Youtube comments of Posthumanist (@thornelderfin).
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Just UK and France have 3x the economy of Russia (even with their fake numbers). That's not even counting Germany, Italy, Spain, and the rest of Europe. And let's not even compare USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, Korea. The democratic world is almost 70% of entire world economy. Russia is less than 2%. People don't understand how incredibly expensive it is to maintain nuclear weapons and constantly exchange fissile material, otherwise it just won't work (not maybe, 100% won't work, that's physics). Russia cannot absolutely afford to maintain so many nukes with such tiny economy.
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@vaikjsf34a Prigozhin, the one who actually conquered Bakhmut, said it himself 15 months ago in one of his videos that just Wagner Group lost 20 000 soldiers in Bakhmut alone. Prigozhin's words, not mine. Back then you were all saying that Bakhmut is the key to conquer all of Donbas, and that after Bakhmut everything will fall like a domino. Now some 15 months later, we know it was a LIE. Nothing like that happened, and after bloody victory in Bakhmut, that had cost at absolute minimum 20 000 Russian lives (which you totally don't care about, I am sure), Russia didn't move past Bakhmut and didn't conquer all of Donbas, because Bakhmut was not key to anything at all - it was just a meat grinder for both sides, but Ukraine was defending fortified urban area which always gives massive advantage. Russia had to conquer a fortified urban area, which is incredibly difficult and that's why they lost more than 20 000 people. Not just numbers, Humans, with families, friends, love... exactly like you and me. But for an armchair general like you, they are just numbers.
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@DailyMusic What you wrote about Crimea and improvement is exactly what Western European imperialism was saying when they invaded all the places around the world. "Those are savages, just look how they neglect their land... since we took it from them, we built infrastructure, education, farming, industry... we taught them manners! ... I think they are better off now than they were before!" ... I hope nobody ever again uses this argument to colonize another country. Besides it being completely morally wrong and abhorent, what people of Crimea lost by being invaded and annexed by Russia is freedom. They were living in a very imperfect and quite poor Ukraine, but they were free, they had real democracy to vote for the people who represent them. After being annexed by Russia, they can no longer speak freely ("discrediting Russian military" among other things), they cannot have vocal opinion that goes against their government, and they cannot vote for their representatives. This cannot be compensated by any amount of money.
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@todd1770 Well, these are the facts:
1) It had to be an explosion, not natural cause (civil engineers in all media say that the damage it sustained is not consistent with natural causes, and even Russian state TV says the same)
2) The side of the dam where it happened has under control of Russian military and has been for more than 1 year
3) Russia also controls the valves and drained the dam to record levels only to fill it over the maximum limit to 17m (normal is 13m) right before the explosion happened. Why would Russia overfill it like this?
4) I is impossible to destroy reinforced concrete massive dam with artillery or HIMARS, not even with bigger rockets. You would need massive multi-ton bomb to even dent it seriously - which would completely destroy the surrounding buildings and forests. As nothing around is destroyed only explosives placed inside the dam could have done it. This is a technical fact.
5) Russians already blew the dam up in 1941 to kill less than 2 thousand German soldiers while killing 20 - 100 thousand Ukrainians. This is a historical fact. They had to use 20 tons of TNT to do it. We can assume that whoever did it would need to plant more than 20 000 kg of explosives right inside the dam (and this one is tougher). Only Russians have access to the dam, unless you believe in Ukrainian supersoldiers who can move anywhere unnoticed with 20 000 kg of explosives.
6) We know Russia has mined the dam 8 months ago, from social media posts of several Russian officers and Russian military bloggers.
7) We have countless clips from Russian state TV of Russian pundits, analysts and politicians calling for destruction of Ukraine's energy generating capacities, even naming dams in one of the clips. Constantly advocating for it.
8) Russia introduced new executive order that says attacks on infrastructure and catastrophes related to the war will no longer be investigated. Also any government or military official involved will not be prosecuted. This is valid till 2027 according to the decree signed by prime minister of Russia (not president). This was introduced just few days ago, what a coincidence.
Speculative:
8) Ukrainians gained nothing by this - dam that generated electricity for 3 million Ukrainians is gone, their water canals for farming are gone (this is agricultural area - MASSIVE loss for Ukraine and countless tens of thousands of farmers will lose livelihood), and also mass destruction of 80 Ukrainian villages, and of course now that the counter-offensive is starting Ukraine cannot possibly attack from Kherson - there is no way they will be able to get heavy tanks through that flood and then supply them - Russian occupational governor of Kherson oblast even admitted it on TV few hours ago. Massive advantage for Russian military in fear of Ukrainian counter-offensive. Now Ukrainian military has to focus on rescue efforts. And it's not a brilliant military maneuver because it's a war crime under article 56 of annex (1977) to Geneva Conventions.
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Nuclear weapons expire after little more than 10 years. Half-life of Tritium is 12 years (12.33). Nuclear weapons need frequent very expensive maintenance and replacement of the fissile material every 10 years. Russia has economy smaller than Canada. Their military budget is 63 billion USD, there is no way they can spare more than 10% of that on nuclear weapons, realistically 5%. 3 billion is Elon Musk's pocket money, not something that would allow you to keep 6000 nuclear weapons in working order (including those ICBM carriers and all the facilities). Now factor in the insane level of corruption Russia has (dead last in Europe corruption index, Ukraine is 2nd worst). If you are a Russian colonel or general you are stealing from EVERYWHERE, including nuclear budget (easiest to hide, as you don't expect them to ever be used). They have nothing, just old wrecks that don't work, and Russia needs a lot of missiles to completely overwhelm NATO defense systems. They simply don't have enough of them to do that. I wouldn't be worried about Russian nuclear weapons. They have nothing. ... Also Peskov has daughter in Europe, Lavrov has daughter in London, Solovyov has 2 sons in London and 2 in USA and Putin has mistress in Switzerland with all their children.
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@DrMemesYT You: "Who said that Russia was going to take Kyiv in 3 days?"
-- Food and fuel rations on invading Russian soldiers. RIA Novosti article that got accidentally published on their website... and pretty much most of western and Russian analysts said that. It wasn't entirely unreasonable if you expect that you are so large and so powerful, attacking 30x smaller country with 1/3 the population and 10% of your military budget - that the government will run away, military will fold and everyone will just give up against such overwhelming odds. That's why even western analysts were expecting Kyiv to fall in 3 days without significant fighting. The problem is not that Russian's thought that, the problem is that in their typical Russian arrogance, they didn't make a plan B, what to do if for some reason Ukraine goes on a stubborn suicidal fight back. Government didn't flee, military decided to actually fight back even against such odds, and people started to gain self-confidence and national pride (nobody did more for Ukrainian national pride and unity than Russia). Then entire West rallied behind Ukraine and at that point it wasn't 3 days to Kyiv but "impossible to win for Russia against collective West" (West is 67% of world's economy, Russia is just above 1%; NATO is 1 billion people, Russia is only 0.14 billion; some people do not realize how ridiculously one-sided NATO vs Russia is; 141 countries out of 180 voted against Russia in the UN and only 4 voted with Russia (Belarus, Eritrea, Syria and North Korea), it was obvious at that point that there is absolutely no possiblity for Russia to win this in any way - the west will not allow it).
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@r.a.acosta6528 They are not keeping Greenland. Danish PM said, if Greenland wants complete independence and can sustain itself, they can have it. But Greenland does NOT want to be part of USA, they want to be completely independent one day, till then they are dependent on Denmark. We are not in colonial era that we can give entire nations of people to someone else like trading cards. Only people of Greenland can make that decision. Why is USA pressuring Denmark, as if they were some "owners" of people in Greenland. Why not fly to Greenland and give them something they want? It's not that many people. But after what they are seeing with Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam... they are not stupid, they know it won't be good for them. Now they have free healthcare, free education, government funded retirement, long maternity leaves and all the EU labor protection laws. Who would want to give that up?
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@nekosoup0401 Chechnya - dude, that is exactly the same situation as Donbas. Part of a country wants to be independent... and Russia leveled Grozny to the ground and killed 100 000 civilians. If Ukraine did that in Donbas, Russia would nuke it already. This is double standard. So either you allow regions to go as independent countries (then Chechnya is independent, Kosovo is independent) or you don't allow anyone out (then Donbas and Crimea should never be allowed). One or the other.
Iran - yeah, this was also a f**kup from the US side... they toppled democratic president and replaced him with a monarch
So no, for most of these Russia is not to blame (but for some yes, I noted with ones).
As one of the countries that were occupied for 40 years by Russia and that is now EU/NATO I can tell you we WANTED to join NATO, to be protected against another occupation from Russia. Regular people voted 20 years ago and overwhelmingly decided to join NATO (and later EU). I know, because I was there, I voted 20 years ago. It's not like US and EU hypnotized us or anything. Same with Ukraine. I know A LOT of friends from Ukraine and they all wanted to join EU (because of high standard of living, of course) and many of them want to join NATO because they were scared shitless of getting invaded by Russia (which turned to be very realistic fear). EuroMaidan might have been assisted by CIA (they do such things), but be 100% sure that Ukrainians wanted EU and NATO anyway. It's their country, their decision. I can tell you our life here is 500% better since we joined EU - standard of living is much much better, free travel anywhere, good healthcare - really good life. So maybe we are "puppet of the west" but is really nice life with a lot of freedom. I don't want to go back to being occupied by Russia.
And no, nobody here wanted to invade Russia. That is INSANE! First, nobody wants that just out of principle (war is horrible in any form). Second, Russia has 5500+ nukes, nobody is EVER going to invade Russia. I don't understand why Russia is constantly scared of being attacked.
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@LMB222 Yes, but they had a very fair and honest chance at democracy in 1990s. I remember it well and even talked to some of them back then. Yes, it was chaos and poverty, but they didn't even put up a fight, they just rolled on their back and said "strongman Putin (dictator) please save us". Other post-communist countries (including mine) had to fight really hard to get out of that very same situation at the same time, and we also had strong men who wanted to save us, and we kicked them out, massive demonstrations in the streets, we fought for our democracy really hard, multiple times. We were born under same repressive system. How come Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, ... - how come all these countries were able to do it, but Russia was not. Even Ukraine was able to do it - the Orange revolution and Maidan revolution. Even Ukrainians, born under stronger repression than Russians, were able to fight for their own democracy. But not Russians. ... So I understand what you say (and you are 100% correct), but it's their fault. They had their chance in 1990s and they squandered it.
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@raze956 "self interest"? So you don't care about children being murdered, women raped and murdered, hundreds of thousands of people dead... you are "Not my problem, I have my own self-interests".
It's people who don't care only their own self-interest or their own ethnicity, race, country... that helped WWII to happen. When Hitler wanted to annex Czechoslovakia in 1938, France and UK threw it to Hitler as a sacrifice - in self-interest of peace. How did that work out for them? Also when France, Belgium, Netherlands and Norway got invaded and UK attacked, USA was milkwarm "Let Europeans fight their own war". How did that work out for them?
Do not ignore your neighbor being slaughtered, it's immoral and it will come for your too. So no, following only self-interest of your country is not morally acceptable, it is abhorent behavior.
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It's not about ability of AI to do certain things (I am sure AI will be able to do everything that we can, and even better, one day), but it's all about costs. AI running costs are going to go down, but building a physical robot is like building a car - it's still very expensive and it will go down in price slowly. If you have dirt-cheap human labor that can compete with the robots, then it could take many years until robots replace all manual workers. But in the end, we will all lose jobs - which is comforting, because that means there will have to be a global solution (if people have no no money, who will buy the products and services? nobody... so there is no economy, there is no civilization ... which means people will just take physically whatever they want and there are no billionaires and millionaires anymore ... the only way is to give people at least some money (perhaps UBI, I don't know) to prevent them from revoling and to keep them buying products and servies so the economy can exist)
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@nekosoup0401 "We, like suckers, fell for another lie from your countries, we thought we would live like yours, with jeans and burgers and the rich. But once again we were left out with sanctions, and ordinary people suffer."
-- This was still possible 2 months ago. Everything you said was real and possible in Russia. If only there wasn't this one invasion, you could have lived like that forever. Russia was doing well. But Putin is old and wanted to put his name in history next to Peter the Great, to restore the greatness not of Soviet Union but that of the Russian Empire. Make Russia great again. He thought he will blitzkrieg Ukraine so fast that by the time EU and US even wakes up it will be completely occupied (as we speak Russia soldiers are removing Ukrainian flags everywhere and putting Russian... in rare instances even Soviet flags - can you imagine the horrific PTSD this brings in Ukrainians? after Holodomor and everything... even Russian Ministry of Defense (so not western media) shown Russian tanks going into battle and one had Soviet Flag... this scares the shit out of all of us)... so Putin thought he would do it so fast that US and EU will not have time to respond, EU would be useless as allways because of lots of business deals with Russia and reliance on gas and oil, and that there would be same mild sanctions (like after taking Crimea) and that he would be considered as a hero at home. Putin the Great. Like when he managed to get Crimea under Russia. Perhaps Moldova and Georgia next. Rebuilding the great empire. If only he hadn't done this, Russians could have lived same life as last year and years before that. Nobody would even dare to attack nuclear superpower, business was good, everything was working. But all this horrible suffering everywhere only because of one man's ambition to rebuild an empire. (you may completely disagree, I am just offering you how we see it in the west from our point of view) That's why I said that if someone would to replace Putin (anyone, up to the Russians) and calm the situation down, remove all troops, then there could be at least some trade restored, sanctions lifted... but that's not going to happen. Putin is also incredibly stuborn and doesn't know how to lose - he would rather die than to take even the smallest humiliation of defeat... so if the war doesn't go well (which is practically guarateed with unlimited support from the west for Ukraine) then he will resort to more brutal tactics destroying entire country into dust (like Chechnya, like Syria)... and when that doesn't work (because of economy, missiles are incredibly expensive) then he might resort to small tactical nuke to force Ukraine to surrender (or even just detonate nuke over Arctic ocean as a warning shot). The moment he does that, there is a "small" nuke flying for Russia, to which he has to respond or be humiliatred, and you know how this ends - every single military prediction of such scenario ends with end of the world. This is my greatest fear of all the fears. Someone 100% rational and calm has to lead Russia, someone who would never ever ever under anyh circumstance use nuclear weapons as the first one.
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For people who think it was a brilliant Russian PsyOp.
What did Ukraine/NATO/West lose:
=> Embarrassment for politicians who were overly optimistic about Russia falling apart in a civil war = humiliation / embarrassment
What did Russia lose:
=> 25 000 of its best soldiers (Russian military has been only losing territory for 12 months straight, the only one who gained anything at all on Russian side was Wagner Group - now they are gone from Ukraine and possibly disbanded as a danger to the regime)
=> International humiliation and embarrassment for Russia when the world found out that Russia not only cannot protect its borders, but also any of its major cities including Moscow. There are absolutely no soldiers left in Russia, everyone is in Ukraine. If any country invaded Russia now it would take Moscow even with a very small army. Now for the whole world to see. Russia has nothing left - what we see in Ukraine is all that is left.
=> Putin has been revealed as a weak leader and a coward - coup in his country with large army marching on the capital city and he is just hiding in his bunker not giving any statements for 15 yours straight, pretending that nothing is happening - coward. For whole world to see and for all Russians to see.
=> Lots of civilians in Rostov cheered Wagner soldiers in the streets, giving them food and water, taking pictures with them and supporting them. This has revealed that many people in Russia do wish Putin's regime to be toppled. For the whole world to see, that Putin's 80% approval rate is fake.
=> Russian government has revealed itself to be absolutely incompetent to organize any resistance against Wagner. The maximum they could do was crash some dump trucks as a roadblock, that was removed by Wagner instantly. Then they excavated small part of the road and built one machine gun positions with 10 sandbags. All the defenders were just police and a handful of national guard - against TANKS and battle hardened mercenaries. Incompetent. Same with Russian media - they were so confused they didn't know what to air - no coordination, no plan, no spin - just videos about cutting grass on a stadium (1991 'Swan Lake moment').
=> Russia lost 6 combat helicopters, 1 very expensive military airplane and 13 trained pilots (all dead)
I am sure all these losses were worth the slight humiliation of western politicians. You have all been fooled! Russian PsyOp well done!
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@@fleshnbone187 You: "Let's take Ukraine for example, what have they accomplished as an independent country since 1991?"
-- I live next to Ukraine, my best friend is Ukrainian, I have 6 refugees in my house since start of the war and I've been to Ukraine many times and once to Russia, so I can compare. Yes, Ukraine is the poorest country in Europe by GDP per capita (which is not a reason for an invasion) and it has many problems, but they achieved something that Russians never did - Ukrainians were able to break the chains of totalitarian dictatorship, stop being sheep and transform into a truly democratic and free country (with lots of problems). They changed their mentality from thinking "government knows best and they are my leaders" to "government are my servants, they represent my will, not heir own personal opinions and they exist only and only because I allow it - they are my SERVANTS they I pay to represent me". This is massive shift in a mindset that did NOT happen in Russia and after 8 years of chaos Russians once again reverted to their old totalitarian mindset and searched for "strong dominant alpha-male leader" (Putin) and they are again in this Czar / Lenin / Stalin / Putin mentality. They want to be ruled. Ukrainians don't. Ukrainians have mentality and values that are much closer to EU than they are to Russia. That's what they achieved since 1991 (your question). Also do not mention corruption in Ukraine, because right now at this moment go search corruption index in Europe and you will find that Ukraine is second most corrupt country in Europe... right after RUSSIA. I've been to both countries - definitely true.
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@moiseshuerta3984 You: "100,000 Ukranian casualties to grind down Drunken conscripts with no winter gear???" -- Of those only 25-30k are killed, the rest are wounded (counted together it's called casualties). It's much much easier to find men willing to fight when your country has been brutally invaded and your people are getting killed (it doesn't matter what you personally think, it only matters what Ukrainian men think is the truth). It is always much much more difficult to find men willing to fight when invading another country and your own has not been attacked, your relatives are not being killed. That's why more than 1 million Russians already left Russia. Each subsequent mobilization will be a lot more difficult politically inside Russia. And it still applies, this is irrelevant, the only relevant thing is how technologically advanced weapons will Ukraine get (like in the beginning Javelins, NLAWs, Bayraktars, HIMARS, mortar drones - these technologies completely changed the tide) and whether West will keep supporting Ukraine economically (18 billion going from EU to UA). If US weapons and EU money keeps flowing, Ukraine will stand.
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@Chaldon-hl6yk You: "Poland was with the Nazis since 1934 Hitler - Pilsudsky pact."
-- Interesting that in 1939 there was a JOINT MILITARY PARADE with NAZI GERMANY and RED ARMY. So you make joint military parades on conquered territory, call in all the press and photographers, whole world knows about it, millions and millions of witnesses... Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany were invading Europe - country by country, like brothers, having joint military parades, Soviet Union sent millions of tons of wheat, iron, steel, ore to Nazi Germany... for entire 2 years of the war like best Nazi brothers... until Hitler betrayed Stalin (Stalin refused to even believe it when he got the news), because Nazi Germany didn't want to share with Soviet Russia, they wanted everything for themselves. Poor Russia is the victim in all this - right?
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@nekosoup0401 Ok, I will study more on Chechnya. It might be possible some of what you say is true.
I can explain NATO's purpose - if you have gigantic military alliance that has armies completely integrated (NATO troops rotate to other countries and work in mixed teams - it's really like one army, all technology is interconnected) then you will not have wars inside NATO (between two NATO states). EU is non-military just economic and political alliance, but it prevents war inside EU (very successfuly).
Second reason is to prevent situation like Ukraine. Because Russia can easily say that "Russian speakers in Estonia are abused" and invade Estonia (that would be very sad). But now it cannot - there is not way to do that without killing everyone in a nuclear war. So small countries band together to protect against Russia. That is purpose of NATO.
"Russia has begun to cooperate closely with everyone" - Yes, and have you heard any single threat from NATO to Russia before the situation in Ukraine? There was none, zero, nobody said any threat to Russia. Maybe Russian media say such things, but I can assure you over here nobody even talked about threatening Russia in any way. We were all chill and ignored Russia (in EU).
"She is afraid of an attack or a coup d'état like Euromaidan" - Well, NATO doesn't do things like that, CIA does. Being afraid of NATO will not save you from revolution. And if CIA was able to do coup d'état in Russia don't you think at this very moment it would be happening in Russia? My point was, that being afraid of military invasion is extremely irrational for military power with 5500 nuclear weapons. Being afraid of a coup / revolution, that is completely different thing that has nothing to do with foreign military. Speaking for myself and my country - nobody ever talked about regime change in Russia for the past 30 years... untill February 24th... now of course we are talking about it - there is a feeling here that if Putin was about to be replaced but someone more reasonable in his circles (general, oligarch, politican - nobody cares, just more reasonable than Putin), that they would stop the war and we can finally talk like Humans and go to sleep not being worried about nuclear weapons.
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I see a lot of denial from my fellow programmers. You have to understand ChatGPT is a toddler with a calculator. 2 years ago it was completely unuseable. 6 months ago it wrote primitive buggy code. Now it writes "ok" code and explanations with some bugs (like entry level programmer). Give it few more months, few more years and it will do everything from the very idea of what software to actually make (just ask ChatGPT today for ideas for a creative weird game, movie, software, YouTube video - it will make you cry laughing at its original comedy, and it will only get more creative as it upgrades), what parameters the software should have, design high level architecture, code all the modules, debug everything, create final product, create marketing analysis, write marketing bullshit, create video and graphics for ads, transfer all the funds and then continuously support the software including virtual call center. Machine Learning can learn anything that we can as humans, but unlike us, it can upgrade its capacity continuously with almost no limit. We cannot upgrade our brains at all. This is a competition we cannot possibly win in the long run. What you see today are a first steps of a toddler. Just give it a few more years. And you can bet your salary corporations will replace humans the very first second it will reduce their costs - same way they are outsourcing to India right now. But at that point all other professions will lose their job to AI too, not just artists and programmers. There will have to be some really fundamental solution to this problem like universal basic income, or something similar. AI companies know this, they are already experimenting with UBI and alternatives.
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@Bestssword You mean those rusty nukes? Nuclear weapons need frequent very expensive maintenance of all components every year and replacement of the fissile material every 10 years (if you don't do this, the chain reaction will not start - this is just physics). Russia has small economy similar in size to that of Spain. Their military budget is 63 billion USD, there is no way they can realistically space more than 5% on maintenance of nuclear weapons. 3 billion is Elon Musk's pocket money, not something that would allow you to keep 6000 nuclear weapons in working order (including those ICBM carriers and all the facilities). Now factor in the insane level of corruption Russia has (dead last in Europe corruption index, Ukraine is 2nd worst). If you are a Russian colonel or general you are stealing from EVERYWHERE, including nuclear budget (easiest to hide, as you don't expect them to ever be used). Russia has nothing, everything is just bloated on paper - typical Russia. Russia would need a lot of missiles to completely overwhelm NATO defense systems. They simply don't have enough of them to do that. I wouldn't be worried about Russian nuclear weapons. They have nothing. ... Also Peskov has daughter in Europe, Lavrov has daughter in London, Solovyov has 2 sons in London and 2 daughters in USA and Putin has mistress with all their children in Switzerland. Russia is just trying to scare the west into submission. Unfortunately this is working, a lot of people here are constantly scared.
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@randomnobody660 "I just think it's also possible to be oversensitive of any discussion that even tangentially involves race, and making such mentions taboo is also unproductive."
-- I absolutely agree with that - taboo will only make it a pressure cooker that will explode one day. And maybe I am oversensitive, I am from a completely white country in Central Europe with no imigrants... and my wife is from Africa (I lived there for a time). Real racists make it extremely dangerous for my children. We have never done anything wrong to anyone, but racists don't care, they just see dark and go into violence mode (we had 3 killings here in the past decade - complete strangers, no talking, just straight murder in the middle of the street and on the bus, it got into media, was condemned by politicians, but that doesn't bring the victims back to life). Also most of the racists here have never seen a black person in their entire life (until they visit the capital city and even then it's extremely rare). Their racism cannot possibly come from personal experience but is propelled by media (both mainstream and "alternative" facist websites/social media). We are already planning to leave, I don't want to live in fear for my family. So I may be oversensitive to this topic.
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@AnatolianHittite You: "What are the European values you are talking about here?"
-- This is a misunderstanding. I didn't mean culture. I said core values (not just values, core values). These are basic values of freedom for everyone (even religious, sexual or ethnic minorities) (I am not saying going overboard with Woke/SJW, but freedom and equal rights, no discriminatin or harassment). Secular government (religion has absolutely no place in laws or the governemnt, it is a separate entity and a private matter of individual citizens). Democracy with 1 person = 1 vote principle, separation of executive, legislative and judicative branches of government, no suppression of opposition, no ownership of large media empires by politicians, no state control over all media (censorship). And of course freedom of speech and freedom of media. No government overreach into private life of people (for example sexual). These are core values that most of the people in EU share. None of the things I wrote are extremes (one way or the other).
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@UniDocs_Mahapushpa_Cyavana So you belive Russia has a say whether Slovaks can vote in a referendum to join EU and NATO or not. That Russia makes the decision about Slovakia, not people living here, because we are all idiots not able to make our own decisions about our own country. Same for Ukraine - if they want to join EU and NATO, you belive they are not really humans, so they don't have a right to make that decision, Russia has to make it. So by the same logic Slovakia makes the decision about who can and cannot be Russian president. This entire war is only because Slovakia was disrespected by Russians when they elected Vladimir Putin. Russians knew this will anger Slovakia, yet they did it anyway and now will be destroyed. ... See how your logic works, one country making decisions about another country instead of people living there. If Ukrainians want to join EU and NATO Russia has absolutely no say in that, same way if Russia wants to join CSTO or alliance with China, Ukraine has no say in that. Same thing. All humans are equal, so all countries must be equal as well, countries are just people.
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@davidmitchell3020 I love it how when it comes to attrocities like Holodomor / Stalin killing 50 million people inside Soviet Union, it's never Russia (Moscow), I always hear "That was Soviet Union, not Russia, everyone is to blame, and Soviet Union no longer exists dummy" But when it comes to science, weapons, or UN SC seat, it's "Soviet Union was always Russia, so Russia did all of those things and deserves UN SC alone, all the other 14 Soviet Republics do not deserve any UN SC seat".
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@deanjustdean7818 Regarding nukes. Nuclear weapons expire after little more than 10 years. Half-life of Tritium is 12 years (12.33). Nuclear weapons need frequent very expensive maintenance and replacement of the fissile material every 10 years. Russia has economy smaller than Canada. Their military budget is 63 billion USD, there is no way they can spare more than 10% of that on nuclear weapons, realistically 5%. 3 billion is Elon Musk's pocket money, not something that would allow you to keep 6000 nuclear weapons in working order (including those ICBM carriers and all the facilities). Now factor in the insane level of corruption Russia has (dead last in Europe corruption index, Ukraine is 2nd worst). If you are a Russian colonel or general you are stealing from EVERYWHERE, including nuclear budget (easiest to hide, as you don't expect them to ever be used). They have nothing, just old wrecks that don't work, and Russia needs a lot of missiles to completely overwhelm NATO defense systems. They simply don't have enough of them to do that. I wouldn't be worried about Russian nuclear weapons. They have nothing. ... Also Peskov has daughter in Europe, Lavrov has daughter in London, Solovyov has 2 sons in London and 2 in USA and Putin has mistress in Switzerland with all their children.
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@krishnaisaga4817 How exactly is Russia standing strong? If you are standing strong you don't need to forcibly mobilize 300 000 soldiers (possibly more), if you are strong you don't wonder who stole 1.5 million uniforms (like Russia), helmets, boots, gear. If you are strong, you don't go begging Iran for drones (because Russia doesn't have any... they never thought about it before). If you are strong you don't go to North Korea asking for ammunition and weapons, Libya, Syria and Egypt too. If you are strong you don't lose 8000 km² in 1 week. These are all signs that Russia is weak and the war is absolutely not going well for them. Then we have withdrawal from Kyiv, sinking of Moskva, hitting the bridge... Russia is losing a war against 30x smaller country which gets like 1% of NATO budget in weapons support (NATO 1200 - 1700 billion, Ukraine help 17 billion). Russia just saw mere 1% of NATO power, and not even any fighter jets, cruise missiles, aircraft carriers, submarines ... just sutff like Javelins, some old artillery and a very small number of HIMARS.
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@SebastianHaban Russia says it has 3 million soldiers (1 active + 2 reserve), they invaded with 150k and after 50k being killed they had to mobilize 300k plumbers, car mechanics, programmers (where are their 3 million soldiers? nowhere! it was all a lie). Russia says it has 13k tanks, and now we found out they have only 3k and already desperately use T-64 ancient tanks (those 13k were again a lie). Russia barely flies any jets (where are their 3000 jets to demolish Ukraine in one day? they used less than 300 and already lost half of them… so nowhere, it was a lie). Even Russian mobilized conscripts have to buy their own helmet, armor, shovel, medkit, everything except weapon, because their potential to mobilize 25 million soldiers was again - a lie. And their nukes? nowhere, because it is a lie - like everything else in Russia. Nuclear weapons need very expensive maintenance every 5 years and replacement of fissile material every 10 years. This is extremely expensive and impossible to do on 6000 nuclear weapons with the very small budget Russia has (face it, Russia is a poor country and some things are simply impossible when you don't have the funds for it) and subtract the insane level of corruption and stealing they have in their military as evidenced numerously this year. Russia will be lucky if they have a handful of nukes that even work (after 10 years the nukes simply won't have enough excess neutrons to have critical mass for fission, this is physics, no way around it). On the other hand USA just spent stupid amount of money on modernization of their nuclear arsenal 3 years ago and are constantly funding very expensive maintenance. Any nuclear exchange between USA and Russia would be very one sided endeavor.
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@Poctyk Alright, what you wrote now at least makes sense. Now the real world data:
GDP (PPP) per capita (I chose PPP to compare standard of living which influences someone's decision to move abroad / brain drain, not just GDP nominal, as higher wage is useless in a country that is extremely expensive to live in - PPP accounts for that)
Germany = $ 63,150 (World Bank, 2022, but IMF has very similar number)
Australia = $ 62,625 (World Bank, 2022, but IMF has similar number again)
I just run comparison of 30+ economy factors are Germany and Australia are remarkably similar in almost every aspect (per capita). Even very low uneployment rate.
Now average wages (no access to nominal ones):
Germany = $ 57,958
Australia = $ 63,864
In Australia, you earn a little bit more, but also life expenses are little bit higher, in the end you couldn't tell a difference on your personal finances living in one or another. Go and check the actual data.
GINI (income inequality index - important for wellbeing)
Germany = 29.7 (2017)
Australia = 34.3 (2018) (slightly worse)
Human Development Index (HDI)
Germany = 0.942
Australia = 0.951 (very slightly better)
You picked Germany as a representation of Europe/EU, not me.
You have some self-created image of Europe that is not based in facts and numbers. Europe is a mix of most developed and rich countries in the world (Switzerland, Luxembourg, Norway, Iceland) with developed, and several "on the way to be fully developed" (Central and Eastern). If Europe experiences slowdown in growth or even stagnation, it is still a very rich place with incredibly high standard of living. That's like saying that if US economy shrunk by -2% everyone would be starving and it would be a horrible place to live. No. Japan had 30 years of stagnation, and they are still incredibly powerful economy with very high standard of living.
