# In defence of Russia **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 6, 2022, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defence-of-russia/969166 "2022-08-06T00:49:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 50
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defence-of-russia/969166/981 "2023-04-06T16:50:58Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > Not to continue the highjack, but I can’t see this being pushed by right wing media. It seems distinctly anti-American which would be an anathema to them. It really seems like more of a far left tankie thing. Eh, it’s not like our Komrad is writing anything of value, so its not much of a hijack. I haven’t read the MPSIMS thread dear Komrad is banned from, but if he was using global south there the same way @ralfy used it here then they’re both using the term incorrectly. To me using the term makes them sound like they are trying to impersonate what they think a hard left winger would sound like to try to appeal to that demographic and doing a bad job of it. Kind of like how Komrad claims he’s actually pro-Ukrainian while spouting Russian state propaganda. Like I said, I haven’t seen anyone actually use the term global south in decades, it’d be kind of like someone unironically using the terms handicapable or differentially-abled to try to prove their left wing politically correct credentials. > [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > There’s absolutely no hint of racism or classism in the term, is there? /s No, not at all. It’s just stating that the global north is, you know, above the global south. /s Yeah, it’s one of those terms that was meant to be less offensive than the terms it’s supposed to replace but actually sounds more offensive than just sticking with third world or developing nations. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defence-of-russia/969166/982 "2023-04-06T17:20:30Z")
Note that I’m not actually claiming that any of the rhetoric actually originates the hard left, I agree that its Russian propaganda, I was just confused that Euphonious\_Polemic claimed that it was being pushed by **right-wing** muppet media, which didn’t make sense to me. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defence-of-russia/969166/983 "2023-04-06T17:51:03Z")
Thanks for the clarification. Pushed by Russian propaganda tools is more accurate. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defence-of-russia/969166/984 "2023-04-06T19:42:38Z")
> [@Kedikat](#): > > Whatever the term used for the growing number of countries negotiating economic and political ties to avoid being tied too tightly to the U.S. dollar or any other currency that can be weaponized against them. It is a very big deal. Is not smart, comrade, to be tied to Russian currency these days. “The Russian ruble fell Thursday to its lowest level in a year as Moscow’s [weakening oil revenues](https://www.wsj.com/articles/russias-economy-is-starting-to-come-undone-431a2878?mod=article_inline) and fears over capital flight weigh on the currency.” “The ruble was recently down 1.7% against the U.S. dollar and was on track for its lowest closing level since April 21, 2022, with 81.6 rubles buying $1.” > **[Russia’s Ruble Slides on Capital-Flight Fears](https://www.wsj.com/articles/russias-ruble-slides-on-capital-flight-fears-9d86273e)** > > The currency’s selloff illustrates how traders are on edge as Russia’s economy struggles with an evaporating oil-and-gas windfall. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2023, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defence-of-russia/969166/985 "2023-04-06T21:13:29Z")
Regardless of the use idiot Russian stooges put it to, “Global South” is a very current term used by many in the development community, and for many _is_ definitely preferable to “Third World countries” and “developing nations”. I know it [is](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-s-going-to-be-a-problem-in-25-years-but-people-are-choosing-to-ignore-now/979356/153) [to](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-that-elon-musk-has-bought-twitter-now-the-pit-edition/963442/3862) [me](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/equity-comes-to-schools-in-vancouver/944533/42). ---
**Author:** ![ralfy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ralfy/32/600_2.png) [@ralfy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralfy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defence-of-russia/969166/986 "2023-04-07T06:42:09Z")
> **[De-dollarization Has Begun.](https://www.aier.org/article/de-dollarization-has-begun/)** > > "The dollar, in some shape or form, will likely be around for a long time. Perhaps very long. But by weaponizing dollar dominance and permitting expanding mandates to disorient US monetary policy, the dollar’s fate as the lingua franca of world... ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defence-of-russia/969166/987 "2023-04-07T14:17:36Z")
