What is the positive outcome of defending an authoritarian regime like Putin’s? I don’t see how that advances socialist goals in any way. I am learning that Zelenskyy and Ukraine are not as good as Western media describes, but I do not see how Putin is better. I’m interested in being part of Lemmygrad.ml, but not if it defends authoritarian regimes especially if they are not working towards socialism/communism. I want to work towards socialist goals, but I do not want to be used as a tool in some authoritarian geopolitical mess. Russia also gives me the impression of being colonialist but I’m not sure if that’s accurate
Let me try to answer you directly.
Caveat before I answer, you have asked a leading question that makes a few assumptions, mostly phrases in accordance with imperialist rhetoric.
Having said that, the only positive outcome of such actions on social media is the raising of the awareness of others of the task at hand - dismantling imperialism. The more people become aware of the need to dismantle imperialism AND the details of that struggle, the better.
It advances socialist goals by changing the conditions of under which socialism can develop. A world where the US and European powers are in decline, shown to be in decline, and lose the support of their own citizens is a world that has much greater potential for socialist projects to survive than a world where the US bombs any even vaguely socialist projects without any consequences.
Is this a moral framing or a practical one? If moral, then you have a problem with your analysis because assigning morality to a person or a state is a category error and leads to incorrect analysis. If a practical one, it should be pretty clear. Zelenskyy cooperates with the US militarily to extend the USA’s lethal forces including nuclear first strike capabilities, and Putin opposed the USA militarily. It can be as simple as that.
Why do you want to be part of the community? What draws you to us? Why do you hold an unexamined standard and use it to judge the community you want to belong to? What does that keep you safe from?
In my experience, I started off with your position years ago. I eventually learned that I was repeating unexamined propaganda from my home country of the USA and that my entire framing was arrogant, self-righteous, holier-than-thou, moralistic, and ultimately founded in abject ignorance. Come here to learn when you’re ready. It’ll change your entire understanding of history and, thereby, the present.
You already are being used as that tool, based on your rhetoric. You already repeat unexamined propaganda from the West. You are on social media engaging in discourse while remaining deeply ignorant and completely immersed in imperialist propaganda, and you don’t realize it.
What I have found is that spending time with communists, even when they hold positions that feel morally uncomfortable, ultimately develops within you the ability to spot propaganda from all sides and engage with it safely, because propaganda relies deeply on ignorance, faulty hueristics, and contradictory language. The project to counter all three is a huge part of communist discourse, and you’ll be much safer sitting in discomfort and learning than using your comfort as a guide right now because your comfort is based on how you were raised within the imperialist project, not because you built it yourself through deep historical analysis.
We don’t operate on impressions here, we operate on analysis. The short answer is that Russia has no colonies so it’s not colonialist. The long answer is incredibly long. AFAIK no one has written a definitive analysis on the topic yet. There are many books and essays on the topic, but none of them are comprehensive, and that means you and me are gonna have to read a bunch of things, both what other people have written as well as their sources and not just on Russian colonialism but on colonialism, neocolonialism, post-colonial theory, etc.
Don’t get me wrong, we operate on vibes a lot here, but we don’t go throwing around statements like “This nation-state is X” without serious digging.
Stick around and you’ll learn more than you ever thought you could. If you’re not ready, don’t sweat it. We’re not going anywhere. You can always come back and begin the learning process with us some other time.