753
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2023
753 points (93.5% liked)
Political Memes
5569 readers
1477 users here now
Welcome to politcal memes!
These are our rules:
Be civil
Jokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.
No misinformation
Don’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.
Posts should be memes
Random pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.
No bots, spam or self-promotion
Follow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Well, Germany wasn't subject to shock therapy in the way that Russia was due to West Germany becoming a capitalist democracy way before neoliberlism was a thing. The USSR collapsed decades later, at a time when the USA was spreading weird economic policies in the most rabid way possible. It was "capitalism at any cost". And the cost could be democracy... and all social fabric. It was shock therapy that largely led to the oligarchs.
Listen, fuck Putin. I fully stand behind Ukraine, but US policy created Putin's opening through shock therapy. The idea that this is just because Russians are inherently violent is absurd.
Once again, all roads lead back to Reagan.
Sad, but true.
Russians aren't inherently violent, but the idea that shock therapy, as absurd and damaging as it was, is responsible for Russia's current state flies in the face of the entire rest of the Warsaw Pact, which also suffered from 'Shock Therapy' insanity being imposed, yet have largely moved on to more functional systems than Russia.
Of course shock therapy didn't cause the war, it was just one big factor that lead to the modern Russian state. Putin and other top brass caused this war. My point was it's not reasonable to compare Russia to Germany.
Also, some nations that underwent shock therapy do OK now, but many are still to recover and have rampant corruption and wide spread poverty. Granted, that's not the same as bombing schools.
I'm hawkish on my support for Ukraine, but I do think that we need to remember the history behind this.
My point wasn't to refute that shock therapy caused the war, but to refute that shock therapy caused the modern Russian state in general. Shock therapy was economically damaging, but the root causes of the Russian kleptocracy are much, much deeper and more severe.
Please go on.