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"All you had to do was stick to oppressing your own people, and we would've kept looking the other way..."
(lemmy.dbzer0.com)
this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2023
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Well, Germany wasn't subject to shock therapy in the way that Russia was due to West Germany becoming a capitalist democracy way before neoliberlism was a thing. The USSR collapsed decades later, at a time when the USA was spreading weird economic policies in the most rabid way possible. It was "capitalism at any cost". And the cost could be democracy... and all social fabric. It was shock therapy that largely led to the oligarchs.
Listen, fuck Putin. I fully stand behind Ukraine, but US policy created Putin's opening through shock therapy. The idea that this is just because Russians are inherently violent is absurd.
Once again, all roads lead back to Reagan.
Russians aren't inherently violent, but the idea that shock therapy, as absurd and damaging as it was, is responsible for Russia's current state flies in the face of the entire rest of the Warsaw Pact, which also suffered from 'Shock Therapy' insanity being imposed, yet have largely moved on to more functional systems than Russia.
Of course shock therapy didn't cause the war, it was just one big factor that lead to the modern Russian state. Putin and other top brass caused this war. My point was it's not reasonable to compare Russia to Germany.
Also, some nations that underwent shock therapy do OK now, but many are still to recover and have rampant corruption and wide spread poverty. Granted, that's not the same as bombing schools.
I'm hawkish on my support for Ukraine, but I do think that we need to remember the history behind this.
My point wasn't to refute that shock therapy caused the war, but to refute that shock therapy caused the modern Russian state in general. Shock therapy was economically damaging, but the root causes of the Russian kleptocracy are much, much deeper and more severe.
Please go on.
Sad, but true.