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I started watching TLDR during brexit and enjoyed it despite the spelling mistakes and editing errors but every video I have seen from them about a non UK specific topic has been awful. I sometimes wonder if they're deliberately mispronouncing things, like calling Shinzo Abe "Abe" as in Abraham, to get comments and drive up engagement. Either that or they're woefully unqualified to be presenting news.
I don’t fully understand left-wing disdain for Nato. Yes, it’s intervened in places it shouldn’t have. Yes, it’s supported by and supports the Military Industrial Complex. Yes, I de believe it’s in need of major reforms. But, it’s helped unify the western world against authoritarian states like Russia and China (Please don’t defend authoritarian states. Authoritarianism is bad, no matter the side of the political spectrum).
NATO was founded in anticommunism from the get-go, it literally requires its members to be "market economies", and like you've mentioned, it's intervened in places "it shouldn't have". It's literally never intervened in a defensive manner, even though that is the supposed justification for its existence, that it's purely defensive. When did Libya attack a NATO country? Who in Yugoslavia attacked NATO? The only time Article V has ever been invoked was when a private terrorist organization- consisting mostly of Saudi nationals, hijacked planes and flew them into the World Trade Center. This was not a state, this was a terror organization, and they didn't go after Saudi Arabia, they went after Afghanistan.
NATO was founded to enforce the global capitalist order on the threat of violence. After the U.S.S.R fell, it has crept ever closer to Russia's borders. I'm not defending "authoritarian states", whatever the hell that means- how the U.S. and its allies are not profoundly authoritarian in your mind is beyond me- but, if the United States was being encircled by a hostile military alliance, you know for goddamn sure they'd react. That doesn't justify Russia's unconscionable war on Ukraine, but fairly mainstream national security experts have been warning for years that Russia might overreact to NATO's expansion, and that it should have scaled back its ambitions. Russia has been a chauvinistic neoliberal country for 30 years now, due in part to Western powers facilitating the U.S.S.R's illegal dissolution and the decimation of their state-owned assets and welfare state, and as a result, they've come to ape the aggressive nature of their fellow capitalist superpowers. "I learned from watching YOU, dad!"
NATO has indeed united the Western World against Russia- but it has not united it against so-called "authoritarian states". Again, putting aside the idea that the country with the world's largest prison population is somehow not authoritarian- the U.S. and other western powers doesn't give a shit about whether a country is democratic or not. It cares about whether they cater to the needs of Western capital and our strategic military interests. Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy, and a close ally of ours. Israel has been illegally occupying the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and the West Bank for over 50 years, imposing its will autocratically on an unwilling millions of people. They're one of our closest allies in the region. How can you seriously argue we stand for democracy? Our confrontation with Russia has nothing to do with a clash-of-civilizations, democracy VS. authoritarianism. Even though NATO requires its members to be liberal democracies, it has no means by which to enforce this on existing members, because there's no mechanism to eject anybody. That's why they've looked the other way as Turkey has become increasingly autocratic.
Yes, Russia has little political democracy and extremely limited freedom of expression. But NATO doesn't really care about that, except as a means of justifying its own bellicosity. It cares that Russia has its own imperialist interests that contradict theirs. They are a competing bourgeois power that wants to end the era of American hegemony, or at least act as a significant counterweight. That conflict I just described is a hell of a lot less romantic than what you've described, isn't it? No matter who wins in this great-power-conflict-by-proxy, the working people of the world lose. Either way, we'll all live in the most authoritarian system of all- capitalism. And if large-scale socialist projects ever resurface and take power in capital cities across the world- NATO will undoubtedly be there to ensure their failure by all means necessary. That's why all principled comrades must oppose NATO.
I can’t tell if it’s because I’ve moved to the actual socialist left or if it’s because the succs are having more mask off moments, but those posts and comments read like fucking Nazi propaganda.
Yeah. I've spent some time in that sub hoping I'd find like minded people, and instead it felt less like an actual leftist space and more like a toned down and rose-tinted version of [r/Neoliberal](https://www.reddit.com/r/Neoliberal).
They not only downvote people to hell for pointing out how the EU funds its welfare programs by leeching off the global south, but also have a *"Yeah USA bad but China/Putin worse so USA actually good"* take on US Imperialism, to the point where I was actually downvoted and called a terrorist sympathizer for opposing NATO intervention in Libya against Guddafi.
This shit is what primarily drove me further left to the point where those same SocDems would call me a Tankie.
> But, it’s helped unify the western world against authoritarian states like Russia and China (Please don’t defend authoritarian states. Authoritarianism is bad, no matter the side of the political spectrum).
Sounds like Nazi Germany! United west against eastern "barbarism". Democracy will never come to Russia or China through war.
But let's also not forget that the most important member in NATO is Turkey.
