Which mods/admins were being Power Tripping Bastards?
@PugJesus
What sanction did they impose (e.g. community ban, instance ban, removed comment)?
Community ban, comments wiped from modlog
Provide a screenshot of the relevant modlog entry (don’t de-obfuscate mod names).
Provide a screenshot and explanation of the cause of the sanction (e.g. the post/comment that was removed, or got you banned).
Unable to find comments in modlog
Explain why you think its unfair and how you would like the situation to be remedied.
I was community banned after the mod falsely smeared me as doing genocide apologia. Not just me but also the hosts of the Blowback podcast Brendan James and Noah Kulwin, as well as Noam Chomsky. According to PugJesus, we are all actually pro genocide.
Context:
In this post about the victims of the Iraq War, I shared Season 1 of the Blowback podcast as it does a phenomenal job covering the war and aftermath while humanizing the victims. PugJesus falsely smeared them as “campist cretins” to discredit the entire podcast. I pushed back.
PugJesus brought up a previous discussion where they also tried to discredit the Journalists and Podcast based on tweets. Here, as with the more recent post, pushed back.
The tweets in question:
According to PugJesus, this is evidence that Brendan James and Noah Kulwin are pro Russia and pro Ukrainian genocide. I completely disagree.
To clarify my position. I have always maintained the position that Ukraine is fighting a war of self defense and fighting for their sovereignty. I have always maintained that Putin’s war is illegal and unjustifiable; and that what Russia should do to pull out completely and enact reparations. I have always maintained that I am in complete support of supplying arms to Ukraine, same as any other people fighting against Imperialism and/or Colonialism. I also consider Putin’s invasion justifies the need of a European security pact, although I’d prefer it to be one without the US. And yes, Putin’s war is a genocide, as multiple genocide scholars have expressed.
I do not consider the US to be a benevolent and altruistic actor. Instead I consider the US to not have the best interests of Ukraine at heart; using the opportunity to expand NATO for the benefit of US Hegemony and to extract capital out of Ukraine. I believe those are worth criticizing and not remotely “genocide apologia”
The two contentious points are as follows
Has the US escalated the conflict to further its own foreign policy goals? Or is saying so genocide apologia?
From the evidence I have seen, yes the US has escalated the conflict. That does not mean Ukraine is to blame, which they aren’t. Nor does it mean Russia hasn’t escalated the situation more than the US has, which is an easy argument to make and has merit. All it means is that there are actions by the US worth criticizing as they at the expense of Ukraine.
Sources:
- Chomsky and Barsamian, In Ukraine, Diplomacy Has Been Ruled Out
- Noam Chomsky & Vijay Prashad: U.S. Must Stop Undermining Negotiations with Russia to End Ukraine War
- Senators say Israel blocking transfer of US-owned Iron Dome batteries to Ukraine
- The Russia-Ukraine Crisis: A Scorecard on Biden’s Response
Has the US used the conflict to exploit Ukraine financially? Or is saying so genocide apologia?
I think the US has certainly exploited Ukraine, in particular with the usual neoliberal model of loans and privatization via the IMF and World Bank. This is a criticism of the US and of Neoliberal economics, not of Ukraine who’s facing an existential threat.
Sources:
- Ukraine’s Debt: an Instrument of Pressure and Spoliation in the Hands of Creditors
- US corporations cash in on Ukraine’s oil and gas
- Ukraine moves closer to large-scale privatization breakthrough
Of course both these criticisms are peanuts when it comes to Trump’s complete alignment with Putin’s foreign policy aims.
I’m no expert on Russia/Ukraine, if anyone has sources I’ve overlooked please share. My main concern is the discrediting of Blowback and the Journalists who host it, who have done phenomenally detailed and sourced work on the Iraq War, Cuba, Korea, Afghanistan, and Cambodia. Likening them to “pro-genocide” is disingenuous at best and discrediting their work on that is an injustice.
YTB.
You are promoting russian propaganda about NATO expansion as a justification for the invasion. This is a key element of their overall propaganda. Ukraine was neutral before the beginning of the russian invasion in 2014.
You are also essentially supporting the notion that russia’s former colonies do not have the right to self-determination.
