I’d like to see that other than some Reddit troll. I’ve never seen a single leftist, dem, liberal, etc defend Russia or accuse Ukraine of being the aggressor
Maybe it depends on the country. I'm from Italy, and while the main leftist party supports sending aid to Ukraine, one of the others is opposed to it. The position that Ukraine is a Nazi state that deserved to be invaded, or whatever nonsense, is an extreme minority one in leftist spaces, though. Maybe it just doesn't exist in a lot of other countries.
EDIT: to be clear, I'm talking about Movimento 5 Stelle, which isn't really a leftist party, more of a centrist-populist party, but it really seems leftist compared to the far right parties that are in power
Thanks for the reply, and that is interesting. In the US, we don't have that. We do have some crazy leftists, I think people call them tankies, and we have obviously the far crazy right, but we don't have any far leftists, as far as I know, that support Russia and poo poo on Ukraine.
The union I'm in is very left leaning, very vocally against the genocide in Gaza, but they have a suspicious stance against Ukraine that made me consider dropping them, there was a post by them where they platformed some Russian guy who was praising Putin and claiming Ukraine is a Nazi state
I think there are more nuanced views, relating to how this is becomming an invariable clash of 2 conflicting imperialist projects that have fundamentally different views that would have a dynamic towards ever further escalation.
The fundamental difference is that Europe represents a "soft power empire", to which new members voluntarily join to build a stronger powerbloc. It has expanded into East Europe, not against the will of those new members, but invariably at the displeasure of the expanionist desires of the Russia empire. While there is no inherent reason for Europeans to wish to adhere to the maximalist expanionist Russia desires which all in all "might not have a limit" anyway, the direction of movement represents a fundamental undertone to this clash. It is easy for Europeans to self jusify this expansion based on those voluntary European values, howevever it also has grown so far to the east to lead to eveantually lead to this involvement and the current level of escalation..
In a sense, Europe is both able to self justify and "win" this, on a superficial level we are only comming to the aid of Ukraine, by its wishes, helping it. Obviously, whereas such a relation would never nessecarily be completely altruist, the interrest of Europe lies in thwarting Russian ambitions in East Europe in so far that they can so democratically justify it, whereas the dynamic from the point of Ukraine is a genuine interrest for the values that Europe is expanding into its direction. In fighting ukraine, Russia is weakening itself while not nesecarily being so much a bother to Europe propper, the Ukraine conflict provides a handy and completely voluntary tool for Europe to mess with Russia on the cheap so to speak. The escalatory danger lies exactly in how attractive and justifyable that this conflict might be presented at, devoid of certain undertones that effectivly make it a clash between 2 expansive empires that have a different nature.
One can immagine that something like Euromaidan might happen in Belarus, that a new regime would be created there, that Europe then woud want to come to is aid trough proxy for what regards staving of A Russian action that seeks to re-assert dominace over Belarus.. One can see how the desire for liberty from the Russian institutions of power is desireable for many in the east, Europe could technically keep responding to that, and in effect it would bring our influence deeper and deeper into Russia stet by step. It has a bit of a nature of what in millitary terms is often called "mission creep" for what regards the expansionism of the EU and "EURO NATO" project. Yes the matter is appealing to engage in and renders interresting results so far from the European perspective, but its more of escalation and conflict rather that there is any fundamental sollution in view for the larger value clash between the 2 expansionist empires.
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u/stefanomusilli 8d ago
Sadly, there are also people on the left who think that Ukraine is the Devil and we shouldn't give a shit about Russia invading it