As someone else put better than I, you need to free yourself of the western propaganda framing that is “authoritarianism” as a snarl word and an insult as well as a set of blinders designed to shut down critical thought and inquiry.
Was the US “authoritarian” when it installed brutal military dictatorships in south Vietnam and Korea? How about when it supported Pinochet and helped him murder leftist catholic priests? When did it stop being authoritarian hmm? Like a serial rapist was it ever doing anything but putting on an act of being good? Because deep down that’s what it is. It can pretend to be good, it can even on the surface seem to be on its best behavior but deep down it’s structurally a monster and like the serial rapist is not going to be reformed. Let me remind you Biden fully supported Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people so don’t go thinking Trump flipped a switch from good-mode to evil-mode or something. Trump just cranked the dial up a bit more on the brutality and oppression machine and got it extra revved up domestically (the red scare ring a bell? there were actually two of them, this isn’t the first time, how about after 9/11 when anyone not with Bush was a traitor and they passed the Patriot act to punch holes in the constitution and rule of law?).
One should be wary of over-simplifying but I’d be remiss not to point out the old war-time adage that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Obviously this isn’t always true but when fighting a unipolar hegemon that won the cold war, that has dominated the entire world ever since, that controls finance, wields dollar hegemony, sanctions as weapons against anyone who displeases it, who violates international law flagrantly without consequences, you can’t get too picky. You can be critical, you can point out that hey I heard those guys we’re temporarily allied with saying they want to knife us once we win the battle together and that’s wise and you should be critical in your head of capitalist powers who are not friends out of choice but out of necessity. Yet as long as that necessity holds they are friends. We call this critical support. We support Russia against NATO and the US, we don’t support Russia’s reactionary moves at home, their homophobia, etc.
And no, Russia cannot replace the US if it falls as an equal or worse imperialist power. US world hegemony was built directly on the legacy of centuries of European colonialism, it was cemented in a unique historical moment in 1990 with the illegal dissolution of the USSR. It was not built in other words in a year or a decade but the work of centuries, cemented by various historical events which cannot re-occur. For one China has risen and is continuing to grow in strength. This is historical materialist analysis, this is analysis based on the material realities and the historical material realities.
So yes Russia may become an enemy but for now the greed and arrogance of the west is forcing them to be our ally. Russia wanted to be an equal capitalist partner with the US over Europe and eventually other parts of the world. That would cut into profits, it couldn’t be allowed, like all large countries which cannot be easily subjugated the US slated Russia for being broken up by internal ethnic tensions, it stoked problems in Chechnya and various other regions, it started a fire in Georgia, then in Ukraine. It’s the same thing in China and Xinjiang, divide and conquer. The British used this strategy to occupy and plunder India for a hundred years, pitting various minor powers against each other, keeping Indians divided, subterfuge and shifting alliances to maintain the upper hand. Again and again Russia reached out their hand attempting to be a partner with the US and again and again the US responded by turning a blow torch on it. With Ukraine Russia may have finally learned that it is not going to happen.
See also this post and the excellent replies explaining the history behind Russia’s move in Ukraine if you haven’t already: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/7357678
As someone else put better than I, you need to free yourself of the western propaganda framing that is “authoritarianism” as a snarl word and an insult as well as a set of blinders designed to shut down critical thought and inquiry.
Was the US “authoritarian” when it installed brutal military dictatorships in south Vietnam and Korea? How about when it supported Pinochet and helped him murder leftist catholic priests? When did it stop being authoritarian hmm? Like a serial rapist was it ever doing anything but putting on an act of being good? Because deep down that’s what it is. It can pretend to be good, it can even on the surface seem to be on its best behavior but deep down it’s structurally a monster and like the serial rapist is not going to be reformed. Let me remind you Biden fully supported Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people so don’t go thinking Trump flipped a switch from good-mode to evil-mode or something. Trump just cranked the dial up a bit more on the brutality and oppression machine and got it extra revved up domestically (the red scare ring a bell? there were actually two of them, this isn’t the first time, how about after 9/11 when anyone not with Bush was a traitor and they passed the Patriot act to punch holes in the constitution and rule of law?).
One should be wary of over-simplifying but I’d be remiss not to point out the old war-time adage that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Obviously this isn’t always true but when fighting a unipolar hegemon that won the cold war, that has dominated the entire world ever since, that controls finance, wields dollar hegemony, sanctions as weapons against anyone who displeases it, who violates international law flagrantly without consequences, you can’t get too picky. You can be critical, you can point out that hey I heard those guys we’re temporarily allied with saying they want to knife us once we win the battle together and that’s wise and you should be critical in your head of capitalist powers who are not friends out of choice but out of necessity. Yet as long as that necessity holds they are friends. We call this critical support. We support Russia against NATO and the US, we don’t support Russia’s reactionary moves at home, their homophobia, etc.
And no, Russia cannot replace the US if it falls as an equal or worse imperialist power. US world hegemony was built directly on the legacy of centuries of European colonialism, it was cemented in a unique historical moment in 1990 with the illegal dissolution of the USSR. It was not built in other words in a year or a decade but the work of centuries, cemented by various historical events which cannot re-occur. For one China has risen and is continuing to grow in strength. This is historical materialist analysis, this is analysis based on the material realities and the historical material realities.
So yes Russia may become an enemy but for now the greed and arrogance of the west is forcing them to be our ally. Russia wanted to be an equal capitalist partner with the US over Europe and eventually other parts of the world. That would cut into profits, it couldn’t be allowed, like all large countries which cannot be easily subjugated the US slated Russia for being broken up by internal ethnic tensions, it stoked problems in Chechnya and various other regions, it started a fire in Georgia, then in Ukraine. It’s the same thing in China and Xinjiang, divide and conquer. The British used this strategy to occupy and plunder India for a hundred years, pitting various minor powers against each other, keeping Indians divided, subterfuge and shifting alliances to maintain the upper hand. Again and again Russia reached out their hand attempting to be a partner with the US and again and again the US responded by turning a blow torch on it. With Ukraine Russia may have finally learned that it is not going to happen.
See also this post and the excellent replies explaining the history behind Russia’s move in Ukraine if you haven’t already: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/7357678