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@hefywefy5331 I know you didn't mention Slovakia, but I will comment on it. 20 years ago Hungarian government was pushing the same agenda - that Hungarian native speakers in Slovakia are oppressed (same as Putin last year). When the truth was they were not oppressed at all. They live in the most fertile region of the country, they were not poor by any means, and were treated exactly as everyone else. But Hungarian government had a feeling they want to go back 100 years and rebuild Great Hungary. It just fueled our nationalists in Slovakia and they were getting more and more votes (only and only because of this). Then over the following decade Hungarian native speakers in Slovakia (10% of the population) united into one political party, got consistently 10% in every election and became part of the government, and pushed some small reforms like Hungarian schools and local government using Hungarian as an option and some road signs in Hungarian. All the tensions fell, and since then it is not even talked about anywhere. They were ALWAYS treated the same as everyone else in the country, and now they have special treatment with Hungarian language. They are doing really well financially and are happy where they are. Yet I read from time to time that Hungarians are oppressed here. How? I've been there many times, I've dated there, my extended family (not by blood) is from there, some of my friends are from there (all Hungarian native speakers), none of them ever complained to me, not once. So I am wondering if it's not similar in the other places you have named. How exactly are they oppressed there?
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@AnatolianHittite But NATO is very different from EU. NATO is a defensive military alliance, and I don't care about core values of my military ally if I can depend on him defending me if invaded and I will in turn defend his territorial integrity if invaded. That's all. We don't need to agree on anything else (maybe just very basic high level geopolitics orientations, but that's all). European Union is so much more than that - we have parliament, government (EU Comission), we have many common laws and norms that supersede local country laws (really) and of course no borders, common currency, common labor market, freedom of movement and tax/import market. EU is integrated political entity that has some power over its member states. Like I wrote above - EU is halfway there to a superstate / federation. This is very different than NATO. So it really does have a lot to do with our "ridiculous European values" (if you don't like them, you wouldn't like EU Comission imposing laws on Turkey that force them against your traditions or religion - and this would 100% happen in Turkey joined the EU). I don't mean this as some attack on Turkey or saying it is "unworthy". No. It is just incompatible. That's all. I want good relations with Turkey and it's yours (their) land, so none of my business who Turks vote for or what rules or religions they have over there, none of my business.
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@MrMichiel1983 Solution is definitely going to be a healthy mix of wind, solar, tide, hydro, decentralized solar and wind (local and personal), nuclear, geothermal and hopefully one day fusion (still decades away, but it is only a matter of when, not if). Same with storage and load balancing, everything from pumped hydro, through CAES and flywheels to various technologies of batteries and closed loop hydrogen. There is no point in focusing on single technology to the point of excluding others. We will need everything, and even that might still not be enough.
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@@fleshnbone187 You: "Soviet, it wasn't all bad either. Free healthcare, housing, education, industralization"
-- That's like saying that Nazi Germany was not all bad - it had ORDER, low criminality, services worked and everything was well organized, and that "For many, these were vital aspects of life". Yet you do not see Germans being nostalgic about their great empire (3rd Reich), you don't seen Germans running arround with swastika flags, but you see Russians running around with Soviet flags. You don't see Japanese being nostalgic about their great empire. Both these countries transformed... Russia didn't.
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@jeremyisaac4958 I can explain that. My country has been occupied by Russia for 40 years. I've been born into it and grown up in it. Then we were finally free when Soviet Union collapsed. Then we got opportunity to join NATO and EU. No politician made that decision, nobody was coerced, there was no media campaign to persuade anyone, nobody was bribed - every adult in the country voted (or abstained) and we all voted overwhelmingly to join NATO and EU (separate votes). I know, I was there 20 years ago, I voted. USA didn't force or coerce us and Russia has no say in it - it is our country, we decide, nobody else. Chechnya wanted to leave - Russia brutally repressed them, flattened Grozny and killed 100-300k civilians. Then Russia attacked Georgia and stole 2 entire regions from them (Abchazia, South Ossetia). Before that Russia stole part of Moldova and still have 1500 Russian soldiers there. Then Crimea, then Donbas, now Ukraine. I am glad my country is in NATO and EU and even if it wasn't we would still fight to the death to not be occupied by Russia AGAIN. Ukrainians are right now fighting to the death not to be occupied by Russia AGAIN.
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@ 15 years ago I was diagnosed with cancer here in Central Europe (not even the "good part of EU"). My doctor called me and told me to get papers from him and immediatelly go to specific hospital, just ask family to get my things from home, don't waste any time. I got to hospital, was processed and my surgery was next early morning. That one-year waiting lists are a myth to make Americans accept their extortionist healthcare system. Reality is you wait 2-3 months for things that are not dangerous (minor problems), which sucks, it's not perfect, but the moment you get anything serious, you are processed immediately. And there is no paperwork, everything is completely free, no matter what treatment you need and for how long, and that's including the pharmacy of course, also free.
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I made a similar mistake. I have been watching The Greyzone (Aaron Mate, Ben Norton, Max Blumenthal) and other anti-imperialist channels for the past 4 years. I really thought they are anti-imperialist and expose all the CIA coups and military interventions/invasions that USA did (and that was correct). But now when Russia invaded all of Ukraine in February, they all 100% support Russia and spread insane lies about Ukraine. How I know this? I am from Central Europe, I was born under Russian occupation (with tanks and everything) and I was forced to grow up under it. I've been to Russia and I've been to Ukraine 5 times, I have 30+ Ukrainian friends including my second best friend (like my sister) and I have 6 "ethnic Russian" refugees at my home (who now hate Russia to death). So the things these anti-imperialist US channels say about Ukrainians are ridiculous lies - I've seen it with my own eyes, I've been there. I realized I made a huge mistake, people like Max Blumenthal, Ben Norton, Aaron Mate - they are not anti-imperialist, they are just anti-USA ... always were. My huge mistake. I will learn from it.
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@cityboy9301 Sure, but we all know Britain was an imperial power (at one point largest in history). We all know it was horrible. But Britain got rid of its colonies. France, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Belgium - got rid of their colonies. Not Russia (entire Siberia and Far East are Russian colonies - they suppressed native Asian population, move Russians in, extract diamonds, metals, coal, gas, oil - and all the riches go to Moscow, while Siberia and Far East live in 1800s outside of big cities. Colonies. In 21st century. And Ukraine is just another ex-colony that Russia wants back. Simple as that.
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@BladeTheWatcher I understand where you're coming from (official Russian numbers), but that is very inconsistent with what we see in reality. They claim to have 13000 tanks, yet we see absolute majority of them are derelict wrecks (satellite images, the cold storages are just large open fields / "tank parking lots") because they left it in the open for decades (not to mention those are T-62s (museum pieces) and T-72s (outdated)). In the end it's more like 3000 tanks that work and already desperately using T-62 on the battlefield. Similar with fighter jets. Claim to have 3000, we've seen barely 400 (most were already shot down). Same with soldiers - they claim 3 million soldiers (1 million active + 2 million reservists), yet they run out of soldiers at 0.2 million in Ukraine + some to defend borders, and had to mobilize 0.3 million and even those are no reservists, many of them have zero military training. Telegram is completely flooded with families of soldiers fundraising money so they can buy helmet and armor for their sons and husbands, because Russian army will give them a rifle (often rusty) and some uniform, that's all, everything else in their gear they have to buy themselves... so 3 million soldiers was a lie (like with the tanks and jets) and their ability to mobilize 25 million untrained soldiers is also a lie, because they don't have gear for even the existing ones. To understand that ALL NUMBERS out of Russia are fake, you would have to grow up under Russian occupation (like I did in the 1980s) and see it for yourself. If you don't lie to your superiors about stocks, successes and no problems, you will never be promoted, sometimes even punished. Our old saying from that era: "If you report a problem, you will become the problem". Do not overestimate Russia - their main weapon is fear. Do not let them control you through it.
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@AnatolianHittite You: "In short, we are incompatible because we are not a country that can be digested in alliance."
-- Yes, I think you are right. EU is a superstate in a way (not entirely, but partially), and you have to give up some of your sovereignty and control over various laws, borders, market, norms, laws (not all, just some). I don't think Turkey is willing to give up part of their (your) sovereignty for integration into EU. ... You were a regional superpower many generations ago, and you still have this pride in you, you still feel you are entitled to more power. Giving up any sovereignty at all must feel humiliating (I assume all this, if I am wrong tell me). I am from a small Central European country, last time we were a regional dominant power was 1400 years ago, and then followed by 1000 years of being occupied and "enslaved" (only to be free for 20 years before being invaded and occupied by Hitler and then invaded and occupied by Russia, so you see why we need NATO and EU). So we do not have this pride, we do not have a freeling we are entitled to anything. We had no problem giving up part of sovereinty for being part of a larger EU family (we still have a voice inside the EU, it's just propotional to our small population - that is fair). For a small country like mine it was very beneficial. Now we are protected, both from external threats and also from our local idiot politicians screwing up the economy (I don't trust them). But I understand if some countries want to do it their own way and do not need or want the EU. I truly do understand it. Different country, different situation.
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@CharlesNauck You have interesting experiences. I have actually lived in the Philippines for more than 2 years. In the least developed part all the way in the south (I absolutely love Philippines, it's like my second homeland). One of my neighbors was a black guy from Caribbean (very dark skin tone). I have not seen any racism toward him - he was more of a rarity there. But I have seen A LOT of non-violent racism between Filipinos themselves based on skin tone (which also corelates with socio-economic status over there).
About white person being mugged in some parts of Africa - I think this has more to do with levels of criminality than with race (except South Africa, Zimbabwe and similar, where it also has revenge element). If you were a Nigerian mugger and you saw a white man, you would know that is probably a juicy target. I lived in a surprisingly safe and friendly part of Senegal and not only I had no problems whatsoever, but I haven't even seen any violence there at all (except two old ladies fighting at the wet market, and two guys almost having a car accident and then wanted to fight each other right there in the street - but bystanders immediately pulled them apart). I guess I was lucky with the country.
I've heard about Arabs and East Asians being supremacists to their own respective races, but I have not been in both places (Emirates, Taiwan) long enough to experience it. I have 100 criticisms of USA, but I am incredibly impressed by their ability to import people from 240 countries in the world, from thousands of cultures and religions… and not kill each other. I have incredible respect for this achievement. Rwanda had just 2 tribes, USA has thousands. It truly is a melting pot of our civilization.
Moroccans shouting "Japanese! Chinese!" to your SE Asian wife could have been just their inexperience, no? People from my Central European country cannot distinguish between different Asian ethnicities at all. It took me years of living there to learn it. Also their fascination with blond guys and girls might be because it is so exotic for them. I am incredibly attracted to one specific type of African woman, more than anything in the world. I don't know why nature programmed me like this, but it is nothing malicious.
Man, we both dated African and SE Asian women, and we both could pass for an Arab. What a coincidence.
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@oliverpoppinz4340 List of countries invaded by NATO:
-- Bosnia: NATO implemented no-fly zone over Bosnia, so Serbia cannot bomb them. NATO didn't invade Bosnia. This was under United Nations Security Council Resolution 816 - which means Russia authorized it and signed it.
-- Kosovo and Serbia: NATO bombed Serbia and pushed them out of Kosovo. This was done without UN Security Council approval, and is the only instance when it can be even remotely argued that NATO went to war. It lasted 3 months, stopped ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia and NATO didn't INVADE any land, NATO didn't annex any land or occupy any land. Serbia was and is free - hates guts of NATO and EU, has strong ties with Russia, and is not part of NATO, so it cannot possibly count as an invasion, it can count as NATO war with no intent of capturing territory or resources - just destruction.
-- Afghanistan: UN Security Council Resolution 1386 unanimously approved the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), a multi-national coalition with the aim of enforcing peace in Afghanistan. This means Russia voted for it and signed it, this means China voted for it and signed it. ISAF operated from 2001 and only in 2003 NATO took lead in this United Nations approved and signed mission. Absolutely not an invasion if United Nations give you mandate and Russia and China sign on it.
-- Libya: UN SC Resolution 1973 gave NATO a mandate to enforce a no-fly zone. Again, Russia approved it and signed on it, China approved it and signed on it. No invasion, just a no-fly zone.
That's all. So we have exactly ZERO invasions by NATO, we have ZERO annexations by NATO, we have 1 bombing for 3 months that can arguably be categorized as NATO going to war (with Serbia) and it was not followed by any land invasion, seizing power in the country or annexation at all. Now compare it to the list of countries invaded by Russia. Majority of them invaded, annexed and colonized.
Last 100 years:
• Estonia
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Azerbaijan
• Georgia
• Moldova
• Chechnya
• Afghanistan
• Romania
• Poland
• Finland
• Ukraine
• China
• Japan
• (not even counting here anything that happened during WW2)
• Vietnam
• Cambodia
• Laos
• Korea
• Hungary
• Czechoslovakia
• Egypt-Israel war
• Eritrea
• Somalia
Last 30 years:
• Georgia
• Moldova
• Ossetia
• Tajikistan
• Chechnya
• Chechnya (again)
• Georgia (again)
• Ukraine
• Syria
• Central African Republic
• Ukraine (again)
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@oliverpoppinz4340 You: "The point is western (us & Europe) countries invaded & intervened much more than Russia."
-- Ok, now we are on the same page. Who invaded more Western Europe (not Central, not Eastern) or Russia depends on timeframe. If we are talking last 100 years then it's probably Russia (dying colonialism vs agressive mass murdering building of Soviet Union), if last 60 years then it's absolutely Russia... if we are talking more than 100 years... then Western Europe invaded a lot more countries and colonized them (practically most of the world), so definitely more than Russian Empire, there is no denying that. And regarding USA, I was against invasion of Iraq (2003, not the first one, the first one was justified to protect Kuwait), I was protesting infront of US embassy like millions of people from around the world those 20 years ago. Also what US did in Latin America over past 60 years is pretty bad and a moral stain. And of course I don't like the constant small military actions in Africa (exactly what also Russia does for profit and China does through death-loans). I absolutely love Africa (I lived there for a short time). Russia is absolutely not anti-imperialsit. Russia is just annoyed they are not one of the imperial top dogs anymore and they want to crawl back to that position - this is exactly what their "Multi-Polar World" means - world divided between USA, Russia and China. All other countries being colonies of one of these three empires. They don't want anti-imperialism.
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@@awesomeguy2689 Simple principle: People born on the land decide what to do with it, and NOBODY ELSE. If there was an internationally recognized referendum with observers from 200+ countries to certify that majority of people BORN in Donbas really want to be independent (or part of Russia), that would be very difficult to ignore. Same with Chechnya, Dagestan, Kosovo, .... . But not Taiwan. Taiwan has been an independent country for more than 70 years. So it's childish to say that Taiwan is legitimate government of all of China, and also stupid to talk about some "reunification" (CCP NEVER ruled Taiwan, not for 1 minute). If people in Taiwan wanted to be part of China they would have done it already very long time ago, overnight. People in Taiwan do not want to be part of China (I was there in person and talked to many people - nobody wanted to be part of China, just left alone). So what's the solution now, to steal their land? People from China were not born in Taiwan, it's not their land, it belongs to the people who live there and they decide what they want. PERIOD.
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@Horizontal77 Thank you for putting it in numbered points, so I can address it individually, it's better this way.
1) And what do you think the rest of us wants nuclear war? Of course not. But we are not afraid to fight evil (that destroyed your country too) even in the face of danger. And same way we will not sacrifice Ukraine just because Russia has few nukes (they lie about everything, just look at their military), same way we would never sacrifice Hungary just because Russia has nukes (your country occupied my country for 900 years, still I would come and defend your country against an invasion). If you sacrifice one country because someone has nukes, then what about another country? and another? and then your country? and then all the other countries? we can just hand over keys to the world to Putin at that point. If Hitler had nukes, we would still fight against him.
(the moment Putin uses nukes he is dead, everyone he knows is dead, everything he ever built is dead and destroyed - he knows this, they all know it, they are not psychotic and suicidal, they are all billionaires ... also Peskov has a daughter in Europe, Lavrov has a daughter in London, Solovyov has 2 sonds in London and 2 daughters in the US and Putin has a mistress with all their children in Switzerland - you really think they will nuke their own children... they are just trying to intimidate you, because it works)
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@guguigugu So I guess poor Saudi Arabia, poor Emirates, poor Qatar, poor Bahrain, Kuwait, perhaps even Norway. I understand the "resource curse", but all those countries were able to get a massive head-start compared to countries that don't have natural resources. That's like complaining that I had rich parents so I did not develop my personal skills, so that's the reason why I am doing worse financially than my friends who had poor parents. (Russia vs Warsaw pact countries) Russia has all these resources and STILL doing worse than all its EU colonies. I know "resource curse" is a researched phenomenon, but to me it's just an excuse why I haven't invested all my fat profits from resources into infrastructure, people, business and future of my country. It is so much easier to do when you have natural resources.
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@guavaguy4397 Because of massive differences in workplace safety, labor rights, not to speak of salaries. If China uses slave labor (Uyghurs) or near-slave labor in horrible work conditions, you don't want to "share manufacturing jobs" with them or compete with them on price of labor. It is impossible when you want to keep your workers well paid, SAFE and happy (vacations, maternity leave, sick leave, insurances). If you don't protect your market, China will undercut you with near-slave labor and destroy your entire industry, and then China can rise prices and build their country, because you will no longer exist to compete with them. I hope this explains it.
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@nekosoup0401 But Ukraine wasn't going to be part of NATO. That's a myth.
1) It takes 5-8 years to become member of NATO... and Ukraine haven't even submitted an application
2) Rules of NATO prohibit accepting members who have internal armed conflicts (Donbas is a civil war - so absolutely no chance of accepting Ukraine into NATO while there is Donbas situation, and technically Crimea too)
3) Leaks show that at least 3 NATO countries actively blocked Ukraine from joining NATO, one of them is Germany, the other two are unknown. Even the smallest NATO member has "veto" right to block anyone from joining NATO. Germany has strong business ties to Russia, so they decided to block Ukraine.
4) Zelensky knows this and so 3 days BEFORE the invasion said on public TV "Perhaps NATO is just a dream and we (Ukraine) will not join NATO"
If it was about NATO, this would be enough to not invade Ukraine.
5) 2 weeks ago Zelensky said explicitly that Ukraine will not join NATO and that he is willing to put that on the negotiation table. Again, if it was about NATO, then the war would be over... but it isn't.
There was a huge chance for Ukraine's neutrality with NATO (but not with EU, but EU has no military, that's not military alliance, it's only economic and political, that would not allow any anti-missile defense). But right now after being invaded - chances for Ukraine to accept demilitarization is exactly 0.0%. (if you get invaded, you do not agree to remove your weapons - that would mean it's even easier you invade you again... if Russia was invaded, Russia would never agree to demilitarize as a part of the peace process - that would be pretty stupid)
"Interception on takeoff" - Yes, but Russia is 17 000 000 km² and nukes are everywhere (I assume) not just near Ukraine. You cannot intercept 5800 nukes flying from all parts of Russia at the same time - impossible. Also nuclear defense (anti-ICBM) are extremely weak (on all sides). There is pretty much no defense against full scale release. Even NATO has no real defense (they can stop few missiles, like 10 ... but not thousands).
Now imagine how we feel in eastern part of Europe when Russia has nukes in Kaliningrad - RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of Europe... that freaks us out to the extreme. Just imagine that. And then Russia tells us about "security concerns". Norwat, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland - all on the border with Russia and in NATO and have no nukes - zero. Russian Kaliningrad - stockpile of nukes. Pretty much entire defense of Europe against Russian nuclear attack is that US would avenge us if that happened. Otherwise we have no possible defense.
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@JustMe0980 People of Crimea voted in 1991 to SEPARATE from Russia and Soviet Union. 56% voted to separate. There is your real referendum right there. The fake referendum in 2014 is not recognized by rest of the world because you cannot have a referendum with soldiers patrolling the streets and voting booths. That makes every referendum instantly illegitimate (whole world knows this, that's why they didn't recognize it). And how did that work for Chechnya? Fighting for their independence, because you didn't want to let them go, then winning the war against Russia and you recognizing their independence... only to invade them, destroy entire capital city and then annex them. So Crimea can have referendum, Donetsk and Luhansk can have fake referendum, Chechnya cannot have a referendum, Zaporhizia can have fake referendum even when you don't control the capital city of that region... millions couldn't even vote, but you don't care, you annexed it anyway, fake referendum in Kherson, you don't control half the region, you don't care either - another fake referendum. So how about a referendum in Kursk conducted by Ukrainian soldiers and then annexing entire region of Kursk. I am sure you would respect such referendum as legitimate.
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@Kleermaker1000 Tendency is that "Do you know about Molotov-Ribbentrop pact", because I think you have been lied to that WWII started in 1941 and that Soviet Russia has not been faithful ally of Hitler and didn't start the WWII together with Hitler invading Poland from both sides and carving it between themselves and then invading Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland... as Hitler was invading France, Belgium, Netherlands. And then Nazi Germany Wehrmacht and Red Army had JOINT MILITARY PARADE in Poland, and NKVD had a conference with Gestapo, and Russia supplied to Nazi Germany (during WWII): 1500k ton of grain, 820k ton of oil, 180k ton of cotton, 130k ton of Manganese, 180k ton of Phosphates, 18k of Chromium, 16k ton of rubber, 91k ton of soy, 450k ton of iron ore and 270k ton of iron so that Nazi Germany can fight Hitler's enemies. All verified historical facts that have been endlessly documented are in all history books around the world and my grandparents were there as witnesses as were countless millions of people. You cannot start a world war together with Nazi Germany and invade many European countries without people in those countries noticing (and rest of the world). Millions and millions of witnesses. ... So I think this is the tendency in the question.
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@johncarlaw8633 I read your post carefully. I quoted Churchill from public record, of course I don't know whether he actually said it, as I was not alive during WW2. But the point of that sentence is not in who said it but in the content. I admit I am biased. I was born in Czechoslovakia - we were the ones sacrificed. We even had military alliance with France (seems like a dejawu with Budapest Memorandum of 1994). But when totalitarian countries like Nazi Germany and Putin's Russia decide to ignore written military alliances, they just ignore them (any future Russia's "peace agreement" will be as worthless as Budapest Memorandum or any other agreement with Hitler - it's all the same, just a maneuver to re-arm and attack again, Russia will break any peace agreement that they want, they don't care, never have) and when you have alliance with Western Europe or USA and you get invaded, whether its France vs Czechoslovakia in 1938 or Budapest Memorandum of 1994 vs Crimea 2014 / Ukraine 2022, the West will just offer comfort and some weapons - when GUARANTEEING territorial integrity means you will send your entire military to defend that country... UK didn't do it, USA didn't do it... excuses again, as always. If they don't like it, then they should not have signed it in the first place. Ukraine would keep their 1000 nuclear weapons, bombers and ICBMs and in a matter of years would have decoded the launch codes (a lot of most advanced Soviet weaponry was made in Ukraine, they had the scientsts who would be able to do it), and there would be no invasion of Crimea in 2014 and there would be no war in 2022 and now. False promises of GUARANTEEING territorial integrity are just as dangerous as actual Russia. Us, the smaller countries in Central and Eastern Europe always get screwed. We are still pro-western, but very disappointed and disillusioned.
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@scottwaggoner223 And these anti-imperialists are then talking about "NATO expansion". Just look at the sheer number of countries Russia invaded and terrorized. What a mystery why NATO is so popular in countries like mine. When we got our freedom back (1989), we begged endlessly to be allowed into NATO and EU. It took more than 10 years and a lot of internal reforms (which helped us fight corruption and inflation, and too much spending) we were finally given the chance. Then we all citizens went to vote in a big referendum whether we want to join NATO and join EU (separate vote). I know, I was there, I voted. Nobody brainwashed us, we wanted it very much, had to begg for it for 10 years, had to work hard for it and had to vote for it. And then these American "anti-imperialists" tell me that it was aggressive "NATO expansion" - telling me that we small countries are always just puppets between US and Russia and cannot vote for our own future, we are just pawns and puppets. How very imperialist of them. We are people exactly like everywhere else in the world, we want to vote for our own future, same way Ukrainians want to be part of EU and NATO. Russia has no say in it, their jurisdiction ends at their border. PERIOD. (sorry, I get angry just thinking about it)
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@scottwaggoner223 Here in Europe (in EU) life is pretty good and I like the environmental policies we have here (very strict yet still it didn't destroy our economy), I like the social programs (free healthcare, all education, very long paid vacations, very strong labor protection laws, consumer protection) + capitalism (Europe is 50% socialism, 50% capitalism and it works, it's a good life). But I would never propose EU as an alternative for "world hegemony". We've done so much evil in the past (colonization, WWI, WWII)... we have to stay out of the spotlight for at least 200 years and just do our thing here locally. One day the whole planet will be one country (all of human history points to slowly grouping into larger and larger political unions, it is inevitable, but it will take a few more hundreds of years, the world is not ready for it yet).
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@matehorvath8296 So you say no political party said they want to abolish any part of the social system (which is true) and also that austerity measures actually mean abolisihing social system (which is just your feeling, there is no evidence of that at all). So if you don't like austerity measures, then what is your solution to the global financial crisis that is increasing in magnitude all over the world (capitalism goes in cycles and it was about time for a fall, like 2008, COVID pandemic also didn't help). What is your solution to lower income into government budget? If not austerity in time of low income, then what? How are we going to get the money? Just borrow more and more money and end up like Greece? Taxing companies even more so they leave Slovakia? I would also love to have my healthcare free, education free and pension (I don't even hope), but something has to be cut somewhere, reasonably. It's a matter of survival of our economy. We also need to increase income into government budget (by attracting more companies, not chasing them away with high taxes). It's not as simple as Fico promising to give unlimited money to everyone. He cannot magically conjure money out of nowhere. He was prime minister for 17 years, so everything you see around yourself is mostly his doing.
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@mikevars8979 Your entire argument stands on a premise that this entire war is all about who has bigger stockpile of dumb artillery ammunition. This war is about everything from logistics, morale and personal conviction, internal politics, allies, economic pressure, drones, missiles, gear, training, tanks, transporters, fighter jets, ships, local population support and so many more. All these aspects influence each other and are intertwined. If you think you know who will win a war when it's this insanely complex than you are arrogant. Wars are unpredictable Mr. Armchair General.
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@Stimpson-J-Cat Mike uses intelligent sentences and some real world facts mixed in, so it might seem he is right, but then he says things like "[Russia has] the best Electronic Warfare, air defense, drone swarms, and only combat proven Hypersonic missiles", so you cannot take him seriously. My father is the same. He sees some "data" on Russian miracle weapons from Russian official sources and automatically assumes they have it (because it "feels right" to him that they would have it). But none of these weapons have been independently verified and Russia is notorious for absurd levels of lying (both internally and externally). They said they have 13k tanks (before that up to 60k), but as evidenced by satellite images those are just rust buckets sitting in tank parking lots. 3k fighter jets, again satellites show only 400 are capable of flight, rest are derelict. Russia said it has 3 million soldiers (1m active + 2m reserve), in reality after sending 200k soldiers to Ukraine they had to move border guards from NATO borders, soldiers from Syria, Armenia, Ossetia, Abkhazia, scrape bottom of the barrel at home and still were forced to mobilize 300k (where are those 3 millions of trained soldiers? nowhere, it was a lie, like everything else in Russia). They also claim 25 million men ready to be mobilized... when they cannot equip 300k (massive corruption, 1.5 million uniforms stolen before they were even made - everything in Russia is just on paper in the documents, but reality is very different), how do they plan to mobilize 25 million soldiers. It was a lie, like everything else, like their miracle weapons. Yet people just watch Russian official sources and automatically assume it's true because they want it to be true, because it feels right to them. Russia is a derelict broken country with economy smaller than Canada. The West is 67% of world economy, Russia is 1 and half percent. NATO spends 1200 billion on military (+300 billion from non-NATO allies), Russia does 66 billion, Ukraine 6 billion. NATO sent 3% of their collective military budget to Ukraine so far. Not 3% of stockpile, 3% of YEARLY budget and 0.08% of GDP. These guys live in a fantasy where Russia is a military superpower, but with their tiny economy it's not even possible, even if you cut corners or get everything cheap it's still completely impossible. Like their Armata T-14 that is nowhere to be seen (just another Russian fantasy and marketing article).
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@MrTaxiRob Russia doesn't want Ukraine as some go-between them and the EU. Many Russians have their very identity tied to the greatness of their country in the times of Soviet Union. They will kill millions to get that feeling back, they will even sacrifice themselves just to get that feeling back. They need it, without it they are nothing. That's why they don't care about the endless torture chambers, rape, children, flattening cities - but the moment they started to lose and be humiliated, they are talking about replacing Putin and are questioning whether is not too weak to be their leader. They don't want cooperation with the EU, they want their COLONIES back to rebuild their empire. (in history very similar conditions led to raise of Nazis after WWI ... seems like people in large empires don't like the feeling when they are suddenly small and insignificant when they lose all their colonies) Russia still has colonies, entire Asian part and Caucasus. Without all those colonies (with native Asian people with their own ethnicity, language, culture, history, religion) Russia would be completely useless. More than half of Russian state budget is from sale of oil, gas, coal and diamonds stolen from these colonies and wealth goes only to Moscow and Petersburg. Russia needs to be completely de-colonized and these independent republics in Asia should get all the revenue from oil, gas, coal and diamonds. Europe de-colonized 60 years ago. Russia didn't.
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@hyxnbwd666 You said: "If China truly had the same problems as Russia, it wouldn't have become the world's second-largest economy. This achievement isn't solely due to its population size."
-- GDP of Russia = $15,444
-- GDP of China = $13,721
So it is exactly because of population size. China's GDP is around that if Russia, Malaysia, Costa Rica, Bulgaria and Argentina. But mutiply that by the population and you get second largest econonmy in the world (if you don't count EU as a single economy, otherwise it's third). A LOT of the economic success was due to China opening to foreign investments and foreign trade. So don't paint China as some kind of miracle, because it is not. It has medium level GDP, comparable to the countries I've listed above (including Russia), and just incredibly large population - so if you add that up together it's going to be trillions of USD inevitably.
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@sunoolee9467 Russia brought us more than 40 years of occupation and destroyed economy (First Czechoslovak Republic was one of the fastest rising and most politically stable countries in the region, if it followed another 50 years Czechoslovakia would be much much better off than after 40+ years of communism and total destruction of economy (and private property, let's not forget) ). In contrast EU membership brought so much prosperity (higher GDP, highet HDI, lower GINI, better standard of living index). I lived through all of that - Russian occupation, the 1990s and then then 20 years of EU, so I can definitely compare. We had nothing in 1980s, now we have so much more (and invaluable freedom). So somehow supporting Russia because some current government is pro-Western is borderline insane. We would be worse off without the EU and much much better off if Russia never existed. (Fico is also pro-Western politician that made Slovakia adopt EUR currency, also voted for weapons for Ukraine when he was prime minister ... but being the complete opportunist he is he turned 180° because he sees voter potential in it, and it worked, it got him 20% of potential votes)
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@christoph5952 You: "Surely, you can google for "separatist movements international law""
-- I already did. To be sure. And the results are that separatist movements are not illegal under international law. There is human right for self-determination, but there is no international law governing whether a group of people can separate from a country or not. It is subjectively evaluated by a gang of countries of the world on a case by case basis and they make a decision (that is not international law or a law of any kind, it's just countries deciding whether they will respect separatist movement or not - like Chechnya, Taiwan, Donbas/Crimea, Kosovo, Catalonia, South Sudan and so many others, including decolonization/fight for independence). There is no law, its just whatever gets the international support.
