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If a person uses a term you don’t think fits them you should ask them about their definition of it. It’s not up to you to decide what labels people are allowed to apply to themselves. At best your complaint is about people not using a word “correctly” even though that’s not how words work.
Language is a cooperative process, and if you use words in an incoherent or misleading way, it can create needless confusion and a breakdown of communication. At some point, “creative use of labels” can verge into just lying. If you tell me you’re a Christian but then later I find out that you meant you’re the type of Christian that worships Satan, then I don’t know how I’m supposed to interpret that other than as a lie. Just because language can change over time doesn’t give you license to just say whatever.
For example, you call yourself a Communist but appear to be supporting the government of Russia in their actions by attempting to discourage Ukraine from defending itself and its citizens. Communism is anti-state by definition, do I get to tell you you’re not an actual communist? Or would it be better for me to ask you about your definition and get to understand the nuances of your position?
I’d be happy to get into the reeds of communist theory and explain how my positions on the subject are influenced by Lenin’s writings, for example, his concept of “Revolutionary Defeatism” in the context of WWI. I could also cite his works on the role of the state, which is in turn based on the writings of Marx and Engles.
Also, just find it kind of odd to say that discouraging someone from fighting is supporting the other side, in a discussion about pacifism where that criticism has frequently been used historically as a way to attack pacifists. What was that Goebbles quote?
“All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.”
Do the people drafted to go across a border and bomb civilians and the people drafted to stay in their country and defend it against an opposing army have the same morality behind it? Can you understand how one of those actions might be more justified than the other?
Sorry, which war are we talking about where only one side bombed civilians? Because Ukraine was shelling cities in Donbass before Russia entered the war. So then, crossing borders, well, there’s all sorts of assumptions baked into that. If, purely hypothetically, you considered the separatists as the legitimate government of the disputed territories, then Russia would be there by invitation while Ukraine is crossing their borders. So that means it’s necessary to determine what makes a government legitimate. And it seems to me that whatever political philosophy we employ to determine the legitimacy of a state is going to determine when violence is acceptable, which is a whole big can of worms. So on one side, Ukraine is defending their historical territorial borders, but on the other hand, the separatists are claiming to represent the popular will of the people who live there.
And there’s the problem with this whole thing is that virtually nobody comes out and says, “I’m the aggressor, I’m taking this land because I want it.” Every side in every conflict claims to be defending, or seeking long term peace. When the US invaded the Middle East, what did they say? They said it was a “Preemptive war” and that “if we don’t fight them over there, we’ll be fighting them over here.” Of course, they could also point to 9/11 to show that the other side bombed civilians. Of course, what did bin Laden say? He said that he was responding to US actions, bombing civilians in the Middle East.
Here’s a challenge: give me any side in any conflict and I will justify it from a “Pacificist” perspective.
If your county was invaded by what you see as a great evil because of their actions against civilians (I’m just going to assume the US would fit that from your perspective) would you say it was immoral to fight back in the hopes of lowering civilian deaths and injustice after the land is taken?
I live in the US, so it’d be a bit hard for it to invade.
It’s possible to generate a hypothetical in which I would fight against an invading force, but that doesn’t mean that that hypothetical reflects any real world situation.
No, he has not. Source.