Comments by "Aristocles Athenaioi" (@aristoclesathenaioi4939) on "I Got SUMMONED into Russian ARMY." video.

  1. I was fortunate to get a lottery number high enough that I would not have been drafted when my student deferment ended. I have a lot of thought about fleeing to Canada. I never had to make that choice. I fully respect the choice of the people who fled to Canada to avoid the draft, and I also respect the people who without any fault of their own found themselves under fire in Vietnam. The US says it is a representative democracy, and that means it represents the people who voted for it. I find it very hard to argue that I can somehow separate my personal responsibility as a citizen of the US from the responsibility of the US Government which was elected by my fellow US citizens to represent us all. Citizens of the US need to weigh carefully who they support and vote for in elections. I have to accept my responsibility for what my government does. I can't separate "good" US citizens from "bad" US citizens when we all agreed to follow the choices of the majority in US elections. I don't really know what to say to Russians who say they are one of the "good" Russians as opposed to one of the "bad" Russians. If you say you love your country then you must take responsibility for what your country has done. It saddens me that you have never been given a right to choose through elections who will represent you. Nevertheless, if you consider yourself Russian then you must take your share of responsibility for what Russia has done unless you are a child are truly had no choice in the matter. Just a Germany has taken at least one generation to atone for the crimes against humanity that they caused by their war of aggression in the 1940s, now Russia will take at least a generation to atone for the crimes against humanity that Russia has committed. The US has committed the crime of waging wars of aggression even if not on the scale of Germany or with the thorough going destruction that Russia has and is doing. Unless of course the US would correctly be held accountable for the fire-bombing of Japan. I consider the use of nuclear weapons on Japan as different but why that is will have wait for a different posting. The US should take full responsibility for the crimes it has committed, and just because the US has in many cases has unjustly managed to avoid that should never serves as a reason or license for other countries to commit war crimes. I applaud your willingness to accept the responsibility that Russia has for the barbaric way that Russia has treated Ukraine. I have no idea what you as someone who loves your mother country of Russia will do to make up for what your country of birth has done. Interestingly your country of choice, Canada, has a large Ukrainian diaspora community. May I suggest that you contact the Ukrainian Community of Canada, which has its own website, and ask them what you can do to compensate for what your country of birth has done. You speak Russian as many Ukrainians do. Perhaps you could go to Ukraine to help in some humanitarian way. Making videos of what you are doing would help others to learn what they can do. I wish you well in your future endeavors in life. I am sorry you missed out on the life events of your family, just as my friend who fled Crimea with her son missed being with her mother in Crimea when her mom her died of old age this year. I hope you have greater good fortune in your life than many Ukrainians are having in their lives. Who knows maybe you find some way to help.
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  2.  @kineahora8736  332 million = # people in US 240 million = # of eligible voters in US 180 million = # actually voted in US Okay that is 60% of the US population voted Much higher that the 16% I cited. Which makes my overall case stronger. The higher the percent of US Citizens supported an action then the greater the responsibility any individual must take for the actions of the US Government. Put a somewhat different way, the higher the percentage of the US population that voted for some policy then the less justification that I can make between myself as a US citizen and the US Government. "I didn't vote for him/her" never gives a US citizen a pass on the actions of the US Government
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  3.  @kineahora8736  If you get Medicare benefits as I then I must make personal accounting from accepting those benefits. I can not in good conscience accept the benefits of US citizenship without considering the source of those. Would you accept funds you know were stolen in order to pay for your lifestyle?
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  4.  @kineahora8736  If what you mean by "realpolitik" is that most people conduct themselves without regard to moral or ethical principles then I agree.
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  5.  @kineahora8736  Keep in mind that the original question was whether any arbitrary Russian should take responsibility for what Russia does. In my view the citizens of a country must take responsibility for what their country does. Participating in a society and accepting the benefits of living in that requires that you take responsibility for the actions of your society. I definitely do NOT mean, "your country, love it or leave it" or the even more disgraceful "My Country, Right or Wrong" when that is used to coerce compliance and complicity in wrongful acts. However, in different sense, I do mean "My Country Right or Wrong" in the sense that I can not pick and choose which of the injustices committed by my country I will own up to, and which ones I will claim I was never involved. For example, just because you have never owned slaves, you have benefited from the work of slaves here in the US in the past. You can draw a direct line from our good fortune today back to the misery and misfortune of people forced to work as slaves or even food indentured servants. We never voted for but we benefit from and we have a responsibility to own up to it. Now that may sound a bit abstract because it is distant in time, but the atrocities committed by the Russians are occurring now, and even as we speak.
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  6.  @philiptownsend4026  understandable
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  7.  @victorhopper6774  332 million = # people in US 240 million = # of eligible voters in US 180 million = # actually voted in US Okay that is 60% of the US population voted  Much higher that the 16% I cited. Which makes my overall case stronger. The higher the percent of US Citizens supported an action then the greater the responsibility any individual must take for the actions of the US Government. Put a somewhat different way, the higher the percentage of the US population that voted for some policy then the less justification that I can make between myself as a US citizen and the US Government. "I didn't vote for him/her" never gives a US citizen a pass on the actions of the US Government
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  8.  @kineahora8736  you agreed to about abide by choice of the majority, and you can't back out and renege on your promise just because you personally don't like the outcome.
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  9.  @kineahora8736  That is true, but only if that random Russian acknowledges the responsibility of the country of which he is a citizen. Consider the following, the passport a citizen of one country uses to travel to another country is the property of the country that issued the passport rather than holder of the passport. If someone travels on the passport for some specific country then that person has explicitly availed themselves of the benefits that the country issuing the passport affords to people who use that country's passport to travel. If you disagree with the policies of a country of which you are a citizen and you fail to take responsibility for the actions of that but will enjoy the benefits afforded citizens of that country then you are at least a hypocrite and should be considered an accomplice. I understand that the penalties within Russia are severe; however, if someone has fled Russia because you disagree with the policies and actions of Russia rather than staying and trying to change those policies or protest those actions then at a minimum you should make your protest public when you get outside Russia. Furthermore, you should destroy your Russian passport and give up your Russian citizenship or have very good time explanation why you refused to do that.
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  10.  @kineahora8736  I want to avoid sounding preachy. I do try to take to heart the quote from John Stuart Mill, "The only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world is that good men do nothing"
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