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@Manntashsh-Pyrre-tu7wr And that is exactly what didn't happen in Ukraine in 2014. I know, because I live in the country right next to Ukraine, I have been there many times, my many friends are from Ukraine including my best friend and I have 6 Ukrainian refugees at home (for 15 months now). I was in contact with many of my friends during Euromaidan and there were 500 000 people in the streets, demanding Yanukovych to step down (after Euromaidan they found incredible stolen wealth of Yanukovych, he was democratically elected, but also incredibly corrupt). As you correctly googled - coup is when military or armed group takes over the country, captures government buildings and the government. When 500 000 citizens gather and demand government to step down and kick them out that is called a REVOLUTION, not a coup. Revolutions are 100% democratic. People give votes to politicians and people can take the vote back any time they want. Demos = people/crowd; Katia = rule; Democracy. We do it in my country all the time - politicians do some shit, we go to the streets and government has to resign.
Did CIA appoint new dictator of Ukraine? No. Did military appoint military Junta to rule Ukraine? No. So no coup. People organized a NEW DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS. Voted for many various parties and candidates and voted in corrupt oligarch Poroshenko. Their country, their votes. ... Then they got tired of corrupt Poroshenko so they ELECTED in a DEMOCRATIC ELECTION anti-corruption candidate Zelensky. Later they found out that Zelensky is not as anti-corruption as promised (classic politicians in democratic countries). Everything I just described is 100% democratic and happens in EU/NATO countries too (in my country very frequently, and we have 50 political parties and are 100% democratic). I know in Russia people serve the government and have to obey, but in Ukraine and other democratic countries if corrupt politicians do not serve you - you kick them out and vote for new ones. They are your SERVANTS that you pay to serve you. Russians are paying Putin to serve them as a SERVANT. People are the "boss" of politicians, not the other way around.
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@nobbynobbs8182 Do not even play with a thougt that entire Russian establishment has a single person there who actually believes in all these bullshit excuses (from biolabs, to maps from 1600s, to dirty bombs, weaponized NATO birds, bioweapon mosquitoes, satanism, Nazis, WMDs, ...). Every single person in Russian government knows it's all bullshit, and they know they are lying - but for them it's just a tool to get what they want. They are not ideological. They are pragmatic, ruthless and cynical.
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Recapitulation of facts + 1 speculation at the end:
1) It had to be an explosion, not natural cause (civil engineers in all media say that the damage it sustained is not consistent with natural causes, and even Russian state TV says the same)
2) The side of the dam where it happened has under control of Russian military and has been for more than 1 year
3) Russia also controls the valves and drained the dam to record levels only to fill it over the maximum limit to 17m (normal is 13m) right before the explosion happened. Why would Russia overfill it like this?
4) I is impossible to destroy reinforced concrete massive dam with artillery or HIMARS, not even with bigger rockets. You would need massive multi-ton bomb to even dent it seriously - which would completely destroy the surrounding buildings and forests. As nothing around is destroyed only explosives placed inside the dam could have done it. This is a technical fact.
5) Russians already blew up a dam on the same river in 1941 to kill less than 2 thousand German soldiers while killing 20 - 100 thousand Ukrainians. This is a historical fact. They had to use 20 tons of TNT to do it. We can assume that whoever did it would need to plant more than 20 000 kg of explosives right inside the dam (and this one is tougher). Only Russians have access to the dam, unless you believe in Ukrainian supersoldiers who can move anywhere unnoticed with 20 000 kg of explosives.
6) We know Russia has mined the dam 8 months ago, from social media posts of several Russian officers and Russian military bloggers.
7) We have countless clips from Russian state TV of Russian pundits, analysts and politicians calling for destruction of Ukraine's energy generating capacities, even naming dams in one of the clips. Constantly advocating for it.
8) Russia introduced new executive order that says attacks on infrastructure and catastrophes related to the war will no longer be investigated. Also any government or military official involved will not be prosecuted. This is valid till 2027 according to the decree signed by prime minister of Russia (not president). This was introduced just few days ago, what a coincidence.
Speculative:
9) Ukrainians gained nothing by this - dam that generated electricity for 3 million Ukrainians is gone, their water canals for farming are gone (this is agricultural area - MASSIVE loss for Ukraine and countless tens of thousands of farmers will lose livelihood), and also mass destruction of 80 Ukrainian villages, and of course now that the counter-offensive is starting Ukraine cannot possibly attack from Kherson - there is no way they will be able to get heavy tanks through that flood and then supply them - Russian occupational governor of Kherson oblast even admitted it on TV few hours ago. Massive advantage for Russian military in fear of Ukrainian counter-offensive. Now Ukrainian military has to focus on rescue efforts. And please don't say it's a brilliant military maneuver because it's a war crime under article 56 of annex (1977) to Geneva Conventions that is categorized same way as using chemical, biological or small nuclear weapons.
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@ArcherHD Alright, that was a decent answer (from 3 days ago), thank you.
You said: "That doesnt mean austrians wouldnt stand up against a tyrant they just do it different to what you or your nation would do."
-- But now is the time. This is our Hitler moment (except Putin is 10% as competent on the battlefield as Hitler, so not that much of a threat, but his ambitions are exactly the same). This is was Central and Eastern Europeans have been trying to tell you for 3 months - that similarities with Hitler and annexation of Czechoslovakia are absolutely striking... and the west is sleeping... AGAIN.
You can see all the Central and Eastern European countries fighting like hell for Ukraine - ask yourself why is that? Why all of them? Do they know something I don't? They are the ones having direct experience with Russia, occupation and Russian mentality. They have unique insight what are true motives of Russia. Ukraine doesn't have to explain anything to Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Moldova... they all understand instantly what's going on. Western Europe doesn't have this experience and understanding of Russia (and I don't blame you), so they are still half-asleep. But it's time to wake up and see Putin for the "Hitler level ambition" that it is. No peace with Russia (same as no peace with Hitler). Russia will only re-arm, consolidate their military, remove crippling corruption, and invade again (exactly as Hitler did). Russia needs to be absolutely and completely defeated (like Hitler), otherwise they will NEVER stop. They fight for their lost EMPIRE, and they will never stop - they rather die than to live like an insignificant country. They have very different priorities than you and I. That's why it's very difficult for the west to understand. It's not about crude oil, gas, wheat, NATO, and most certainly not about minorities. It's 100% about rebuilding an empire (just like Hitler).
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@Smile Guy I understand your experience in the US and EU, and your opinion on their future, however I am not so pessimistic about the inevitable demise of the US within our lifetimes. I have lived between Europe, Africa and Asia, and I can tell you there are very serious problems everywhere, not just EU and USA. China is NOT going to be the next dominant superpower. China has fatal flaws in their very core system that prevent them growing larger than they are now and being able to manage it. I assume I don't even have to mention the absolute derelict of an empire that is Russia. ... And on the contrary to the wedge that you see between France and USA - those are just petty things that disappear the moment things get serious. Exactly as it happened when Russia invaded Ukraine - instantly all of EU (almost) got polarized and more unified then I've seen in my life. Also alliance between EU and USA got instantly stronger, because of the external threat and necessity for allies. Even internal problems between for example Poland and EU Comission got sorted in a matter of 3 months. In peace time we all fight each other politically and economically, but when situation gets serious, we stick together as a strong alliance. (and don't forget Japan, Korea and Taiwan - those are also very good allies with similar values that we have ... and of course CA, AU, NZ)
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@georgesdelatour You: "I’m not sure “values” used to matter so much to keep societies together. The starting point was that you recognised someone else as one of your own in a more primal way. Even if he was a Marxist and you were a conservative Catholic, there was some shared history, some shared social memory which preceded the values. It’s the absence of this more primal form of belonging which requires people to talk up “values”."
-- I understand exactly what you are saying, I just think this is primitive tribalistic and obsolete. I think "our blood against their blood" / "our tribe against their tribe" was source of insane amount of wars in human history. Am I supposed to prefer other Slavs just because they are same ethnicity? Because I don't. I don't even care about my "country" - to me it's too primitive and tribalistic. We will absolutely inevitably colonize entire solar system, and later expand beyond it. One day this entire planet will become so insignificantly small and irrelevant that we won't have just one government as a whole planet but we will have to bundle up entire solar system to make a meaningful unit. And instead of focusing on our future we are constantly being tribal and primitive. I know we cannot possibly have planetary government over entire Earth today, it will take a few hundred years for humanity to mature enough to be able to do that, but the direction is absolutely unavoidable. We started as packs, then tribes, then settlements, villages, towns, city-states, kingdoms, large kindgdoms, states/countries, unions, alliances ... and this direction is absolutely inevitable - we will unite into a single entity. But right now we are not mature enough to do it, so we must divide according to our values (real ones), not by our blood/tribe, that is a step backwards.
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@georgesdelatour You: "Since you want societies based on political agreement, and you want there to be ultimately just one planet-wide society, that means you expect that all political disagreement to melt away when everyone else realises that your own opinions are absolutely perfect!"
-- I understand why you think that. It is a logical conclusion to what I wrote. Yes, I want societies based on values (little bit different than political opinion/orientation, for example liberalism is a base value, yet people under it can have very different opinions on drugs, sex, gambling - but if they have the same value of liberalism, they will let other people do in their private life as they see fit. I know this is overly optimistic example, but it was just for demonstration). And yes, I do expect that planet wide government will also mean most of humanity will have similar base values. But this will take hundreds of years. This is absolutely impossible in the world we have today.
You: "when everyone else realises that your own opinions are absolutely perfect!"
-- Hahaha, … ok, this made me laugh. No, I don't think my opinions are absolutely perfect. I believe lack of self-reflection is cognitive cancer. I have been wrong so many times about such important things that I wouldn't even trust myself anymore. I also understand that many of the big questions do not have just one correct answer (for example which economic system is the best, or which method of government is the best). So I do expect people to have mostly unified base values hundreds of years in the future, but they won't be the same ones as mine (except the very fundamental moral values which are obvious to everyone).
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@pukiface You: "And our history is also different. we were a colony, or we were invaded many times and for a long time by foreign powers."
-- Really? I am from Slovakia. Hungary invaded us 1000 years ago and we were completely occupied and absorbed for 900 years, most of that time by Hungary. No hard feelings, all the people of pure evil who did it are already dead... you personally didn't do it or anyone from today's Hungary... but I wouldn't exactly go to history of Hungary to fish for arguments. Slovakia was almost obliterated from existence, especially 140 years ago with forced Hungarization. It is a miracle we survived as a nation and thanks to Hungary losing WWI.
-- I also do not want to see anything like Soviet Union again, because I still remember it well. That is what would happen if Russia was allowed to rebuild their empire (exactly what Russians are trying to do right now... fortunately they are too weak to do it). European Union is voluntary - that's a huge difference. If you don't like it, you can quit and nobody will invade you (like Hungary in 1956 (horrible), us in 1968 and Poland in 1980... you just don't leave the Russian puppet state, you get invaded by Russia and put in place). When France left NATO - they just shook hands and that was it, no trouble. When UK left EU, they just shook hands (after endless negotionation because UK wanted to have EU market advantages but not the disadvantages and EU wouldn't have it, but no invasions, no assassinations, not even military threats). If you don't want to be in another union (this time voluntary, where you actually have a representation, although proportional to your population), then you can leave and nobody from EU will give you trouble. You can even negotiate a deal like the UK or just join EEA instead. It's all your choice. This is a huge difference compared to Soviet Union. If I thought EU is destroying my country, I would demonstrate from morning to evening every day until my country leaves the EU, or if majority of people in my country were against me I would just leave the country (same way I would leave my country when majority here decides to leave EU/NATO... I will respect democracy, but I am not going to stay and live here). I know you wish for EU to be a different type of political union, but majority of EU citizens want it this way, so you either persuade them to change their mind, accept it as it is... or leave.
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@pukiface You: "You don't believe this either, do you, that Hungary occupied Slovakia for 900 years"
-- I wrote that 1000 years ago Hungary invaded my country, occupied and annexed it. It was actually 1100 years ago when Hungary was formed (895) and conquered all of Great Moravia (our last free state until more than 1000 years later). There was just Hungary and Poland, with nothing in between. "the nation's military power allowed the Hungarians to conduct successful fierce campaigns and raids, from Constantinople to as far as today's Spain.[57] The Hungarians defeated three major East Frankish imperial armies between 907 and 910."
-- Then for a few decades Poland invaded Hungary and took all of current day Slovakia (by force of course) until Hungary re-conquered it back around year 1030.
-- Then Hungary held current day Slovakia for entire 11th century, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, most of Hungary gets conquered by Ottoman Empire so current day Slovakia becomes more than half of Hungary - last stronghold against the Ottomans. Just look at the historical maps and all the contemporary sources. Then at the end of 17th century Hungary regains most of its former imperial colonial territory back from Ottoman empire. (and don't tell me "we were ruled by the Austrians" as those were same families - The Habsburgs and current day Slovakia was constantly under Budapest, not Vienna).
-- So entire 16th, 17th, 18th centuries, still under Hungary. Then 19th century Austrian empire, until 1868 formally Austria-Hungary and drastic Hungarization of Slovak population begins, our language was almost extinguished. And then 20th century, we are finally liberated together with Czechs and given freedom in Czechoslovakia after more than 1000 years of occupation (of which Hungary and Austria-Hungary were more than 900 years).
-- Check any Wikipedia page, any historic maps or any video with historic map timelapses.
-- What do they teach you in history class? That great Hungarian Empire was the victim constantly being oppressed by everyone and invaded? That everyone had colonial empire except you? (no, you had colonial empire too, and Slovakia was at the receiving end of it) And no, we are not Hungarians, we are different ethnicity (West Slavs) with different culture and completely different language - a free separate nation.
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@natebox4550 You are right. I completely forgot about that. Thanks for reminding me.
(which brings me to other things we have forgotten and shouldn't have, like: "Kyiv was just a feint, Russia will now win everything" or "Jaws of Russian advance will take entire Donbas" and then "ok, that's not working, maybe smaller jaws" and then they lost entire Kharkiv region "ok, so mini jaws" and then "ok, that didn't work, so maybe 56th largest city in Ukraine called Bakhmut?" and then Tankies were telling us "When Russia gets Bakhmut, they will crack open entire Ukrainian defense and get all of Ukraine / Donbas" ... well, after 10 months and 20 000 dead Wagnerites (Prigozhin's words, not mine), they have Bakhmut... and it helped them exactly with nothing, as usual, it was Tankie bullshit to avoid having negative feelings about reality ... and same way we are being told right now that "Ukraine is losing the counter-offensive, Russia practically won, Ukraine will collapse in 3 weeks" ... from the same people who told us everything I wrote above)
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@christopherstein2024 The countries you have named are not export economies. Germany is. And if you haven't noticed, when UK left the EU, they realized how it would break their economy, so they negotiated to have same access to free EU market as before, when they were part of the EU, and in return they had to accept same rules for EU citizens to move to UK and work there without restrictions. That's why UK economy didn't fall down much more, because they left the political part of the EU, but very much stayed in the economic part of the EU (EEA). Same with Norway (oil rich country) that is in the EEA and Iceland (EEA). Leaving EEA is the part that will hurt German economy, not leaving the political part of the EU (although that too, but to a lesser degree than EEA). And if you are proposing to stay in EEA (which means you will also have to agree to free migration from EU countries and open labor market, same as UK), just leaving the EU political part... then Germany would have all the obligations of an EU member state (like UK does today), but would lose right to vote in Brussels and influence the EU laws and regulations (like UK lost it). How does that make any sense? You just lose the right to vote, but still have all the obligations.
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@jeremyisaac4958 Yes, that's true that US caused many many wars in the last 150 years and practically all of them illegitimate (typical colonial empire). But let that not blind you toward Russia being exactly the same colonial empire (USA bad doesn't equal Russia good). Russian empire invaded insane number of countries (50+) and crushed twice as many rebellions (same as Donbas), started second world war on the side of Hitler and the Nazis and ripped Poland into two pieces (one for Russia, one for Nazis) and invaded Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Czechoslovakia... then only when Nazis attacked Russia in surprise betrayal they switched sides to fight against Hitler... and after the war "forgot" to return most of the countries they invaded. Since then they invaded Korea, Vietnam, crushed rebellions in Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Eritrea, Angola, Somalia, and of course what broke their back - Russian invasion of Afghanistan. Then invaded Georgia, Moldova, crushed Ossetia, crushed Chechnya in brutal inhumane manner, annexation of two regions of Georgia, then annexation of Crimea, military support of rebellion in Donbas, crushing rebellion in Syria in absolutely brutal way, crushing rebellion in Central African Republic (ongoing), and now full invasion of Ukraine. If you think Russia is not an empire (like USA) then I don't know what to tell you. This horrible practice must be stopped at all costs!
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@АндрейВиноградов-щ1я On the massive economic and social damage to society that communism did - just look at the countries that were split in two and one went communist way and another one was free/democratic. (I am not a big fan of capitalism, I believe in balance, so I will contrast totalitarian communism with free market/democracy) North Korea vs South Korea (in 1950 North Korea was incredibly developed, at one point most industrially developed country in Asia, lots of industries... South Korea was just underdeveloped peasant community ... now look at them in 2022 - night and day, perpetual starvation vs very high stanadard of living, world leader in electronics, car manufacturing, even exporting culture to the rest of the world). Similar expample is mainland China vs Taiwan. Taiwan is just a small overpopulated island with no resources - yet they have become super successful and top world leader in computer chip manufacturing. Or compare last 30 years of your own country with for example Belarus. Night and day. Can you imagine where our countries could have been if we were never conquered and occupied by Russia? We would be at the level of Austria, France, UK, Germany, Denmark, Finland.
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@nekosoup0401 Ok, you have some good points there. Trump did unilaterally remove US from the nuclear treaty with Russia, which was horrible - I did not understand why would any sane person do that (we are ALL going to die).
It's a pity the denuclearization did not follow through to the end... if each country had only 100 nukes, that's enough to never get invaded but not enough to destroy all of Humanity. But here we are, with 12000+ nukes in the world.
Cuban crisis - I am with you on this one. As I say Russia has ABSOLUTELY NO SAY what happens in Ukraine, same goes for USA who has ABSOLUTELY NO SAY what goes in Cuba. All these empires treating us smaller countries as colonies. We are free sovereign nations who make our own decisions. So yes, Cuba was absolutely wrong (also the blocade of Cuba is insane and unjust).
I do not know about the "preemptive strike" doctrine you are talking about (sounds insane) so I cannot comment.
Afghanistan was totally US arming jihadists and it totally did not backfire against them (sarcasm) but also WTF was Russia doing there. Both sides destroying entire countries (Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea) instead of fighting each other directly.
Vietnam - absolutely horrible, and also a false flag from US side.
Yugoslavia - there was some horrible horrible ethnic cleansing / genocide happening there. I am not saying the bombing helped, but Serbia is absolutely not innocent (I've been there, in most of the countries involved - that is some stuff of nightmares that wa happening there).
Iraq - Saddam was a horrible dictator but he didn't have WMDs and USA is not the world police, so totally unjustified (and in US politics they admit this now... everyone is pretending suddently they were against the Iraq war since the beginning) Afghanistan is similar story - such a horrible fate that country had to endure.
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@nekosoup0401
I don't know about Kazakhstan, I don't know anyone there. But I know A LOT of people from Belarus who live there (I worked with them on a large business project) and nobody young there wants Lukashenko. They all want to be part of EU, and they try again and again to make a revolution (NOBODY can be 30 years in power and not be a dicator. You are 10 years in power you are already a dictatr... 30 years is 100% a dictator) and they want to have first free democratic elections and become part of EU. (I know, this EU sounds like cancer :D but it's really good life and Belarus should be a free and sovereign country that decides for themselves. Like I said, I know a lot of people from there and they all want this, only very old people there don't.
What you write applies only to USD, not that much to EUR. 80% of all trade in the world is done in USD... EUR is really not used that much outside of the EU. Yeah, I understand how much power does the petro-dollar give to the US, and that they abuse it to sanction Cuba, Venezuela and Iran. But there is still enough wealth to be had anyway. I believe we can all be rich. Even in your analogy with Moscow and St. Petersburg - there is a possible future when the whole country is rich, not just large cities. Economy and wealth is NOT a zero-sum-game, you don't have to take from someone to create wealth for someone else (I know that's mostly how capitalism works (because of greed) but it's not the only way). And Russia would be 10x better off if you didn't have oligarchs (I know, I am not telling you anything new). When I see all the yachts and palaces they have (had) here in Europe... what the hell. That is all money that was taken from Russian people. Insane wealth! And all of them shit on the west... but have all their stolen money in USD and EUR in the west, palaces in the west, super-yachts in the west, sent their children to schools in the west, their families in the west... same with Peskov, Solovyov, and many others. Shit on west on Russian TV, make millions, put them all in the west. Hypocrites. I thought they are Russian patriots that really believe what they say... but now I doubt it - it's just a business for them.
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@nekosoup0401 I feel your pain about the privatization, because same happend in my country of course. 1990s were very wild, shady friends of the people in power stole entire industries for free, lots of mafia groups came in, cars were exploding, assassinations. But our oligarchs has so much infighting that they never got enough power to control the entire country. People rose up, kicked everyone from the government out (we do this like very 7 years - demonstrations and cleaning the house - people give politicians democratic mandate, people can also take it, when like 20% of our population is in the streets, the government will buckle), we installed actually working police force and justices and prosecuted almost all the oligarchs. The money stolen was lost, industries were crippled (tunneled) but we had the country under control. Then we joined EU and had to follow their rules (which was good, less corruption possible for our crooked politicians) and since then it was ok. But I feel your pain about the privatization - very stupid idea - they just should have hired professional management with public transpartent accounting and leave state ownership.
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@nekosoup0401 "Our presidents raised the topic of NATO membership more than once, but the answers were mocking." - Yeah, this was a horrible mistake on the side of NATO.
Russia would have been taken into EU, but there are rules, and having oligarchs and massive levels of corruption would prevent that. There are also rules on having opposition parties and some norms on democracy. I don't think Duma and the oligarchs would have ever accepted that.
"And NATO broke its promise not to spread after the collapse of the USSR." - Yeah, but it always annoys the hell out of me how USA and Russia can make an agreement about my country. None of them have any jurisdiction here. We decide our own fate and nobody else. It feels to me like colonial imperialism, when England, France, Spain, Portual, Netherlands and Belgium traded entire countries (colonies) like cattle. We are a sovereign nation, we make the decision about our people and our country.
But that aside, expansion of NATO means nothing. NATO is already absolutely overwhelming force that Russia wouldn't stand even a smallest chance of resisting in a non-nuclear war, so some expansion is very much irrelevant (also position at the borders is irrelevant - NATO has 22000 aircrafts, enormous navy and large force projection - the US is constantly fighting on the other side of the world - so having countries closer to Russia means nothing from strategic point. It's not 1940s where you have to roll out tanks. Wars are fought with drones, satellites and stealth bombers. But that being said - Russia has 5800 nuclear weapons, nobody is EVER going to invade Russia, so really the expansion is just political annoyance to Russia but has no real world impact on military.
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Why Europe is increasing military spending and sending so many weapons to Ukraine and united in brutal brutal sanctions against Russia? Why not Yemen (horrible genocide), Syria, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, and endless other places? Why is this different? ... Because both Putin and Lavrov have actively threated no end human civilization with nukes.
Even a single nuke will cause instant retaliation from the US and if more than 800 nukes detonate over cities anywhere in the world it will trigger nuclear winter and almost everyone on this planet will die (freeze and starve to death, no plants, no animals). Even those in bunkers with 10 years worth of food will find temselves in barren wasteland 10 years later and probably perish too.
The whole world should be concerned about Ukraine, because Putin has gone insane during his last 2 years of complete isolation in his bunker and now is acting like Hitler in the last weeks of the war - lashing out on generals, being completely unstalbe. "Mountpiece of Putin" said on Russian national TV "What is the point of the world (existing) if there is not Russia in it?" (means if they don't get Great Russian Empire back) This is serious! (I am glad Kyle is taking it seriously)
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@SebastianHaban Russia is just using fear as a weapon... and they are pretty good at it. Most people don't know the true derelict state Russia is in (I was born under Russian occuppation, with tanks and everything, and grew up in it... I've seen it with my own eyes, I had to live through it, and I've been to Russia... they still haven't changed). Russia will lose this war with Ukraine, will lose all occupied territories, then EU and USA will stop Ukraine to go any further and Germany, France and others will want to do busniness with Russia again, so they will lift sanctions (reparations or not). Russia will be defeated, humiliated and no longer have any influence anywhere outside its borders. Not a superpower as they dream about themselves. It will be great injustice they will be allowed to exist, but it seems like there is no apetite for invasion of Russia among Germany, France, Italy and possibly others. Crushing defeat, humiliation and occupation of Russia would heal their sick mentality and culture as it once did Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. It would benefit Russia in the long run, as it benefited these two countries, but it's not going to happen because there is no will to do it in the west.
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@namnami4099 Also you assume Russia has state of the art weaponry and super trained soldiers... because Russia told you so. My friend, you cannot believe any number that comes from Russia, not one. I was born into Russian occuppation (with tanks and everything) and I was forced to grow up in it. I've seen how they operate - every person at the bottom fakes their numbers, fakes their reports, to look good, because otherwise you get in trouble for not meeting quotas or being "anti-Russian". Their superiors then edit the reports and make it look even better, and this way it goes higher and higher and everyone will fulfilling 99% of quotas and performing amazingly and there are no problems and everything is perfect - on paper. In reality everyone is stealing everything they can (from the state, not from each other), at all levels, all the time. There was even a saying, crude translation: who doesn't steal at least 1 hour a day is actually stealing from his family (it's shorter and it rhymes in my native language). What you see in Ukraine is really everything that Russia has, they even pulled most soldiers from Armenia, Ossetia, Abkhazia, Kyrgyzstan, border with Finland, Estonia, Latvia, everywhere and even recruited Syrians, asked Afghanis, begged artillery shells from North Korea, drones and armor from Iran... just desperate. What you see is absolutely everything they've got. They either win this war or stop existing as a country of any significance - this is their endgame.
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@namnami4099 I can say the same about you. That because your country has not been occupied and decimated by by Russia for decades that you don't know what Russians are - you don't know what they did to Ukrainians in the last 100 years, to Polish, to Czechs, Slovaks, Estonians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Georgians, Moldovans, Romanians, Hungarians, Chechens, Dagestanis, and many other Asian natives enslaved by Russia. You have not lived with Russians while occupying your country and having real physical power over you. You have some romantic fantasy image of Russia from the Internet, because you never lived under them.
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@sofiajohansson8537 You understand it well Sofia. I was born in Czechoslovakia and was forced to grow up under Russian occupation (with tanks and everything) - they killed quarter of my family (grandparents), took everything we had and sent men from my family to labor camps (fortunately not Siberia but local one - only torture and horrible labor, but they survived). They also destroyed our economy and part of our culture and mindset (lots of old people are permanently damaged by it). Never again! That's why Ukraine has to explain Russian colonization to the West Europe and USA (I don't blame them, they cannot know what Russia truly is, they were not occupied), but Ukraine needs not to explain anything to people from Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania - no words necessary, we know.
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@dr.c0a585 I was born under Russian occupation (with Russian tanks and everything) and grew up in it (quarter of my family was killed by Russians and the rest was sent to labor camp for 3 years, they also sucked dry our economy and sent everything to Moscow… people got arrested by KGB and disappeared all the time, leaving the country was prohibited, you got shot at the border, even children). When finally Soviet Union collapsed and we were set free. Our politicians were begging endlessly for 10 years to be let into NATO (to not be invaded and occupied by Russia again). If it was some USA colonial expansion, they would force us in, instead they didn't want to let us in. We had to work our asses to fulfill all the conditions. Finally, 20 years ago, we were allowed to do it, we had a public vote (I know, I was there! I voted for it), and we joined EU and NATO. Now tell me, who are you or who is Russia to tell me what to do and not to do with my country? Are we a sovereign country or not? If you think Russia has a say in what happens in my country then I have a say what happens in Russia, or you are just another imperialist colonizer who believes there are colonizer superpowers and every other country is subservient trash. If all people are equal, then all countries must be equal. This is our country and only we make decisions about what to do with it. Russia's jurisdiction ends with their borders. PERIOD.
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@scottwaggoner223 I don't have such positive view of USA, as US has also done so much destruction - mostly in all of Latin America (no stone unturned), Caribbean, Africa and of course Middle East / Central Asia ... but also Vietnam. But having lived under both regimes I can say Russia is on another level of evil. They have learned to hide it better than in Stalin times, but very little has changed underneath. And China is a copy cat of Soviet Union - it is chilling how much everything I learn about China is what I know from Soviet Union. So for me USA is just lesser of 3 evils (sorry, I am just being honest). A small country like mine has no choice but to take sides, because otherwise we get invaded and occupied by bigger countries (my country was occupied and eslaved for 900 years, then brief 20 years of freedom and then Hitler, then Stalin, 40 years of Russian destruction, now finally 30 years of freedom. If we don't take sides, we end up as slaves. That doesn't mean I don't take our alliance oath seriously. I would defend the US if it came to that - duty is duty. I actually have a great-aunt with her family living in Washington D.C. (since WWII). I also admire some things (how on Earth does USA have 1000 ethnicities from 200 countries with all religions in the world and they don't kill each other - that is a miracle!!! so underrated - most countries cannot handle 2 different religions or ethnicities). Also seeing Russia unable to sustain logistics 70 km from their border I was thinking how does US wage wars 20 000 km (other side of the planet) for 20 years straight with tens of thousands of soldiers - US is the king of logistics. I wouldn't say USA is democratic (gerrymandering, electoral college, superdelegates, senate elections where 1 person doesn't equal 1 vote, superPACs, only 2 parties for 240 years), but I would definitely consider US a country of personal freedom (not unlimited, but still pretty free compared to others).
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@kai223noa6 They barely have any nukes. They need extremely expensive maintenance and complete replacement of the fissile material every 10 years. Russia has economy that is smaller than Canada, too small for their nuclear ambitions... they can spare 3-4 billion on maintenance and absolute majority is stolen by their generals, colonels and oligarchs... just look at the rest of the Russian military - it's all stolen ("transformed" into superyachts). Plus if they used the very small number of nukes they can afford to maintain and let's say the budget was not stolen (it was), Putin, Peskov, Lavrov, Shoigu, Gerasimov - all dead, 100% they would not live next 12 months. And they would lose all their fictional allies (like China), but then again, Russia is stupid enough to do almost anything. It is more realistic they would just blow up Zaporozhia nuclear power plant... which means it will reach me and my family in 1-2 days. NATO should stop toying with Ukraine and just obliterate Russia. NATO spends 240x more on military than Ukraine. Russia has problem fighting 1 Ukraine, imagine fighting 240 Ukraines at the same time. The military aid sent to Ukraine is just 0.2% of our GDP. Russia can't even protect their borders ...or their capital city from toy drones. This is outright cruel letting this war on when we can just end it.
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@recoil53 I was born in Czechoslovakia, grew up under occupation, and when Moscows grip weakened in 1989, we imediatelly had a revolution and overthrew the communist government (like everybody else). We then begged to be let into NATO for years and years, and then we all voted to enter EU and NATO. I was there, I voted. No one forced me, there was not brainwashing or campaign, or CIA psychological operation. Moscow killed so many of our people, took everything from us, destroyed our economy, and didn't allow anyone to leave the country (even children were shot at the border)... we knew we are too small to survive another Russian invasion on our own, so we voted for EU and NATO. This was the famous "NATO expansion" that Tankies talk so much about yet they were not here and don't know anything about it. Now watching Ukraine, it turned up to be the best vote I ever made (to join EU and NATO).