There is a reason that the Baltic nations and former Warsaw pact countries immediately tried to join NATO as soon as possible, because unlike you, they understand what the russians are like (going into details is out of scope for this post, but in short, decades of sociological research using a wide variety of methodologies, including ones to estimate the impact of preference falsification, show a consistent strong majority support for genocidal imperialism among the russian public).
I will also point out that russian occupation is happening in countries that were not able to join NATO (Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine).
Your attitude is indeed campist. The stuff you say about “neoliberal this and that” and “IMF” is comical in context of Ukraine’s economic development.
Can you outline your argument in a clear and specific manner in your own words? This should be simple if you aren’t merely repeating copytext.
The Brendon James quote is definitely pro-russian and de facto serves as justification for the russian invasion.
Kulwin also engages in pretty typical whataboutism style justification of russian actions. EDIT: Kulwin is associated with “Chapo Trap House”.
Did the US annex Basra, steal tens of thousands of Iraqi children and send them to re-education camps were they would be forced to write letters to US military forces involved in the annexation of Basra? Did they ban Islam and and allow only US Christian churches in the newly annexed Basra? Did they ban Arabic and send anyone caught speaking Arabic into a network of torture camps? Did the Americans systematically use castration and torture against captured Iraqi soldiers trying to stop the annexation of Basra?
Do Kulwin or James speak russian or Ukrainian? Have they ever lived in russia or Ukraine?
All I am seeing is pretty lazy repetition of russian propaganda copytext. The type that is widely used by russians as justification for all their actions.
It’s fair to not tolerate propaganda in a community, even if a user genuinely believes it or claims to be acting in good faith (which may not be true).
A username such as “Keeponstalin” is also an immediate red flag.
Also, claiming anyone but Russia is guilty for “escalating the conflict” that Russia starter and is continuing and where Russia engages in genocide is, indeed, genocide apologetics.
How is the user apologizing for genocide with this clear comment?
By supporting a key element of russian propaganda; “NATO made me do it!”.
Attempting to white-wash russian genocidal imperialism (by blaming the US) is genocidal apologetics.
OP never says “NATO made me do it!” if you are going to quote please use actual words said the OP doesn’t white-wash OP explicitly denounces it
Do you realize two things can be true at the same time that Russia and the US can be criticized?
OP supports russian propaganda narratives by justifying the russian invasion by explicitly claiming the US is responsible for escalation.
The only ones responsible for the invasion of Ukraine are the russians.
You and OP are white-washing russian genocidal imperialism.
you are arguing in bad faith with this motte-and-bailey fallacy.
me and the OP are putting forth that the united states has escalated the conflict.
united states has provided ukraine with a long-range army tactical missile system that can reach deep into Russian-occupied areas – or even strike more deeply into Russia itself.
This is without a doubt an escalation, making OP’s statement true.
you are trying to conflate this with the statement, russia is responsible for the invasion, which is true.
this is why i said two things can be true at once while you consistently use ad-hominums, strawmen, motte & bailey fallacies to discuss in bad-fath
please do better
So you are arguing that helping Ukraine to fight off an illegal Russian invasion is “escalation”? What sort of perverted logic is this? The only government responsible for this war is Russia’s. They could end it tomorrow if they wanted to. You’re basically just arguing that it’s unfair Ukraine got the weapons it needed to fight back. Russia has been using long and medium range missiles against Ukraine, but Ukraine is expected to fight with it’s hands tied? You’ve been drinking campist koolaid.
Revealing your true colours, I see.
Russians should be able to hit Ukrainian hospitals (including children’s cancer hospitals), the Ukrainian energy system and blow up major Ukrainian dams on the Dnipro.
But Ukrainians striking with American weapons is an escalation!
Such a big fucking escalation that the world ended when Ukraine hit russian territories with western weapons!
Get fucked, russian shill!
unsuprised a NAFO fool would not only but unable to refute my points but also concede their own!
please get off twitter and read books or even the wikipedia article for logical fallacies as you could not argue your way out of a wet paper bag
you are arguing against a strawman
Looks like a direct quote and not a strawman.
Russia has escalated the conflict far more
they never justified the invasion
they never justified the russian invasion
You keep using this word, but I don’t think you know what it means. One can be In total support of Ukraine and clearly judge Russia for starting a war and breaking international law while still not be blind to history!
