You define imperialism as military conquest alone. That renders the term useless. By that logic, every war in history is imperialist. The distinction collapses. Materially, imperialism is the export of capital, the enforcement of unequal exchange, the structural subordination of peripheral economies. That framework explains why the US has 800 military bases globally. Why they can sanction the entire world. Why they support Israel and the constant destabilisation of the periphery.

You claim the Ukrainian people support their current government. Under martial law, with opposition parties banned, media consolidated, dissent criminalized, what does that support actually measure? Polls in a war zone with no free press are not evidence. They are propaganda tools.

You say Russia wants full surrender. That is false. Russia has offered terms: neutrality, demilitarization, recognition of Crimea, self-determination for the Donbas. That is not surrender. That is negotiation. The Donbas has resisted Kyiv since 2014. They have endured shelling, blockade, political erasure. Their preference is not fabricated. It has been tested under fire for nearly a decade. To deny them the right to choose is not solidarity. It is imposition.

You ignored the core of my last message because you have no rebuttal. You cannot refute the NED funding. You cannot explain away the Nulands-Pyatt call. You cannot reconcile your definition of imperialism with the material reality of global capital. You cannot reckon with the fact that US-backed forces shattered Ukrainian sovereignty in 2014, or that fighting to the last Ukrainian for US strategic interests is not in the interest of the average Ukrainian worker. So you retreat to cheap slogans.

If you really stood with the Ukrainian people, you would stand for ending this war. Not prolonging it for US strategic gain. Not fighting to the last Ukrainian. Not sacrificing a generation so Washington can weaken a rival. The position that serves Ukrainian workers is peace, sovereignty, and the right to determine their own future, free from Western patrons. That is the only position that centers human life over geopolitical abstraction.

[+] encelado748@feddit.org -7 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

You define imperialism as military conquest alone

Not true. I will use wikipedia definition: "Imperialism is the maintaining and extending of power over foreign nations, particularly through expansionism, employing both hard power (military and economic power) and soft power (diplomatic power and cultural imperialism)."

This perfectly matches both the behaviour of the US and the behaviour of Russia. This does not matches every war in history. It was coined in the 19th century to describe Napoleon III's attempts to gain political support by invasion.

You claim the Ukrainian people support their current government. Under martial law, with opposition parties banned, media consolidated, dissent criminalized, what does that support actually measure? Polls in a war zone with no free press are not evidence. They are propaganda tools.

You are getting confused with Russia. Free press is allowed in Ukraine. According to Reporters without Borders, Ukraine ranked 62nd out of 180 countries, one of the strongest performance since it's independence.

Russia has offered terms: neutrality, demilitarization, recognition of Crimea, self-determination for the Donbas.

You are forgetting also all territories currently occupied, the entirety of of Donbas and Luhansk they do not control. Neutrality and demilitarization with an imperialistic power at the border that has attached and conquered their neighbor since it was born as country means letting the door open for further conquest down the line. With no guarantee this is surrender. Russia is not willing to give anything for peace.

You ignored the core of my last message

Because it is irrelevant and a waste of time. US meddle with external country as it is an imperialistic nation. Russia meddle with external countries as it is an imperialistic nation. So what is there to discuss? Who does it more globally? The answer is the US. Who does it more in Ukraine? The answer is Russia. Now that we have this out of the way let's focus on the core of my first message.

The position that serves Ukrainian workers is peace, sovereignty, and the right to determine their own future.

And the only way we saw this can be achieved for countries that border Russia is join the EU or NATO. Poland is now free, Czechia is now free, Romania is now free, Slovakia is now free, the Baltic states are now free, Hungary is now free (but we need to wait for next election to know if this will remain true).

[–] 9skyguy0@lemmy.ml 5 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

And the only way we saw this can be achieved for countries that border Russia is join the EU or NATO. Poland is now free, Czechia is now free, Romania is now free, Slovakia is now free, the Baltic states are now free, Hungary is now free (but we need to wait for next election to know if this will remain true).

They're free alright, freely exploited by Western-backed capitalists and now are vassals.

You continue to demonstrate how you've fallen for imperialist propaganda. As has been explained above, the Donbas and its people have been under attack by the Ukrainian government and the AFU for more than a decade now. You are ignoring hard evidence of what really has happened since 2014. The notion that the fighting in the Donbas is only the result of Russian support is a delusion, and you seem also oblivious (likely willfully so) to the fact the Ukrainian government is openly fascist.

The solution for Ukraine that serves its populace the most is peace, sovereignty, and the right to determine their own future, which NATO and EU membership will not give them.

[–] encelado748@feddit.org 1 points 1 hour ago

If you deny life in Poland is much better on all useful metrics now that Poland is sovereign and allied with european nations in the EU than before as dominion of the Soviet Union then your brain is rotted and I pity you.