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@mikevars8979 If you think anyone on this planet can build a 200 kg model airplane with 50 kg of explosives, pre programmed self guidance with GPS and an engine, avionics and everything for 2000 USD then you are insane. 80% of the parts found in Shahed-136 are western made (including Japan, Korea, Taiwan), so it doesn't matter whether you are Iran, China or a third world country, you will not get those parts cheaper. You just pulled these numbers out of your * and now forcibly argument that is the case. When it's not even necessary. 10-50k USD (international analysts calculated this cost, but of course you are smarter, again) is still very very cheap for such a weapon when anti-air missiles cost from 100k to 1000k. But no, you have to go to absurdistan and say it costs 2k.
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@ravenguard1495 Russia told us it has 13000 tanks (3000 works, the rest are rust buckets in their tank parks, as evidenced by satellite images), they told us they have 3000 fighter jets and bombers... 400 functional, rest are rust buckets in cold storage (again, as evidenced by satellite images). Russia said they have 1 million soldiers +2 million professional reservists and 25 million trained conscripts. Now after sending 200k to Ukraine they already have nothing and had to move border guards from many regions, deployed forces from Syria, Armenia, Ossetia, Abkhazia, take Syrian mercenaries, prisoners and even then they had to do extremely unpopular mobilization of 300k conscripts of whom many have no training whatsoever and Telegram is flooded with their families fundraising to buy them helmets, armor, medkits, shovels and sometimes even uniforms. Russia doesn't have 1 million soldiers or 2 million reservists - it was a lie. Russia cannot mobilize 25 million men, because they are not trained and Russia doesn't have gear for 0.3 million, what they want to do with 25 million? It was a lie to intimidate Russia's enemies. Same as Russia doesn't have 13000 tanks, a lie to intimidate enemies. Russia doesn't have 3000 fighter and bomber jets, again a lie to intimidate enemies. My point? Russia doesn't have 6000 nukes - it's a lie to intimidate enemies. Russian nuclear weapons are in exactly the same state as the rest of their military (derelict rust buckets, budget stolen, the rest doesn't work because maintenance is extremely expensive and fissile material has to be replaced every 10 years). It's all a lie to intimidate Russia's enemies (and I have to admit it's working really really well).
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@spacextsl7446 I have to correct you. It wasn't US invasion of Iraq (2003) under false pretense of WMDs, it was just US SPECIAL MILITARY OPERATION of Iraqi Freedom to save minorities from opporession and also biolabs, dirty bomb, weaponized mosquitoes. (see how idiotic Russian justification for invasion of Ukraine sounds) Of course Iraq was an invasion under false pretense of WMDs and Ukraine is a Russian invasion under false pretenses (10+ different versions from biolabs, to minorities, to nazis, to mosquitoes, to NATO birds, to nuclear missiles in Ukraine, to dirty bomb, to Satanism - all of these pushed by official Russian state TV and Russian diplomats in the UN). Now you see Russia for what it truly is, just another colonial imperial "power" (too weak to be one, but wants to be one).
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@spacextsl7446 In your mind NATO invaded Iraq. But if you spent 10 seconds fact checking your own arguments (or if you are old enough that you were there when it happened, like me), you would know that NATO are 30 countries and Iraq was invaded only by 4 (USA, UK, AU, PL). 26 NATO countries did NOT invade Iraq. NATO is defense only military alliance and no country in NATO is bound to invade anywhere, only to defend when invaded. Individual NATO countries can go around the world and do whatever they want (like the US does), but that doesn't make it a NATO war. Again, Iraq was invaded only by USA, UK, Australia and Poland, nobody else.
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@GoodnKind Russia does not believe NATO will invade Russia. They already moved most soldiers guarding borders with NATO to Ukraine. Russia also uses their very expensive S-300 anti-air missiles rigged to ground-to-ground mode on Ukraine (stupidly inaccurate, it hits within 500 meter radius, because it was not made for ground-to-ground combat, it's anti-air missile). NATO has 22000 military airplanes, if you were Russia and thought NATO will invade you, you would keep every single anti-air missile you have, not waste it. It's very very expensive and you will need absurd amounts of them. Russia KNOWS that NATO will not invade. If NATO wanted to invade Russia Europe wouldn't reduce their military budgets every year (that's the opposite of preparing for war) and if NATO wanted to invade Russia they would have done it on 24. February right after Russia invaded Ukraine - becuase it's the most perfect exucuse for NATO to invade Russia ("We have to invade Russia to protect Ukraine against their evil invasion"). Most of the world would be behind NATO if they did it. ... and they didn't, they didn't invade Russia and there is no mobilization or preparation for war in NATO countries and Russia knows this. So no, Russia is NOT keeping reserves of weapons in case NATO invades. Russia is using absolutely everything they have and even begging from North Korea and Iran, because Russia has to win this war, if they lose it, Russia will break apart. Winning Ukraine is existential for them (I can explain internal Russian politics to you if you want, but it will be a long post).
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@AP-vo2mp Yes, but when human lives are at stake you break all the regulations, throw away the bureaucracy and even break the law. Law is here to serve people, not control them. You break the law to save lives. When people really really REALLY want, everything is possible and very quickly. Otherwise by the time the help arrives, there will be another 100 000 dead civilians, or even more. Imagine those dead are your parents, brother, sister, wife, children, and someone tells you unfortunately, we couldn't save them in time because we had to do this paperwork.
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@johnboddie6826 Let's be realistic. Putin doesn't even have enough power to sustain the existing conflict on smaller part of the poorest country in Europe (Ukraine). His military is exhausted, low on ammo (asking North Korea, Iran and Syria for ammo), had no drones (had to beg from Iran), low on weapons, uniforms, helmets (begged Turkey and Belarus for weapons) and low of soldiers (recruiting mercenaris from Syria and Libya, now forcibly conscripting 300k Russians - they wouldn't do this if they didn't have to). New conscripts have no uniforms (1.5 million uniforms got stolen), no helmets, no boots, no medkits, no survival gear, nothing. How can they possibly even dream of invading NATO. NATO spends 24x more on military than Russia (and I am not even counting any corruption into this). They wouldn't even get to the border.
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@webcaveman4534 Alright, let's separate annexations from colonies. I was born and grew up in communist Czechoslovakia completely under control of Moscow, with tanks sent against our people who were completely unarmed just for the grave sin of trying to be very little bit more independent (we had a movement called "communism, but with a human(e) face", that was not acceptable for Moscow, so they sent tanks in 1968). Their secret police roamed free and disappeared people regularly. Also killed quarter of my family (1948) and sent the rest to labor camp for 3 years. Many many people were not that lucky and got disappeared permanently. Moscow also took most of our resources (we really had no say in anything, it was a totalitarian dictatorship installed by Moscow). If you wanted to leave the country you got shot at the border, everyone, even children. I lived right at the border, but it wasn't even a secret, they wanted people to know. Not having a job was illegal. All jobs were for the state (=Moscow), as private enterprises didn't exist / were not allowed. It was one very large "labor camp" for Russia/Moscow (don't tell me bullshit about USSR not being Russia, you will just make me very angry, I was there!, it was 100.00% controlled by Moscow, it was Russian empire 2.0 with external colonies and internal colonies). Moscow destroyed economy of my country, killed so many of us and took everything they wanted. We were exactly what you describe as a colony. Poland had same fate, Hungary had same fate, Romania was also a colony of Russia/Moscow, Bulgaria was the same, DDR was the same, and Yugoslavia and Albania. ... So now compared this with how many colonies had USA at that time (please, make a list of countries held as colonies by the US in 1980s, so we can compare), and UK, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Portugal decolonized in early 1960s almost completely (there were very few left, and shame on them for that). Next comment we compare internal colonies and annexations.
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@webcaveman4534 You: "
If we were to make a list of countries that were annexed by the Soviet Union directly (not just Russia), most of which were remnants from the Tsarist period, we get:
- Estonia (only the 3 baltic countries were annexed following a period of brief independence)
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Azerbaijan (countries from here down are from the Tsarist era)
- Georgia
- Moldova
- Ukraine
- Belarus
- Kazakhstan
- Tajikistan
- Uzbekistan
- Kyrgyzstan
- Turkmenistan "
-- Thank you for making the list. It seems accurate, except the remark that Soviet Union was not Russia - it absolutely was Russia and everything was 100% controlled by Moscow, everyone who ever lived under Soviet Union and the colonies (Eastern bloc) has experienced that (including me) and knows it without a doubt. There are millions and millions of witnesses still alive today. The Eastern bloc were external colonies of Russia, then the remaining 14 USSR countries were internal colonies of Russia, and even inside Russia proper absolute majority of the land are internal-internal colonies - Dagestan, Chechnya, Buryatia... all the Caucasus, entire Asian part of Russia. That is land of native tribes that have lived there longer than Slavs even exist and they have completely different ethnicity, completely different language, different religion, different culture... they are independent native nations and Muscovites just steamrolled through, killed everyone who resisted and took their land, took complete control, and extracted all their resources for profit. This is the very definition of colonies / colonization. I am now not blaming Russia for doing that hundreds of years ago - back then everyone was doing it (especially Western Europe). I am blaming Russia was not decolonizing in 1960s when everyone else did it. And STILL not decolonizing today (they are doing exactly the opposite - invading their former colony and annexing their land and people back). Muscovites are getting rich on siberian gas, oil, metals and other minerals, while they live in absolute desolation (I have friends from there and my father went there multiple times). These are Muscovite colonizes that they still refuse to let go - the land belongs to the natives who are different race, ethnicity, language, religion and culture. This is what I am talking about when I talk about destruction of Russia as a state in the next 10 years - its total and complete decolonization.
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@webcaveman4534 I agree with you that Russia has not been unique in its conquest and colonization - it was pretty standard. Even their brutality was commonplace back then in all other empires. What I am complaining about is that most other countries stopped doing that more than 2 generations ago and Russia somehow didn't get the memo. Even their brutality is stuck from 100 years ago. They had a chance to completely transform into a modern nation in 1991. But no, at the first sign of trouble they turned to a strongman and made him a dictator and now long for the old times and want Soviet Union back (just talk to regular Russians, you would be shocked how many of them want Soviet Union back and have Soviet flags). This is what I am complaining about. Instead of transforming into a modern nation from 1991, they are reverting and going back in time to Soviet glory days (1960s). Backwards nation, backwards culture, that constantly lives in the past, in the "Great Patriotic War" (which they started and caused and then couldn't even defend without massive external help, but somehow feel like they were the greatest victim and absolute victor). I had small hope for Russia in the 1990s, I would maybe even forgive them for my family and destroying my country, I am not sure... but no, they have proven they are now what they were back then. They bring the worst things from WWI and WWII times era and mentality into 2023. This is no longer acceptable.
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@webcaveman4534 You: (your paragraph about NATO expansion, Poland, nukes, Clinton, etc.)
-- Educated analysis that is probably factually true, but you omit one fundamental point of view - the moral one - What do people in these countries actually want. I've seen many people from the US and some from the West and everyone from Russia think about us small countries as not really equal, without even realizing they are doing it. We are all human and all humans are equal, so all countries have to be equal too. So you either look at this from moral point of view and then the only thing that matters is what tens of millions of human beings living here for thousands of years want - what Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania and Bulgaria wants (their people). Russia has absolutely no say whatsoever in what military alliances we join or what we do with our countries same way as Slovakia has absolutely no say whatsoever what Russia does with their country. A lot of people in the West forget this, because they instinctively perceive us as spheres of influence (=colonies) and not really "countries that matter" (Putin's words).
Or we can look at it from point of view of cynical geopolitics and "might makes right". In that case US should have strangled and destroyed Russia in 1991 - 1999. Russia was worse than Nazi Germany (in number if killed people and lives destroyed), and was not punished for genocide (Red Terror, Holodomor), for starting second world war together with Hitler, and for endangering entire world with nuclear weapons. USA had unique opportunity to save tens of millions of lives and possibly the whole world by destroying Moscow completely in 1945 (USA was the only country in the world with nuclear weapons at that point and Russia/USSR was completely destroyed with almost nothing left, it wouldn't even be a match, just nuke it repeatedly… I would gladly sacrifice my entire family and my own life to save tens of millions of people killed and hundreds of millions of lives destroyed by Russia and almost the whole world… gladly).
Second chance USA had to destroy Russia was from 1991 to 1999 when Russia was incredibly weak, hungry (US saved Russians from starvation… and what did they get for it? Just more hate), and incapable of putting any organized resistance (and it would be enough to just starve them, ruin them economically to the very bottom or dismantle Russia from within). USA did nothing… again. And what is result of this inaction? Invasion of Moldova, an absolute massacre of Chechnya and flattening Grozny, invasion of Georgia, invasion of Ukraine, mass murder in Syria and flattening of Aleppo, and now really large war in Europe. Russia should have been destroyed long time ago, all these people could have been alive… all these countries free, all the children still alive. How many times does Russia have to come back from the dead only to invade all the countries around it until USA finally understands that this country is cancer on human civilization, same way Nazi Germany was, same way Imperial Japan was… and Russia needs the same treatment as them.
Third best chance to destroy Russia is right now. But USA will not do it, because endless foreverwar in Europe is very lucrative business for American Military Industrial Complex. They will send enough weapons for Ukraine to not lose, but not enough to win. It will be difficult to balance, but that is what they are doing right now and what they will continue doing. That's why USA already approved 5-years support plan for Ukraine. They lost Afghanistan as lucrative business, now they are trying to seize the opportunity to make Ukraine a foreverwar. (and no, USA/CIA/NATO didn't start the war… I've been to both Russia and Ukraine, I know many Ukrainians, including my best friend, and I have 6 refugees in my house (2 mothers, 4 kids) since the beginning of the war, and they are native Russian speakers born in Ukraine… they all genuinely wanted to join the EU and be rich like other Eastern European countries that joined and join NATO to be protected from Russia after 2014… US Military Industrial Complex didn't put these thoughts in their mind, these are most natural wants of any person - to not be poor and not be invaded or oppressed … but US Military Industrial Complex is most certainly using everything they can out of this situation… as all corporations do).
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@webcaveman4534 You: "My opinion is that if there is a NATO, it should be for Europe only (like the EU) but limited for certain defense situations, like sharing intelligence, bases, and training together."
-- I would understand if US wanted out of NATO. That is 100% decision of US citizens and none else. But what "EU NATO" would do is only up to us here and none else. We are halfway to a superstate and one centralized military is a very logical step. We no longer plan to invade one another inside the EU (after 2500 years of doing just that non-stop), and we also don't plan to invade other countries (maybe except France and their mild imperial flashbacks), so we can all join our militaries into one single unit.
You: "I think it would be unwise to expand NATO to East Asia and Australia (see the name North Atlantic), as this treaty historically didn’t cover European outposts like Hong Kong, Goa, or the Falklands, and making it do so now would be needlessly provocative and cause more wars."
-- I disagree (my personal opinion). Russia is a totalitarian dictatorship with imperial ambitions. China is a totalitarian dictatorship with imperial ambitions. North Korea is an insane totalitarian dictatorship of unmatched brutality that has ambitions to invade South Korea. Iran is a theocracy dictatorship (I know some Iranians including one girl I dated and large part of the population hates the dictatorship but are powerless to overthrow it… they are still trying, many of them died in the process). You cannot compare these brutal dictatorships with something like USA. Yes, us democracy is very flawed (not 1 person = 1 vote, electoral college, superdelegates, gerrymandering, SuperPacs), but it is so very far from these dictatorships and nowhere near their brutality. Also Ukraine is 100% democratic (very corrupt, I've seen it, every Ukrainian will tell you that, but democratic and free). Taiwan is 100% democratic and free (I've also seen it when I was there). South Korea is 100% democratic and free. The totalitarian dictatorships stick together and have ambitions far beyond their borders. Either we (democratic and free countries) stick together and destroy these monstrosities (I was born inside one, I don't wish this fate on anyone, I want all these people to be free, same as I wished it for myself and my family while I was inside), or they will break us one by one until they conquer the whole world (and make no mistake, Hitler would have conquered the whole world, he would never stop, Stalin would have done the same, Hirohito would have done the same … it would be incredibly naïve that Russia and China would stop, anywhere, no, they will keep trying until they win the whole game and conquer everything). Same situation was in 1930s where totalitarian dictatorships started to ally with each other - Hitler with Mussolini, with Francisco Franco, with Stalin and Hirohito. Same thing is slowly happening today. We need to learn from history or we will repeat it again and again and again.
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@miaorenfeng1 Alright, that's more reasonable. I agree with what you said but with the following additional notes:
1) GDP PPP + HDI + GINI does matter in a potential war setting, because it is one of the factors that matter for emigration/immigration and whether you want to be annexed by another country (if Haiti is being annexed by USA and granted a full citizenship, democratic voting rights and freedom, they may not fight back as hard as for example Taiwan which has twice the standard of living of China, much better equality (GINI) and incomparably better development index (HDI) / standard of living, full democracy and even more incomparable freedom index). So this matters, because it gives morale and will to fight, but not as much as military power of course.
2) What you suggest about tertiary sector is very logical. But the actual mathematical function to calculate how capable would a country be in a war of attrition (assuming nobody wins in the first months of war), this has to be a very complex mathematical function that includes everything you said and a lot more, including reserve stockpiles, levels of corruption in the military and society as a whole, discipline, morale, political and military allies ... I think this is all too much for people like us to responsibly be able to measure all these things. Even the US invasion of Luxembourg might not be as simple as just two numbers due to France, Belgium, Germany, EU, UN, local US support for such action and many other factors. ... But we can of course crudely compare brute military force by military expenditure of given country over long periods of time (stockpiles).
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@miaorenfeng1 You: "I think you are exaggerating the role of democracy and freedom, most countries are democratic and free, but most of them are far less developed than China. For Chinese, democracy and freedom are not a necessity, but a condiment."
-- I was born under Russian military occupation in a communist totalitarian country (here in Europe) and was forced to grow up in it. You don't have to tell me the value of freedom and of democracy. Only people who lost it understand it. Only people who don't have mentality like sheep, that they don't want to be herded like cattle by someone else. It is far more important than any money or standard of living. We were not able to even leave our country (you would get shot at the border, everyone got) and work was mandatory, it was illegal to not have a job (you could still choose which one, but you couldn't be without a job - that was punishable by law). It was like one large prison colony. If you give up some of your right to vote or some of your freedom to have more money - in the end totalitarian dictatros will take all your rights to vote, all your freedom (whenever they want) and then in the end even all your money, because there is nothing you can do about it. Personal freedom and right to vote (democracy) is absolutely fundamental to existence.
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@miaorenfeng1 You: "The USSR had many allies when it was strong, and when it declined, former allies became current enemies"
-- That's true. I am one of them.
You: "The vast majority of America's allies do not have a conflict of interest with China, and there are even many allied allies whose largest trading partner is China, and an all-out war with China would not do any good to these countries."
-- To be clear. If China doesn't invade Taiwan, then I don't want war with China, and I don't want to destroy or invade China. 100% But if China invades Taiwan, then everything is off the table and we will fight till the end. It doesn't matter that it will hurt our economy in a horrible way (and China same way - it goes both ways), nothing matters at that point. It is very simple for China to avoid complete disaster - just don't invade free and democratic Taiwan (if China wants Taiwan it has to PERSUADE Taiwanese people to actually want to join, that's fine), or any other neighboring country. If China doesn't invade anyone with military, I am fine with China.
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@miaorenfeng1 You: "The US is in an all-out war with China to maintain US world supremacy, what benefits can US allies gain?"
-- I can say the same about China. Teaching Han Chinese supremacy in schools (ethno-nationalist government) and teaching that west is the enemy to small children (to be fair they teach small children how to kill Japanese, which they hate even more than us from the west). China is constantly preparing for war and rallying internally... what did China expect, that we will watch like stupid and not prepare for it? If China didn't want war witht he west, it should probably not rally against the evil west interanlly to their own people non-stop (they think if it's in Mandarin that west will not find out or what? I don't understand their plan). Again, nobody was going to invade China (same as nobody was going to invade Russia), we are all doing business with China, there is respect for China... what more do they need? Why rally against the west? We here in Europe have absolutely no mass media campaign against China, there is nothing like this here, but China has that against us internaly.
You: "Even Japan will not participate in a war between China and the US."
-- China hates Japan so much, that even US and Europe is not hated that much. I know, Japanese did some uspeakable things in China, that is true. But everyone who did that is already dead. Japan is now new country, with new people, new goals. They do not conquer anyone anymore, they do not build their military, they focus on technology and economy. Why can't China forgive after such an incredibly long time (3 entire generations). My family was killed by Nazi Germans, part of them had to flee, we lost a lot... but we hold no grudge against Germans today. We have no hate for them, all is forgiven, because they are a changed country. My country has been occupied by Hungary for 1000 years (yes, 1 thousand), yet we don't hate the Hungarians. It was a long time ago and everyone who did it is dead. We focus on the future. But not China, still so much hate for Japan. Then if the war breaks out Taiwan will be there, Japan will be there, Korea will be there, Australia will be there, Europe will be there, USA will be there, Canada will be there... and even India doesn't like China (border war and mutual vilification). China is not exactly making friends with its foreign policy.
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@herluisalvarado8366 You: "That is why other global players copied their example in his backspace."
-- You know a lot about colonization, which is good. But you don't know Russia like we do - we have been living with their shit for centuries. Trust me, they have been doing exactly the same colonialism as Western Europe, only without ships - on land. Absolutely no difference. Except when so many colonies in the world got their independence, Russia did not realease anyone. For some reason if you don't need a ship to get to your colony it somehow doesn't count as a colony? It's the same thing! Kill local population, enslave survivors, take their resources, kill them if they want independence, deport them to labor camps and put your ethnic population in their houses. They didn't LEARN it from Western Europe, they were always like this. Our countries (yours and mine) were victims of same process, just different empires. The difference is Russia is trying to rebuild their colonial empire right now (not to speak of the entire Asian part of Russia which has subjugated Asian NATIVE population from where Russia takes all their oil and gas which is 50% of their state budget while the natives in their INTERNAL COLONIES live in absolute poverty (does this remind you of something?). Russia is a colonial empire right now at this moment.
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@gdiwolverinemale3rd That was question "why?". Now question "how?". Even military experts on Russian state TV (I watch it all the time) confirmed that it is impossible to destroy with rockets and artillery, that only charges planted inside the dam could do it and they have to be detonated in sequence (this is military expert on Russian state TV, not western media). And if you say Ukrainian SCUBA ninjas planted it under water, then I say you just made it up because you want it to NOT be Russia, but there is exactly ZERO evidence about any SCUBA divers anywhere. You first have to find some evidence and then deduce that it might have been done like this. Not working backwards that "I know Ukrainians did it... now I have to invent how... ok, there are no other technical possibilities for Ukraine to do it, so it must have been SCUBA diving commandos... great! now I have proof, it was done by Ukrainian SCUBA diving commandos, case closed!" That's not how investigation works. Russians had motivation (put water infront of Ukrainian counter-offensive soldiers + destroy electricity for 3 million Ukrainians, destroy their farming capability for very large area + make Ukrainian army rescue civilians instead of counter-offensive ... and it worked perfectly) + Russia controlls the entire area and the dam itself and water levels, all controlled and fortified by Russia. They are absolutely the prime suspect with both motive and very easy way to do it.
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@Silver_Prussian Ok, let me put it this way. I've been to Saratov (and around), and I have friends from Yakutsk and Khabarovsk. Why the hell are there dirt roads outside of city, no running water, many people in villages have no sewage system. Those regions produce all the wealth of Russia in diamons, metals, coal, gas, oil ... and all that goest to Moscow and Petersburg. All the money should stay there in Asia, not go to Moscow. Then of course Moscow and Petersburg look rich, becase they are colonialist imperialist powers. Asian part of Russia is the colony. So if you compare standard of living, compare forgotten villages far away, not just capital cities.
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@Silver_Prussian But that's exactly what I was saying. You say that the east is not important as 75% of Russians live in the west side of Russia - but all your money comes from the east - from oil, gas, diamonds, metals - most of it is extracted in the east, but you steal the money to Moscow and Petersburg. That oil and gas belongs to the local people that live there, not to Moscow. That is exactly why it is a colony. Like when Belgium conquers Congo (same as Russia conquers Siberia) and then locals have to mine expensive metals, but all the money goes to Belgium, not to Congo - Cogno is just a colony to be exploited. Exactly the same with Siberia and Far East - you just exploit their oil, gas, metals, but all the money is stolen by Moscow. ALL the money from oil, gas and metals has to stay with local people, ZERO should go to Moscow and Petersburg. Belgium, UK, France, Spain, Portugal - they all gave up their colonies. They no longer have any. Russia never gave up their colonies - still COLONIAL IMPERIAL country.
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@Fromleftfield01 Little bit of context from Slovakia: Fico is not pro-Russian by nature (he has no personal beliefs, he is your typical extremely corrupt political operator who is also very capable orator and political manipulator, extremely capable). 4 years ago, police (under new government) started serious investigation into massive corruption of previous government officials (dozens of people involved, including Fico). That meant Fico had to win this election (1 year ago) otherwise he would go to prison for the rest of his life, and many many powerful people around him. The already present and pervasive Russian propaganda came in handy and he used it as a tool to get back to power and replace prosecutors and police directorate. He is pro-Russian because it was politically profitable for him to be (I suspect similar motivations in many of the pro-Russian populists in the EU countries). Russia has been brainwashing us through social media for 10+ years, and if these politicians come to the scene and say "USA bad! NATO bad! EU bad!" stupid people brainwashed by Russia vote for them because "He's the only one saying it like it is!". I will not blame USA for stupidity of my people... but this could all have been prevented if CIA or NSA came to the offices of Facebook and YouTube/Google, and forced them to not actively promote Russian propaganda in allied countries. Even today if I open YouTube without signing into my account, YouTube actively promote pro-Russian propaganda in Slovak language non-stop from every side, it's like 30% of all recommendations I get. Most of this propaganda is anti-American (anti-USA)... actively promoted by an American company (Google, Facebook). I don't understand this.
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@AnatolianHittite You: "You probably did the same to someone else when it was the dominant power"
-- It was a reasonable guess from you but in reality no. We were just dominant in our region when Germanic tribes and Kelts moved west and our ancestors moved here (also west), and it lasted only around 200 years, then we got conquered. But of course all this is not important, just saying.
You: "And I hope your hometown wasn't invaded by the Ottomans because I guess you know the ridiculous comments from the random Balkans"
-- It almost was. Hungary had to move its capital city over here because Budapest was conquered by the Ottomans. But like I said that was all such a long time ago. We also forgave and forgot Hungary for occupying us for 1000 years. Also Nazi Germany for invading us and occupying. It's all in the past, it's better to focus on the future. The only one we have not forgiven or forgotten is Russia, destrying my country, killing our families, plundering our resources... because they are still doing it right now and they are constantly expanding their rhetoric of what should Russia own, and we are just one step from being declared as "Russian sphere of influence" and being invaded. If Russia went its way and didn't invade Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine twice, and didn't threaten to rebuild their colonial empire, then we would have forgiven and forgotten. We would just focus on the future. But Russia makes it impossible. ... So compared to that, Turkey / Ottoman Empire is really not a grudge. It's just a part of violent history we have already forgotten. I don't think anyone here views Turkey as an enemy (on the countrary, as a NATO ally).
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@@HammochiKisrilk You: "Nowhere is it written that to be European, one must be what you say."
-- When you mean European as someone who was born on the continent of Europe then there is none, but if you mean European Union, then there is. It is a private club that has a charter - that is your "scout manual" for EU. Let me give you an example: death penalty is banned in the EU. You cannot join as a country unless you abolish death penalty in your country. This is not based on my emotions - EU charter and all these other rules are real and they are written down and signed. We have some common basic values like non-discrimination of anyone (including sexual, ethnic or religious minorities - that doesn't mean you can do whatever you want just because your relition tells you to, that means you will get same treatment as everybody else = non discrimination), democracy with independent judiciary/courts, legislative and executive branches, independent media, separation of religion and state = secularism, and few other core values. If you disagree with the core value that the 27 agrees on, then you will not be invited to the private club that is European Union, that's it. You can exist, you can do whatever you want, you can be European... but EU is a private club, it has its rules. Nobody is entitled to join.
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@bubachkobubachkov5519 Hitler even used the very same fake excuse for invading Czechoslovakia in 1938 - "our German speaking people in Czechoslovakia are abused and oppressed, we must protect them" ... we all know it was fake, same way Putin's excuses are fake (opressed Russian minorities, biolabs, NATO expansion, Satanists, Nazis, dirty nuclear bomb, weaponized mosquitoes, weaponized birds, imminent invasion of Moscow from Ukraine, chemical attack on Russia, CIA coup, children in Donbas, Zelensky drug addict, and of course Ukraine is not even a real country and shouldn't exist)
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@24vegweg57 You said: "Who rebuilt these territories? Why Ukraine cannot build anything without Russia, it cannot even conquer something. But he insists, this is our territory."
-- That's like saying to India, that England rebuilt it. Or to any other African ex-colony, that they have not built anything and the colonizer should own their land because of it. Russia colonized Ukraine by force for hundreds of years (same way Western European colonized the rest of the world, exactly the same way), resources were stolen to Moscow, local population was brutalized, with at least one genocide of millions. How can you build anything when you are being colonized by a COLONIAL EMPIRE like Russia. Being a colony doesn't mean you have no right to exist or that the empire has any right to your land. Same way Western Europe had to let every colony go, same way Russia has to let their every colony go (including Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia - all countries invaded by colonial Russia, because they want their colonies back). The rest of their ex-colonies are protected either by NATO or China, so Russia doesn't dare to invade them.
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@24vegweg57 I was born under Russian occupation, with tanks and everything, and I was forced to grow up in it and live almost first half of my life in it. Then as fast as possible we worked really really hard to be allowed to join EU and NATO (we had to beg for it for 10 years straight to even be considered and then we had a referendum - so much for your bullshit about NATO expansion - I WAS THERE, I VOTED FOR IT, it's my land, my decision, not yours). Second half of my life is as "US colony" or "US puppet state" (in your mind). So I can very much compare Russian occupation/colony vs American "not really an occupation"/colony inside EU/NATO. Our standard of living if incomparably better than under Russia, we had breadlines under Russia, now we have everything we want and much much more. We no longer get shot a the border when I want to leave my country (durin Russian occupation it was not allowed to leave the country unless the communist government gave you very special permit and would punish your family for generations if you did not return... if you tried to leave the country anyway, you would be shot at the border - this happened all the time, even to children... I lived close to the border, but this was public information, to deter others). Now as "US colony" we have 50 political parties (half of them anti-US) and I can vote for anyone I want, and I can even easily start a political party. I have DEMOCRACY and FREEDOM (I know, that means nothing to you, just saying). And when US invaded Iraq, we condemned it and refused to participate (as all other countries around us except one). That's some strange "US colony" that can defy USA so easily, even badmouth them and then refuse to help them. How exactly are we an US colony?
