I’d argue it’s an objectively true statement that, of all the people alive today, Putin has singlehandedly caused more death and suffering than anyone else. The gap between him and whoever is second is likely orders of magnitude. Yet, when I read discussions about him, Russia, or the war in Ukraine, I almost never see the kind of hateful, nasty, and mean comments directed at him that I regularly see aimed at Trump, Elon, or even ordinary Republican politicians. Why is that?
Bonus question: Why be so nasty about it in the first place? There’s nothing wrong with criticism, but I struggle to understand the need for such meanness. Even when I agree with the sentiment, reading comments like that feels toxic. It poisons my mind too. I don’t like being angry, and I avoid it for practical reasons as well. Anger clouds my judgment, and I think it does the same for others and thus should be avoided.
Because Putin is a Russian narcissistic psychopath, whatever he does, it’s in line with what you’d expect.
Trump is an American narcissistic psychopath who is selling out the country to the highest bidder. Well, I guess that too is quite on par with what you’d expect from a powerful person in the US…
Never mind
Putin has singlehandedly caused more death and suffering than anyone else.
And your proof of this is… what?
I almost never see the kind of hateful, nasty, and mean comments directed at him
Because Putin is not a product of the US. Trump is, and, to a large extent, so is Musk.
And your proof of this is… what?
The war in Ukraine has so far caused around 300k deaths. I can’t think of a person alive who’d be responsible for more deaths than that.
The (so-called) “War On Terror” unleashed by George Bush has caused about 900,000 dead. That is just the death DIRECTLY caused by warfare and not the far, far greater number of people dead through indirect causes such as starvation and disease as a result.
Or does it only count in your book when the people dying “look like us”?
Yeah as bad as he is, Putin isn’t event the worst Russian dictator if we’re going by body count. Stalin is still miles ahead.
Stalin is dead
Putin is a scumbag, but he still has a long way to go to even beat George Bush Jnr, and he doesn’t even scratch the paint on Henry Kissinger’s record levels of crimes perpetrated against humanity.
Paraphrasing someone relevant: That’s just percentages.
Because Russia never pretended not to be a racist hellhole. The US had a good undercover run.
Closer to home for most people, I guess.
Because Americans are stupid and easy to play
I get angrier when I think of Musk or Trump because, bafflingly, my peers have been fooled into giving these frat boys control over parts of my life.
Not so much Putin. Yet.
Granted he is probably more objectively evil.
Putin also has seemed to stfu and back away, musk and trump just word vomit constantly
Putin killed away all critics early?
I utterly reject your premise
I don’t hear about what Putin is doing every single day. But I talk shit about his bitch-ass too, when he comes up. Fuck Putin. All my homies hate Putin.
This is the correct answer. Putin has been almost universally hated, even within Russia, for years.
Everyone knows of his election fraud, and the assassinations of political opponents, let alone changing the law in his favor.
It’s just hard for people to have a strong response to what he does, because he spends the vast majority of his time controlling his meat puppets in silence. Meanwhile, both Trump and Musk yap their face off on every occasion
Wouldn’t it also be correct to say that on Lemmy, Trump and Elon are also almost universally hated too? That’s why it’s so confusing that I mostly see it directed at them when I feel like it should be more towards Putin.
On a second though, the amount of tankies here probably explain this to a some extent.
The real answer to your question is that Lemmy is probably 70% American. Most of these Americans that shit on Trump and Elon either don’t know what’s going on in Russia or don’t care because it has no direct influence over their livelihoods.
Or prefer to talk about what is affecting them, even if they do care about the situation in Russia, it’s pointless to talk about because the only way to affect it is through talking about people like trump.
I think this is the most accurate answer. Trump and Musk have a direct impact on ppls’ day to day, and has the impact of the countries politics to be considered. Putin is just the big bad guy that’s always been there for Americans, so maybe a bit of a novelty affect for the other two too.
Same but about every single American politician
Pretty sure you are measuring using the wrong indicators.
There is little reason to talk shit of Putin as he is so hated, just as no reason to discuss water being wet.
Don’t start “whataboutism”. Those other people suck too. No reason to rank them.
There is little reason to talk shit of Putin as he is so hated, just as no reason to discuss water being wet.
Wouldn’t the same be true about Elon and Trump though, especially when talking about Lemmy.
That’s Whataboutism.
Putin probably gets plenty of hate on Russian language social media. English language social media is going to be full of criticism of English language influencers.
There’s a huge contingent, even here, who loves both those guys, but maybe more importantly, they’re supposed to be on our side. Hell, Trump is the president! Putin is the dictatorial ruler of an enemy country, we expect that he’s going to do and say stuff that’s terrible.
Quality concern trolling. No notes.
Putin is a fascist dictator and you expect him to act that way. Democratically elected politician in democratic country should behave differently and when he doesn’t, it obviously result in some outrage.
Pretty sure that if you’re Russian expressing your hate to Putin would at best put you in trouble, and at worst lead to a slow and painful death in a labour camp.
Don’t under-estimate how privileged we are in the West to express our hate for Biden, Macron, Trudeau, Von der Leyen and who ever is the British PM it’s changes so fast that I stopped to follow. Without any legal repercussion
For what it’s worth, the UK’s current PM is Keir Starmer. We had an election in the summer and fucking finally kicked out the last lot that had been, amongst their many other efforts to make everything worse, churning through leaders like 3rd century Rome. The new lot have their issues too and it is of course too early at the moment to see if they have actually restored some measure of stability, but there’s hope.
Labour in the UK haven’t offered anything new since Tony Blair, and even then it wasn’t new in a good way. It almost looked like they might with Corbyn, but they destroyed him themselves.
Yet
I talk mad shit about Putin daily in vkontakte and yet I’m alive and well. Continue eating that propaganda raw.
Oh sure, go into Moscow and hold up a sign protesting the war in Ukraine. See what happens.
Can’t say for sure, but my theory is that people sorta accept that Putin is a hated person. Most people in Western countries - or rather people not in Russia - hate the guy, therefore people don’t necessarily feel the need to elaborate on their dislike of him. Whereas people like Trump, after all, he got voted in so clearly some people must like the guy. Therefore people push back harder against him to convice others to do the same.
I think most of who you’re hearing are Americans. I might hate Putin with all my heart, but he leads a different country. There isn’t “chain of command” between me and him.
Edit/more blathering:
I try to avoid the virulent speech (not always successfully I admit) about Americans’ choice in leadership. And to a large degree, at home, even that is outside my “sphere of influence”, but I at least have an opportunity to be heard by other parts of the electorate here.
And by the way, I think supporting Trump is supporting Putin. I hope I’m wrong, but I do believe that.
We can piss and moan about Putin (and we do, I’m not sure what you’re missing TBH), but investing time and emotional energy, it makes sense to start at home, where we at least should have some influence on self-determination.
There isn’t “chain of command” between me and him.
I mean, sure their is.
Putin
POTUS
SCOTUS
Senate / House
. . . . You.
And that answers OPs question.
