this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2023
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Christianity probably
The problem with blaming Christianity itself is that it evacuates the class analysis. Liberals view History as a battle of ideas, with religions representing ideas that they deem "backwards", so they will say that religions are to blame for reaction. As Marxists we know that History is ultimately a History of class struggle, so we know that religions have been used by the an economic class to prevent systemic change.
You should look into why Russia became anti-lgbt, it was the implementation by Alexander, the Tsar/Monarch in order to secure better trade terms with the christian west; he implemented orthodox christianty, which came with it anti-lgbt reforms.
Prior to this Russia was known to have culture of open polyamory, lesbain and gay relationships socially accepted; its 90% religion tbh, but that obviously was beaten into them as slaves.
We should view these religions with a class lense tho: Christianity was an ideological tool to entrench feudalism / patriarchal rule, womens oppression, repress any sexuality that didn't conform to feudalism, etc.
Nearly all hunter-gatherer / pre-feudal societies have more progressive family and social relations, and the feudal lords needed to entrench systems of thought to get rid of that.
for sure, the class analysis of this would be the monarch class instilling it in russia through slavery; they would have used there factories, religious structures and whip to make sure this happened; it was a top down IDpol class oppression.
I'm russian and this fact comes as a surprise to me to put it mildly, could you give a source please
Sure!
Sorry for the wikipedia analysis here, but if you look into it you can see how each sucsessive Tsar turned the screw incremently on gay people with more and more reforms against LGBT+ russians.
I think a study of LGBT history globally tbh tends to betray homophobes arguements that being gay is a modern thing, imo when we're left to our own devices free of class and religious oppression it tends to manifest as socially acceptable; which kind of goes against the 'its not natural!' bullshit.
Yeah sorry for not being specific it was specifically the phrase "Alexander.. implemented orthodox Christianity" that had me rolling. It happened a bit earlier than that is all.
And the actual crackdowns happened under Nicholas I, specifically as a reaction to secular revolutionary movements in France Germany and Russia at the time. I don't think he cared much about gay people per se but he wanted to strengthen the church as a bulwark against uprisings, and that meant implementing some religious laws into civil ones.
Yeah thats fair, my understanding of this isnt great; I just knew the gist of that the tsars trended towards implementing reactionary policies but not the detail of it; do you have any good sources on this?
sources on what specifically?
Christianity existed in Russia before and after the Soviet Union
Yes and every time it took huge part in the reaction.
That reactionary ideas thrive in times of reactionary hegemony is obvious. Historical materialism requires that we look first to material conditions to explain the root causes of historical change. If Christianity existed in Russia before, during, and after the Soviet Union, it doesn’t follow that the current social conditions in Russia can be explained by Christianity becoming a more powerful idea at an arbitrary time, forcing an otherwise progressive society to reaction.
Definitely not entirely, but don't reduce it to just consequence, it's undialectical.