Comments by "L.W. Paradis" (@l.w.paradis2108) on "Using Marxism to Understand the Ukraine War - Richard Wolff u0026 David Harvey" video.

Defense, such as the Vietnamese fighting the French and the American invaders.
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@tenmanX All of his comments are simplistic. He actually drew the analogy of a robber breaking into your house.
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@rogbrogb5341 Great recommendation. Stephen F. Cohen was also warning about this for years, and he died before Putin invaded. At the 92nd St. Y, only a few years ago, he was asked point blank whether Russia would take the step of invading, and he refused to rule it out, despite the fact that everyone present clearly wanted him to say, "oh no, that won't happen." Loved Cohen, really, really miss him.
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"So to rectify the situation, the best way isn't through negotiations. The negotiations should come from the blood of the invaders being spilled." Shameful. You should stop talking about ethics until you get some yourself. Speaking of self-defense in criminal law: you don't get to provoke a fight then claim self-defense when you attack or kill the person you provoked. Trying to keep it simple.
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@lukethibodaux790 Nazis were "socialists?" Okay, you're one of those. Just how twisted can they get people's minds to be? I guess we saw during the pandemic fear-mongering and the vaccine mandates. Russia has been a reactive power under Putin, just as Stephen F. Cohen said. The US has been supporting fascist fringe elements in Ukraine to provoke Russia, and Russia stupidly fell into the trap yet again. Maybe you should study the history leading up to the Second World War: the hope in the West was that Hitler would destroy the Soviets. That's what they were maneuvering to achieve; check and see what Western leaders said of Hitler before he attacked them and their interests, see how wildly he was praised, even by Churchill. (IOW, Hitler got out of hand.) Then consider the history of the ratline after the war. This is what is known as a pattern.
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@stevennurahmed5105 Every economic system could be characterized as "mirroring nature" in that way, long before the Industrial Revolution and the rise of modern social classes. Or, each such system could be characterized as an example of one organized attempt humans have devised to obviate the most brutal features of nature through collective effort. Nature places constraints on every economic system; our primary material needs are not determined by us.
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@kevinschmidt2210 That guy joined last year to waste people's time.
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Please give up. Improve your language skills instead of scattering your pigeon droppings here. Find something more useful to do.
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@stevennurahmed5105 You know, that provokes a visceral reaction (fear, for one), but once that dissipates, I cannot say that you "must be" wrong. Contrary to some popular interpretations, Marx never believed that what you've said is strictly impossible. And if he did, he was very likely wrong. Yup. That could happen all right. :/
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@jaredgreathouse3672 I agree they were wrong to invade. I disagree as to why they did.
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@lukethibodaux790 Yeah, right, I knew you were going to say that. The WORD "socialism" had such great prestige at that time that the Nazis could not count on working class support without it. Everyone from Einstein to Helen Keller referred to themselves as "socialists." It's a lot like calling something, say, "democratic" (or calling something "racist") in order to attract support or divert criticism, or cause fear in order to squelch debate. Sounds like that ruse would work on you?
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@lukethibodaux790 Have you ever read a real book? I'd love to see your library.
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@lukethibodaux790 They executed anyone who had any tinge of Marxism -- they were the first to die. They didn't take control of the means of production -- you mean you've NEVER seen those utterly chilling bids submitted by various German corporations for building the concentration camps, complete with facilities to gas people, not to mention the gas? I wonder who taught you this rot. At one time there were literally no anti-communists who made this mistake. "The two were related." Yes, well, anything that has come out of the industrial revolution and the rise of modern social classes is related; anything that has its roots in 19th century imperialism is related; any living mammals that arose after the extinction of the dinosaurs are related. You can tell this stuff to Americans, who don't go to Europe, or if they go, it is in the same spirit as they would go to Disney World, but you can't tell this stuff to me. Don't waste my time, I have a Murakami novel to read. Yes, we all have our petit bourgeois pleasures. (If you prefer overtly anti-totalitarian stuff, The Land of Big Numbers is excellent, especially the first story, "Lulu.")
