@sz_duras Is it a shocking admission to say that it is in the interest of the west to support democracies against an autocratic predator?
@sz_duras I will not make excuses for everything the west does. But I believe democracy is worth fighting for. I wish Russians were able to protest against the invasion of Ukraine the way we protest against the war crimes being committed in the Near East
@skalden @sz_duras I am not a democrat I am a socialist or communist if you prefer… which it is important to understand, does not understand the terrible behaviours of democrats, authoritarians, libertarians, totalitarians etc. On the basis of their reactionary ideologies but on the basis of their actions… smiles
@sz_duras I live in a social democracy. It is not perfect, but I think it works reasonably well compared to the alternatives. Communism has faced some challenges. In Russia, they had trouble feeding the population, and in China, it has evolved into some sort of autocratic capitalism. I do agree that the current system, the capitalistic game if you like, is not rigged to solve the problems humanity is facing today. How do we fix it, though?
@skalden the liberalism inherent in the present regimes is not capable of addressing the problems you refer to, i base this conclusion on its failure to address any of the known major problems. Would social democracy have worked better if it had existed? i like to think so… less people would have died.
@sz_duras Social democracy has been reasonably successful in addressing problems like extreme poverty. Capitalism has also been able to address issues of production and distribution of goods in a way that the centralized economy of Soviet communism did not. A problem today is that we choose instant gratification over what is good for us, and capitalism encourages the exploitation of this. This causes problems on many levels, from personal to an inability to face global challenges like climate change. Also, as you point out, the game tends to increase inequality. The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. Wars are a separate issue. Apart from the conflicts of interest, men like Putin have convinced me that there really is evil in the world.
@skalden social democracy? where do you live that you think it's a social democracy? As I have already said in the UK social democracy, aka keynesian liberalism ended in 1989/79 - so none of that is an appropriate analysis for the situation here
@sz_duras Norway. I think you find it in the other Nordic countries, like Denmark, Sweden, and Finland, as well. I would agree that Britain probably has not had it since Thatcher.
@skalden i have lived under neoliberalism since 1978-2008, and now live in an illiberalism… under both ideological and economic phases, which existed and exist to maintain the flow of capital uphill from the poor to the rich — in short nothing about the these systems works in the interests of our population. The massive amount of redistribution, land reform, expected population increase from climate refugees… so looking at “social democracy” as a solution is disingenuous…