SeborrheicDermatitis [any]

You know, I am reading Rabinowitch’s book on the July-October 1917 period and what really strikes me is how all the leading Bolsheviks-including Lenin-really wanted the transfer of power to the soviets to be peaceful. They pretty much exhausted every option until the right-SRs/right-Mensheviks and Kerensky types gave them no possible alternative to violent insurrection. There were differences over the timing and tactics of this insurrection (on one hand, those like Lenin and later Bubnov and Sverdlov who wanted insurrection immediately, those in the ‘centre’ like Stalin, Trotsky, Volodarsky who supported insurrection soon but wanted to shore up support in the provinces + at the front more, and those on the party right like Zinoviev and Kamenev who wanted to create a democratic worker’s republic with the SRs and Menshevik internationalists before beginning any violence to ensure full peasant support).

I didn’t know that at all. It shows how these guys-especially in 1917-did not like violence, did not glorify it, and did not fetishise it. They tried to avoid it and were all scared of unleashing the horrific civil war that eventually did come to pass. It’s something to remember.

Violence is bad and scary and should be only be wielded with immense caution and respect, but at the same time, when the time comes, you have to be ready for the decisive confrontation. Maybe Kamenev or Zinoviev, or maybe Volodarsky and Podvoisky, were actually right and it would have been better to wait longer until the correlation of forces was more on their side and the civil war could have been lessened at the very least. Maybe they were wrong and the revolutionary moment would have passed and the ProvGov would’ve re-gathered its strength. I don’t know. I’m still reading the book!

That’s true, but it’s certainly not less democratic than it was pre-Maidan IMO. I do not see evidence for that, at least. You are right, though, it is ofc not a healthy democracy.

Zelensky was freely and fairly elected so I think it’s a bit pointless to try and act like the current Ukrainian govt is still wholly illegitimate. Even in eastern regions it has the support from most of the population (not in Crimea, though).

There are alternatives to both Russian aggression and the Ukrainian far-right/fascist sections of the army.

TBF the nature of the site (no downvotes) means that it’s not even that much of an echo chamber. I disagree w/ most people here on China and a bunch of other stuff and I haven’t ever really felt like it’s a hostile environment. Yeah people meme and dunk but they’re not usually outright rude or mean. I don’t care about mr piggy poo balls but I get sad when people are mean to me for real.

Supporting Russia is cringe sorry

I work at a chain bakery and it’s the same. Every day there’s so many sweet + savoury goods left over and they just get thrown away. It used to be allowed that you could just take them home but that got banned for…no particular reason. The managers at the place I work are really nice but I guess they’re sticklers for the rules as they don’t ignore it-which I don’t blame as apparently the loss prevention team already installed a secret camera in there (they came in overnight!) because people kept messing up the tills and they think people are stealing money. Plus I guess if they don’t get enough food waste they get suspicious. It’s a load of shit…