It’s not an original observation, but it was something that once I was aware of really made me question why sanctions are so normalized.
If you’d like a better explanation from people who are much smarter than me I recommend the podcast Citations Needed. They’ve got an episode that goes into the harm sanctions cause, especially to the most vulnerable people in the target country.
The following link has both the podcast and a transcript if you prefer reading over listening:
https://citationsneeded.medium.com/episode-106-the-sanitization-of-sanctions-56f976af6019
Hi, I just want to say that to many of us in hexbear what you see as an echo chamber is a safe space. Most of us live in capitalist countries and are constantly being exposed to capitalist propaganda.
Personally, I like having a place where I can discuss things important to me without having to be constantly contradicted by people with what I view as a very shallow understanding of history and geopolitics. It’s honestly kind of silly to pretend that people on the left don’t get their opinions and views challenged, we are absolutely inundated with different views on a daily basis
I’m very confused by what you mean about sending people to die? I’m talking about civilian deaths due to invasions and sanctions. I don’t believe you can actually be supporting queer people while bombing them and/or starving them with sanctions.
I also don’t fully agree that my arguments are us-centric. I focus on the US and UK because I am Anglo and so am more aware of the role they play in the world.
This was incredible to watch. I was just lurking then, but this era, the addition of pronouns, and the requiring of content warnings (including on meat) was really illuminating to me. It really showed how strict moderation can make a space more welcoming and safe and also shift the culture in a really positive way.
I don’t believe anyone on hexbear is actually cheering for people who would remove us from existence. I’m LGBT+ myself, and a huge part of why I’m against the current capitalist system we live under is that I see it as incredibly harmful for people like me. There are numerous examples, such as anti-trans laws in the US, the extreme anti-trans rhetoric in the UK, the American funding of draconian anti-LGBT+ laws in African countries. I also truly don’t value people in western countries higher than people in the rest of the world, so when I see the death toll from our military interventions and siege warfare in the form of sanctions, it makes my blood boil. 100s of thousands of people were killed by the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan alone; statistically thousands of them were LGBT+. This means the coalition forces killed more queer people than the countries that have actual death penalties for homosexuality.
I don’t love Russia, they’re a capitalist country with terrible laws and a regressive culture, but Ukraine isn’t really any better. They’ve elevated right wing militias which have targeted people like me and banned trans women from leaving the country.
China is behind on LGBT+ rights, but seem to be moving in the right direction. Cuba has the most progressive LGBT+ laws in the world. Vietnam is moving in the right direction pretty rapidly as well.
I hope this helps you understand why at least one of our users thoughts on these issues. I don’t speak for anyone but myself, but I feel certain my views are quite close to the majority of hexbears.
I definitely don’t support the taliban, but they are at this point the legitimate government. I think we should return the money we’ve stolen from Afghanistan and drop sanctions as that only hurts the most vulnerable people.
I guess what I’m trying to get across here is that it’s very hard for me to trust that any punishment of Russia will result in any long term change to behaviors of other bad actor if the nations doing the punishing are completely unable to apply justice across the board. It’s a lot easier for the US to send Bush to The Hague than Putin you know?
Other bad actors like Saudi or Azerbaijan are also currently being rewarded by the same people calling for punishment of Russia. What message does that send to future tyrants? That as long as you’re useful to the west we will ignore your crimes?
By that logic isn’t it far more critical to punish the truly bad actors? George bush killed way more people than have been killed in Russia's invasion. What message does it send that he’s allowed to roam free?
I’m not saying it as an excuse, I’m trying to point out that aggression has been rewarded before this. You’re arguing that it is critical to punish Russia to send a message to other states that aggression won’t succeed but I’m saying that ship has already sailed
Lmao, how can you justify this shit? Do you really think American was actually trying to win hearts and minds when even you admit high command was protecting child rapists?
Lol, winning hearts and minds by protecting child rapists
He can drone strike the Supreme Court. But that will be saved for random children in one of the many countries that the US is occupying 🙄
I’m not asking for anything, I’m just pointing out the hypocrisy in calling for punishing Russia for war crimes when in every respect the US and her vassals have committed and are committing orders of magnitude more violence in the last couple decades
Because leftists understand that actual progress doesn’t come from voting?
I’m not sure where in the world you live, but for myself, I’m in a western country. It would be far more easy for my country to hold the architects of the Afghanistan invasion to account than Putin. The fact that my government doesn’t indicates that all the talk of punishing Russia has nothing to do with punishing aggression, it’s just about punishing a rival
Why is it so critical to punish Russian aggression? It’s not like it’s the only aggressive state around, and definitely not the worst? Hasn’t the fact that not a single official responsible for the invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Yemen been punished a bigger factor in rewarding aggression?