Since Ralfy, one of our resident shit-droppers and all-around idiots provided a link to an article from the prestigious-sounding “American Institute for Economic Research”, I figured I’d do others a service to let you know what a learned and unbiased organization this is. It is a [conservative think tank](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Institute_for_Economic_Research) in Massachusetts. It is known for such sage counsel as assuring everyone that climate change risks are minor and manageable, and that Brazilian deforestation is a good thing. They pushed for a herd immunity strategy to deal with COVID-19, even going so far as to take out ads on Facebook to criticize mask mandates and social distancing. Experts including Dr. Fauci called the group dangerous, pushing nonsense. They were even criticized by _libertarian_ groups for their recklessness. So of course this is who Ralfy is going to cite. ---
**Author:** ![OldOlds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a3d4f5/32.png) [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defence-of-russia/969166/988 "2023-04-07T14:33:30Z")
This de-dollarization is a favorite boogeyman in the Breitbart world, and it’s supposed to represent the loss of American status under Biden. While I’m no economist, it seems to me that one’s choice of reserve and settlement currency will be based in large part on trust. Trust in the value of that currency, and trust in the government that stands behind it. Also, trust that it will be relatively stable. Now, I ask you: As much as American hegemony might bother you, how much do you trust the Chinese currency and the government that stands behind it? And that’s why I think this is BS. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defence-of-russia/969166/989 "2023-04-07T14:34:13Z")
Thank you for this. I at least appreciate the effort. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defence-of-russia/969166/990 "2023-04-07T16:14:06Z")
> [@OldOlds](#): > > This de-dollarization is a favorite boogeyman in the Breitbart world, and it’s supposed to represent the loss of American status under Biden. Which is a bit ironic considering that the number one thing that could threaten the US’s standing as reserve currency is to go into default with regard to the debt ceiling. ---
**Author:** ![OldOlds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a3d4f5/32.png) [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defence-of-russia/969166/991 "2023-04-07T16:19:35Z")
I’ve said this before, but it’s worth lurking in the Breitbart comments section. It’s really astonishing the crap they believe (and I’m confident much of it is genuine) and believe it or not, you’ll have a better understanding of a certain segment of MAGA. I’m not saying that in a “you’ll empathize with them and see their concerns” way. I’m saying that in a “you’ll realize there are a lot of genuinely stupid people who absolutely worship the ground Trump walks on” way I saw an exchange where someone pointed out that addressing the issues at the border really required Congress to update immigration laws. Mind you, this person was anti-immigration, but had at least a passing understanding of immigration law. And he was piled on as “liberal scum” ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2023, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defence-of-russia/969166/992 "2023-04-07T22:12:51Z")
Well, yeh, had to be liberal scum. After all, the only border solution is to build that giant wall and then machine-gun every diseased rapist godless pedophile wetback who tries to get past it. Amirite? ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2023, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defence-of-russia/969166/993 "2023-04-08T16:06:18Z")
> Yet another high-ranking Russian official stating openly that they don’t believe Ukraine should exist. Nothing about NATO expansion. This is why there’s no possibility of negotiation – this isn’t about Russian security concerns, or NATO expansion, or anything “the West” has done – it’s about the delusions of the Russian leadership that Ukraine and Ukrainians should not exist. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2023, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defence-of-russia/969166/994 "2023-04-08T16:35:03Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > They pushed for a herd immunity strategy to deal with COVID-19 They did not. An actual herd immunity strategy consists of getting as many people as possible vaccinated as quickly as possible, even people who would prefer not to be vaccinated. And while masking isn’t strictly speaking part of a herd immunity strategy, it isn’t in conflict with it, either. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2023, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defence-of-russia/969166/995 "2023-04-08T17:34:22Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > They did not. If you want to know what they were pushing, this Wikipedia article covers it: > **[Great Barrington Declaration](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Barrington_Declaration)** > > The Great Barrington Declaration was an open letter published in October 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns. It claimed harmful COVID-19 lockdowns could be avoided via the fringe notion of "focused protection", by which those most at risk could purportedly be kept safe while society otherwise took no steps to prevent infection. The envisaged result was herd immunity within three months, as SARS-CoV-2 swept through the population. > Signed by Sunetra Gupta of the Universit... It goes into quite a bit of detail. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2023, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defence-of-russia/969166/996 "2023-04-08T17:51:35Z")
