To the victims of Soviet imperialism, Putin’s Russia and the USSR may look the same. But they’re not. The USSR was a distorted, hard-left import of the Enlightenment. Putin’s project is a mystical, hard-right, fascisised enterprise.
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I couldn't disagree more, unless by distortion you mean opposite. They might have paid lip service to the E, but that was another lie. Locke, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Kant, etc emphasized individual rights, tolerance, limited government, the application of reason and open debate to improve society.
aug 24, 2025, 3:49 pm • 0 0 • view
The USSR suppressed individual rights, eliminated pluralism, and concentrated power in a one-party state. Marxism itself was a critique of both Enlightenment liberalism and capitalism. While Marx babbled about "faith in science" (extreme contradiction), his system was more
aug 24, 2025, 3:49 pm • 0 0 • view
The USSR inherited this deterministic, quasi-religious worldview of "historical necessity" and "direction of history". Apologies, but I think you are drenched in hogwashery.
aug 24, 2025, 3:49 pm • 0 0 • view
I meant to say "more Hegelian". Sorry
aug 24, 2025, 3:50 pm • 0 0 • view
aug 24, 2025, 4:33 pm • 5 0 • view
Both versions authoritarian.
aug 24, 2025, 6:16 pm • 3 1 • view
Putin is just the latest in a long line of repressive bloodthirsty Tsars. The rest is just nuance.
aug 24, 2025, 9:21 pm • 1 0 • view
And both ended up with the same thing….misery for both those on the inside and many on the outside.
aug 24, 2025, 7:32 pm • 3 0 • view
Exactly. Whether it's Hitler, Stalin, Putin or Trump, they all have a similar psych profile, they all seek absolute power and scapegoat the vulnerable.
aug 24, 2025, 10:26 pm • 1 0 • view
Do I have to be happy about the fact that my family members were murdered or sent to the Gulag by the aforementioned "hard-left" murderous motherfuckers who "imported the enlightenment" for some braindead Bolshevik select few or something? Yay, Fascists murdered my nation, then the Bolsheviks did.
aug 24, 2025, 7:06 pm • 0 0 • view
Both are forms of authoritarianism.
aug 24, 2025, 6:20 pm • 0 0 • view
What do the principles of the oppressor matter to the oppressed?
aug 24, 2025, 3:28 pm • 6 1 • view
At the end of the day it's all authoritarianism. It's all pretty much the same thing no matter what "ism" you use.
aug 24, 2025, 10:22 pm • 0 0 • view
To this day im still confused by the fact lenin was anglophile who for some reason decided to emulate the French Revolution instead of the American one lol
aug 24, 2025, 2:44 pm • 1 0 • view
The reason is simple: the French Revolution quickly degenerated into authoritarian rule. The bolsheviks saw this as a feature, not a bug.
aug 24, 2025, 4:05 pm • 5 0 • view
When you are killed, is defining the political ilk of murderer paramount?
aug 24, 2025, 5:11 pm • 1 0 • view
However they were both repressive police states. Also, the workers never really owned the means of production.
aug 25, 2025, 4:36 pm • 0 0 • view