Comments by "" (@titteryenot4524) on "Channel 4 News"
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As ever with these things, this boils down to the human tribal mentality linked to race (Azerbaijani Azeris v Armenians), religion (Islam v Christianity) and language (Azerbaijani v Armenian). When I consider who I am, my ‘ethnicity’ is next to meaningless. An accident of birth. Equally, I care not a jot about anyone else’s ethnicity when I judge another human being. As an agnostic, I see all organised religion as manmade and, essentially, a human control mechanism along with a comforting fairy tale to shore up the human fear of death. Yes, my language is fairly key to my identity but, as someone who speaks 3 other languages, the only reason English takes precedence is another accident of birth. All told, ethnicity, organised religion and language have so much to answer for when it comes to human internecine conflict.
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The first thing that strikes anyone without skin in the game of this conflict, is how easy it is to solve. The essential point is a simple one: two peoples of roughly equal size have a claim to the same land. The solution is, obviously, to create two states side by side. However, those who do have a tendentious, non-objective point of view, namely the rabid rabbis and the mad mullahs and the pervervid priests, have served to scupper any chances of solution, obvious to everyone else. But the exclusive claims to god-given authority, made by hysterical clerics on both sides and further stoked by Armageddon-minded wacko Christians who hope to bring on the Apocalypse tout de suite (preceded by the death or conversion of all Jews), have made the situation insufferable, literally and metaphorically, and put the whole of humanity in the position of hostage to a squabble that now features the threat of nuclear conflagration. The moral of this sad, sorry tale, full of sound and fury, is that organised religion has so much to answer for, we may be here until the seas run dry and rocks melt in the hot middle-eastern sun, before it can claim any kind of alibi.
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We’re basically already there as there is a large lag effect in the climate and global warming situation. However, in this debate I do wish people would stop talking about ‘climate change’. The climate has been ‘changing’ for about 4 billion years when this 3rd rock from the sun emerged. The real issue is ‘global warming’, and how much humankind is complicit in this warming. That the planet is warming, and warming rather alarmingly rapidly, is indubitable. What’s not quite as indubitable is how much human activity is contributing to this. On balance, having looked at the evidence, I happen to think that humans are significantly contributing to global warming through fossil fuel burning. Given this, it makes utter sense to phase out fossil fuels. With this caveat: we must do it sensibly. They will be needed for some time to come as the transition to renewables is made. Who knows? Given that we are currently in an inter-glacial period, 500 years down the line when we have stopped using fossil fuels, the planet might start a rapid cooling trend leading to that ever-promised next Ice Age, and there might be a desperate clamour to start burning fossil fuels as quickly as possible!
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The biggest mistake Putin has made here was to arrogantly assume a majority of Ukrainians would simply roll over and have their stomachs tickled by the Russians as they rolled in with their tanks. This is the kind of tone-deafness you get when no one has been able to say ‘no’ to one man for 22 years. In a very real sense, the cause of this war rests squarely on Putin’s shoulders and his mad, misguided designs for a greater mother Russia largely conforming to the old USSR. This is why if Putin succeeds in subjugating Ukraine, then Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania should be very afraid. The good news for them (but not the Ukrainians) is that it looks like because of Putin’s arrogance he may be bogged down in Ukraine for years to come, and even if Russia does subjugate Ukraine, that will only be the beginning, as internal resistance to Russia will be immense. Putin’s 5 main demands: 1. Neutral Ukraine with concomitant commitment never to join NATO. 2. Ukraine disarmed. 3. Protection for Russian language in Ukraine. 4. DeNazification of Ukraine. 5. Crimea formally identified as Russian along with other parts of east Ukraine, including the Donbas … for me, these should be seriously considered by Ukraine, to save what very probably will be the utter destruction of the country and the loss of a large proportion of Ukrainians. If and when Russia can move into some kind of post-Putin democracy, then some of these things may be looked at again. Part of me thinks we should humour this nuclear-armed (blackmail? Perhaps) dictator until he has shuffled off this mortal coil.
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