this all went down about three years ago

Around the same time GLP-1s entered the scene. Could be a coincidence, but it seems to me that people in general (including people who are themselves obese) are less accepting of bodies now that GLP-1s are available.

In my experience with “smart” people from former Eastern Bloc countries now living in the West, what they “suffered” from was the idea that they didn’t get to live a life of significantly higher material comforts than “normal” workers in their country, similar to how things were in the West.

Yes there was advancement for women’s rights

I’m not trying to have a go at you personally, but this is something I see from anti-communists and it drives me up a wall. The way it’s just casually handwaved away that former socialist countries had significantly better rights for one half of the entire population, and it gets relegated to a footnote. It shows just how more work still needs to be done to respect women’s rights. Even if these counties accomplished nothing else, the fact that they actually successfully addressed the needs and rights of HALF the population is a monumental achievement. In the GDR a woman could divorce her husband on her initiative while at the same time in the FRG a woman needed her husband’s permission to work outside the home. This should not be waived off as “yeah yeah I guess women had rights but you couldn’t find a good pair of blue jeans”.

I highly recommend the recent Deprogram podcast (ep #248) where they go into a discussion of the daily life experiences of people in socialist countries. Hakim’s father lived in the USSR and Yugo, living in a the former Yugoslavia, has a ton of anecdotal experiences from family and friends.

I literally explained how I was taking issue with the use of the word “imperialism” and not commenting the morality of the action. But maybe reading comprehension is hard for you? It so I’m sorry for your affliction.

By this definition though, literally all wars of conquest (i.e. most of them) are “imperialism”.

I am a tankie so while I lean on Lenin’s definition of imperialism, let’s put that aside for a moment. “Imperialism” cannot be simple conquest. Because when we think of “imperialism” without tying it to a specific example, I think we all broadly get the same picture. Something like an octopus, extending its reach out far and wide an establishing control over places, in service of enriching the metropole. Conquest can be one initial stage of imperial control, or imperialism doesn’t even need military conquest. It’s why I would say the United States in 2026 is unequivocally imperialist. So were the pre-WW1 Western European nations.

I’m not making any sort of judgement on the rightness or wrongness of Russia’s actions. It’s just that I get a bee in bonnet when liberals try and downplay the true imperialism of present day US and Europe by saying “bbbbut Russia is imperialist too!!!” when they don’t even have any understanding of the word.