If Russia is this, so is every “Liberal Democracy” on Earth. All states are authoritarian and “regime” is just a buzzword that means “evil administration” that Liberals use to code their enemies.
None of the following is in any way a defense of Russia. The hexbear stance is as follows:
“Authoritarian” is a thought-terminating cliche because any time any state wants to do anything it must wield coercive authority to do so. Is it Authoritarian to force people to pay their taxes? Certainly nobody is coughing up tax money 100% willingly every time, they do it because it’s the law and if they break the law, the state will use its authority to punish them. Is it Authoritarian to use eminent domain to force you to sell your land so it may be used for some state project? Is it Authoritarian to draft all citizens into mandatory military service periods like many countries, including the Nordics, do?
“Regime” likewise just means leadership and is a thought-terminating cliche meant to be parsed as “leadership (bad)”. We like to joke about the Biden regime for instance. Or how about the Bush regime? Surely it’s undemocratic to present the American people with the choice to vote for a dynasty of the Bush family, yet we had George, George W, and Jeb ran as well.
You’ll see a lot of disdain on Hexbear for how some academic circles treat politics and economics. Especially economics, since it’s a whole discipline essentially based on treating everything as a perfectly spherical frictionless object in a vacuum. No Marxist understanding (which we consider bad because Marxism is an economic theory which has been highly successful at making predictions). Similarly, academics that echo terms like “authoritarian” are approaching politics without even the slightest understanding of their bias, which Gramsci already described to great effect a long time ago.
If Russia is this, so is every “Liberal Democracy” on Earth. All states are authoritarian and “regime” is just a buzzword that means “evil administration” that Liberals use to code their enemies.
I re-read my notes and it says Russia is an electoral authoritarian regime under Putin.
Cool I don’t really care what your lib teacher and his lib book have to say
None of the following is in any way a defense of Russia. The hexbear stance is as follows:
“Authoritarian” is a thought-terminating cliche because any time any state wants to do anything it must wield coercive authority to do so. Is it Authoritarian to force people to pay their taxes? Certainly nobody is coughing up tax money 100% willingly every time, they do it because it’s the law and if they break the law, the state will use its authority to punish them. Is it Authoritarian to use eminent domain to force you to sell your land so it may be used for some state project? Is it Authoritarian to draft all citizens into mandatory military service periods like many countries, including the Nordics, do?
“Regime” likewise just means leadership and is a thought-terminating cliche meant to be parsed as “leadership (bad)”. We like to joke about the Biden regime for instance. Or how about the Bush regime? Surely it’s undemocratic to present the American people with the choice to vote for a dynasty of the Bush family, yet we had George, George W, and Jeb ran as well.
This is really interesting. I just thought sharing what is taught in my academic circle would highlight the differing perspectives.
You’ll see a lot of disdain on Hexbear for how some academic circles treat politics and economics. Especially economics, since it’s a whole discipline essentially based on treating everything as a perfectly spherical frictionless object in a vacuum. No Marxist understanding (which we consider bad because Marxism is an economic theory which has been highly successful at making predictions). Similarly, academics that echo terms like “authoritarian” are approaching politics without even the slightest understanding of their bias, which Gramsci already described to great effect a long time ago.