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@24vegweg57 I gave you hard numbers about GDP, GINI, HDI and FI that proove Russia is a cancerous parasite that sucked dry all their colonies inside and outside of USSR. Russia is a cancerous tumor that will finally be destroyed. After hundreds of years of terror, our children and grandchildren will finally not have to live in what we had to live in. 60 countries are sending weapons to Ukraine. 141 (of 180) countries voted AGAINST Russia in the United Nations (and 4 countries voted with Russia - Belarus, Syria, Eritrea and North Korea). Even India and China abstained. Collective West is 67% of entire world's economy, Russia is little above 1%. NATO is 1 billion people, Russia is 0.14 billion. NATO spends 24x more on military than Russia and 240x more than Ukraine (Russia has serious problems fighting 1 Ukraine, now imagine fighting 240 Ukraines at the same time). NATO has 22000 military aircraft. Some people don't understand how absurdly one-sided NATO vs Russia is. These are just hard factual numbers. The West just sent 0.2% of GDP as military aid to Ukraine. This was just a small apetizer. You will soon see the remaining 99.8%. 10 years from now, Russia will no longer exist as a country. When it happens, remember my words.
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@ИльяМелентьев-э8у I wrote about it above (in this thread). I was born under Russian occupation, I grew up under it. Russians killed quarter of my family (before I was born), sent the rest into labor camps for 3 years, took our entire farm and everything we owned. Same thing was done to so many others, people were disappeared by the state, people were shot at the border (even children) just for wanting to leave the country (not allowed, we were in very large prison), our resources were sucked to Moscow added to the endless "debt" that has never been repaid and our economy was destroyed by forced communism. We tried to very slowly diverge from Moscow to be just a little bit more independent - and Moscow sent full tank invasion into my country, against unarmed civilians who were not even protesting. Russian tanks and soldiers took control of all government buildings, airports and kidnapped our prime minister to Moscow. We were an occupied colony of Moscow with no way to leave the country. The moment we felt Russian power has weakened (1989), we immediately had a revolution and overthrew the puppet communist government installed by Moscow. I remember it like yesterday. We were finally free. We worked our asses to be able to join NATO as fast as possible. It took 10 years of begging to be finally able to even be considered for NATO and then hard work to be admitted into EU and NATO. I know, I was there, I voted. Now no f*** Russian is going to tell me what I can and cannot do with my own country. This is my country, I voted to join NATO and we did. Russia has absolutely no say in it and has to learn its place. Russia's jurisdiction ends with its borders. PERIOD.
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@Ana_5056 I am not Ukrainian, but I live close to Ukraine and relatively close to Serbia (not neighbor). ... Could be double standard, I have been to Croatia and Slovenia many times and even to Serbia once, but I never asked about the details of the war, so I don't make uneducated statements about it - I will just admit that I don't know enough to have an opinion on it. ... But I do know about Ukraine. Like I wrote above, I grew up under Russian occupation, they killed my family, took everything, destroyed my country and many many others around us. It was hell - and still it was nothing compared to what Russia did to Ukraine. It is no mystery that we worked super hard to join EU and NATO (and voted for it, it was a referendum) - to be protected against Russia, to never again be occupied, killed and ravaged by Russia... unfortunately Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine didn't make it in time and all three were invaded by Russia (yet no NATO country has been as much as touched by Russia, and not even Finland and Sweden now - Russia only attacks the weak, the ones not in NATO). Putin said it himself many times - collapse of Soviet Union was greatest global catastrophe of 20th century (his exact words, so not Hitler, not WWII, not WWI, but collapse of his precious empire of evil - Soviet Union). He wants to rebuild the mighty Russian empire... he wants his ex-colony (Ukraine) back. This is the one and only true reason for the invasion - this is why he went straight for Kyiv at the start, this is why he is annexing territory from Ukraine, this is why he is repeating constantly that Ukraine is not a real country and they are just taking back Russian land... he wants his colonial empire back.
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@joshuacampbell1625 Russia has absolutely nothing to offer to the world, but most people here who support Russia don't do it because they love Russia (they couldn't care less). It's usually people unsuccessful in life, with lots of personal debts (executions/repo) and overall this european social-capitalism doesn't work for them. They need to blame someone for it - so they blame the government, they blame migrants (there are none in Slovakia, they still blame them), they blame gays, they blame Jews, they blame EU, they blame USA, and the system itself. EU and USA represent "the system" in the world today, and life of these people is miserable under this system, so they want to destroy it. Russia is pretending to do just that, so they support Russia. Not because of Russian greatness, but because of absolute hate for the West... because of their miserable personal lives. They would rather see the world burn than to look at the mirror of personal self-reflection.
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@Volkodav2003 You would be surprised, but I am all for that. Scotland actually had a referendum whether to stay in the UK or not. (and if they changed their mind, I am all for another one) Same for Northern Ireland. And about the islands - if NATIVE people who live there want it. The West did exactly what Russia is doing. Invade a country, kill native population, take their resources (all of Russia's wealth from oil, gas, coal, metal and diamons is from stolen lands... it's not from Moscow), and then relocate people from the empire to the new colony (so that you can claim any time that your people are living there so it belongs to you), and force the local population to learn your imperial language and destroy their religion and culture in the process. This is exactly what Western colonial powers were doing, and this is exactly what Russia is doing. What's the difference? West stopped doing it 60 years ago, Russia is still doing it today. We cannot travel back in time to stop the West, but we can stop Russia today. No more colonies. No more empires. Everything must fall.
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@halfalligator6518 In the end, it will all come to what allies of Taiwan will do (same as with Ukraine). If Japan, Korea, Australia, India, USA, Canada, EU/NATO and others come to save Taiwan, then bye bye China... if not, it will be very difficult to defend Taiwan in a prolonged war with naval blockade. But as entire West is totally addicted to Taiwanese chips, it is very likely the West would respond even more harshly than in the case of Ukraine.
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@emperorofwends8875 You: "I disagree whit the "foreign interference" statement becose my father is one of the most anti-US people I know and even he didnt say the US influenced our election"
-- Well, that depends whether CNN was pushing through Prima something that came from the US government, or whether it was just genuinely stance of Prima as a television (most media have self-imposed bias, which is ok, they are human, but it is not ok when it comes from outside - investors, foreign influence, or when it's deliberately manipulative (I know, this is very difficult to define, it's a thin blurry line). I have no idea what Prima did, so it is difficult for me to comment. However I stand by the principle, I don't want any foreign power to manipulate public opinion in my both home countries of Slovakia and Czech Republic. Currently it is Russia in ridiculous amounts (we have video from our SIS (like Czech BIS) that shows editor in chief of biggest "alternative news" server talking to Russian "diplomat" (some Russian on diplomatic visa that works at Russian embassy), and they are literally talking about him being paid for propaganda, and who else from the politicians can he convert (this is TREASON) and he even got paid for it on the spot. I know it looks like from a bad movie, but it was proven to be real multiple times and police + courts already arrested the guy and deported the Russian diplomat. Russia is really waging a hybrid warfare (of course they are, you would do the same in their position - they invest tiny amount of money and get massive results inside the EU countries, why wouldn't they do it... they did it during cold war era too). Our role is to stop it... at which we failed horribly.
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@dannyp8170 You: "You think a battle of attrition is a good strategy against the Russians?"
-- That depends. Attrition of human lives? Probably not. Ukraine has 31% of population of Russia, so it's not some astronomical difference, but Russia absolutely doesn't give a shit about their soldiers dying, they never did (even in WWII they just sent soldiers with wooden fake guns to storm German positions, they don't care who dies). So you don't want to go into human attrition with opponent that doesn't value human life at all - you will lose that equation. On the other hand Ukraine is defending their country - you will always have much higer morale when you defend the very existence of your country and safety of your family and your home. Russians are sent to war because of Nazis, biolabs (Russian version fo Iraqi WMDs), Satanists, dirty bomb, weaponized mosquitoes, oppressed minorities (that they are forcibly conscipting and sending to worst places to die) and Zelesnky satanist drug addict... and of course demilitarization of Ukraine - which has now more weapons and soldiers than it ever had)... the goal is very unclear for the Russian soldiers (watch PoW interviews and intercepted phone calls - nobody knows why they are even there - they just go there because they've been told to do so). My point is: Russian public will have only limited patience for endless mobilization/conscription... where Ukraine can do so much longer, because they are defending their country, so people accept it more (this is universal for all countries).
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@ArawnOfAnnwn You are just an American (you posted while it was night here in Europe, or early morning in eastern Russia) who read about this on some social media post and now you are an expert. I live right next to Ukraine, I have been there many times and I have many friends from there including my best friend for the past 15 years. I have also been to Russia once and know several people from there. Ukrainians always wanted to join EU and not be part of Russian empire ever again (oppression, poverty, Red Terror, Holodomor genocide). In 2003 they started Orange revolution against a Russian controlled puppet president and in 2014 they did exactly the same when democratically elected president who promissed accession to the EU turned 180° on this election promise and dismissed the EU accession. This made MILLIONS of people angry and ousted the president (which happens in my country all the time - people give vote, people can take it back at any time - president is your SERVANT that you are paying to do some political tasks for you, NOTHING MORE, if your servant / employee doesn't perform his tasks, you will fire him... you should try that). Then immediately after ousting the corrupt president (who fled to Russia next day and left lavish opulent palaces of corruption behind him, it made Ukrainians really angry) they had proper election and voted in a fully democratic way. (Neo-nazi far-right party Right Sector got 1% of vote, that's for a country full of Nazis) They voted in Petro Poroshenko - a corrupt oligarch, because he had the money for political campaign. After 4 years, they were disappointed with him and voted for anti-corruption candidate Zelensky (who turned out to be little bit corrupt too, off shore account in Panama) and they were being disappointed by him in 2021 too, his popularity droped very much, until Russia invaded, now his popularity is 90%, only because of the invasion, if Russia didn't invade AGAIN in 2022, Ukrainians would vote Zelensky out and vote for another politician to disappoint them). This is all 100% democratic and it's straight from Ukrainians themselves, and as I said, I have been there many times. ... Ukrainians want to be part of EU and always wanted to be part of EU and Russia has ABSOLUTELY NO SAY IN IT. Same way Ukraine has no say in who can and who cannot be president of Russia, Estonia, Lavtia, Lithuania, Findland, Sweden, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Georgia, Turkey - have no say in who can and who cannot be Russian president, or who can Russia go into alliance with. Russians were born in that country, they have lived their entire lives there, and they are the ONLY ones who will decide what alliances will Russia join and what to do with their land. Same way Ukrainians are the ONLY ones who decide whether to join NATO, EU or anything als and Russia has NO SAY in it, absolutely none. Taiwanese who were born there, lived their entire life there, have their home there, they are the only ones who decide what happens with Taiwan, not some imperial power of China. China has absolutely no say in it. Land belongs to the people.
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@branofilipovic9608 Do not worry my Czech brother, Russia is a dying empire and this are their last days. They went all-in in Ukraine. If they lose this war then Putin is dead (physically, killed by his own people for being weak). He knows it and sent everything Russia has to Ukraine and even more - Syrian mercenaries, beg for drones from Iran, beg for weapons from North Korea, and even had to mobilize 300 000 civilians. What you see in Ukraine is everything they've got, there is nothing more, no reserve, this is all. At this stage, Poland-Ukraine military alliance could defeat Russian military and march on Moscow (it won't happen, but they could). If USA wanted to intervene, Russia wouldn't exist anymore (NATO spends 240x more on military than Ukraine (just hard numbers, you can google it)... imagine Russia fighting 240x Ukraines at the same time. It wouldn't be WWIII, it would be more like stepping on a discarded cigarette.
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@BJ-zd2or That is very beautiful, but also incredibly naive. We all would love to live without any military at all (wasted 2% of our GDP). But the world is not made out of unicorns. What you see in Bucha and Mariupol can be your town tomorrow. Then you will have no power to stop them, because you were a pacifist. If you think nobody will come and rape you because you are a pacifist or because you didn't "provoke" (you provoke just by your very existence and being rich), then you would be unfortunately wrong. It's horrible, but we HAVE TO build our militaries to defend our women, children, people, nurseries, schools, hospitals, everything.
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@detectiverubs5830 If you think you can resolve this brutal genocide with Russia in some peace talks then you do not understand Russia and you do not understand violence. Pacifists are noble people, but will die first in the face of true violence. You have to understand the sheer brutality and unbreakable intent of destruction of an entire country, culture, ethnicity. Watch Russian state TV daily, you will see what are the plans for Ukraine - they don't hide it. " "Ukraine" and "Ukrainian" cannot be allowed to exist" Any peace talks will lead to Russia just rearm their failing military and invade again 5-10 years from now, with much more capable army. Ukraine knows this. Eastern Europe knows this. We don't need this explained to us, we have lived through Russian occuppation, we understand their mentality and values. If you are a pacifist, they will just abuse you and consider you untermensch, because you are too weak to be allowed to survive - you disgust them. However if you strike really hard at them cause great pain and wounds (with military), they will start to respect you. This is how it has always been in Russia historically, and this is how it still is there. This is also how it works in nature, so it's no mystery or abnormal behavior.
Peace deal with Russia is not possible. Russia must be destroyed on the battlefield, otherwise you are not even an equal partner in their eyes. All peace talks are just a (clumsy) deception. Same as you would not have peace talks with Hitler. You know he will come back with even bigger army and finish what he started. There is no way to make peace with Hitler, he must be destroyed. Same with Putin and today's Russia.
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@Indigo Rodent I would be very very sceptical about Russia having any nuclear arsenal. Russia says it has 3 million soldiers (1 active + 2 reserve), they invaded with 150k and after 50k being killed they had to mobilize 300k plumbers, car mechanics, programmers (where are their 3 million soldiers? nowhere! it was all a lie). Russia says it has 13k tanks, and now we found out they have only 3k and already desperately use T-64 ancient tanks (those 13k were again a lie). Russia barely flies any jets (where are their 3000 jets to demolish Ukraine in one day? they used less than 300 and already lost most of them… so nowhere, it was a lie). Even Russian mobilized conscripts have to buy their own helmet, armor, shovel, medkit, everything except weapon, because their potential to mobilize 25 million soldiers was again - a lie. And their nukes? nowhere, because it is a lie - like everything else in Russia. Nuclear weapons need very expensive maintenance every 5 years and replacement of fissile material every 10 years. This is extremely expensive and impossible to do on 6000 nuclear weapons with the very small budget Russia has. And now subtract the insane level of corruption and stealing inside Russian military (that even Russian state TV admits) from the already very small budget. Russia will be lucky if they have a handful of nukes that somehow work (after 10 years the nukes simply won't have enough excess neutrons to have critical mass for fission, this is physics, no way around it). Russian nuclear weapons are in the same state as the rest of their derelict military.
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@Indigo Rodent I mostly agree with you. I think there was a goal to conquer and annex all of Ukraine in the beginning (they didn't expect any resistance, because that's what their intelligence reports were saying). But when finally they realized that it's completely impossible with the pitiful number of soldiers they have, they scaled down their ambitions, and since then they have been only scaling down... and then when they lost Izium, Lyman and now Kherson, and everything in Russia started falling apart, they realized they will lose this war, almost no matter what they do. You can see it on Russian state TV, how angry, frustrated and demoralized the propagandists are.
And I think from this point of realization they will lose you are 100% correct - now it's just emotional reaction, anger, cruelty and terror. They want to punish Ukrainians for humiliating them (Russians think of themselves as impossible of losing any war, strongest nation in history and they belive they haven't lost any war in all of their history (they have lost many), so to be so clearly defeated and on top of it all by the lowly Khokhols (their "N word" for Ukrainians), that's humiliation they cannot cope with. So you are very correct, now they want them to suffer... if they could, they would genocide all of Ukraine.
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@katarinab6728 Vacsinu dospeleho zivota som prezil v roznych krajinach v Afrike, Azii a Europe. Vsade som sa citil ako doma, a nikdy mi nechybala ziadna ina krajina, ani Slovensko. Ludia co ziju cely zivot tu si sami sebe nahovaraju, aki sme vynimocni a uzasni (len aby sa dobre citili sami zo seba) ... ale sme len obycajna krajina, ako vacsina ostatnych normalnych krajin. Nic mi tu nebude chybat, tak ako mi nechyba ziadna ina krajina, vsade bolo dobre. Urcite mi na stare kolena nebude chybat Slovensko, nech skoncim kdekolvek.
A co sa tyka respektovania hlasov ostatnych - my nie sme ti co sa snazili vyvalit branu prezidentskeho palaca (pred rokom), my respektujeme to, ze volby su slobodne a poctive, len sa nam nepaci vysledok, tak odideme prec. To je 100% demokraticke. Ja ti tvoj hlas neberiem.
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@@fleshnbone187 You: "Imagine Russia without nukes, they'd have been genocided and completely destroyed by the US/UK right after WW2 ("Operation Unthinkable")"
-- Russia has not been genocided by USA and UK right after WW2 because they had nukes ??? which they did not have... at that point only USA had nuclear weapons, nobody else. So if USA wanted to destroy Russia it would have been destroyed with nukes and there would be absolutely nothing Russians could do about it. Even easier, if USA wanted to destroy Russia they would just NOT provide massive massive material support for USSR when they got invaded by Hitler. Stalin himself said they would have lost without material support from USA (which they should not have received as they started WW2 together with Hitler as allies, tearing Europe between Nazi Germany and USSR - perfect example is Poland that was invaded by both as agreed between Ribbentrop and Molotov and then had Red Army + Nazi Germany joint military parade in Poland, their NKVD and Gestapo had joint conferences and supported each other for entire 2 years of the WW2 - Russia should not have received any support at all from USA, but it was necessary, because if Hitler conquered USSR, then he would be able to move all his forces to Western Europe and Allied liberation would not be possible anymore). Russia was incredibly weak, broken and completely dependent on US aid - if USA wanted to destroy Russia/USSR at that point, they would have done it already. Third chance was in 1990s - Russia was collapsing and USA sent a lot of grains so that Russians do not starve (google it). If USA wanted to destroy Russia, they could have just invaded in 1990s or just crush Russia economically to break even further into smaller parts. Last one is 2022 - if NATO wanted to invade Russia, there was absolutely no better time than 24th of February 2022 - Russia invades a sovereign country with 300 000 soldiers in a full scale invasion, United Nations vote where 151 countries of the world condemn it and demand Russia to pull out all soldiers, 34 countries abstain, only 4 support Russia. At that point if NATO invaded Russia, most of the world would understand it - a perfect excuse. Yet NATO nor USA did no such thing. This constant PSYCHOPATIC fear that someone is going to genocide Russia needs professional psychiatric treatment for paranoid disorder.
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@solaroid4442 Second, you constantly mention high debt (which is a fact), but who do you think we owe this debt to? That's right, to investors, FROM THE WEST. We owe it to ourselves. Our economies are not in collapse, you are exaggerating, even Russian economy is not in imminent collapse. This is all exaggerated for the sake of clickbait. Russia has small debt (it does have) and cannot pay it now, but it's not a problem - not like anyone would ever invest in Russia again, so even if they don't pay it at all, nothing will happen. Also Russia has really big financial reserve (they were preparing to invade Ukraine for years, made a large War Chest). Russia is draining that reserve and that cannot go on forever, but it will be enough till end of this year minimum. Russian economy will not collapse today, or next month, or by the end of the year (only -12% contraction, they will survive that).
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@solaroid4442 Think about it, why doesn't Europe completely cut off Russia from gas trade? If it was easy we would have done it already (this is very embarassing and humiliating, because we have our values, that we cannot follow due to being "gas junkies"). But now stop and think about it, why doesn't Russia cut Europe off from gas to teach Europe a lesson and force us to stop sending weapons to Ukraine. If it's existential war as Russian state TV is trying to sell it, then why not cut off Europe at this very moment? ... Because it's also not so easy. Sale of gas and oil are 40% of entire Russian budget, Europe is very large part of that. So 1/3 of entire Russian budget (schools, police, military, firefighters, roads, bridges, power plants, RETIREMENT for old people, and many many many other things) are paid by Europeans. If Russia cuts off Europe, it's government budget would completely collapse (losing 1/3 of your budget is devastating). Russia is addiceted to European money as much as Europe is addicted to Russian gas. If you think Russia has the upper hand here you are naive. Both sides are stuck. And Russia cannot easily sell to China and India. Because first, there is almost no infrastructure for that - you have to build gas and oil pipes over stupidly long distances with very large capacity - this takes many years. Second, China and India already have oil and gas - they can buy something extra from Russia, but nowhere near what really large and rich market of Europe consumes now - China and India simply don't need that much. 10 years from now, when Europe transfers mostly to renewables, Russia will have a problem selling most of their production (they will sell part of it, but not as much as now).
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@Smile Guy You said: "First point if the notion of voluntary membership. I Didn't vote to join, does that mean I'm exempt"
-- By this logic, you did not even vote for most of the laws of your country, yet you are not exempt at all. Every single person in your country under age of 18 didn't vote for any of the laws and treaties that apply to them (and they can go to jail for). That's how the whole world works. You didn't even get a vote in which country you will be born, to which parents, to what race, nothing. So you were born into EU, like everything else you have been born into. You can leave (personally), or you can vote for your country to leave the EU (EU is not Russia, EU let's anyone leave who wants to - like UK did, and nobody sanctioned them or attacked them, no ruined diplomatic relationships).
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@Smile Guy If you hate America (USA) from the depts of your guts as it seems... ok, there are reasons for that. But what other alliances are available to us (in Europe)? I was born into Russian occupation and grew up in it, during cold war. I can guarantee you that Russia and China are much worse than the USA (high bar, but they managed to surpass it). And if you want super strong Europe without alliances, then that is a dream (and first we would have to completely unify into United States of Europe, and I have a feeling that's the last thing you want). We need allies. And those are USA, Canada, Australia, NZ, Japan, Korea, Taiwan... hopefully India.
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@Smile Guy I understand your concern with the detached administrators making rules about things that do not affect them or they don't even understand. But you would have to have a "village kingdom" (a micro-state) to avoid that. Because it goes from family, house, neighborhood, village, town, city, province, region, state, federation / union, planetary government, galactic government - it's just a matter of scale (and you can increase the granularity of the steps as you want). There is nothing fundamentaly different between Copenhagen, Denmark and EU, just a difference in scale. All of Human history is going from smallest of tribes to villages, to towns, to cities, to microstates, to larger kingdoms, states, federations, unions ... it is absolutely inevitable we will end in a planetary government as one united Earth. It may take a few hundred years, but it is unavoidable.
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@katalinkozak9869 Would you care to elaborate how you meant it? Because Russia is irrelevant country with small economy (comparable to that of Spain) and we didn't give a shit about them till they started landwars in Europe AGAIN. So EU has nothing to do with Russia. But we have moral values - this is the important part. 30x smaller country have been invaded by an empire. Russia has 500 000 soldiers inside Ukraine. Ukraine has 0 soldiers inside Russia. We can do olympic level mental gymnastics to try to pin it on anyone else, but it is simple as sthat - much much larger empire invaded much much smaller country, killed more than 200 000 people there and started annexing its territory. This has happened only 5000x before in human history - it's an absolute classic - war of conquest. And of course they have excuses about biolabs (same us WMDs in Iraq) and dirty bomb, Nazis, NATO weaponized mosquitoes, Satanists, Zelensky is a drug addict and 50 other excuses why they had to invade. You know, Hitler also had excuses - like "legitimate security concerns" that Czechoslovakia can bomb Berlin and oppressed very large German minority in Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. Where have I heard these excuses before... on 24.2.2022. If Hungary cannot make up its mind in this absolutely obvious case of imperial conquest, then you do not share same moral values as us, and it is better if you leave our private club (EU). EU is built on common values, if you don't have them, it wouldn't work. You can make your own EU at home with Serbia and Russia or whoever you want. We won't invade you (we are not Russia), we won't harrass you, we just don't want you in our private club if you have very different values than us - that is only logical.
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@georgesdelatour Interesting point of view. I have very different understanding of EU. Absolute majority of countries in the EU have same fundamental values - uncompromising democracy, freedom but with limits on extremism, secularism (complete separation of religions and state power), and some above-average level of liberal tolerance, combination of socialism and capitalism (all EU countries have universal healthcare, free education, retirement, maternity, very strong labor protection and super strong customer protection... but everything else is capitalism - a balance), goals of protecting the environment, and some level of humanism (as an ideal value that we struggle to achieve, often not succeeding). So I belive EU is built on all these values and absolute majority of EU countries have these. If some country doesn't have them and don't want to, why should we (EU) force that country to change? No, but that country should not have joined the EU in the first place - it's obviously incompatible with our "private club" (here we view EU in a different way). I also believe in an European superstate (just like USA is a superstate of 50 states), but I don't believe in forcing Hungary to change - I believe if they have different values they should not be integrated into the superstate. They can exist solo, or make similar union with other states that have same values as them. I don't want to bomb Hungary (despite Hungary occupying and enslaving my country for 900 years, ...what was, will stay in the past, now we work for the future), I just don't want them as a "spoiler agent" in our superstate. They can do their own thing over there. Multiple European countries are not in the EU and they exist, they didn't implode. UK even left the EU and nothing serious happened to them. Hungary can do it too.
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@georgesdelatour Why would you think that Germany is buying compliance from us smaller countries? Why would they need to do that? We joined EU willingly (I was there 20 years ago, I voted for it) and we are happy in the EU not just because of subsidies (it's nice, but it's just a fraction of our budget), mostly because of the political stability (EU will not allow our local idiot politicians to go out of line), economic stability (again, our local politcians cannot abuse the National Bank to print money whenever they want because of EUR), open borders inside EU (amazing!) and freedom of movement (I have lived in many countries on 3 different continents, many of them inside EU and it's nice that I don't need ANY paperwork at all, just move there, find job, rent apartment, as if I was local), incredible customer protection from the EU comission and environmental protection (I have lived in many developing countries, and I can really appreciate medicine that is not poison and 2 years warranty where in many countries you have nothing, and many other protections), labor protection laws (but we had good ones already, but might serve other countries), and also the feeling of being one large family - EU citizens. We do not need to be "bought" by Germany to appreciate all these advantages.
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@georgesdelatour You: "First, values everywhere are becoming more polarised and irreconcilable."
-- I see a very strong culprit here - TV that grifts on this polarization, Social Media algorithms that promote echo chambers (you know it, you get offered the kind of things you clicked on, and soon you only see one side of the story to the extreme), and third culprit are grifter politicians - populists who abuse this polzarization to get votes and polarize people even more in the process. ... Do I know what should be done to stop this? No.
You: "Second, I think liberalism is dying. The new, “woke” left is proudly anti-liberal, proudly hostile to free speech, to “the marketplace of ideas”, to the idea they should even debate their political opponents. The new populist right is currently more liberal, more pro-free speech, but only because they’re currently the group most often being censored. Once they win power, will they still value it?"
-- I actually agree with all this. It's the shoehorn theory that extreme left and extreme right are very similar and use similar methods and sometimes even have similar goal just with few extreme differences (coming from opposite sides). I think horrible disease of many people (mostly extreme left and extreme right) is this unstoppable urge to tell other people how to live their personal lives.
Me personally, I have heterodox views that are somewhere around center (at least I hope), but I believe in non-extreme liberalism (in the true meaning of the word, same as you described above - don't force other people how to live their life except in rare cases when harm to a non-consenting person is being done (like child abuse for example). So what you wrote about the EU: "Thierry Breton seems to want Chinese level censorship of social media within the EU. His Digital Services Act represents infinitised contempt for the free speech legacy of Erasmus, Voltaire, Zola, Havel. How European! It feels as if we’re heading for a post-liberal world, I’m afraid." ... this comes as a surprise to me. I will have to look into it.
You: "My worst nightmare for the EU is that it will wind up ruled by a dysfunctional, inefficient, semi-woke version of the Chinese social credit system."
-- That indeed sounds like a nightmare, but solution is not to disband it (two steps back) but instead fight inside the EU and reform it. This is my objection to the UK leaving the EU. They were the strongest/2nd strgongest economy and a political powerhouse that connects USA to EU... instead of fighting for reformation of Brussels from position of power... they just run away. Now we are left to fight alone.
Difference between UK and HU is that UK has the values I listed above, in HU Viktor Orban/FIDESZ has 50% of votes, seems like half of Hungarians or more really do want what Orban is doing. Maybe majority of people in Hungary really do have different values than us.
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@pukiface You: "By the way, do you really think that the EU is not a colony of the USA"
-- If it was colony of the USA Viktor Orban would not be alive anymore and absolutely not the Prime Minister - USA would not allow it (that's what being a colony means, you have no say about your own politics, laws or freedom and all your resources go to the colonizers... just ask Africans, they will explain it to you). My country has 50+ political parties that are constantly dying and new are being formed every election cycle and I can vote for any of them and nobody in my country has even a feeling that the elections are being rigged, just that all the other voters are stupid. I am old enough to have spent first part of my life under Russian occupation with tanks and everything with people deisappearing, no elections, no freedom, unable to leave the country (you get shot at the border, it was not allowed) and our resources went to Moscow. That's what being a colony means. Whatever influece USA has here is laughable compared to that. I also remember voting to join EU and NATO, 20 years ago, and there was no media campaign, CIA didn't mind control me, we just all voted, without any interference from the USA. I know, I was there.
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@NisiCaloponis You: "EU was a voluntary organisation which constructed by the aim big xountries oppressing little countries no more"
-- You are just a child who doesn't remember how we Visegrad countries had to BEG the West for 10 years straight to be even allowed to be considered to join the EU. Just look at how incredibly difficult it is for Moldova, Georgia, Montenegro and even Serbia or Turkey to get in (those last two are never going to happen, still they keep trying). We had to fight an incredibly long and hard fight to get in. We had to change so many laws, improve our economy so much, reduce corruption. I remember it like it was yesterday, the endless struggle. And it helped us in the end. Life here is incomparably better now than it was before (1990s) and even that was incomparably better then 1980s when we were occupied by Moscow. Then when we all joined the EU together with Hungary, the flow of EU funds helped us rebuild the infrastructure, the agriculture, technology, education grants, cultural grants. Hungary is the greatest recipient of EU money per capita. Without EU you would end up like Serbia (their GDP per capita is only 50% of Hungary). You are still getting most money from the EU per head out of all other EU countries and yet you are incredibly ungrateful and constantly attacking it and sabotaging it. You know what. Get out!
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@pukiface You: "They don't give money because of our stance on illegal immigration and child protection."
-- No, illegal immigration is by definiton legal, and you are by far not the only one in the EU who is against uncontrolled migration. Almost half the EU is fighting against that and we are not getting sanctioned / unfunded. Also if by "child protection" you mean persecuting gays and trans people then yes, that bothers the EU, because we respect human rights. Nobody wants you to promote these disorders, but persecuting those people is a red line, they are human beings exactly like you and its none of your business what they do in private life. This is done in theocratic and backwards countries. ... But the true reason for EU trying to unfund Hungary is that Viktor Orban is controlling a lot of media outlets (massively anti-democratic) and supressing the opposition (obivously anti-democratic). Same way EU is objecting to Polish laws that would give government ability to retired judges (in all democracies judicial branch of government has to be absolutely separate and independent from executive branch and legislative branch - 100.00% independent judges are one of the founding pillars of democracy). I am not saying Hungary is some dictatorship, of course not, but Viktor Orban is slowly trying to erode the democracy in Hungary (this is exactly how authoritarian regimes begin to happen in a democratic society). EU cannot have any member that is not fully democratic (again, Hungary is democratic, but the changes are going in the anti-democratic direction slowly), that's why Turkey will never be an EU member (they are already a semi-authoritarian crippled democracy). Does that mean Hungary should not exist? Of course not. It is your country, you can do absolutely whatever you want with it and even oppress gay people or have a dictatorship if you want. But you have to choose between being a part of EU with same values (human rights, full democracy where politicians cannot own multiple media outlets), or not being a part of EU and doing whatever the f*ck you want. Your choice.
