this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2023
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Im aware that he is not a socialist by any means but i watched some interviews of him and he does have some good takes on US imperialism and the Western Hegemony but i also recall hearing that he did some pretty shady stuff but i cant remember any specifics....Im generally supportive of leaders who try to free their countries of the boots of the US even when they're not socialist per se but this Assad guy seems a little off

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Maybe he's as bad as The West insists he is. Maybe all the evidence of his war crimes and crimes against humanity are real and not fabricated.

It doesn't matter.

We Westerners (and we people discussing it in English) are the last people entitled to an opinion after what we did to Libya and Iraq. Maybe a lot of people here were just kids when Libya was destroyed, and a lot of people here weren't alive when Iraq was destroyed, but when you say "this Assad guy seems a little off" that's what leftists were saying about Qaddafi with his weird plastic surgery lips and chin and his 'Bodyguard Harem'.

We don't get to sit here and weigh up the mountains of evidence against Assad and discuss amongst ourselves what's real and fake and come up with a net positive or negative opinion. Every time those kinds of discussions has happened in English, it's just ended up enabling and approving atrocities.

We need to recognize that we don't have enough reliable information about him - especially those of us in The West - and we need to recognize that feeling the need to have an opinion is a symptom of our interventionist culture.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

It doesn’t matter.

Weeell, it wouldn't if shit like chemical attacks pinned on him weren't fabricated by the West. I sure shit ain't about to absolve them alphabet agencies of that.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Congrats, you are now immortal.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Uncritical support for global south countries looking for national self-determination.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

AFAIK he's a Ba'athist (a type of ~~non-Marxist socialist~~ Marxist) and a very popular leader, but I don't know much about him personally. I'm sure Marxists have many disagreements with his party's domestic policies, as with any non-ML country, but Syria's anti-imperialist struggle should absolutely be supported

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Ba'athists were originally Marxists and scientific socialists (they have since grown into "big tents"). They split with the Comintern communists in West Asia due to those parties being weak on French and British Imperialism as well as the early Comintern lines on Israel. They are primarily focused on building socialist states in the region to eventually merge into an Arab Socialist nation. It's a decolonization movement. However, Bashar's father was a revisionist who caused MLs to leave the Ba'ath in Syria. The Iraqi Ba'athists held the original lines up until they were ousted in 2003. Overall they are very watered down on the ML side and more-so focused on the NatLib side of things.

One more thing that made them keep a distance from other Socialist movements was the religion question. Iraq and Syria are very diverse countries and have communities practicing some of the oldest religions in the world. They were secular but did not have an anti-religious line and in fact believed religions in the region could play a revolutionary role against colonialism.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

you're right, I vaguely remember reading that somewhere

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you have any quick resources to read more on Ba'athism for people who don't know much about current day MENA? I was interested on learning about it a while back, but NATOpedia was not helpful and doing full research looks a bit daunting.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Iraqi Ba'athists self crit of their first 5 years in power: https://www.marxists.org/history/iraq/baath/index.htm

It's a good outline of their views and their description of the region and country's role.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Ba'ath you mean? I didnt know that, the only politician i know who followed this was Saddam Hussein

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

yes, a Ba'athist is someone who practices Ba'athism, and Hussein was part of the Iraqi Ba'ath party

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Whatever your feelings about Assad, he is more legitimate a leader of Syria than Obama, Biden, Trump, Bolton, Blinken, Clinton or any of the western anarchoimperialists, i.e. belden, NATO freaks, etc. Western imperialism has already done enough damage and needs to stfu and go away.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I don’t really care about him one way or the other

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Generally favorable but I will readily admit I don't know that much about him.