If one wants peace one needs to understand geopoltics and imperialism.
Sure its not OK by moral standards that Russia wants to influence sovereign states for their military interest. Sadly the world doesn’t (yet) work by moral standards or international law.
One can criticize the imperialistic war of Russia, but one can also criticize the imperialistic economic and hegemonial control the US seeks over the region, those things don’t contradict each other.
We have one facist and one nearly facist state fighting over their imperialistic interest, neither of them is doing it because of ethics or international law.
We Europeans are the victims in this coflict of two imperialistic super powers, and even if one is worse then the other, both are far from perfect or even bothered in things other than their own interest and what they can gain and both can be criticized. this does not negate that one is using far worse means to achieve their special interests atm.
There was no legitimate criticism. It was some word salad about neoliberal world order and IMF. There were no real world references to Ukraine’s engagement with IMF.
Be clear about this and don’t hide in the skirts. I don’t know what part of Europe you are from, but you are deluding yourself if you think the russians would be satisfied with just Ukraine. Domination and extermination of the Baltic nations remains a key agenda for a significant majority of russians. And that’s just an “immediate” goal.
You are fighting a strawman. I dont think russian imperialism will stop with Ukraine, they are an aggressive force and try to dominante (at least) whole eurasia. As I said: they are a facist oligarchy and need to be stopped.
My point is that Russia being the bad guy doesn’t make USA the good guy.
Yes. But the quotes about USA wars taking more victims than the Russian wars are completely irrelevant whataboutery in the context of Russian invasion of Ukraine. The only reason to invoke these in this context is to deflect the attention from Russian crimes.
Removed by mod
Where is the subreddit to post to when mods remove actual good faith diferenced arguments on yepowertippinbastards? XD
Edit: also funny the modlog mentions “spam” and I can appeal to a not, but if one tries to actually appeal one messages get blocked ^^
The fascist part of our state is on Putin’s side. You can’t really say those are fighting each other.
It’s the remnants of our Democratic state supplying Ukraine. And it’s not because of ethics, but it is absolutely ethical.
And fuck right off with your characterization of being victimized by the US supporting Ukraine. This is borderline propaganda.
The facist part is defenetly on Putin’s side. The problem is that its on trumps side as well (all be it a lot less produced as of now).
You are fighting a strawman, I am pro supying Ukraine with weapons, I am pro having a European defense pact, I just don’t think USA is doing it for democracy but for own imperialistic reasons. The deals trying to get resources and power plants in exchange for support by trump are just one outrageous sign of that.
And again: you are fighting a strawman if u say I victimize by US supporting Ukraine, that not the point. Yes USA isn’t intervening militarily in the EU at the moment, but not because they are an non-imoerialistic ethical state, but because they don’t need to. They have economic control of the region, they have cultural hegemony with media and tech companies and they have Orwell like spying institutions from which not even the highest leaders of eg Germany like Merkel or scholz are safe.
Yes, the means they use to control us are far better because soft power Is enough atm, but its still control in imperialistic manner. This is not thaaat bad as long as the USA is more or less democratic and has similar norms and ethics as most European states but this is changing rapidly with trump.
Everyone who doesn’t see the power grab of facists in the USA is blind and needs to read adorno IMHO.
There’s a huge difference between realizing that every bullet the US ships to Ukraine helps weaken a major geopolitical opponent at several thousand times the efficiency of any other method, and claiming that doing so is “escalating the situation”.
The situation is one (nuclear) step removed from maximum escalation, and it’s been like that since the first Russian stepped into Crimea, and the blame lies entirely with Russia.
The claim that “outside parties are making the war worse” is quite literally propaganda by the party committing the genocide. Sure, every country helping Ukraine benefits from the aid they send, but that doesn’t mean it’s escalating, except in the sense that the war would be over if Russia had won.
