• OccamsTeapot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    4 hours ago

    The EU is a coaliton of right-wing imperialist states, this is true.

    Not really all right wing but perhaps compared to your politics. Or mine tbh

    Russia isn’t imperialist

    I’m confused about this. I checked to see if I had the right definition, just in case, and this is wikipedia’s:

    imperialism is the maintaining and extending of power over foreign nations, particularly through expansionism, employing both hard power and soft power.

    How does this not perfectly describe what Russia is doing in Ukraine?

    Do you have an alternative definition you’re working with?

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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      4 hours ago

      All EU member states are capitalist and depend on imperialism and neocolonialism. In that sense, they are all right wing, left wing countries would be like China and Cuba.

      As for imperialism, the first part of the definition is vague enough that it applies to countries like Burkina Faso kicking France out of Africa, while the second would make the Statesian North annexing the confederacy “imperialism.” Wikipedia affirmatively takes the definition of imperialism that makes it as vague as possible, reducing it to a policy preference rather than a materialist system with definite causes and necessary conclusions.

      Imperialism in the modern era, as course of fact, is a stage in capitalist development. When markets are fully saturated domestically, capital expands outward. Once industrial and bank capital grow, they merge and dominate the entire economy, resulting in the dominance of finance capital in the economy and an export of capital, rather than commodities. This is how the west plunders the world in the modern era, and what Russia cannot do.

      • Archangel1313@lemmy.ca
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        2 hours ago

        Imperialism in the modern era, as course of fact, is a stage in capitalist development. When markets are fully saturated domestically, capital expands outward. Once industrial and bank capital grow, they merge and dominate the entire economy, resulting in the dominance of finance capital in the economy and an export of capital, rather than commodities. This is how the west plunders the world in the modern era, and what Russia cannot do.

        So…what do you call BRICS, then? Just because the Imperialism is currently less influential than its competition, doesn’t stop it from being Imperialism.