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@opticteadrop Very similar situation here in Slovakia. "Alternative news" websites (the ones that peddle all conspiracy theories) are now pushing very strong anti-EU and anti-west propaganda, and unfortunately it's working, we already have 50% of the population being converted to anti-west in less than a decade. Our security services have been tracing Russian "diplomats" and recorded a secret video in a park between Russian low-level diplomat (a spy) and editor in chief of the largest "alternative news" server in the country. It was a meeting in the park (it's so silly, like in the spy movies, but it has been verified since by multiple sources), where the Russian "diplomat" is giving him instructions, whom to convert from the politicians (the editor even proposes to convert one very anti-Russian principled politician that is obviously incorruptible, but the Russian handler stops him and tells him to not go anywhere near him, stay low, at least he was not as stupid as the editor). Russia is channeling money into our politics and conspiracy theory webs (extremely popular here, people are stupid). We had several people arrested for treason and all the Russian spies expelled from the country, but it's not enough. This has been going on for more than 10 years and 50% of the population is already converted. We have elections next month and it looks disastrous. If we turn against the EU and the west, I will leave the country again and never come back. Beware of Russian money going into Poland and buying politicians and journalists. It's a very real danger.
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@joeremus9039 You: "The US has encouraged Ukraine for the last 15 to 20 years to stand up and be independent from Russia"
-- Do you think Ukrainians are are just savage monkeys that they need someone else to tell them to want independence and freedom? This is typical colonialist imperialist point of view, that small countries are in some kind of "Spheres of Influence" (=colonies) of large empires and practically incapable of making their own decisions and always have to be told what to do by one of the big empires. Incredibly arrogant and imperialist point of view. ... I live right next to Ukraine have been there many times (and have been to Russia once), have 6 Ukrainian refugees in my house and several of my friends including my best firend are all Ukrainian. They are normal people capable of making their own decisions for their own country. They have suffered immensely under Russian occupation (not just Holodomor and Red Purge, everything) and now 20 years ago they could finally choose whether they want to be miserable and poor under Russia again, or be rich and democratic like all the countries in the EU. (what a difficult dilema, right?) Ukrainians saw what EU membership did to Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and now Romania and Bulgaria, and just wanted the same. They don't need anyone to tell them to do an Orange revolution and Euromaidan revolution to fight for their own democracy. Russia had the same dictator for 24 years and Russian people still have not fought for their democracy or freedom, they just don't care. Their problem. But Ukrainians do care. It's their country and their decision. Stop being a colonial imperialist. Russia has ABSOLUTELY NO SAY IN what happens in other countries. Russia's jurisdiction ends with their border. PERIOID.
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David Williams Second, look at their budget - 50% of their state budget (hospitals, doctors, medicine, firefighters, police, roads, bridges, FSB, 1000 other thigs) is made out of fossil fuel sales. Russia cannot afford to lose even 10% of that, because it has to pay for all those things constantly (like every other country). They absolutely need that money.
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@davidmitchell3020 You mean the "bear" that has lost entire Kyiv region, Chernihiv region, Sumy region, Kharkiv region (and totally unable to take it again), and half of Kherson region and entire city, all lost in the last 3 years. The same "bear" that was not able to protect it's own Kursk from the poorest country in all of Europe (Ukraine). Can't protect its refineries deep inside its own territory - every single day. The same "bear" that Prigozhin almost conquered with 8k soldiers in 48 hours, Rostov fell in 3 hours, Voronezh in less than a day. If USA was not protecting Russia by forcing allies not to give fighter jets at the start of the war, limiting what kind of weapons can Ukraine have, Russia would have lost even more. 10 more years and Russia will turn into another North Korea, broken and poor. Unless Trump saves them with hundreds of billions of dollars in trade. That would prolong the war to decades.
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@iamthepotato4312 "I am the potato" - Lukashenka, is that you? :D
I don't think we are going to declare war on Belarus any more than we are not declaring war on Russia. Technically it is very possible and easy to conquer both (yes, even Russia), but there is no political will to do it and people are constantly scared. However Lukashenka already tried to invade Ukraine at the very beginning of the war - he gave the order, and his soldiers refused, and his general said he is unable to carry his orders due to everyone refusing and thus resigned as general. Lukashenka then realized if he pushes/forces this, his own military may remove his head. There is no will to fight the Ukrainians in Belarus. It wouldn't make any difference anyway - their military is really tiny and poorly trained and now they gave their equipment to Russian military. Lukashenka puts a lot more money in his riot police (more important for a dictator). But when Putin falls and is not immediatelly replaced by another dictator (which is always possible) - I expect Belarusians to immediately overthrow Lukashenka - everyone there hates him to death, he is alive only because of what Russia would do to Belarus if they overthrow him. When Prigozhin matched on Moscow, Lukashenka instantly fled to Turkey (because is very much knows his head would roll). But seeing how incredibly weak Russia is now and it has no military inside Russia at all, everything is spent on Ukraine, I think Belarussians can overthrow Lukashenka already, there is not much Russia can do. But they will probably wait for Russia to disintegrate properly.
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@i.i.1128 I understand your angle, and it is true that GDP is just one number, there is a lot more to economy than just one number. But in case of Russia vs Taiwan there is a difference. Oil and gas are commodities, they are by definition replaceable from other sources (difficult, but possible). Taiwan's cutting edge semiconductors are irreplaceable, there is nothing at this level in the world (Samsung and Intel are very close, we can go down one generation and replace it with those, but Taiwan is 56% of the world's production, and as it is we have massive crippling shortage of these chips, now imagine China ruined 56% of world's production... that would be infuriating for the West, and if there was any way to save it with military, we will do it). That's why I said it's even more important than oil, because many countries in the world produce oil and it is even possible to replace with alternatives - but computer chips? Not so easily.
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@papercup2517 Dirty bomb, hmm, I haven't actually thought about that. Most of Russian public would cheer it (as they do torture and destruction of civilian buildings right now, even drowning of Ukrainians, it's not a hypothetical, they definitely would, though not all Russians, a minority would be horrified), but it would not bring Russia any military advantage at all - it would just massively increase western support for Ukraine (and maybe even anger China). But I guess desperate sociopathic nation can use radiation, chemical or even biological weapons, just as a revenge. I hope it never comes to this. Best solution is Wagner forces marching on Moscow, someone assassinating Putin and a bloody civil war between the oligarchs for power. Russia has to be broken into small autonomous pieces. It's time for their Siberian colonies to be independent and sell their own oil and gas, not send everything to Moscow (if you saw how they live there, like it's 1850, when they could be rich as Saudi Arabia, Emirates or Qatar). I hope we avoid the dirty bomb scenario.
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@SinoTalk Definition: " dēmokratiā, from dēmos 'people' and kratos 'rule' " (ancient Greece). But I understand what you meant, not that we have different understanding of democracy, but that we have different understanding of "how a country should be governed". I wouldn't say we care about the process more, we also care about outcome, but for many of us freedom (in many forms) is more important than economic results. You can have opposite opinion, that's totally fine, no problem. If you live in China, like the current government (mostly) and are mostly happy in your life - good for you. Nobody here wants to destroy China. But there are people in Taiwan, they don't want to be part of China - so are you going to slaughter them in a war just to take that island (that you honestly don't even need... doesn't China have enough already? it does). Let them live in Taiwan as they want to and everyone else in the world will let you live in mainland China as you want to. Everyone is happy, good business.
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@Kin You: "Also, I don't agree with you that Catalans have the freedom to be independent. If that right were right, every country would be torn apart." -- Not every country has provinces with 75%+ who want independence, it's actually rare. But look for example at Czechia and Slovakia - they split in two (from Czechoslovakia) 30 years ago, without a single act of violence, peacefully, like a divorce, and since then they are brother nations, super close to each other, bug legally separate countries. No problem there, no tension. Not everything has to be one gigantic empire. You can have 100 small countries and be happy and prosperous and cooperate. It is possible. There are many really small countries which have very high standard of living and happiness (from Singapore to Slovenia, Estonia, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, Iceland, and many others).
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@SinoTalk You: "Empires are those that build military bases around the world, bomb sovereign states at will, use domestic law against international law, and so on." -- Hehe, sublet jab at the US. Yes, USA is 100% an empire. Of course. But so is China just look at Xinjiang, Tibet and Inner Mongolia - those are not Han Chinese, they are different ethnicity, different religion, different culture, different language - yet China conquered them and rules them. Sign of an empire (althoug much smaller than the US, of course). Also expansion to seas that belong to Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia - empired always expand. I assume you will say that China has rights to those places and lives of those ethnicities and reasons - yes, every empire ever in history of mankind always had some justification, some reason. Same with Taiwan and legality. All empires need to prepare their citizens "WHY" it is "NECESSARY" to attack this much smaller country. There are always many EXCUSES. If one looks, they can always find an excuse why they are right and everyone else is wrong.
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@SinoTalk You: "If Taiwan wants independence, it is illegal." -- Well, technically every independence ever is illegal. That's like UK still thinking that it owns India, because independence was ILLEGAL. Yes, of course it was illegal, that's the only way for them to be free. UK is not going to make a law that will allow its parts to go independent (I don't know any country in the world which has such a law, so it's always illegal). But you know what else is 100% illegal: CCP coup. 100% against constitution of China. Does that mean CCP is illegal government? No. Revolutions and independences are always illegal, but that doesn't mean they are not valid. CCP is the legal government of China, despite getting there through a coup / revolution. Lang belongs to the people - if people decide to topple their government, then it is irrelevant whether it's illegal, same as if people decide to go independent, it is irrelevant that it's illegal.
You: " that's treason, right?" -- Also CCP revolution was 100% treason. And?
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@SinoTalk You: "What right do local people have to decide if their will and opinions are illegal?" -- I believe local people have all the right. Government is NOTHING. Countries (including China) belong to the people who live in it - they make all the decisions. But they cannot be at all important decisions in person, that would be impractical - so they send REPRESENTATIVES, to represent them at those decisions - what we call now a government. But make no mistake, every single person in the government to the last one is a SERVANT. They are there only and only because you cannot be there in person. They SERVE you to represent you at important collective decisions of your country. They are not "leaders", they are not "masters" and they don't make decisions. You make all the decisions, you own your country, not the government, they just serve you... and if you do not like how they represent you, you can change them at any time, like you would change anyone else who serves you.
Land belongs to the people - whatever people decide is the law (law itself is just human construct, to help us govern society, but if most people decide, they can change any law or even break it - it doesn't matter, law is there to serve the people, not to control them).
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@vitapont7338 I understand your reasoning, and there is nothing wrong with what you say, but let me speculate too. Russians (not just right-wing nationalists, but them too) are very very annoyed with Prigozhin - he was almost there, the did not face any obstacle at all, won every battle, and then just gave up - people don't forgive when they put all their hopes into you and you crush them. Even Wagner people are now very angry at him - I think he lost most of the pull he had with Russians and with Wagner. He cannot really repeat this again, people will no longer invest their emotions into him and support him (fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me). And presidential election is not really a thing in Russia :D He could have been president this month - his Wagner accounts were already talking about it openly - that someone like Prigozhin has to replace Putin. There is absolutely no logic for him to give up everything when he could have been president of Russia right now.
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@karankapoor2701 Yes I can. Woman is a human being with XX chromosome. Are you satisfied? I am a centrist and I still vote Progressive Slovakia. Because gay and trans people don't live rent-free in my head and I don't fall asleep thinking about them like you. I see much more serious problems with the world like WAR, totalitarian dictatorships (Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Syria), income inequality, technology, climatic changes, financial crisis, and all other ADULT mature problems that cause deaths and suffering int he world. But you go ahead and keep thinking gay and trans people non-stop as the world's biggest problem. So immature.
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@Lt_Rik I have no idea about the German left and open borders (I really don't know anything about that, I am just answering because you asked). And I too did find some reasonable points in the AfD program, like stopping ILLEGAL immigration (however you absolutely need legal immigration because all our populations are shrinking in developed countries - that is a massive threat to economy and stability, there is no other solution, that being said I fully agree that illegal immigration is by the very definition illegal and absolutely dangerous for the country, you need to background check every single person you invite to your "house"/country), it's a privilege, not a right. Also some REASONABLE reform of the EU regulations. I've lived in many developing countries for many years, and while I loved the people and the place very much, I saw what no regulations lead to - poison in the water, poison in the ground, poison in the air, poison in the food. So I agree with some things if done in moderation... BUT, if part of your (AfD) plan is to deport people based on race/ethnicity, or to wreck German economy by abandoning EURo and the EU and NATO (massive consequences), or to support a murderous dictatorship of Russia because of money. Then I cannot possibly support such a political party, not matter how good rest of their program might be, even if it was all gold and diamonds. Moral values come first.
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@viktorgr1222 Viktor, that is extremely unlikely it was deliberate attack by Ukrainians. They are winning the war, getting beack territory, getting serious weapons, vehicles and financnes from the west, millions of their women and children are in the west and Poland has been their strongest ally possible... and they would just throw everything out of the window by risking losing EVERYTHING if the west found out (which is extremely likely west would find out, as they did right now in a matter of hours). And all that for a very small chance of NATO joining? Ukraine is already winning, it would be extremely idiotic to risk losing all your allies, world reputation, even approval of your own citizens. This is ridiculous. Whether it was from Russia or Ukraine, it was 100% an accident. Deliberate attack doesn't make any sense at all neither from Russia nor Ukraine.
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@tonihil About the EU. I voted for my Europarliament member that represents me there, and they elect the officials. It's normal representative democracy, as everywhere else (in the constituent states). We can change EU policy and we do. You have to understand democracy - if you hate EU, but 51% of people in your country don't, they you have to suffer it, you have to accept it and the only thing you can do is vote against it in the elections (which I am sure you already do). That's how democracy works. Democracy doesn't mean that YOUR ideas will be implemented, or that everyones ideas will be implemented, just the majority. And I don't feel EU as repressive at all (and I am from a small central european country). Our standard of living went through the roof, we are doing much much better than before EU, and our anti-corruption laws are much better (contitions to being admitted to EU) and we use stable Euro currency, and EU forces my country to have very strong consumer protection laws and labor laws. I have lived in many countries on 3 different continents (Europe, Africa, Asia) and I am so grateful for the strong EU regulations. You have no idea how people get screwed in non-regulated countries... carcinogenic poison in every other product, medicines that might work or not, or maybe they kill you... no return polity, no warranty (yes, no warranty at all) and similar things. Don't get me started about the labor laws - I've seen such an absurd abuse of workers abroad. 10% of that would not be possible in the EU.
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@jeremyisaac4958 This is "rich" when Russia has dictator Putin in power for 23 years straight and if you say words "war" or "peace" you go to prison for 15 years, also if you inslult Putin, you go to prison. If you run against Putin you go to prison, or get poisoned with Novicok or killed by radiocative Polonium KGB style... criticizing Ukrainian democracy where people didn't like one president (pushed by Russia), made revolution (president fled to Russia the next day) and then had democratic election, elected a president (to your surprise NOT Zelensky), who was democratic but corrupt, so in the next election they voted for a comedian (still better than corrupt polititians)... who turned out to be little corrupt but a great patriot and now has 91% approval rating. Is Ukraine corrupt? Yes, very much. Is Russia corrupt? Yes, very much. Is Ukraine democratic? Yes. Is Russia democratic? Absolutely not - opposition jailed, poisoned, killed by radiation and some fell from windows. Nobody can be leader of a country for 23 years and be 100% democratic.
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@jeremyisaac4958 I didn't buy the WMDs in Iraq. I was protesting physically in front of US Embassy. ... My whole point is that USA and Russia can make 100 agreements, they are all invalid, because only people of Ukraine decide what happens in their country, and nobody else. This is some 19th century colonial mentality when "superpowers" traded entire countries (colonies) between each other... as if there were no free people living there who are the only ones who can make such decisions. We are 200 years later, no colonies, no spheres of influence - all countries have equal rights - both Russia, Estonia, Ukraine, USA - same rights... like all people are equal, all countries are equal. So if Russia puts 150 000 soldiers right on the border of Ukraine, that is Russia's right and nobody can sanction them or attack them with military (as nobody did), it's within their borders - none of anyone's business. Same if Ukraine puts nuclear weapons right on the border with Russia, Russia cannot sanctions Ukraine and cannot attack them with military - it is within borders of Ukraine, Russia has no rights there at all. ... Putin repeated throughout his life that 1991 dissolution of Soviet Union was greatest tragedy in history (probably meant Russian history but said history)... again and again, and also wrote long articles how Ukraine is not a real country (Ukraine existed long before Russia) and that all land was given to it by Tsars in 1654... and on the day of invasion he had one hour rant about this and even shown maps of Ukraine from 1654 - just watch it yourself straight from Putin's mouth, no bias, no western media. He is just trying to rebuild the great empire Russia once was. And many old Russians are nostalgic about their empire, and several tanks use SOVIET flag with hammer and sickle and not Russian flag (watch video from Russian Ministry of Defense - it's right there, again, no western media, no bias, straight from Russian government). This is the reason - same as Crimea and Donbas, Putin wants all of Ukraine. He is rebuilding an empire.
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@lucasworktv You: "So the only significantly richer country is Czechia.
Are you happy? If yes, I might upset you, because: cost of living…"
-- I told you to learn what GDP PPP means. Purchase Power Parity is fake GDP number where you take cost of living in USA and compare it to cost of living for example in Czechia. Let's say it's 50% in Czechia. So if your GDP Nominal (the REAL GDP) was 25 000, then GDP PPP would be 50 000 (because you have 50% cost of living compared to USA, so GDP PPP is double to account for your lower cost of living). These are the numbers you quote and they have nothing to do with real GDP, they are gake GDP inflated by comparing cost of living of given country to USA (it's always USA, it is set as default, that's why USA has same GDP Nominal (REAL one) and GDP PPP - because USA has exactly 100% cost of living compared to iteself). So by taking already inflated GDP PPP (which you did) and then saying look at cost of living. IT IS ALREADY INSIDE GDP PPP, already accounted for. You cannot count cost of living twice, India would win that game and we know Indians do not live a lavish lifestyle on average. So either compare GDP PPP where cost of living is already accounted for - which is exactly what you did, or compare GDP Nominal and then manually cost of living. Average Russian is living below the level of average Czech, Slovak, Polish, Estonian, Lithuanian and Latvian - this is just an objective fact, and if you ever been to Russia (I have) you would know this without any numbers or statistics. The difference is even bigger, because Russia has pretty high inequality. Moscow looks like a modern rich city (it is) and Petersburg too, and then you go to the rural parts and they live like 1850s, no plumbing, no indoor toilets, dirt roads, and wooden houses. I ask you again - go there and see for yourself, you will cry.
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@olegpetruchik6319 Your country STARTED second world war together with Hitler - as best friends and allies. You invaded Poland, Romania, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Finland. While Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia, France, Belgium, Netherlands and the rest of Europe. Then Russian military (Red Army) had joint military parade in Poland. Yes, military parade with Nazi Germany and Red Army together. Nazi Gestapo conference together with NKVD. You were exactly the same EVIL as Naci Germany and you helped each other. Moscow sold 1.5 million ton of wheat to Nazi Germany, 820 thousand ton of oil, cotton, iron ore, steel, rubber, soy, chrome, phosphates, iron and platinum. For entire 2 years you were ALLIES with Nazi Germany - you made it possible for Hitler to invade my country and many others. And then Hitler betrayed Stalin and invaded you too. And then suddenly you pretend you are the victim? Then for 4 years USA sent insane amount of weapons to you so that Hitler doesn't conquer all of Russia because he would be unstoppable. Stalin said after the war that Russia would never have won against Germany without massive help from USA. And then you reconquer my country from Nazi Germany to you and you pretend like some kind of savior. No, you started the war, you helped Hitler, you sold us out, and then you did not even liberate us, you stole my country from Hitler but did not set us free. You installed your puppet government and communism. Russian soldiers killed my family just because we owned a large farm. They took our farm, killed part of the family and sent the rest to labor camp for 3 years, then blacklisted the family for generations. Russia destroyed my country, our entire economy, took our resources and killed our people. When we wanted to be little bit independent Russia invaded with tanks - against completely unarmed civilians. Only in 1989 the grip of the Russian tanks opened and we had IMMEDIATELY A REVOLUTION and overthrew idiotic Russian installed government and stupid communism. When Soviet Union fell in 1991, we forced your tanks out of my country - I remember it like yesterday, all of it. My country was destroyed by Russia, everything broken and stolen. We worked really hard to be able to join EU and most importantly NATO, so your idiotic tanks can never occupy my country again. This is what you do to every country on that list. This is why we hate you. This is why we are waiting for you to completely destroy yourself in Ukraine, and then we will strike and make sure Russia no longer exists. Prigozhin was just a beginning. You have seen nothing yet. 10 years from now, Russia will no longer exist. And we will be there. Remember my words.
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@khas8049 You: "how safe would you feel when the gun restriction applies to you but not to your neighbour who is known for a number of crimes?"
-- Gun restriction analogy fits to "how safe would you feel if nuclear weapon restriction applied to you but not to your neighbors (Russia, China, USA, UK, France, Pakistan, India) ... oh wait, that is actually what is happening. EXACTLY your analogy. The countries I named forcing gun restriction on smaller countries while they can have as many guns as they like (and they do). This is exactly your analogy.
-- What you wanted to say (USA has invaded other countries in the not so distant past and we cannot?) - "How would you feel if everyone in the entire village attacked you for invading your neighbor's house (Ukraine), raping his wife, killing one of his children and setting the house on fire... when you know other guy from the village have done similar things few years ago and was not punished for it" <= this is the exact analogy. And to that I say: I would not want to invade my neighbor's house, rape his wife, kill his child and annex 5 of his rooms for myself... because I have moral values.
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@PskovCybercat Well, I am not from Poland (but a reasonable guess, I give you that). Also everything you wrote about Russian conquests - I do not deny that, I just don't view conquests as a positive thing, it's a moral stain.
It so happened that the Soviet Empire also enslaved my country. Russians killed quarter of my family, sent the rest to labor camp for 3 years and took everything we had, including our large farm. I was born later, under Russian occupation, with tanks and everything, and had to grow up under it. Russia destroyed economy of my country, took our resources, and set us back half-a-century. You didn't do that personally, I know, but Russia did. If you feel pride about Soviet Russia, then you feel pride about killing my family. You have no idea how many mortal enemies did Russia make in all the countries around its border and beyond. That's why we immediately joined EU and NATO the moment we could. As I saw Russian invasion into Ukraine, took 6 refugees into my house (native Russian speakers / "ethnic-Russians", now they hate Russia to death, you can guess why), as I saw absolutely devastated cities like Mariupol and Bucha, I knew Russia did not change one bit since the 1980s. Even the problems in the Russian military are the same, and the propaganda is exactly the same as when I was growing up under occupation. Russia has woken up millions and millions of mortal enemies, and month by month Russian military is losing more and more of irreplaceable Soviet era weapons, month by month burning more money from the reserve, month by month it has less and less Russian soldiers, even had to mobilize 300k civilians. Russia is getting weaker and weaker… can't even protect Moscow from cheap drones, now imagine what NATO stealth bombers can do. Can't even protect Belgorod region from 100 soldier raid for more than a week. Is there even anything left to protect Russia? Or Putin and Shoigu sent everything they had to Ukraine already? The collective West is 67% of world economy, Russia is little more than 1%. NATO is 1 billion people, Russia is only 0.14 billion. NATO has 22000 military airplanes. Russia keeps losing irreplaceable vehicles every week. We are watching and waiting. Russia will grind down its military on Ukraine until almost nothing is left. Prigozhin will use the situation to march against weakened Shoigu and Gerasimov (even you know this is true, he wants Putin's seat). Other oligarchs will be forced to pick a side. And at that moment, when Russia is the weakest - day of reckoning will come. For our killed families, for our destroyed countries, for the countless killed. We will be there.
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@EmbracingtheShadows Man, you have some fantasy images of what is left in Moscow. First of all, national guard is for all of 17 million km of Russia and hundreds of cities, not just Moscow. It is spread everywhere, there is only a small fraction in Moscow. They lost almost all the armored vehicles already because Russian military needed them in Ukraine. Also entire Russian military is in Ukraine, they sent EVERYTHING to Ukraine because as they say themselves - this is existential war for Russia. There is nothing left - absolutely no soldiers were seen by people in Moscow - only police and very little guard. Can you imagine them clashing with battle-hardened Wagner soldiers that have seen hell in Ukraine and were able to fight for Bakhmut against NATO equipped and trained Ukrainian military? Those guys are definitely the most experienced veterans in all of Russia - not some pussies that sat at home the entire war (Russian National Guard). And the police against Wagner tanks? Really?
Realize that for 14 months straight Russian military has been only losing in Ukraine, they lost everything around Kyiv - completely, they lost everything around Kharkiv, then they lost half of Kherson region and an entire large city of Kherson. Just non-stop losses of territory and no gains. The only ones who made gains on Russian side were Wagner forces in Bakhmut - they are the only successful Russian unit, everyone else is just losing and losing (these are objective facts confirmed by Russian side - nobody is pretending Russian military is still around Kyiv, or in Kharkiv or in Kherson city). Wagner would seize Moscow without any problems.
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@EmbracingtheShadows You: "and since Putin is very popular those Wagner's will highly likely be burned a life as the bottles of Molotov cocktail will start flying at them..."
-- There is endless stream of videos from Rostov after Wagner took over the city where thousands and thousands of people came to the streets cheering for Wagner, bringing them food and water, shaking hands... and of course there are Putin loyalists (they probably stayed hidden at homes, logically), when few of them appeared in the street and started to insult Wagner soldiers they got beaten by regular citizens and Wagner soldiers were just trying to pull them apart and stop the fights. Telegram channels are full of regular Russians being insanely angry at Prigozhin that he stopped and did not replace Putin. You have no idea how many people hate Putin's guts, even Russian ultra-nationalists. About as many that are Putin's hard-core supporters (mostly old Soviet people / reitrees). You sit comfortably on another continent in the US and read Russian marekting pamphlets as your source of information (do you also believe marketing pamphlets from US government? I hope not). I live here, I am from this region and I have been many times to Ukraine and I have been to Russia. I have many friends in Ukraine, including my best friend, and I my father has many friends in Russia (business). I also understand both languages. I know what is happening there and the society is divided half-vs-half. Now it will be even worse. There is an obvious pre-planned coup attempt from Wagner on Putin's head (Wagner Telegram channels were already openly talking that Putin has to be replaced by a new president - someone like Prigozhin) and Putin doesn't even have a speech? Coup attempt and Putin is hiding under the table for 15 hours? He made a speech about children's day and some unrelated shit... too afraid to talk about the coup. And then after 15 hours he goes on TV and looks visibly shaken and frail, shouting about traitors, treason and punishment... only to admit few hours later, they all will be forgiven and they are no longer traitors. He looks incredibly weak now infront of all of Russia. This is one thing Russians care most about - STRONG leader. Putin is too old and too weak to be a Russian leader. He will be replaced sooner o later. Mark my words.
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The facts that we know:
1) It had to be an explosion, not natural cause (civil engineers in all media say that the damage it sustained is not consistent with natural causes, and even Russian state TV says the same)
2) The side of the dam where it happened has under control of Russian military and has been for more than 1 year
3) Russia also controls the valves and drained the dam to record levels only to fill it over the maximum limit to 17m (normal is 13m) right before the explosion happened. Why would Russia overfill it like this?
4) I is impossible to destroy reinforced concrete massive dam with artillery or HIMARS, not even with bigger rockets. You would need massive multi-ton bomb to even dent it seriously - which would completely destroy the surrounding buildings and forests. As nothing around is destroyed only explosives placed inside the dam could have done it. This is a technical fact.
5) Russians already blew the dam up in 1941 to kill less than 2 thousand German soldiers while killing 20 - 100 thousand Ukrainians. This is a historical fact. They had to use 20 tons of TNT to do it. We can assume that whoever did it would need to plant more than 20 000 kg of explosives right inside the dam (and this one is tougher). Only Russians have access to the dam, unless you believe in Ukrainian supersoldiers who can move anywhere unnoticed with 20 000 kg of explosives.
6) We know Russia has mined the dam 8 months ago, from social media posts of several Russian officers and Russian military bloggers.
7) We have countless clips from Russian state TV of Russian pundits, analysts and politicians calling for destruction of Ukraine's energy generating capacities, even naming dams in one of the clips. Constantly advocating for it.
8) Russia introduced new executive order that says attacks on infrastructure and catastrophes related to the war will no longer be investigated. Also any government or military official involved will not be prosecuted. This is valid till 2027 according to the decree signed by prime minister of Russia (not president). This was introduced just few days ago, what a coincidence.
Speculative:
9) Ukrainians gained nothing by this - dam that generated electricity for 3 million Ukrainians is gone, their water canals for farming are gone (this is agricultural area - MASSIVE loss for Ukraine and countless tens of thousands of farmers will lose livelihood), and also mass destruction of 80 Ukrainian villages, and of course now that the counter-offensive is starting Ukraine cannot possibly attack from Kherson - there is no way they will be able to get heavy tanks through that flood and then supply them - Russian occupational governor of Kherson oblast even admitted it on TV few hours ago. Massive advantage for Russian military in fear of Ukrainian counter-offensive. Now Ukrainian military has to focus on rescue efforts. And please don't say it's a brilliant military maneuver because it's a war crime under article 56 of annex (1977) to Geneva Conventions that is categorized same way as using chemical, biological or small nuclear weapons.
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@ComposerJoakimS So free will is neither deterministic (system, algorithm), nor randomness (quantum jumps), what exactly is it then? (I know, you said negative definition is the best we can do, but let's try) How exactly does it work. You have network of neurons in your brain that are responsible for the decision - and they get triggered by inputs from other neurons.
Precise definition: "Positively charged ions, like sodium (Na+) and potassium (K+), are separated on either side of the membrane. When a neuron receives enough stimulation from another neurons, the membrane potential changes. Sodium channels in the membrane open, allowing Na+ ions to rush into the cell. This depolarizes the membrane, reversing the charge difference. The influx of Na+ ions triggers voltage-gated calcium channels to open, allowing calcium (Ca2+) ions to enter the cell. The calcium ions activate synaptic vesicles containing neurotransmitters to fuse with the membrane and release their contents into the synapse. The neurotransmitters then bind to receptors on the downstream neuron, triggering an action potential in that neuron."
This is completely deterministic physical process. So I wonder, where exactly in this process does the external (for me magical) force come in and stops the Na+ ions from flowing inside or the neurotransmitters from binding to receptors. Any change to this (fully deterministic) process will break the laws of physics. So how is it done?
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@ComposerJoakimS You: "Can any number of sufficiently fast interconnected Von Neuman machines become consciousness in principle? I cannot see why."
-- Ok, imagine a network of 10 neurons in your brain (100 billion will make your entire brain and your consciousness, in smaller animals it's much less, but that doesn't matter), now simulate those 10 neurons inside a computer with sufficient accuracy - you will get exact behavior of those neurons, there will be no difference. Now simulate 100 billion of them - with all the parameters they have in your brain. I would behave exactly as the real brain and have all the feelings, all the thoughts and would be perfectly aware of its own existence, because it would be a perfect simulation - but that entire simulation is just a bunch of calculations that you can do with pen and paper given sufficient time. So "just a bunch of calculations" can be sentient, inside a computer, and also your brain is "just a bunch of calculations, only running on different type of computer - your brain. But both are just machines, both do just "calculations", and both can be conscious.
