Not disagreeing, but “at this point” implies they were ever anything else.

You must be rolling in it if you’re spending that much on SFX. Are smugimations the key to winning capitalism?

I’m no fan of the Muslim Brotherhood, but yeah “terrorist organization” is nuts. If this word ever had meaning (it didn’t), it sure as hell doesn’t now.

With what?

Uh… The (combined) second largest economy in the world? The only reason the EU isn’t considered a superpower is the chicken shit neoliberals running it; do you seriously think Russia and their “special military operation” can take the full weight of France? Germany? Italy? Really the only thing EU countries are missing is the military production to sustain more aid for Ukraine, which is not exactly a hard problem. You’re talking about Russia like it’s the Soviet Union, but it’s just not.

I disagree that the EU will have to face reality on this. The EU is definitely strong enough to support Ukraine on its own and kick Russia out; the problem is the lack of political will and, frankly, spine. I mean the fact that there are still new sanctions coming says everything that needs to be said.

I mean that would be better for everyone involved, but the EU doesn’t have the balls to make it happen.

True but this sounds more like pissing people off for no reason than cynical self-enrichment.

I mean, how many of the languages in 1925 exist today? What about 1825? That’s your answer for the most part, that is to say: most of them save for endangered languages and successful genocides.

Maybe it’s not enough for them to buy a new car? I mean it’s 6 years old; I’m pretty sure Tesla was the only player in the EV scene back then.

Why, though?

Civil war? I have literally never heard anything about this. Best case scenario Putin is assassinated and another autocrat replaces him.

Russia is doing… fine? I mean the Russian people sure aren’t, but authoritarianism in Russia isn’t in any real threat despite the war. There’s also absolutely no comparison with China, which is getting stronger by the day. Weak and incompetent authoritarians are overthrown, and the CCP is neither weak nor incompetent.

their dictatorship is forcefully dissolved.

So never.

What if they take it seriously and suffer the other consequences? Because remember, the biggest threat to Germany currently isn’t Russia or China or even America; it’s the far right. Expanding the military this much would put a lot of strain on the budget and inevitably come at the cost of social welfare, further fueling the far right as living conditions get worse and worse. And on top of that taking healthy young adults away from a workforce that already needs more people to do something wholly unproductive can’t be good for the economy. You’re completely ignoring the opportunity cost here; there are simply more important and pressing problems that deserve attention and budget than a hypothetical with nothing to back it up.

WWII jokes aside, it’s absolutely inane that Germany is actually taking “threats from Russia” seriously. It’s one thing to keep their military in shape, but nothing we’ve seen from Russia makes expanding it even remotely necessary. Spend this momey on the poor you corporate stooge. And let’s not get into the demographic crisis these idiots are exacerbating with their treatment of immigrants.

This asshole will kill us all. Add her to the pile I guess.

I gladly welcome New Zealand into the third world.

You’re citing my text but cutting off just before the point I was trying to make.

Yes, because my point is that your point doesn’t make sense.

I think be would still side with the people who claim to follow his ideology

Why…? That’s not how leftwing politics worked, ever, and it’s not like there has ever been a shortage of leftwing criticism of Leninism and Stalinism.

r in Marx’s case admitting that his ideas didn’t work or the fact that they didn’t work as intended cost the lives of millions.

Yeah that’s my point: They’re not his ideas; they’re their ideas. Lenin for example, aside from being an authoritarian dickhead, was an intellectual juggernaut and a lot of his ideas would be baked into the foundation of the Soviet Union. What you’re presenting here is a false dichotomy.

It’s important to understand that 20th century communist states weren’t just “communist” (there’s no such ideology as communism); they were Marxist-Leninist, which despite the name is a rebranding of Bolshevism by Stalin. “Socialist” and “communist” are incredibly broad terms, and the idea that communist = implementing Marx’s ideas is so reductive as to be just wrong. Now Marx’s opinion would likely vary depending on time and place, but at least he’d probably condemn Stalin’s USSR as an authoritarian hellhole. Beyond that I have no idea, but many Marxists who were contemporary to the things you describe condemned them and many others supported them, so we can’t make a realistic guess without projecting our own values on him. Basically what you’re asking is analogous to “what would Adam Smith think about the current state of the US;” it’s something we can speculate about but generally isn’t as salient a point as seem to you think it is.

PS: I suspect you don’t know much about Marx’s ideas, so you should start from there. First, the dictatorship of the proletariat isn’t necessarily an actual dictatorship (that’s not how the term is used by Marx).

I think if he were honest with himself he would see that what he got wasn’t what he had envisioned in any of the countries that claimed to be communist/socialist.

I mean… obviously? Bolshevik theory (which is what all future socialist/“socialist” states would adopt) was their own take on Marxism with a lot of original thought. That’s where the authoritarianism comes from, and it’s not like the Bolsheviks were trying to hide it. Odds are Marx would denounce the Bolsheviks as heretics.