Every country is wrapping their contribution to the downfall of a geopolitical opponent in a nice gift wrap of ethical behaviour, and the fact that Russia sucks doesn’t mean the US doesn’t suck. But the only party escalating is Russia, and it can only ever be Russia.
that’s not what happened
From my understanding Russia justifies the invasion by claiming NATO expansion as a major threat. That’s the complete opposite of my position. Whether NATO expansion is a threat or not, it absolutely doesn’t justify the invasion. If it is a threat, that necessitates Russia to negotiate not start an illegal invasion. The invasion only proves the need for a Western Europe security pact
Neo-colonialism has crippled and robbed practically every country in the global south, I consider it bad for it to be implemented onto any country, Ukraine included.
My argument boils down to Imperialism bad, Neo-colonialism bad
That’s not what you said in your OP. You were pretty clear in your embrace of “NATO expansion” a bring the root cause of the russian invasion of Ukraine and you also openly tried to shift the blame on the US, when the only party at blame are the russians.
Here you state that NATO expansion forced the russian to invade. You don’t say it explicitly, but I am not stupid. And this pretty standard for Western “leftist” polemics.
Here you are justifying the russian invasion by claiming that the actions of the US forced them to invade. There is only one party to blame for the invasion of Ukraine and that’s the russians.
Keep in mind that most western-based pro-russian narratives typically being with “I think the invasion is bad, but…”. This is not a novel rhetorical device and it’s widely used by supporters of russian genocidal imperialism in the west.
I explicitly said Putin’s war was unjustifiable and illegal. I just clarified that the concern, valid or not, of NATO expansion in no way justifies any invasion. The correct response would have been diplomacy, but Putin is a bloodthirsty imperialist.
Russia offered to negotiate, and seek security guarantees. Biden and nato are very proud to have never talked to russia, and having colonized sweden and Finland.
Comparing joining NATO to colonization is completely ridiculous. Israel is what colonization looks like. I have plenty of criticisms of NATO as an arm of US Imperialism, in particular when it comes to Afghanistan, but joining NATO is nothing like being colonialized. Western Europe does have valid security concerns, Putin’s illegal invasion proved as much
The user does exactly what you asked the user to do??
OP claims to support Ukrainian sovereignty, but at the same time believes that Ukrainian foreign policy should be subject to a russian veto under the auspices of “no NATO expansion”.
I support Ukraine’s sovereignty unconditionally. Russia has no right to invade. NATO expansion is absolutely not a justification for invasion. Russia to engage in diplomacy was the correct response, but Putin is a bloodthirsty imperialist
What does this mean? What incentive would russia have to engage in good faith via diplomacy. You don’t understand the russian mentality if you think it will just magically happen.
Still very much looks like you’re pushing russian propaganda.
It means that if Russia has security concerns like they claim, then diplomacy is the correct way to respond and address them, not an illegal invasion. Putin didn’t because he has imperialst foreign policy aims
this is a bad faith interpretation of what they said
There is not a bad faith argument.
They do not believe Ukraine should have an independent foreign policy and russia should be allowed to determine what organization Ukraine is allowed to apply.
This is open support for russian imperialism.
they didn’t say that.
Countries around the world are subject to member countries will it does not reduce their sovereignty that is just how this organizations work
The U.S, Germany, Belgium, Slovenia and Spain are all against Ukraine joining NATO
Russia is not a member of NATO.
Stating russia should have a foreign policy veto over Ukraine is support for russian genocidal imperialism.
You are saying that Ukrainian sovereignty in all matters should be subject to russian approval.
You and OP are supporting imperialism.
no but the aforementioned countries are and they have prevented ukraines membership into otan
there is no veto in otan you are confusing this with the united nations
i denounce the violence but i must ask you why do you call it a genocide when the international criminal court has not done so?
you are a disingenuous liar i have said nothing of the sort as there is plenty of proof that many other countries do not want ukraine in nato
russia should not have invaded ukraine, fuck putin, and how is this imperalism?
the only country trying to extract resources from ukraine is the united states
Russia invaded Ukraine
Don’t play dumb with me.
You support russian imperialism and believe the russians should have control over Ukrainian foreign policy. You admit as much by parroting russian propaganda about “NATO expansion”.
And now you are trying sow doubt about the genocidal nature of the russian invasion! Why am I not surprised?
what doubt am i sowing by calmly explaining how international politics work to someone that did not even know OTAN doesnt have veto powers? you cannot even define a basic term like “imperalism” and resort to childish insults. a sad day for western keyboard warriors