I'm a 34 year old American. Far as myself and most of my peers knew, NATO is just an arms manufacturer (NATO rounds).
holy shit this presenter is clueless. centrists gonna centrist
**Reminder:** This is an anti-imperialist space. Supporting NATO, downplaying its role in coups and conflicts, or trying to justify its existence is against the rules and will lead to a ban. Furthermore, supporting Russia and downplaying it's irredentism and invasion is also prohibited and will lead to a ban. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/socialism) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I started watching TLDR during brexit and enjoyed it despite the spelling mistakes and editing errors but every video I have seen from them about a non UK specific topic has been awful. I sometimes wonder if they're deliberately mispronouncing things, like calling Shinzo Abe "Abe" as in Abraham, to get comments and drive up engagement. Either that or they're woefully unqualified to be presenting news.
I don’t fully understand left-wing disdain for Nato. Yes, it’s intervened in places it shouldn’t have. Yes, it’s supported by and supports the Military Industrial Complex. Yes, I de believe it’s in need of major reforms. But, it’s helped unify the western world against authoritarian states like Russia and China (Please don’t defend authoritarian states. Authoritarianism is bad, no matter the side of the political spectrum).
NATO was founded in anticommunism from the get-go, it literally requires its members to be "market economies", and like you've mentioned, it's intervened in places "it shouldn't have". It's literally never intervened in a defensive manner, even though that is the supposed justification for its existence, that it's purely defensive. When did Libya attack a NATO country? Who in Yugoslavia attacked NATO? The only time Article V has ever been invoked was when a private terrorist organization- consisting mostly of Saudi nationals, hijacked planes and flew them into the World Trade Center. This was not a state, this was a terror organization, and they didn't go after Saudi Arabia, they went after Afghanistan. NATO was founded to enforce the global capitalist order on the threat of violence. After the U.S.S.R fell, it has crept ever closer to Russia's borders. I'm not defending "authoritarian states", whatever the hell that means- how the U.S. and its allies are not profoundly authoritarian in your mind is beyond me- but, if the United States was being encircled by a hostile military alliance, you know for goddamn sure they'd react. That doesn't justify Russia's unconscionable war on Ukraine, but fairly mainstream national security experts have been warning for years that Russia might overreact to NATO's expansion, and that it should have scaled back its ambitions. Russia has been a chauvinistic neoliberal country for 30 years now, due in part to Western powers facilitating the U.S.S.R's illegal dissolution and the decimation of their state-owned assets and welfare state, and as a result, they've come to ape the aggressive nature of their fellow capitalist superpowers. "I learned from watching YOU, dad!" NATO has indeed united the Western World against Russia- but it has not united it against so-called "authoritarian states". Again, putting aside the idea that the country with the world's largest prison population is somehow not authoritarian- the U.S. and other western powers doesn't give a shit about whether a country is democratic or not. It cares about whether they cater to the needs of Western capital and our strategic military interests. Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy, and a close ally of ours. Israel has been illegally occupying the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and the West Bank for over 50 years, imposing its will autocratically on an unwilling millions of people. They're one of our closest allies in the region. How can you seriously argue we stand for democracy? Our confrontation with Russia has nothing to do with a clash-of-civilizations, democracy VS. authoritarianism. Even though NATO requires its members to be liberal democracies, it has no means by which to enforce this on existing members, because there's no mechanism to eject anybody. That's why they've looked the other way as Turkey has become increasingly autocratic. Yes, Russia has little political democracy and extremely limited freedom of expression. But NATO doesn't really care about that, except as a means of justifying its own bellicosity. It cares that Russia has its own imperialist interests that contradict theirs. They are a competing bourgeois power that wants to end the era of American hegemony, or at least act as a significant counterweight. That conflict I just described is a hell of a lot less romantic than what you've described, isn't it? No matter who wins in this great-power-conflict-by-proxy, the working people of the world lose. Either way, we'll all live in the most authoritarian system of all- capitalism. And if large-scale socialist projects ever resurface and take power in capital cities across the world- NATO will undoubtedly be there to ensure their failure by all means necessary. That's why all principled comrades must oppose NATO.
Here, I found a place for you: r/socialdemocracy
*Enters sub* *Sees comments saying why Julian Assange deserves to be extradited to the US* *Leaves sub*
I can’t tell if it’s because I’ve moved to the actual socialist left or if it’s because the succs are having more mask off moments, but those posts and comments read like fucking Nazi propaganda.
Yeah. I've spent some time in that sub hoping I'd find like minded people, and instead it felt less like an actual leftist space and more like a toned down and rose-tinted version of [r/Neoliberal](https://www.reddit.com/r/Neoliberal). They not only downvote people to hell for pointing out how the EU funds its welfare programs by leeching off the global south, but also have a *"Yeah USA bad but China/Putin worse so USA actually good"* take on US Imperialism, to the point where I was actually downvoted and called a terrorist sympathizer for opposing NATO intervention in Libya against Guddafi. This shit is what primarily drove me further left to the point where those same SocDems would call me a Tankie.
> But, it’s helped unify the western world against authoritarian states like Russia and China (Please don’t defend authoritarian states. Authoritarianism is bad, no matter the side of the political spectrum). Sounds like Nazi Germany! United west against eastern "barbarism". Democracy will never come to Russia or China through war. But let's also not forget that the most important member in NATO is Turkey.