Daniel Balan

@Schizophonia I'm hinting at the fact that you don't get any more imperialistic than USSR. Furthermore, until Stalin died, USSR treated the occupied eastern Europe the same way the british treated their African colonies. The soviets robbed eastern Europe of its resources until Stalin died.

Everyone works hard, but in the little time off Europeans have, Europe is extremely beautiful! Europe is much more chill and safe than the US! I would shit myself in the US knowing how many guns and assault rifles every average Joe has in his car or in his jacket. I love Europe so much, pristine art, pristine historical buildings and also as of the last 2 decades, a very pleasant wind of stage green.

@SchizophoniaI will spell the name for you. From Vladivostok to Warsaw, from the arctic circle to the middle east, the name in 1916 was Tzarist Russia, or better known, The Russian Empire. Lenin inherited the largest empire of the world.

@SchizophoniaBefore Lenin named the Russian state the Soviet Union, what was the name of the Russian state in 1916?

@SchizophoniaBrother, What was the former name of the state that Lenin took over? Tell me that, but slowly.

Who wrote that, Nikita Khrushchev?

@Elliott

Actually it makes a lot of sense for Russia, because if Ukraine liberalizes, the liberalization will inevitably spill into Russia. If Ukraine is another Belarus, No liberalization can leak to Russia because Ukraine would become a literal ideological buffer barrier. That's what this war is all about. Turning Ukraine into an ideological buffer.

To see happen what? I don't understand what you were trying to emphasize. Can you be more explicit?

It is of horrific coincidence that the US wants to protect democracy and human rights only in countries rich in natural resources.... Yet the US doesn't give a fuck about human rights in countries with 0 natural resources..... I am seriously going to vomit now🤢

You don't get my point, I don't talk about military invasion, the west would have loved to instate in the Kremlin a puppet that would allow western corporations like Exonmobil to steal all of Russia's resources.

Yes but I then connected some further dots in my mind and I came to the conclusion that the fate of Venezuela would be the fate of Russia if it weren't for Putin because Russia has also huge natural reserves of oil and gas.

I still am pro-Ukraine and Anti-Putin, I just don't understand the double standard. I totally agree that if Ukraine wants to westernize, Russia has no business in bullying Ukraine. But if Venezuela wants to give its oil sector to China, or that Venezuela wants to align with Russia and China, why is the US threatening Venezuela with full scale war?

Good, I understand that, but then why the US is meddling in Russia's backyard when the US is so annoyed and vindictive when China is meddling in its back yard? I thought that every country has the right to choose its own alliances. If Ukraine wants to join the west then Venezuela is allowed to give its oil to China. Or is it the case that Trump's mother had vomited that oil in Venezuela's ground and now the US is entitled to invade Venezuela and take it back? This is utter hypocrisy! It makes me sick to my core.

You know what? Maybe Putin saw that the west want to capture Ukraine and then steal all of its resources and thats why he invaded because after all Russia has invested for over 300 years into Ukraine to build its infrastructure, and for Putin this was a red line. And besides after Ukraine would be colonized by the west Russia itself was up for grabs too. I can't believe that 6 hours ago I couldn't now have believed what kind of perspective I have now on this war. This morning I was profoundly anti Putin but today at work, ruminating about the Venezuela issue, I have connected in my head these dots that have led me to arrive at this conclusion.

Isn't the US trying to do coup d'etas for over 2 decades in Venezuela? In order to successfully steal its resources? Do you think Putin is dumb? If Putin wouldn't have turned Russia into a total dictatorship the US would have tried doing coups in Russia too. And you can't sell the same bullshit narative that you can sell about Venezuela, that Venezuela's state enterprises can't properly extract the oil, because the Russian oligarchs that own the enterprises that produce Russia's oil are very efficient at extracting and refining oil, Western companies aren't necessary in Russia because Russia can handle the oil extraction business flawlessly already.

