General Politics Discussion (X) [ARCHIVED] • Page 1462

I just want to know why they’re taking them down now and not in like 1998 or something

 

Aren’t we like fewer than 2 years out from half this thread sharing articles about the rise of fascism and an ascendant right wing throughout much of Europe, including the Baltic? Lol feels pretty straightforward.

 

Can we go back to ranking food hot takes or whatever bullshit

 

Right, i mean if you really want the answer maybe look more into Latvian society in politics since the 90s. That’s what I’m gonna put on my long list of things to google.

 

you know this is the politics thread

 

it just feels like a significant portion of this thread’s sense of historical context fell by the wayside as soon as you all were presented with the opportunity to do Cold War shit against the 2016 election’s Big Bad.

 

Its extremely bad faith to assert I supported any of that, you're equating being anti Soviet occupation with being pro nazi, which is it not. Its very possible to be critical of both. I'm happy to credit the Soviets for fighting the Nazis while recognising that the people of Latvia no long want statues of thier occupiers.

 

I don’t know much about the Latvian government, are fascists in power there? Are the statues being torn down by the national govt or state/regional govts?

 

Yeah so I'll only have to wait a few more days

 

wiat even the tax pledge nerd goes there??? Wtf

 

It’s a right wing coalition majority in parliament made up in part of the National Alliance party who vilifies things like immigration by comparing them to Soviet policies, and has ridden that type of rhetoric to additional seats over the past decade. Pretty typical of the story in a lot of Eastern European countries (although crucially, not confined there!).

Personally i don’t give a fuck about statues being torn down or left up, but I think that trying to characterize it as some sort of reaction to Russia in Ukraine ignores a lot of things that have happened in that region over the past decade that people with your politics knew better than to ignore while Trump was in office.

 

Chris Farley oh shit gif

 

What are my politics?

I think coming in here and posting things like “tearing down statues of liberators from nazi occupation” or whatever that tweet said, with the insinuation being that it’s because of a big swell of support for Nazis that’s causing it, is glossing over a very huge geopolitical event happening right next to (kind of, you know what I mean) them, in which the success of one of the country’s involved may mean they’re the next country to suffer the same fate. I’d say that probably plays a huuuuuuge role in their choice to start tearing down statues built by said first country.

This is what I found about their govt…seems like it’s a coalition of a centrist party, a center right party, and one of the far right ones.

Three parties sign coalition deal to form Latvia’s government

 

Still so funny to see their embeds still refer to it as Twitter. An absolute genius that Elon is

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/26/world/europe/latvia-soviet-monument.html

This article states the Riga city council sights the war in Ukraine as a direct influence on the decision

 

From where I’m sitting, guys who insist they don’t *like* US imperialism or mainstream democrats but wind up throwing in their support anyways, idk man. Plenty of similar liberals were very cognizant of the ascendant right wing in that part of the world in the 2010s and now seem willing to clap for them if they’re anti-Russia. Which, fuck it if the non-Nazi parts of Ukraine can beat Russia then that’s cool, I just don’t think you have to make this binary choice between aligning with nazis and aligning with Putin.

And for what it’s worth, the party that is most adamantly anti-Russian/pro-West out of that coalition is the “far-right one” meaning the National Alliance. Who has spent most of the past 5 years pushing for a day of remembrance for the Nazi Latvian Legion. I’m not denying that recent events such as the invasion of Ukraine are used to add fuel to the fire there - any good opportunistic politician would obviously do so. I just think acting like history only started there a year ago or whatever is willfully obtuse.

 

Is anyone clapping for far right nationalist European parties because they are “against Russia”? I think were saying the majority in these countries seems to have gotten very anti-Russia over the last 2-3 years (and maybe longer, going back to the occupations in eastern Ukraine), and because far right factions already existed in those countries who are also anti-Russian because they’re extreme nationalists, doesn’t make the growing anti-Russia sentiment in these countries inherently Nazi in nature. Of course far right wing parties are using the (very real!) threat of Russia to try and draw more supporters to them, but imo it’s more likely that a lot more non-Nazis in the country have suddenly had growing anti-Russia sentiment due to current events. Obviously we all hope the far right parties are not successful in leveraging those feelings for more support for their other beliefs. But yes Europe in general has had some very serious racial/ethnic fissures exposed over the last decade+ that make the US seem not so bad in comparison lol

 

Grossly downplaying how Russia's invasion of Ukraine is affecting other countries that also border Russia and stand a very high risk of also being invaded if Russia successfully subjugates Ukraine seems very willfully obtuse though. It is just not a minor thing to hand wave away by any means.

 

I mean, fair enough i guess no one is saying “i like the nazis in Latvia and congratulations to them for achieving their stated goals” but I’ve also never seen anyone in here say “i think Putin is swell and i want him to take Ukraine” and that doesn’t stop people in this thread from trying to characterize others as if that is their feeling.

What i do know is that the question was asked “why now” and i think an anti-Russian ultra-right wing party being in the majority coalition is indicative of the reasons why now as opposed to points of time in the past.

 

But do the other two parties in that coalition agree with the far right party on taking down the statues if Russia wasn't currently seen as a huge threat to their independence as a nation?*


*According to the article the other poster linked above, seems its a city govt thing and I'm guessing the City gov is either 1. split even further than the national govt is into several different factions of varying political beliefs, or 2. completely owned by the far right. So gonna be some different dynamics there either way, but using the national govt as a stand in example is easier haha