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@sh4dow666 I agree with everything you said, I know, but what I meant was that you can fine-tune an LLM to absolutely believe that it is conscious, another one to absolutely believe it has feelings and emotions, and chain multiple LLMs with Reinforced Learning system that is constantly learning/improving and put overlaying (procedural) agent system (like AutoGPT/babyAGI) to orchestrate/manage these parts into single entity that will constantly feedback to itself + outside input and you will have an agent that believes it is conscious, has feelings / emotional states and can learn. Then you can say "yes, but it is all fake" and my point is "we can be fake the very same way - we have no proof that we are something special, magical ... we know we are conscious, have emotions and are self aware just because we observe it on ourselves (because we were programmed (evolved) by nature to think that, same way that AI agent I described was fine-tuned to do that). My point wasn't that this is 100% reality, but just to provoke thinking that we humans might think too much of ourselves, that we have "REAL" consciousness and "REAL" free will (whatever that means), when in fact we are probably just a biological machine... like everything else in this universe.
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@dragilxcom4176 The moment Russia sets foot in Estonia, Poland is there, Czechia is there, Slovakia, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland... these are guaranteed! (do not underestimate NATO trained and equipped militaries), at that moment entire NATO would have to be there otherwise it can already disband because everyone would consider it useless (USA would not allow that, so they will be there too). Plus NATO soldiers and weapon systems are already in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania right now - no need to move anything anywhere, they are already there.
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@dragilxcom4176 This is fearmongering with non-existent nukes. So far Russia has been lying about everything regarding their military - how many soldiers they have, rockets, how advanced they are (this is their legal doctrine - to intimidate the opponent - they've been using it for more than 100 years, they built entire military strategy around it). Do not for a second believe they ever had 6000 nuclear weapons. On top of that, you see how 1.5 million uniforms get stolen in Russia, conscripts have no helmets, no boots, no gear, no kits, and Russia is using T-62 and T-64 now. Russia ranks as #1 most corrupt country on the entire continent (Europe). Do not think for a second that they stole from everywhere in the military except the nuclear budget. Of course they stole everything from the nuclear budget as well (especially from it, because they assumed nobody will ever actually use it). On top of that you need extremely expensive maintenance on nukes every 5 years and replace the Plutonium every 10 years. Russia doesn't have the budget to do it on more than a handful of the nukes, so absolute majoriny of their derelict Soviet nukes no longer work. They are simply too poor to maintain (fictional) 6000 nukes, not even 600, maybe 60. Russia did not test their nukes for more than 30 years, even they cannot possibly know whether it still works or not (it doesn't, physics doesn't lie).
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@kisamehoshigaki09 You: "Colonial India and South Africa were a part of the British empire, not a part of Britain. Donbas and Crimea were a part of RUSSIA, not some colonial empire"
How incredibly naive are you?? All of Siberia, Far East (so most of Russia) and Kavkaz are not even Russians - Asians and Kavkaz people. Russia came by force and took their lands, suppressed the native Asians and Kavkaz people and took diamonds, metals, coal, gas, oil from their lands and take all the profits from it to Moscow. This is 100% textbook colonialism. Just as bad as colonies of Western Europe WERE. The major difference is that Europe de-colonized between 1750 and 1963. Russia never de-colonized. And of course there are ethnic Russian people in all those countries because RUSSIA PLANTED THEM THERE! In Soviet Union there were forcible deportations of local population out and deportations of ethnic Russians in. EXACTLY the same as colonial Spain, Portugal, France, Britain, Netherlands, Belgium always moved their people into colonies.
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@kisamehoshigaki09 We all know now that Hitler did not want to protect any minorities or that nonsense (no imperial power ever wants, they don't give a shit about their people, but they need an excuse to invade the country of their choice). When USA invades Iraq because of WMDs, you know it's bullshit excuse... but when Russia invades Ukraine you suddenly eat all 14 of their excuses why they did it (from Nazis, to ancestral lands, to biolabs and NATO weaponized birds, to protecting minorities, to Ukrainne planning invasion of Russia, to chemical weapons, to dirty nuclear bomb, to NATO expansion, to CIA coup, to protecting Ukraine from Polish invasion of Lvov, to Ukraine is not really a country anyway). How can you not see that they are just making endless excuses for something that is a power grab (as all wars are where 12x stronger country attacks a smaller one). But when USA does it you 100% see it clearly, suddenly. Don't be blind to Russian imperialism.
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@Ridethebomb777 I've been growing up in Soviet propaganda, and it was so extreme, absurd, over-the-top, that even we (in communist countries occupied by Russia) didn't believe it. It was just too absurd - Russia was always best, strongest, fastest, smartest, indestructible and one Soviet farming tractor could defeat 3 Western tanks - this kind of stuff. What's it with Vatniks now creating same level of extreme, absurd, over-the-top propaganda in 2023.
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I am not from rich countries like Sweden, UK, France or Denmark. I am from a backwater Central/Eastern European country. I've been fighting with advanced cancer for the past 10 years. My wait time for the surgery was 6 hours since the diagnosis. I received high doses of three different chemotherapies as well as stem cells for recovery and lots of rehabilitations, CT scans and more than 100 examinations. In total over the 10 years of treatment I paid exactly $0. We have it in our constitution as a major article that lifesaving treatment cannot cost any money because it is immoral. If our Eastern European country can do it, I am sure the almighty richest country in the world do it. It breaks my heart when I see what you in the US have to fight for so hard and we here take for granted (healthcare doesn't even ever come to our mind - it's like roads, bridges, fire department, clean water).
And how much do we pay in taxes? In the US - you give money to the insurance company, they take massive profit, and give the rest to the doctors and pharmacies. Here I take the same money I give it to the government, which takes no profit at all, and gives the money to the doctors and pharmacies. Why should anyone have billions in profit when the government can do it for free? All insurances are just "money redistribution schemes", there is no added value.
Plus, our doctors are not rich. They earn 200-300% of the average worker salary. They are just middle class - like everybody else here. (they got to study medicine for free and have a lifetime job guarantee) Our doctors don't do it for the money, they do it because it's their life mission.
Also thanks to the government universal coverage "big pharma" has no power here. Our government holds them by their necks and mandates what the prices of the drugs will be (government pays for it, so government makes the decision - the pharmaceutical companies either like it or they are banned from the country). It works really well - seems like even small profit is still enough incentive for the pharmaceutical companies.
Choice: I can go to any doctor anywhere in my country at any time. Nobody is restricting me in any way. Universal coverage is the ultimate choice.
Hustle free: No paperwork, no phone calls, no payments, nothing. You come to the doctor or to the hospital, they treat you, you leave, and that's it. Nobody is wasting time with bureaucracy.
It breaks my heart to see the suffering in the US :( I will keep my fingers crossed for your future!
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@nekosoup0401 Look, the west + free Asian countries is already at WAR with Russia. This is already a full on war on political level, this is full on war on social / information / media level, this is full on war on economy / trade level (sanctions) and this is already a proxy war and cold war. In every possible way except directly shooting at each other we are at WAR (some people are slow to accept this fact, but in time they will). But you are completely right that role of the sanctions is to obliterate Russian economy. That will take years, so it's not aimed to stop the war in Ukraine (too slow for that), but it's aimed to demilitarize and DENUCLEARIZE Russia. Russia made something no other country did in all of history - threaten to destroy entire world, every single Human, like very 3 days. If Russia releases a single nuke, USA will respond in kind (Biden confirmed this), which will make Putin look weak (let US nuke part of Russia), so he has to respond, USA will respond, until strategic nuke is fired (ICBM) and at that point all ICBMs from all sides are fired (as is official doctrine under M.A.D.)... if only 7% of those hit, it will result in nuclear winter, which is 10 years of darkness and -30 *C temperature drop everywhere on the planet for 10 yers. All plants dead, animals dead, Humans dead... even those in a bunker will emerge in a barren wasteland. This is so incredibly dangerous, that it far transcends Ukraine. Russia has to be completely DENUCLEARIZED, or everyone will die (including Russians, everyone!). This is the primary purpose of sanctions. If Russia had democratic leadership that would be friendly to western countries and signed denuclearization treaty (that US would denuclearize at the same pace), that would make the whole world safe. But if Putin loses the war and will be humilitated and everyone around him turned against him, he might take the world with him instead of just shooting himself like Hitler did.
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@anabln7018 Yes, politicians tend to be a sociopathic bunch and don't give a damn about people... but there are degrees of that. Putin is heading towards Stalin (killed or jailed all opposition, made it illegal to disagree about the war, or to even call it a war, opposition media closed, social media blocked, Russian media interview with Zelensky banned, bankers not allowed to leave Russia, stock market blocked, sending CONSCRIPTS to war which means certain death for most so many of them - this is very Stalin way of doing things... also him keeping 20 meters distance from everyone). Our politicians are sociopathic and don't care about their own people... but not this much (like Putin)... that's whole another level.
Oh yes, I would like direct democracy. I think Switzerland has something closest to it. Maybe in the next 10 years we will move closer and closer to it (our government supports it actually, but pandemic + war drained all their energy and time to do anything ont he domestic policy scene).
Oh, I've been watching US politics 5 hours a day for the past 10 years (it's a hobby of mine, their politics are very entertaning, like a reality show), I know with their electoral college, superdelegates, gerrymandering and 1-party (fake 2-party) system they qualify only barely as a democracy. Let's rather compare to our countries in the EU.
Yes, our media is massively biased and influenced... but most people here get heir info from the Internet anyway (for better and WORSE).
You said: "I do hope that Ukrainians and Russians will find their real freedom without being used by oligarchs as if they were stupid puppets" <= I 100% agree
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@nekosoup0401 "But what prevents NATO from disbanding? Russia is not such a dictatorial country that it can attack without reason. This is not 1940, nothing has changed in the world."
-- Let me tell you a story from 1938 (one year before WW2). Germany has been a large very very powerful empire for many centuries, controlling everything, and then they lost in the first world war and got crushed, humiliated, impoverished. Then the great depression hit and it multiplied the poverty. The Germans, who still had the great empire days in living memory felt bad, that now they are humiliated - it's very difficult to accept that you are no longer an empire, that you are just a weak country now (similar to Russia being an empire and a superpower and now being none of that, but it's very painful to accept for every falled empire in history). So then came a strong right wing nationalist Hitler (you know who is strong leader who is also a right wing nationalist in Russia). Hitler promised to make Germany great again... to rebuild an empire - Third Reich. In 1938 he agressively set on part of Czechoslovakia at the border with Germany that had lots and lots of German speakers (exactly like Donbas) and said that these German speakers are oppressed and tortured and kicked out of their homes. So he pettitioned the world forum that this is HIS LAST TERRITORIAL REQUEST, to annex Sudetenland. The world didn't like it but accepted it, because Hitler rebuilt military and nobody wanted to go to war with him (like Donbas). Hitler annexed Sudetenland... and then he said that Czechsolovakia is "security threat" to German Empire because its bombers can easily reach into all parts of Germany (I can send you picture from 1938 newspaper showing Czechoslovakia and bombers with 550 km reach drawn all over Germany) (this is same as "you will place ballistic missiles that can reach Moscow" / nukes / Ukraine is a "security threat" to our country) ... so Hitler annexed all of Czechoslovakia (except Czechs managed to resist superior German military only for 3 days unlike the Ukrainians today and Slovaks capitulated outright). The western powers condemned it, but nobody was willing to go to war (see the similarity of west not wanting to go to war with Russia over Ukraine). The west abandoned Czechoslovakia - as a sacrifice to Hitler, that maybe then he will not attack them and cause a world war. ... He used Czechoslovakian industry to build even larger army and create strong positions and then made military alliance between the Nazis and Russians to attack Poland and divige East of Europe between Nazi Germany and Soviet Union. Then attacked France, Belgium, Netherlands... and only then the west eralized, that maybe we should have done something earlier when he annexed Czechoslovakia.
My point: Old broken empires (like Russia) who want to rebuild their glory, make themselves great again will not stop at one country. This is exactly what is in Putin's mind, that is why at the day of invasion gave a long rant about Ukraine not really being a country and shown a map from 1654 that it was Russia. That is why he is concerned about Russian speakers in Donbas (exactly same as Hitler in Sudetenland) and says that Ukraine is a "security threat" to Russia (same as Hitler with Czechoslovakia) and that Ukraine was planning an attack on Russia (who stupid is that? like an ant planning to attack nuclear military power only to be obliterated one hour later) (same as Hitler did with Czechoslovakia). These empires always create fake excuses (like USA with WMDs in Irak or 9/11 with Afghanistan, like fake false flag attack to get into war in Vietnam, like false flag attack from Cuba to invade at Bay of Pigs, like Hitler fake false flag attack from Poland, or false threat from Czechoslovakia and fake bad treatment of our minorities - these dictators don't give a shit about their own people not to mention minorities in other countries - they couldn't care less - it's just an excuse to attack and conquer).
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@nekosoup0401 "Of course, the U.S. has no goal to bluntly destroy us, but they can use this as an ultimatum in their policy instead of long-term sanctions, and without a strategic shield like Russia, China is also helpless and weak."
-- US never ever even mentioned nuking Russia. Watch their TV, they are even hesitant to use the word itself, they just reffer to it as "the wost possible imaginable scenario". Everyone is completely freaked out that Putin, Peskov, Medvedev, Lavrov and Russian state TV are even mentioning nukes - no civilized country does that, that is such a horrible thing. ... Nobody in the West would even dare to say on camera to nuke Russia. That would absoutely 100% not be acceptable among the population. That would cause massive massive riots and governments being overthrown. There is a reason nobody ever used a nuke since 1945 - once you do it, there is no going back, only escalation and end of the world.
And now talk business: Putin gave an incredible gift to American military-industrial complex. Now they can spend as much money on weapons as they want, they finally have their enemy (Russia). They will make a ton of money out of this. They lost their goldmine in Afghanistan (US doesn't attack small countries go gain their oil, or territory, or other benefit - that is just a side bonus, that is never the reason - they attack all the small countries to create JUSTIFICATION at home to spend kvadrillion USD from taxpayers and FED on weapons - which means massive insane profits for the military-industrial corporations - all those wars cost trillions and trillions - most of that goes to the corporations. That's why they are 20 years in Afghanistan and don't win - because they don't want to win, that's unprofitable. Foreverwar is the best thing for them - they can bomb empty desert, some rocks, caves, spend all the bombs so new ones have to be bought and made = fat profits for the weapons manufacturers (then passed to the politicians to keep the wars going). So now Russia is a goldmine for them. Ideal situation for US military-industrial complex is if war in Ukraine drags for 10+ years (or forever) and Russia threatens US and Putin stays in power for as long as possible, and after him, if someone also threatening US is going to get in power - because that will make US citizens scared and they will not question why trillions of USD have to go to weapons manufacturers. US doesn't want to destroy Russia with an invasion or nukes - US needs a scary adversary to sell bloated military budgets to their population. It's just business.
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@dekowmohaze3979 You thought I am some propagandist. I am principled and apply same principles to every country. So yes Mexico can have any base Mexicans want. It's their country. Guatemala's jurisdiction ends with its borders! (oh, you meant USA, yes, their jurisdiction ends with their borders too, they have absolutely no say what Mexico will do with their country) Same goes for Cuba. Same goes for Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia, Czechia, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, ... you get the point. Otherwise there can't even be talk about any moral values or who has moral right to invade.
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Why Europe is increasing military spending and sending so many weapons to Ukraine and united in brutal brutal sanctions against Russia? Why not Yemen (horrible genocide), Syria, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, and endless other places? Why is this different? ... Because both Putin and Lavrov have actively threated no end human civilization with nukes. Even a single nuke will cause instant retaliation from the US and if more than 800 nukes detonate over cities anywhere in the world it will trigger nuclear winter and almost everyone on this planet will die (freeze and starve to death, no plants, no animals). Even those in bunkers with 10 years worth of food will find temselves in barren wasteland 10 years later and probably perish too. The whole world should be concerned about Ukraine, because Putin has gone insane during his last 2 years of complete isolation in his bunker and now is acting like Hitler in the last weeks of the war - lashing out on generals, being completely unstalbe. "Mountpiece of Putin" said on Russian national TV "What is the point of the world (existing) if there is not Russia in it?" (means if they don't get Great Russian Empire back) This is serious! (I am glad Kyle is taking it seriously)
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@MrH786 You just made an amalgam of first Iraq war (Kuwait) and second Iraq war 10 years later (WMDs). The first one was mostly justified, the second one was absolutely not and killed 1 million people in Iraq. Yes, the US does deserve exactly the same treatment.
But that is off topic - Russia is committing atrocities right now, public executions, looting, rape (even of children) and wholesale destruction of entire cities in order to rebuild and empire. Russia must be stopped and their economy absutely destroyed, demilitarized and denuclearized and completely isolated like North Korea so it will never again threaten Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Chechnya, Syria, Central African Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Azerbaijan, Poland or anyone else.
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@thenameisx You: "seceded post-revolution/coup whatever you think happened"
-- I am from a neighboring country and have been to both Russia and Ukraine (5x). Coup is when military takes over and installs new dictator. Revolution is when people (usually by force) take over the government. This was not even a revolution, it was more like mass protests and demonstrations. My friends were there at Euromaidan when it happened. Yanukovych was democraticially elected president, that's true, but he promised to bring Ukraine to European Union and suddenly he tured 180 degrees away from EU and toward Russia. Insane numbers of people went to the streets (just where my friends were it was 100 000+ people, but all over the country so many were protesting, millions). Yanukovych fled to Russia, government collapsed and new elections were held. This is 100% legitimate democratic process (we do it in our country for far less like every 5 years - government screws up, people go to the streets and government has to resign and we have new elections). People give vote, people can take it away - any time they want. That's democracy. Was CIA doing something there during the protests? I don't know. But what I know is that CIA was not mind controlling millions of Ukrainians to want to be part of EU instead of Russia. Yanukovych was democratically elected, Poroshenko was democratically elected and so was Zelensky, and so will be the next president. This is not some "special coup that invalidates all rules, treaties and alliances", just Ukrainians exchanging one corrupt politician for another corrupt politician, as is their right.
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@galacticguardian2783 You said: "if your neighbour fields people in their household who want to chip away at your livelihood and hold weapons meant to attack you hen you are justified to retaliate"
-- So Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, POLAND, UKRAINE, Moldova and Georgia can invade Russia and you fully support it, because it 100% fits what you just said. Just watch Russian TV (I do, every week) they constantly threaten to invade and destroy all these countries (now since the war they threaten Sweden, Germany, France and of course UK and USA... there was a march in Moscow to nuke Washington just 1 week ago... by that logic USA can now invade Russia and you would support it)
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@justinbeynon7980 If you give voting power only to owners of land, then rich owners of land will get richer over generations and poor owners of land will sooner or later lose their land. Money makes money and if you have bigger say in the laws then you will make even more money and get even more political power, to earn even more money and thus get even more political power. We already had this system - aristocracy. Here in Europe for more than 2000 years only owners of the land (Aristocracy) had a say in the laws of the land, everyone else didn't own anything and was just a serf that was working the land of aristocrats (they would never sell it - land is power, they only forced serfs to work it). This inevitably leads to absolute misery of the masses (95%+ of the population), which leads to masses just taking over their own country and killing every single last Aristocrat and taking everything back to the people... and they cycle is reset and everything starts all over again. Here in Europe we have been in this cycle for 2000 - 2500 years. Then we gave voting rights to every single human being in the country, and suddenly we don't have revolts of masses trying to kill the aristocracy. USA does the same (despite you not liking it) and that's why USA is also a stable country. As a general rule - if you don't give voting right to everyone, the small group that has voting rights will change the laws to benefit them and disadvantage others that don't have a voting right. Given enough time the situation will be so uneven, that the people without voting rights and without any power at all that are being oppressed by the laws will just destroy the entire system - because it is working against them, and kill everyone who participated in that oppression. Laws, voting, government, money, land ownership - these things do not exist in pysics, these are just imaginary concepts of humans and a social contract between all of us to respect it (money, land ownership) - they do not exist, it's just our agreement. If that agreement doesn't benefit everyone, then those people will no longer consider that social contract wothy of upholding. Money can have no value, land ownership can be ignored, voting, laws, governments - can be ignored. It's all just a social contract - and to keep it you have to satisfy everyone involved.
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@ArawnOfAnnwn Please, you can think that China is the greatest country in the world... but even you cannot possibly believe that China would let ANYONE investigate their internal shit. China is extremely controlling country, where they restrict, control and censor their entire Internet (no other country in the world does that, or even can do that). Country where there are hundreds of millions of surveilence cameras. Where most things are kept secret (China is really good at that). Even you don't believe they would let any foreigners really honestly investigate anything inside China. If there was a leak from the lab, China already investigated themselves, silenced everyone who knew about it and swept everything under the rug, so no one will ever find out, to "SAVE FACE" - which is most important thing in China. Like I wrote above "A bat coronavirus comes from a city with bat coronavirus lab" of all places on Earth it comes from the one place with specialized lab which was experimenting with exactly this type of virus. You must believe in fairytales if you belive there is not a very very high chance that it just escaped from that lab. (lab leaks happen all the time all over the world, that does not mean Chinese scientists are incompetent... but then covering up the leak and letting the virus escape into the world, instead of adminitng mistake (=NOT saving face) and warn everyone - that's the true crime that happened ... and it very nearly almost killed me personally, I spent 2 months in intensive care very close to death). So when China gets vengeful when someone accuses them of something this obvious, then it's because they know what they (most probably) did.
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Peskov (Putin's spokesperson) already confirmed that Gerasimov and Shoigu stay in power, no change there. Prigozhin got absolutely nothing, not Putin's place, not Gerasimov, not Shoigu, and lost Wagner (illegal after 1. July, they are not even allowed to join regular military, they just have to disband), and they confiscated everything he has and is exiled to Belarus. They got to his family. You don't win every battle and then just give up everything you ever worked for your entire life just to get nothing in return ... but you would do it for the life of one of your daughters. I am sure Prigozhin thought about this and tried to make them safe, he is smart, but KGB/FSB has been doing this shit for more than 100 years, they are also not to be underestimated.
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@brunokagawa6287 You pretend like USA has the power to force or manipulate Ukrainians to fight. If USA had that power they would have forced/manipulated Afghanis to fight against the Taliban. But in reality USA doesn't have that power, because nobody does. Even Zelensky can shout orders all day long, if soldiers don't want to fight, they will not fight, and if they want to fight, they will fight even without any orders (as it happened in 2014). Ukrainians themselves decided they want to fight for their women, children and their land. If your entire cities are getting destroyed, your women, children raped and murdered, entire families obliterated with artillery, then you don't need anyone to persuade you to fight - you go and kill every single one of those responsible or die trying. This has nothing to do with USA or NATO, no matter how much you dream about it.
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@iAdam43 You: "Because the wage/price ratio is amazing in Poland"
-- Interesting. I just checked worlddata purchase power index (exactly what you are referring to). Poland is 35th (which is not bad out of 200 countries), Czechia is 34th (purchasing power was great in Prague when I lived there, so I guess it's same in Poland). There are several countries with better ratio of salaries to prices - UK, ES, Korea, Zealand, Italy, Japan, Canada, France, Belgium, Australia, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Switzerland, USA, Norway... But yes, of the middle-income countries Poland is not bad. Numbeo ranks it slightly better than Slovakia.
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@iAdam43 You: "they are not going to be fooled and deceived by the European Union like other Eastern countries"
-- If you hate EU so much, why don't you move out of it completely? (I did it twice, and I don't even hate it ... If I hated it, I would not be able to stay here)
You: "Poland is a highly right-wing and conservative country"
-- What do you mean "right-wing"? Poland has free healthcare (socialist), free education (socialist), strong labor rights, maternity leave, vacation, all socialist and government paid pension system (completely socialist). Poland is centrist, same as most EU countries, if not all. They are just conservative, but not right-wing, there is no right-wing in Europe.
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@iAdam43 You: "Poland is against immigrants and against "progressive liberal values" "
-- Most countries are against illegal immigrants and for legal immigrants (from everywhere). Poland and Slovakia have none of illegal or legal. It is a very serious problem, but it's not in Slovakia or Poland. Don't allow yourself to be scared to death by something that doesn't even exist here (migrants don't even want to be here, they hate it here, they want to go to Germany, Italy, Farance or Sweden, they don't want to go to Slovakia or Poland).
Regarding "progressive liberal values", that's true. If you are more aligned in your personal values with Polish people than good for you, you will be much happier there.
You: "I already understand Polish most of the time"
-- Interesting. I don't understand them most of the time. They speak so fast, like a machine gun.
You: "Poles are a wonderful people who respect traditions"
-- I hate traditions and constant focus ont he past (I try to focus on the future). But if you like history and traditions, then Poland is definitely better country for you.
You: "All countries should be more like Poland."
-- I wouldn't try to change all other countries. Other people have very different values and priorities than you. It's best if everyone finds a country where they feel the best. Seems like for you it's Poland.
I have lived in many different countries on 3 continents and I have never seen a country that has only positives. So expect there are some negatives to Poland that you don't know about now. But overall, it can still be better and maybe you will be happier over there. I myself am going back to Africa.
Thanks for the explanation, I was curious why Poland. Good luck on your journey!
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@I_Stand_With_RussiaZOV Both reasons how it benefits USA said, the third most important is: If you look at everyone just from the point of view "how it benefits me", then you will have no true allies, no true friends, only egoistic selfish-transactions. One day you will be down (every empire in all of history has falled, USA will too, who knows when) there will be no one to help pick you up, because they will not be your true friends and allies, they will just ask "USA is too weak, how does it benefit us to save them?". And no, it's not naive. We have real alliances inside the EU and with Canada. It has been proven time and time again. Egoism and selfishness is a very sad way to live your life. But you can, it's your life.
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@webcaveman4534 You: "Also I'm not sure what you mean by Russia invading Romania, Korea or Japan. By this logic the US invaded Japan, Germany, Belgium, France, and Netherlands."
-- Japan and Germany was obviously invaded by USA and later occupied. I don't think I have to explain why and who started the war.
-- Belgium, France and Netherlands were not invaded by the US, they were liberated, because US didn't stay after liberation and didn't install puppet government and detroy democracy in those countries. On the contrary USSR didn't liberate Czechoslovakia (first of all, they helped Hitler immensely to start WWII as strong allies diving the spoils of Europe, but you seem like an educated person who understands history, so I will not write details about Ribbentrop-Molotov, I am sure you know all the details), USSR didn't "liberate" Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, ... they just "reconquered" from Hitler. They never left, they installed puppet governments here and made us their colonies. That's not liberation. They start a war, allied with Hitler having written agreement about which countries which of them will invade and annex and then when Hitler betrays them they act as "liberators" (using Ukrainians as cannon fodders in that "liberation" but then taking all the credit for it) and in the end just enslave us all the same. Even erect stupid monuments to their greatness, so we never forget (now you know why we are destroying them, for us hammer and sickle is same as swastika, they did the same things to us).
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@webcaveman4534 You: "Also, mentioning Chechnya is awkward since it was internationally recognized as Russian, even if the population doesn't agree, no different than Spanish ownership of Catalonia or their threats to stop a referendum by force."
-- I agree that it is the same and Catalonia was a great disgrace for Spain. I am still disgusted by it. There is no difference in principle, but there is huge difference in the method - Grozny was completely destroyed and 100k - 300k people killed.
-- I believe in independence and that land belongs to the people who were born on it and have lived there their entire life, not some imaginary social constructs (states) and so they can decide what to do with their own land. That's why I was side of Catalonia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Taiwan, and all the colonies going independent if they want to. I would even accpet Crimea or Donetsk and Luhansk if it was a serious referendum with absolutely no soldiers present and international observers from all countries in the world. (which is absolutely not what happened... as I live next to Ukraine I have been there many times and have several friends from there, one is from Crimea and one is from Luhansk, they both had to flee few months after the annexation (2014). There were hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who were pushed out and had to run away - a fair referendum is now impossible (unless you allow only people who were born there to vote, not Russian imports). Chechnya should be free. It's their country, not Muscovite's.
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@webcaveman4534 I will write my comments in () into your list.
Here are the US invasions and their consequences, there are plenty to choose from since 1960:
- Iraq (I assume you mean 2003 - I totally agree, I was there 20 years ago protesting infront of US embassy, like millions of other people... we didn't believe the "weapons of mass destruction" same way we don't believe the "biolabs" and nazis today... when you invade a country, you make up an excuse (or 20 different ones if you are Russia in 2022), because why wouldn't you, it's the cheapest thing about the invasion - the excuse)
- Afghanistan (absolutely agree - completely unjustified invasion, same as Russian invasion there and British)
- Syria (TANF) (this is more complicated than Iraq or Afghanistan, but partially you are right)
- Libya (re-establishing the slave trade) (this wasn't like Russian invasions, there were no land forces nad Libya is not a puppet state of US or France, it was just pure destruction with aerial bombing and then abandonment... still counts as evil)
- Niger (a lot of drone strikes were occuring there) (I wouldn't count this as an invasion, occupation, colonization, puppet state... this is one entire category down... I am not defending it, but it cannot be compared to Iraq, Afghanistan or Ukraine)
- Kosovo (still a base there) (like I wrote above - I am on the side of people wanting to be independent from a larger state)
- Panama (Noriega was originally a trafficker liked by the CIA) (I don't know about the claims you wrote, but definitely US "special military operation" there to protect their interests (which is NOT a legitimate reason), so I agree)
- Vietnam (here I partially agree with the reason to join, but I absolutely disagree with the method - one of the greatest shames in US history (of course Native American genocide and slavery is worse, but still at the top) )
- Laos (most bombed country in history per sq/mi) (I do not know much about this, I try to not comment on regions where I have not lived or don't have it thoroughly studied and know people from that region... I know a lot about Russia and Ukraine because it's my backyard and personal history, but I don't know much about Laos or Cambodia, I am sorry)
- Cambodia (later helped the Khmer Rouge vs. Vietnam)
- Cuba (Bay of Pigs) (I agree - shame on US for this... also the unending crippling destructive sanctions to this small island just break my heart... Cuba is not a military threat to anyone, they do not even issue threats or build their military like North Korea for example. I hate the Cuban communist totalitarian dictatorship, thoroguhly. But there are people in Cuba who where born under sanctions, lived their entire life under sanctions and then died of old age under sanctions... for what? how are the sanctions helping anyone anywhere at all? This is a disgrace and injustice to people who were simply born into a "wrong" country. So I fully agree.)
- Various regime change operations in Latin America (my extended family fled Hitler all the way to Chile, created great life there... and then got almost killed by Pinochet, very narrowly escaped the country) (while all these things are truly evil, they are not the same category as military invasion of a country, and we would have to expand the list for Russia with all the countries that had communist revolutions (aided by Russia) and overthrown a government only to install themselves as totalitarian communist dictators - it's exactly the same thing as US was doing in Latin America, just in different colors ... of course one does not justify or excuse the other - they are both very guilty)
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@webcaveman4534 You: "While I dislike the governments of Russia and China, cockriding the US government just shows that you are inauthentic."