And you know what? If I were Putin and I would know that the west will do the same with Russia as they do now with Venezuela, I would have done exactly the same as he does.

@BlueOak Bro if you remember I was on your side everytime you debated @zazen. Don't come at me with shit like this. I am profoundly pro liberal democracy and anti-Putin. I was at work today and during work I think a lot, and I connected some dots in my head while seeing how Venezuela is being downright threatened with invasion in order to give up its oil. I thought then that if the US is doing that to little Venezuela, this means that if they could, they would love to do the same to Russia, and what Putin is doing right now is his strategy to avoid Russia being bullied the same way Venezuela is being bullied right now.

Yea but money can then be used by the Venezuela's government to buy things and goods that it lacks.

You guys know what I think right now? Maybe Putin is the good guy and America and the west are the devils. Maybe Putin is right when he tells that The US and the West want Russia to collapse so that western multi nationals can then rob Russia of its oil, gas and resources.

Thanks for the response. The reason I have such a strong emotional reaction whenever dictatorship is mentioned is because my family was in the "weak" category when the communists came to power! Beatings, torture, land expropriation, livestock confiscation, secret police terror, many years spent in prison with daily torture, all the other society members assaulting you for being against the regime etc. Even after the dictatorship was no more, the dictatorship loving people which where I live are like 80%, still behaved towards me with extreme hostility and hatred just because both myself and my grandparents were staunchly against dictatorship and because we were of Polish/Ukrainian ethnicity. Sadly enough, besides my grandmother, all my other relatives would very much like to be under total dictatorship again, but I'm not surprised since they are corrupt to the bone and they would love to rule over the ones that the dictatorship would expropriate and dominate.

Because the citizenry is corrupt to the bone and a dictatorship will best enable their unchecked corruption. Liberal democracy stifles corruption, a dictatorship stiffens corruption. The reason dictatorships exist is for a highly corrupt elite minority to allow unchecked corruption for the masses so that both the elites and the masses can exploit and steal off the weak so that both the corrupt elites and the corrupt masses of underlings enhance their survival on the backs of the weak and unconnected. The strong do what they want, the weak suffer what they must.

@Leo Gura This summer I re-watched your Understanding Democracy and Authoritarianism. You went on for about 1 hour steelmanning dictatorship, this year you also published on your blog a post praising China's total dictatorship and how that dictatorship is creating so much prosperity for the folk... These 2 instances left me standing in awe and utter shock, for a moment I thought I was listening to Russian state television, not Leo. For some reason I am extremely enraged and my very survival is threatened whenever someone praises dictatorships. I will challange and push back against all pro-dictatorship naratives. Its been almost half a century since dictatorship fell where I live, but the old Bolshevik way of doing survival is still lingering to this day. The backwardness that comes with dictatorship is off the charts. I will never open my mind to such low level perspectives. Dictatorships, Russian brainwashing propaganda, MAGA propaganda deserve to be outlawed and deleted out of existence, not my openmindedness. I will be openminded about many things, but not of dictatorships, religion and conspiracy theories. I made a habbit of downright dismissing any conspiracy theory.

Great post! Finally someone here than understands and sees life through similar lenses as me. Nothing is wage slavery, slavery is when you are sick and unable to work. Only illness can enslave oneself. If you have a working healthy body, you are a king.

Hi Leo, I'm re-watching your video How open-mindedness work. I totally agree with the concept of being very open minded, but how do you address the following issues: In 2025 every social media platform is full with pro-Russian propaganda, Woke & LGBTQ demonization, anti-Ukraine and anti-EU propaganda, conspiracy theories, jews run the world naratives, far right ultra nationalist propaganda, pro Trump and MAGA propaganda etc. My question is how on earth could I seriously engage intelectually with such low consciousness crap? It makes me vomit whenever I see the things I emphasised above, I can't even watch 1 second of pro Russian propaganda, I just can't. Are you really serious when you tell me I should consume Russian propaganda and have an open mind about it and buying into what Putin wants me to believe?