When I say “defend” I don’t mean a blanket defense. There are good criticisms to make, some of which you’ve highlighted. Unfortunately, such criticisms are too often used as excuses to write off those countries entirely, and to justify any and all attacks on them. For example, I often hear it said that I shouldn’t defend Palestinians, because they are anti gay. This is meant to distract us from the even greater evil occurring. You can do this with literally any country, which would mean that it isn’t “remotely acceptable to defend” any of them.
Except I’ve literally seen several of those blanket defenses on ml, as well as posts claiming that these countries aren’t even dictatorships, as well as posts justifying and defending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and placing the blame for the continuing war on Ukraine for not surrendering. All of which I’ve seen posted, and upvoted uncritically on ml
Agree with them or not, there are justifications and defenses for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Again, you don’t have to like those reasons but you should understand what they are, and why people might honestly use them. And no, .ml isn’t immune to circlejerking anymore than .world is, but there is genuine discussion there if you care to engage in good faith with radically different points of view.
When I say “defend” I don’t mean a blanket defense. There are good criticisms to make, some of which you’ve highlighted. Unfortunately, such criticisms are too often used as excuses to write off those countries entirely, and to justify any and all attacks on them. For example, I often hear it said that I shouldn’t defend Palestinians, because they are anti gay. This is meant to distract us from the even greater evil occurring. You can do this with literally any country, which would mean that it isn’t “remotely acceptable to defend” any of them.
Except I’ve literally seen several of those blanket defenses on ml, as well as posts claiming that these countries aren’t even dictatorships, as well as posts justifying and defending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and placing the blame for the continuing war on Ukraine for not surrendering. All of which I’ve seen posted, and upvoted uncritically on ml
Agree with them or not, there are justifications and defenses for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Again, you don’t have to like those reasons but you should understand what they are, and why people might honestly use them. And no, .ml isn’t immune to circlejerking anymore than .world is, but there is genuine discussion there if you care to engage in good faith with radically different points of view.