I feel like in a lot of cases the context is also sometimes important to differentiate between a real-life idiot and someone who is “Just Asking Questions.”
The trite disclaimer is one thing, but explaining how you came to the specific question you’re asking helps me trust that it’s worth giving you an actual explanation rather than the dismissal that some folks want so they can post it on wherever the new home is for “so much for the tolerant left” bullshit.
Sure, I’ll bite.
What part of doing that is mutually exclusive with voting for Harris against project 2025? I’m not going to pretend electoral politics should be the be-all end-all of political participation. Yes, you should organize locally and look for opportunities to support socialist policies and leaders, but given that none of those are on the ballot, you should still use what little power electoral politics give you to try and push the system away from right-wing lunatics who have been very explicit about their plans to make everything socialists complain about significantly worse and to corrupt the democratic systems to try and make it even harder for socialists to take power in the future.
What do you propose we do instead?
Would you believe that there’s a racist element to this as well?
So first off, Ukraine couldn’t have joined NATO because of the active territorial dispute re: Crimea, which had been ongoing since 2014. But more importantly, please for the love of God stop following the cold war colonial logic that only Great Powers have any agency in their own international affairs.
Poland, Lithuania, and all the rest of the countries that Putin wants out of NATO are in there because they wanted to be, mostly because they wanted security against Russian invasion. Like, Poland basically blackmailed President Clinton into expanding NATO by threatening to support the Republicans in the next election.
But why would anyone be worried about Russia invading them if they tried to exercise independent agency and leave Moscow 's sphere of influence? Oh wait, look at what’s happening in Ukraine. Maybe those fears weren’t so unfounded. Sweden and Finland certainly seem to think so, since the war led to the most significant expansion of NATO in decades and gave NATO a direct land border within spitting distance of Moscow.
Just keep smashing yourself into the bricks to “deny the wall legitimacy” or whatever. I’m sure it will work this time.