the world at large. You can oppose those things and still think government should take care of its people.
Aww shit! The mods don’t think so. You must conform to the will of the oligarchies or be erased from history. (Or just pictures. They also like to delete people from official pictures.)
But if anyone missed it:
I SAID THAT MANY PEOPLE DON’T LIKE AUTHORITARIAN DICTATORSHIPS!
Putin and Xi aren’t really comparable. Xi is the leader of a Socialist country that has made dramatic efforts on eradicating poverty, whereas Putin is the president of a Capitalist country mired in relentless social stratification and a lack of safety nets. Equalizing them is a pretty big error in judgement.
Good points, and I agree with you. I only mentioned those two because the topic was Russia and China.
The wider point stands, that oligarchs in every political and economic system of government are generally more concerned with their own power and welfare. Political leaders and power brokers will claim to have some ideological basis for their crimes, but there is always self-interest at the core of every exploitation. In that narrow-scope comparison, they are the same, but it manifests differently based on the available social and political structures in their respective countries.
I don’t think this is a good, materialist view of human behavior or societal organization. Claiming that there is always self-interest at the heart of any political leader regardless of structure and methods of accountability is self-determinism, not materialism. Such a framework of analysis isn’t really useful IMO.
Right? I comsider myself fairly far-left, but Putin and Xi are oligarchs abusing their respective positions of power to enrich themselves at the expense of their countrymen and the world at large. You can oppose those things and still think government should take care of its people.
Aww shit! The mods don’t think so. You must conform to the will of the oligarchies or be erased from history. (Or just pictures. They also like to delete people from official pictures.)
But if anyone missed it:
I SAID THAT MANY PEOPLE DON’T LIKE AUTHORITARIAN DICTATORSHIPS!
ML moment
Putin and Xi aren’t really comparable. Xi is the leader of a Socialist country that has made dramatic efforts on eradicating poverty, whereas Putin is the president of a Capitalist country mired in relentless social stratification and a lack of safety nets. Equalizing them is a pretty big error in judgement.
Good points, and I agree with you. I only mentioned those two because the topic was Russia and China.
The wider point stands, that oligarchs in every political and economic system of government are generally more concerned with their own power and welfare. Political leaders and power brokers will claim to have some ideological basis for their crimes, but there is always self-interest at the core of every exploitation. In that narrow-scope comparison, they are the same, but it manifests differently based on the available social and political structures in their respective countries.
I don’t think this is a good, materialist view of human behavior or societal organization. Claiming that there is always self-interest at the heart of any political leader regardless of structure and methods of accountability is self-determinism, not materialism. Such a framework of analysis isn’t really useful IMO.