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@lukethibodaux790 What do I think about the USSR? What I know: it was both much better and much worse than we were told in the US-dominated West. What was most important was for us to believe that nothing important was happening there. Nothing could be more false. There is no question the Soviets went bonkers. What they achieved after what they were subjected to is actually quite astounding. They were repelling invasions and other acts of war during almost their entire existence. When I consider what the US has become just since September 11th, not to mention the fact that the whole country poured its heart out to New York City and a mere seven years later, Wall Street "returned the favor" by causing global financial markets to implode. And since those years 2001-2009, nothing has been the same. It isn't getting better. I would have never believed the last two and one-half years would have unfolded as they did. For the Soviets, WWII was like 10,000 9/11s. It took a lot more to make them crazy, and crazed they certainly were. But look at the US, after just one. Look up Vasili Arhkipov. Find out who saved all of our lives. Find out who risked them.
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@kevinschmidt2210 LOL, cool! ;)
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@lukethibodaux790 And why are Russians being blacklisted as such? What a disgrace. If you don't see the ideology of Hitler creeping around the edges, it's because you aren't looking -- and you have no real friends among black people. It has always been there, like a virus that loses its virulence but becomes endemic. The ratline was prologue. Actually, I can believe that young people are relieved that the Party is not all up in their business and leaves them alone. But do they want to go into debt for school, pay $1000 a month in health care premiums, and risk homelessness when they find themselves fired from a job due to "downsizing?" And depend on a trust fund to live in any major city? Not to mention be exposed to shooting, stabbings, rape, and so forth, and to see their friends assaulted as well. I think not. Are we left alone? Were we left alone during the last three years? What will be the next subject that can cause a normal person to lose their livelihood? Vaccines? Pronouns? The absence of a Ukrainian flag bumper sticker?
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@lukethibodaux790 Whose making it a RACE debate? My obvious point was that a person (including you, and after all why not? you're a person) could fails to notice the inherent Aryanism of anti-Slavic sentiment in America only if they were oblivious. I wasn't delving into anyone's identity or identity politics. My point has nothing to do with any such thing. I had no idea what you were talking about, I had to go back and reread everything. I'm not going to do that again. In fact, this unproductive discussion is over.
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1. No, unless you are thinking of a disease vector that reproduces so rapidly and massively that it kills the host. 2. No (but see 1). 3. It contains the seeds of its own destruction. More to the point, don't confuse metaphor with science. Your questions are actually far too vague.
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@jaredgreathouse3672 No, no one forced Russia to invade and it was wrong to do it. Certain Ukrainians, under US sponsorship, have been waging war within their borders against the ethnic Russian minority in Ukraine since before the 2014 US-sponsored coup, and were massing troops to attack the Donbass again in 2022, as soon as the spring came. The Russians fell into a trap laid by the US in concert with a neo-Nazi minority in the Ukrainian military, which is small, has a ridiculous amount of power for its size, and which the vast majority of Ukrainians have wanted to rid themselves of for a long time. This explains but in no way excuses the Russians. They did not have to react in this way. It was wrong, and it was stupid as well. The US set the trap, as it had done so many times before, and the Russians rushed right in. Notice it is also not the first time the US has acted in concert with fascists. Read up on the ratline. Or consider their hopes that Hitler would destroy the USSR, and their view of Hitler as useful. Read up on all the praise Hitler got very, very early on from major Western leaders, including Churchill. This is a long-standing theme in the history of relations between these countries. (As an aside, none other than D. H. Lawrence said that the US and Russia are the birthplaces of the two great, original literatures of our time. No coincidence about that, either -- at least that's how it seems to me.)
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@bradbell4022 It's not evident that "Ukraine can only lose" in the geopolitical sense of the term. Ukraine already lost, objectively speaking, when you look at the damage done. But Russia has not won, and probably cannot.
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@jaredgreathouse3672 Really? I thought it was what NATO argued in Kosovo. I thought it was all about self-determination and stuff, like in the post-colonial period. But it's not? It's really a lie? Pure ploy? Something only Nazis invoke -- sincerely, and not cynically? This was the best you could do. Got it. You know, there are Nazis in America who hide behind the First Amendment. Be careful arguing for freedom of speech.
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