Putin personally went on television to shit all over Lenin and declare Russia's imperial ambitions right near the beginning of the war with Ukraine. This is extremely stupid.
I feel like, even if there's a 'good guy' in the Russia-Ukraine thing, it's not... Russia? Now don't get me wrong; I don't think either side of that pissing match is spraying chardonnay all over the Donbas, and I'm no fan of NATO either, but however cartoonishly evil Russia has been portrayed to be, at heart, Putin's Russia isn't doing a noble or just thing here either. Defending Russian sovereignty over itself (and it's geopolitical zone of influence) by opposing NATO expansion into it's backyard is a pragmatic move, not a morally superior one.
It is possible to NOT take a side in international conflicts, and have that be a considered opinion, OP. I mean, at the end of the day, queer, Jewish, and otherwise minority folks in donbas aren't getting human rights, whether it's Putin or the Ukrainian neo-nazi garrison running the show there.
You're making the fundamental error of assuming regimes opposing the U.S. are inherently virtuous simply because they aren't the U.S. This is foolish. This is why everyone thinks you're an idiot.
You agreed with the stuff people had to say two months ago, but you assumed that meant we agreed with you, and that's not how this works.
You're also grossly misapplying the 'siding with the oppressor' line. Because again, when two fascist governments fight over territory, there's no 'good' outcome for the folks trapped in the territory the fascists are fighting over. Regardless of who comes out of it on top, they are still THE OPPRESSOR. This isn't a fairytale story. Nobody has to be the good guy in war, in the real world. This is one reason why war is so famously terrible, because it is rarely waged on behalf of human well-being and genuine liberation.
I would ask you to take a look at the human rights record of Putin's government, and even if your conclusion is that it's dwarfed by the U.S. record (which is certainly true,) if you can look at that and say with a straight face that it's a GOOD human rights record, and would only improve in the event of Putin gaining more power over more people, I think you need to reassess what you know about global power dynamics, and what your goals as a leftist are.
At best your approach seems like an extremely naive version of harm reduction. A vaguely Kantian fallacy about permitting the lesser of two evils to triumph when evil must triumph. At worst, you're just being a reactionary contrarian and siding with whomever isn't the U.S. because you assume that means they must be good. Historically speaking, nobody hates oppressors more than rival oppressors. That's the entire basis of the history of warfare, kiddo.
Looking forward to your rebuttal.