To summarize, the AIER’s Great Barrington Declaration urged that Covid-19 be allowed to spread widely through the population, while so-called “focused protection” would be granted to those at greatest risk. If enacted, that policy would have ensured a much greater number of deaths, including among those with serious pre-existing health problems and the elderly, who could never be assured complete “focused protection” from all the infected people they’d be exposed to. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2023, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defence-of-russia/969166/997 "2023-04-08T21:04:13Z")
Curious word you’ve used here Dmitry _unterukraine_ . . . what were you saying about folks being Nazis again? ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2023, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defence-of-russia/969166/998 "2023-04-08T21:58:08Z")
Jesus, I made the mistake of clicking on the twitter link to get the full context of how Dmitry was using _unterukraine_. It’s a 5 paragraph long rant; I’ll only quote the full text of paragraph 1. And for your Russian propaganda bingo cards, yes, he uses ‘collective West’ in later paragraphs, which are equally unhinged racist fascism. > 1. Europe doesn’t need Ukraine. The forced support of the Nazi regime, by the American mentor’s order, has put Europeans into a financial and political inferno. All for the sake of bandera’s unterukraine, that even the snobby, insolent Polacks don’t take for a valid country, and time and again toss in the issue of its western areas anschluss. There’s a nice perspective ahead: to permanently put the nouveau-Ukrainian blood-sucking parasites on the decrepit EU’s arthritis-crippled neck. That’ll be the final fall of Europe, once majestic, but robbed off by degeneration. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2023, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defence-of-russia/969166/999 "2023-04-08T22:01:22Z")
Dmitry? It was better in the original German. Don’t fuck with the classics! ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2023, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defence-of-russia/969166/1000 "2023-04-09T02:01:45Z")
As a followup on the AIER: in addition to bloviating about the decline of the American dollar, it’s made plain its hostility towards Western support of Ukraine. [Example](https://www.aier.org/article/deescalate-conflict-in-ukraine/): “The American strategy in Ukraine has severely underestimated Russian concerns, capabilities, and motivation, neglected the realistic interests of Ukraine, and can be counted among one of our numerous foreign policy failures in the post-Cold War world.” “When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, prospects for cooperating with the West were bright. But the economic collapse and subsequent rise of the oligarchs in Russia, along with the policies of the West that focused on incorporating many of the successor states of the Soviet Union into the EU and the NATO created an environment that led many in Russia to be skeptical about the benevolence of the unfolding new world order. The uncertainty of Russia’s eventual path led many to seek strategic gains where they might.” “The expansion of NATO proceeded, and the alienation of Russia from the West followed suit.” Ukraine’s suffering is thus, in the view of AIER, the fault of the West and bad Ukrainian leaders. Something else (not entirely) weird: Major alt med profiteers seem to be united in their hatred of U.S. policy on behalf of Ukraine. They include multi-millionaire supplement mogul Joe Mercola who said “The “humanitarian aid” to Ukraine is really proxy war money to destroy Russia’s military”, and uber-quack Mike Adams of Natural News, which spews stories like “HUGE: World War III escalates as corrupt US officials seek to protect their criminal operations and bioweapons research in Ukraine”. Alex Jones is upset that the Left “has a fetish” for “hating Putin”. Obviously a loathing of Biden and Democrats has a lot to do with that. On the other hand, Jones and Natural News have been busy turning invective on China. Wonder if their anti-China focus is related to fear of Chinese supplement exports threatening their source of income. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defence-of-russia/969166.md?page=49) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-defence-of-russia/969166.md?page=51)