-- From my point of view USA has done many evil invasions and toppled several democracies. But you have not experienced Russian boot on your face, you have not experienced the sheer brutality they bring with them (even US Vietnam, the top of their brutality is nothing like what Russia brings, Russia does it even to their own people, they have so little empathy for anything alive you would be shocked, that country is very sick). We are free over here only because Russia "armed itself to death" (spending 30% of GDP on weapons in peace time and disintegrating the rotten state from inside), we had our revolutions and turned into true democracies (which we were before Russia and Hitler occupied us). From that point we knew it's only a matter of time before Russia regains strength and reinvades us. We worked really really hard to get into EU and NATO. I was there 20 years ago, I voted for it. USA is the only country in the world that can realistically protect us against Russia invading us AGAIN and re-strarting their brutality on us. So yes, we chose the lesser evil to protect us from much greater evil. It was choice of the people, we all voted. I am not being inauthentic as you said, I know what US is and people like John Bolton, I just also know very intimately what Russia is. We need USA to survive. Regarding China - I see all the same traits in China that I saw in Soviet Union, they really copied so much from the Russians, even all the flaws, all the bad, everything. I also lived briefly in Taiwan and extensively in the Philippines. I am worried that China will go on the same warpath as Russia soon. Taiwan is fully democratic and free, Philippines are fully democratic and free, as are many other countries in the region. I don't consider "democracy" some hilarious word that means "propaganda created by the US to justify their invasions". Democracy is real and extremely important, as is freedom. I lived first half of my life without it, so I value it above most other things. People who lived their entire lives in freedom and democracy won't see it the same way. You have to truly lose it completely to fully understand how valuable it is. I hope Russia is broken into small pieces and that China either stays inside their borders or if they don't are destroyed and broken into small pieces as well. If only both Russia and China stayed inside their countries - the whole world was trading with them, they were rich, they had everything... but no, to a totalitarian dictator it is never enough, they always need more.
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@webcaveman4534 You: "First, it seems like your conflict was heavily with Soviet socialist economic control of Czechoslovakia w/regards to state ownership of the economy and poor jobs. ... But we are not mentioning socialism in this discussion, only that of Russia and Russian imperialism."
-- It may seem like this to an outsider, but it wasn't just some socialism or communism, we were a proper colony of Moscow with everything that comes with it. Puppet government made no real decisions, everything had to be approved by Moscow (so same as any other western colony in the past), our people were killed by Russian KGB (which roamed free here and could extract anyone they wanted and take him or her to USSR, Siberia, or anywhere they wanted). This is not just some "socialism" or political idelogoy. We were truly occupied by Moscow. When our puppet government got ideas of making it little bit more free for the local population, Moscow ordered a full invasion (1968), their tanks took control of all airports, government buildings and kidnapped the prime minister to Moscow for "reeducation". This is not some "economic control", this is full colony status. And there was no way to leave. Hungary tried in 1956 (massacre), Poland tried in 1980. Also from 1948 to 1953 there were purges (when my family was killed, everything was taken from us and the rest was sent to labor camps... fortunately local (survivable), not Siberian (not survivable), or I would never have been born).
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@webcaveman4534 You: "In 1914-1920, 100,000 Czechs/Slovaks basically defected from the Austro-Hungarian military to the Entente (Czechoslovak legion), with most becoming Russian soldiers."
-- I understand how this may seem to you like love for Russia or hate for the west, but it was something different. Slovakia has been conquered and occupied for 1000 years by Hungary (it wasn't particularly brutal, but still, you wouldn't want that for your nation). You can imagine how soldiers forced by Austria-Hungary to fight and die would join the opposite side which promised them freedom and sovereignty (and they upheld their word, we were given freedom after such an unimaginably long time and Czechoslovakia was formed and internationally recognized). So this had nothing to do with love for Russia or hate for the west (our sovereignty was negotiated with UK and France and we later had formal military and political alliance with France).
You: "Indeed, the communist party won 38% of the fair election in 1946 prior to the coup. Even Churchill’s plans for Operation Unthinkable did not believe that the population there would be overwhelmingly pro-Western."
-- Well, we can only speculate, because I wasn't alive, but my parents were and we were definitely more "pro-western" than "pro-Russian". We are Western Slavs, we have a lot more common with Germany, Austria and as I mentioned Hungary, than we have with Russia. We had nothing to do with Russia prior to their invasion (we don't even use their alphabet and are hundreds of years older). Russians were considered barbarians over here (even when "liberating" from the Nazis Russian soldiers raped everything that they got their hands on, my family had to hide their women in the cellar in this very house that I am typing these messages. Soviet soldiers (not just Russian) also stole everything they could get their hands on, especially watches - they had nothing like that back home... Nazis didn't steal that much), and this was supposed to be a "liberation". There was no widespread love for Russians here, they were barbarians to my people. Before the WWII, we had 20 years of freedom, democracy, growth, we had alliance with France, we had very good relationship with the UK (a garantor of our sovereignty). This was our very short lived golden age - so if we could return to this after WWII, we would continue with free democratic development and good relationships with the west and maybe even trade with USSR. Absolute majority of people wanted this, and not to be a puppet colony living under totalitarian dictatorship and not able to leave the country and constantly being prepared as cannon fodder for the great war with the west. ... Then laster after 40 years of Russian brainwashing (they start at kindergarten) smaller part of population was thoroughly brainwashed and worshiped Russia (unfortunately I have them in close family, such brain damage can never be repaired), but majority of the population hated Russians... there was just nothing we could do, only wait. The moment Russia was weak (1989), we instantly revolted, all of us, no "CIA operation" or manupulation from the west, we wanted this for such a long time, we didn't need anyone from outside to tell us to hate Russians and to want to be free. Same thing happened in Poland, in Hungary, in Romania, and later in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania... it's not some CIA conspiracy, we just all hated Russia and wanted to be free. Same way former colonies of western european countries hated their oppressors and wanted to be free - they didn't need some "CIA" to tell them that or manipulate them.
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@webcaveman4534 You: "The Arab world saw Europe as a land filled with wannabe crusaders and colonizers and the United States as only tangentially related, but due to the oil issues and the support for Israel in 1973, this led them to believe that the US was worse."
-- I do not have sufficient information to comment on that. But I believe it. And I don't blame them for hating on Western Europe after all the colonization, I empathize with them.
You: "Also today, there is clearly US puppetry in other countries, albeit not as violent. For example, the US government prefers other East Asian (most important being that of South Korea and Taiwan) governments that are allied with Japan or favor closer trade/military cooperation with it."
-- I wouldn't call South Korea, Japan or Taiwan as "US puppet". Yes, the US has interests and exerts diplomatic and media pressure on those countries - which is wrong, but it is very far from being a puppet state. Often I hear that we are also US puppet states. Slovakia has 50 politcial parties (for 5 million population) and they constantly go extinct and new are being formed (many just this year alone), and anyone can form a party and realistically even get to parliament and even be part of government coalition. Third of these parties talk shit about USA... nobody removes them, they don't get disappeared, there are no massive media campaigns against them, and they get considerable votes in elections (so not rigged by the US). If we are a US puppet state then I can't see it anywhere. ... And yes, we follow Brussels/EU and don't have full sovereignty in everything, but we gave that up voluntarily (we all voted for it 20 years ago) and it has worked for us remakably well. We are part of this "superstate" and I wouldn't call us a "puppet". I would reserve this for a truly puppet states that cannot make any decisions unless approved by the empire - the government practically doesn't exist, they are just a front so the occupation looks better.
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@webcaveman4534 You: "no different than Russia's bases in Syria"
-- Do you see me complaining about Russian military bases in Syria? I complain about their rotten dictator that has been in power for more than 30 years and his father before him (that's not normal in a democracy). But it is not my place to regime-change other countries just because they have a dictator. Syrian dictator invited Russia to establish bases there so that he can stay in power. I am not complaining about military bases... but there is a very dangerous edge between truly honestly invited foreign military (like Poland, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia invited their military allies (USA, UK, and rest of NATO) to establish military bases there to protect them from Russia, and invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, when some traitors in the government wrote an "invitation letter" for USSR/Warsaw Pact forces to invade and permanently reside in Czechoslovakia, which was obviously against will of the entire country. I would say Russian bases in Syria lie somewhere in between these two extremes, but it's very difficult to know how many Syrians want what. I don't know.
-- US bases in the Philippines have historically been remnant of the colonial era, but also after brutal invasion of Japan, were wanted by large parts of local population (difficult to know how many percent), and are now wanted by the majority because of Chinese threat. China did this to itself - if it wasn't so greedy and didn't start stealing islands and sink fishermen who have been fishing there for countless generations, Philippines wouldn't feel threatened and they would not re-invite the US. Of course I don't like Marcos family at all, but this has nothing to do with Marcos and everything to do with what China does to Philippines (and Vietnam, and Malaysia, and Indonesia, and of course Taiwan). Same way Finland and Sweden joined NATO (or will join soon) and invited more US troops to Finland and Poland - they all see what Russia does in Ukraine and they change their mind. This is not some elaborate CIA propaganda, it's common sense - you see your former oppressor (Russia) going back to the old ways and threatening everyone around them on Russian state TV almost daily with invasion, so you invite the only country that can actually protect you. This is 100% legitimate and not some colonization or puppet state. Russia is doing this to itself - if it didn't invade Ukraine then Finland and Sweden would never be in NATO and Poland wouldn't be building largest land army in Europe (against Russia). All Russia had to do was to keep to itself and trade with everyone and just chill... NATO would slowly fall apart over the decades as unecessary with EU military budgets at very lazy lows (why waste money on military when there is no war and you don't plan to start any... but now everything has changed and Russia did it to itself).
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@webcaveman4534 You: "funding for these parties to get them elected strongly, most notably France and Italy in 1945, where >30% of the population was going to vote Communist otherwise. Also, the Marshall plan aid was originally seen as a bribe to the leaders and people to support the CD or liberals in their parliament, which they then more ardently did so (who doesn't like free money)."
-- I don't consider this "regime change" under any circumstances. Sponsoring a politicial party or paying for a media campaign in another country is of course not alright, but it is very very far from a regime change. People are not stupid (and if they are it's their fault), they can still vote for whomever they want and its fully democratic. Russia does this in my country at this very moment - puring in millions and millions to manipulate the public opinion and support anti-western pro-Russian politicians (who were pro-western just 8 years ago, but you know, politicians and honor / having a spine don't go together well), and they are projected to win in the elections next month. Should US bomb Russia because they are manipulating elections in Slovakia? Should we call it a "regime change" by Russia? ... I don't like it, I hate it... but I wouldn't call it a regime change in my country - because people are still free to vote for whatever they want, they have just been persudaed (more like brainwashed) or bribed - but it's their right to be, it's their vote, not mine. Same in neighboring countries like Austria, or LePen in France, Orban in Hungary. There is police evidence for all this (Russian money cominig in). We even arrested several traitors and they have been convicted of treason (literally a video of them taking money from Russian diplomat talking about manipulating public opinion for Russia). But they have won already, soon the government will change and we will become next Hungary. So I wouldn't call US investments and sponsorit favorable politicial campaigns in Europe after WWII a regime change or anything truly evil. I respect free will and agency of the voters, I don't consider them children or stupid.
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@webcaveman4534 You: "Edvard Benes had his hand twisted by the UK to give Hitler the Sudetenland."
-- Edvard Benes decided nothing. UK, France and Germany/Hitler made an agreement (Munich pact) and Hitler took over everything. We (Czechoslovakia) had absolutely no say in it. And Czechoslovakia had an alliance with France, but it didn't matter (reminds me of Budapest memorandum from 1994 and as it didn't matter in 2014 and it doesn't matter now ... I no longer believe in any written alliances or pacts - when it comes to war, paper is worthless). You could say that UK and France betrayed Czechoslovakia in 1938 - throwing us as a sacrifice to calm down Hitler and avoid war. Which is what happened with Crimea in 2014 and is happening now with people who want to sacrifice Ukraine in hopes that Russia will stop with Ukraine and leave them alone (Hitler didn't stop, Putin will not stop, no conqueror ever stops with one country, it is incredibly naive and foolish to think you can appease a dictator). Well UK and France got punished for this 1 year later. Churchill knew this immediatelly, he said to Chamberlain that famous quote "You had a choice between dishonor and war. You chose dishonor. So you will have dishonor and war." And he was right. Same with Ukraine today. History repeats because most people don't learn from it. ... Czechoslovaks in 1938 might have felt betrayed by the west and maybe thinking of Russia to save them... how ironic as Russia was about to sign alliance with the Nazi Germany to carve out Europe between their two empires. Which was very obvious to Czechoslovaks once the war started. So this turn from the west and toward Russia was extremely short lived.
-- Absolutely disagree that Motolov-Ribbentrop happened only because Russia wanted to somehow stop Hitler. Part of that alliance was a clause where they agreed on demarcation lines which part of Europe will belong to Russia/USSR and which will belong to Nazi Germany. Part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was that USSR will invade Poland, Romania, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland. This was approved by the Nazi Germany. Stalin had huge imperial ambitions, same as Hitler. You make him look like a nice guy who wanted to defeat the Nazis - he was the one supporting them. (Stalin didn't even belive the news of Hitler's betrayal and invasion of USSR the first hours - he just trusted Hitler that much... so much for the image of "anti Nazi" fighter Stalin).
Then there is this. USSR supplied the following to Nazi Germany in 1939-1941:
- 1 500 000 tons of wheat
- 820 000 tons of crude oil
- 180 000 tons of cotton
- 130 000 tons of Manganese
- 180 000 tons of Phosphates
- 18 000 tons of Chromium
- 16 000 tons of Rubber
- 91 000 tons of Soy
- 450 000 tons of Iron ore
- 270 000 tons of Iron
- 200 tons of Platinum
Fueling the Nazis/Hitler against UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway. Few years later UK sending very large amounts of weapons, vehicles and aid to USSR to help them against the Nazis.
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@webcaveman4534 You: "China invaded Korea in 1950 because they saw the US as getting too close to their border in their invasion of Korea."
-- Do you also believe that US invaded Iraq in 2003 because of WMDs? Or Afghanistan in 2001 because of 9/11? Or Vietnam because US was attacked in the gulf of Tonkin? Or Cuba because they wanted to save democracy? … No, of course you don't believe that. So please don't be naïve that China invaded Korea or Vietnam for any other purpose than imperial expansion. Same with Russia and Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine and 40 other countries that I've posted here already - all invaded by Russia because of single reason - imperial expansion. Same as every other empire, including USA and China. Of course everyone has their perfect excuses, even Hitler had his, for every invasion he made - a perfect excuse, because it costs nothing. Same with China and invasion of Korea.
You: "Now, Russia basically did the same thing in Ukraine"
-- 100% Russian imperial expansion and reclaiming of their former colonies. I recommend watching Russian state TV (I understand the language but I am sure you can find English translations everywhere), they are now openly talking about it. Ukraine doesn't exist, it's not a real country, it belongs to Russian Empire and they are rebuilding Soviet/Russian Empire to be great again (exactly like Hitler, except he was competent). Just watch Russian state TV, the mask is off already, they don't care anymore.
You: "the original term Special Military Occupation was a delusional Russian dream that they would cause Ukraine to surrender and switch sides to topple their own government, like the Dutch Republic did to Great Britain in 1688"
-- To be honest and self-critical, I know Ukraine well, and even I expect it to fall within 2 weeks. I was calling all my friends to get them out, to get their families out as fast as possible, not to wait. I was very very wrong. But to be fair, even most Ukrainians I know were shocked themselves how they were able to defend against Russia, that everyone just didn't run away the first 3 days. Now they have a newfound national unity and courage (Russia helped them in this tremendously by invading them - I have never seen Ukrainians be so proud of their country as now, not even close, not even in my dreams … Russia just solidified them as a strong distinct nationality). So I understand why Russians think they will just break Ukraine in 3 days and conquer all of it in 2 weeks (they expected something like Afghanistan 2021, corrupt president fleeing the country with 6 helicopters full of gold and valuables at the first sign of trouble). But in typical Russian endless arrogance, they didn't have any plan B. They were 100% confident they will break Ukraine easily. I would have created alternative plans for every situation, wars are unpredictable, but not Russians.
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@webcaveman4534 You: "Lastly, I agree with the anti-Russian and anti-Chinese critiques. I believe they are imperial in intent, although they were much more so in the 20th century and have now been partially reformed, which is not enough."
-- That is of course true, but I don’t compare them to how they were 80 years ago, I compare them to 21st century standards and how much less imperialist is Western Europe and even USA. I have a feeling like Russia, China and especially North Korea are stuck in time. They still think the same way the whole world thought in 1940s. It is apparent on how they do things (old school, typical communist paperwork, way of talking (I recognize it all too well), how they carry themselves, by the stupid hats and uniforms, by the 1970s phones in Putin's office, and 1000 other small things that scream "stuck in time"), and of course most importantly of all - how they view world politics. Putin absolutely doesn't believe there is real freedom or democracy in the western world, he thinks it's just a cover to look nice, but in reality everything is decided by these "mafia bosses" and backstage deals and bribes - where big countries decide everything and small countries have no say. You can see this from his reactions to western politicians… he doesn't understand. He is so incredibly cynical and stuck in the 20th century that he doesn't understand that world has changed and that democracy and most of all freedom are not just some fake fronts - they are real (for the most part). And even in war tactics and technology you see how stuck in the past they are. Russia didn't even have any drones at the beginning of the invasion. They just pour in untrained forced conscripts with absolute minimum equipment and tell them it is greatest honor of their life to die for the motherland (Solovyov said this on state TV openly). A classic Stalin! Stuck in the past.
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@webcaveman4534 You: "Also I would personally favor better relations with Japan (if I were a hypothetical Korean or Taiwanese voter), but I would not expect everyone in my country to think the same way. This is why a lot of people in these countries end up being slightly anti-American, as they see them as pushing them towards Japan (all for anti-China purposes)."
-- I have personal experience with this. When I was living in Taiwan (shortly) I asked many different people about China (I talk to strangers a lot when I am abroad, just curious). Their answers were very simple and logical.
1) I want peace, I just want to be left alone
2) I don’t want to be part of China in any way (logically, they have 2-3x higher standard of living than China + they have 100% true democracy, China doesn't, they have true freedom, China doesn't, who wants to give up freedom, democracy, standard of living? Nobody … exactly the same with Ukraine, except they are poor now, but have a vision of good standard of living for their children after they join the EU, as opposed to poverty, no democracy and no freedom when colonized by Russia AGAIN - they still remember it)
3) They saw what happened to Hong Kong - when 1 country 2 systems was promised for 50 years and then China just broke their contract and started with the repression and even half of Hong Kong in the street as demonstration didn't help at all. Taiwanese are not blind - they saw this and know any promise from the Chinese Communist Party is worth NOTHING.
This is what they told me. I have not met a single person there who wanted to be part of China. (I know there are 2% in the population, I didn't meet any). It's really not difficult to understand why - people just want good standard of living, freedom and democracy (because without it you will lose the first two very quickly). Taiwan is their land, they were born there, they lived their entire lives there, they have their home there - it is their and only their decision where they want to belong. China has absolutely no say in it.
And if USA promises to protect them (and is realistically the only country in the world capable of doing it), then they will ally with USA. Exactly the same as here in Central and Eastern Europe. We don't have illusions about USA. But it is the only force in this world that can protect us from Russia, and we KNOW we need it, so we allied with USA and we understand that protection is not free. If China and Russia didn't constantly threaten everyone around them, USA would be a lot less popular, NATO would be half the size, maybe even gone completely. NATO and allying with USA is the necessity forced on us by Russia and China.
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@webcaveman4534 You: "So you are probably right for Slovakia but some Czechs may say different (their Communist party was much more powerful and as late as 2013 was quite strong)."
-- I can explain this (obviously). Czech Communist Party is just for very old people who have been brainwashed by Russia/Moscow/Communists since early childhood (it was mandatory, non-stop propaganda for everyone). Some people resisted (like me, my mother) some people got completely brainwashed (like my father, otherwise a good man). This brainwashing cannot be undone - it is for life (similar like religion is impressed on children and then they cannot choose freely for the rest of their lives… Stalin / Russia worship / Communism was just another form of religion). Many of these old people are still alive and some of them vote Communist and will always vote that way. Their decline is 2013 in Czechia has been due to morbid reason of their voter base just dying of old age. But right now after the full scale invasion, 80% of Czechs are against Russia while only 50% of Slovaks (unfortunately, we let completely unrestrained Russian propaganda convert 50% of our population… we realized too late it was a serious problem… too late now, elections are next month and politicians paid by Moscow openly are projected to win … I don't even want to see what will happen next… we will become same thing as Hungary/Orban)
Regarding the Czech/Slovak split, my grandparents from both sides hated both Germans and Russians very very much. The split was true at that time (right after the war), because Czechs have 1000 year history with Germans (good and bad) while Slovakia has been occupied for 1000 years by Hungary. Russians were hated by everyone - they came, stole everything, raped, confiscated all the farms, sent people to labor camps, shot many people (like I said, including my extended family and grand-grandfather) and then started drastically reforming the country. They took everything from every farmer, craftsman, every factory, every business, everything was taken (you can imagine how that makes people feel) and then publicly executed many for being "aristocracy" (if you owned anything more than minimum) and oppressor of the masses. Closed the borders, so nobody can leave and forced everyone into a government job (at least you had a choice which one, when possible). You can imagine how this would very quickly lead to hatred of Russia. So don't look at 1946, look at 1953 (which you will not find of course, because democracy didn't exist anymore).
Also while I was living in Asia I did not understand the relationship between Korea, Japan and Taiwan. I understand the invasions and atrocities, but it's been 3 full generations. We here don't hate Hungarians (even after 1000 years) and Czechs don't hate Austrians or Germans. They have all changed - and the new generation is peaceful and friendly. (Russians had a chance for exactly the same… but NO, they had to revert back to Stalin, they have not changed at all) So I don't understand why Korea and Taiwan cannot forgive Japan (which is obviously transformed and peaceful). Is there anything I am missing?
You: "Overall, I don’t see us having too much conflict in terms of opinion. I understand your point of view, and I hope you understand mine."
-- You are very educated on the matter (I am not as much, especially history) and you try to be objective. I appreciate that. I think I understand your point of view and I agree with your morals and values. I just think we have different life experiences, so we don't agree on the conclusions (I imagine you don't want to "destroy Russia as a country").
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@miaorenfeng1 You: "What you are describing does not fit at all with China. In China you can leave the country at will as long as you haven't committed a crime and aren't wanted. There is also no mandatory work, unless you are a prisoner in jail. It's your personal freedom to find a job or not, the government doesn't interfere, but the government does encourage you to find a job."
-- I know, because China is not really a communist country. I was born in communist Czechoslovakia, and we had everything I described (which is not in China, I know) and on top of that it was illegal to have a business - all businesses were forcibly confiscated by the communist government (and many of the onwers were killed as "oppressors", including some of my family). Also government provided flats (apartments) to young people (communism) and healthcare (shitty) was free, education was free, pensions were for every elderly. China has none of that, it is not really a communist country, only in name. But it is a totalitarian dictatorship. Citizens cannot vote for their supreme leader ("president"), or anyone in the top of government. They have no democratic voting rights. Also their freedoms are limited (somewhat, there are far worse countries like North Korea when it comes to freedom, I admit that). I wouldn't say living in China is hell ... but I wouldn't want it. I like my freedom and ability to choose my politicians. I am just explaining why Taiwanese do not want to join, that's all. Other than that, I don't care what Chinese do inside China, it's not for me to tell them how to run their own country. It's not my country.
You: "The other day I saw a video about Eastern Europe and the standard of living in most Eastern European countries is not even as good as in the poor western part of China."
-- I've seen poverty in rural China. Not cities, but in the villages - it was huge huge contrast to the cities. But it's ok, most countries have problems with that. I lived in the Philippines for 2 years (also in Taiwan for a while) and I moved to live in the poorest region. Yes, Philippines are very poor, but I love that country so much. It's my second homeland. I love the people. I don't make fun of someone because his country is poor. Also Ukraine is the poorest in all of Europe, but I love them, I've been there many times, have many friends including my best friend.
You: "China's democracy is not a western style democracy, western democracy is just a game for the rich and is perfect for the US to install puppets . Because the U.S. can provide money, media, intelligence, contacts, and other resources to support candidates who will serve the interests of the U.S. when they come to power."
-- Is that what they tell you about my country? Because here in Slovakia we have 50 political parties (for 5 million people) and non-stop new political parties are formed and old ones die, constantly. You can start your own party and if you work really hard you can get to parliament or maybe even part of the government. Half of our political parties talk shit about USA, and it is obviously allowed and they can even win elections sometimes and lead the country. We are in EU and NATO and USA is not controlling our politics, they really don't care about us at all. ... So it is a myth that we are some US puppet. That's not how it works here.
You: "For example, in the case of Samsung in South Korea, in terms of ordinary shares, the proportion of foreign investors is as high as 55%, most of which is American capital, mainly from the many financial consortia on Wall Street in the United States; the proportion of major shareholders and affiliates reaches 21%, and the proportion of shares held by investors in South Korea is 19%. U.S. capital accounted for half of the common shares."
-- But that's normal. If you want foreign investors (most countries do, entire Chinese success was built on foreing investments in the past 30 years... even Chinese government is now promoting to invest in China - right now). So then the logical consequences are that foreign companies investing in that country will want that money back + fat profits. They are not charity, they are investors. Same way China invests in Africa, it's not for charity, it's to get fat profits back. That's normal.
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@Tovalokodonc"The Slavic tribes settled in the territory of present-day Slovakia in the fifth century. Western Slovakia was the centre of Samo's empire in the seventh century. A Slavic state known as the Principality of Nitra arose in the eighth century and its ruler Pribina had the first known Christian church of the territory of present-day Slovakia consecrated by 828. Together with neighbouring Moravia, the principality formed the core of the Great Moravian Empire from 833. The high point of this Slavonic empire came with the arrival of Saints Cyril and Methodius in 863, during the reign of Duke Rastislav, and the territorial expansion under King Svätopluk I."
"In 880, Pope John VIII set up an independent ecclesiastical province in Great Moravia with Archbishop Methodius as its head. He also named the German cleric Wiching the Bishop of Nitra."
"In the meantime, the semi-nomadic Magyar tribes, possibly having suffered defeat from the similarly nomadic Pechenegs, left their territories east of the Carpathian Mountains,[30] invaded the Carpathian Basin and started to occupy the territory gradually around 896. Their armies' advance may have been promoted by continuous wars among the countries of the region whose rulers still hired them occasionally to intervene in their struggles."
"In three battles (4–5 July and 9 August 907) near Bratislava, the Magyars routed Bavarian armies. Some historians put this year as the date of the break-up of the Great Moravian Empire, due to the Hungarian conquest; other historians take the date a little bit earlier (to 902)."
"Following the disintegration of the Great Moravian Empire at the turn of the tenth century, the Hungarians annexed the territory comprising modern Slovakia. After their defeat on the river Lech, the Hungarians abandoned their nomadic ways and settled in the centre of the Carpathian valley, slowly adopting Christianity and began to build a new state—the Hungarian kingdom."
That was the last time Slovakia was free until 1918, more than 1000 years later. This is absolutely fundamental history with endless stream of evidence (including that coming from Hungary itself).
So now you have two choices, either you feel smarter than all the historians in the world, and then better have evidence for your claims. Or you dispute that Slovakia is even a nation (with SLAVIC language, completely different than Hungarian, not even the same category, and Slavic culture). It has been 1000 years of occupation (not saying Hungary was the only one doing this at that time, just stating facts). First world war finally broke the Hungarian empire forever and all the countries under it (with vastly different languages and cultures) were finally free. Now you can either constantly live in the past and dream about your magnificent empire that lasted 1 milennia, stuck mentally in the past. Or you can forget about all of that and build your future as a 21st century modern Hungary. It's your choice.
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@ No, obviously not. It includes Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Albania, Macedonia, Monteng., Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus, Luxemburg, to a degree Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark.
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@SkyDiver-wd5oj I will use weird words not to get censored by YT here. In 1948 they took complete control, removed all semblances of democracy, took everyone's ownership of everything larger than a small house (sometimes even that). My family lost large farm, half of them offed by Russians, the other half sent to forced labor camps. Owning a business was i11egal, every single business in the country was owned by the government. Reign of t3rr0r begun. People were disappeared, t0rtur3d, deported to Siberia. And you could not even leave - you would be sh0t on the spot, even children. I lived at the border (iron courtain) and know many such cases. You have no idea how it destroyed mentality of people, and everyone got br4inw4shed since childhood by Russian prop4ganda - mandatory. Fear to speak against it even at home, because you never know who will betray you. (continued)
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@SkyDiver-wd5oj Everything in the country from top to bottom was run on c0rrupt10n. Massive. You have nothing like that in the west. Everyone learned to st3a1 all the time, to suppor the family. As everything was owned by the government, all st01e from it. After 40 years of t3rr0r, the empire fell apart, but the brain damage on generations of people caused by Russians remained. Some were immune (maybe 70% of people, but the rest were not, including my closest family). The next 10 years all that was stolen by the government in 1948 was supposed to be returned to the people... but ex-communists just turned coats and stayed in power (first years of freedom and democracy after 40 years, lots of institutions needed continuity... but it was a mistake in hindsight). They privatized all the companies previously st01en by the government, but they paid nothing for it (literally nothing). They became the new oligarchs and there was a LOT of crime and vi01ence. All post-communist countries experienced the same. It took us 10 years to deal with cr1me and half of the corruption and start rebuilding. We joined the EU, which forced us to implement many reforms - it helped a lot. Ukraine was not this lucky. They were more brut41iz3d by Russia and had even more c0rrupt10n. No EU reforms for them. It's easy for you to criticize them, but that's like criticizing African s14v3s in the US in 1880 that how come they still own so little. It's not the same starting position and you have to account for the psychological and cultural damage done. And now you know why we all h4t3 Russia so much - because they haven't changed, they do the same even today in Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Ukraine, and threaten every single country neighboring them to do it (I watch Russian state TV every week, you should listen to it, they have not changed at all).
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@blardymunggas6884 Ture. But you can ask exactly the same in reverse. Why is Russia still selling oil and gas to EU? We are supplying endless weapons to Ukraine and sanctioning Russia, we are OBIVOUSLY at war with Russia (just not direct combat yet)... and Russia is still selling crude oil and gas to EU... why? Has Russia no shame? (same as what you asked about EU) Because EU needs the oil and gas, and Russia absolutely needs those billions (it's almost third of Russia's entire government budget - so no pensions, no roads, bridges, healthcare, education, police, military - all funded by 1/3 from EU, Russia cannot survive without it, EU cannot surrvive without it at the moment).
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@emperorofwends8875 You: "Russian propaganda is focused on Russia not looking weak"
-- You mean reports from Russian Ministry of Defense, then yes. But the real Russian propaganda in the West is not about Russia looking good or praising it. The real manipulation is about polarizing westerners about everything (left-right, liberal-conservative, gay, immigrants, racism, everything). They often post on both sides of the argument to start the flame and make people even more radical. Their goal is not to make Russia look good, their goal is to destroy trust in western government, democracy as a system, western media, and trust in each other, create divison. They know they can't make people love Russia, but they can make them question everything and everyone and not trust anything they hear - this creates chaos, division and weakness - that's all they need. ... You might be interested in one presentation from "Yuri Bezmenov" - he is a defector from Russian KGB. He gave an interview about what are the methods of KGB (in 1950s and 1960s), you might like it, it's surprisingly good and clever. You will find it on YouTube, just search for "Yuri Bezmenov", he says similar things in all the videos so just click any one you want.
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@emperorofwends8875 You: "Ukranian propaganda is focused on looking like Ukraine is wining (so that they can get more equpment from NATO)"
-- Well, yes and no. Objectively speaking (means both sides confirmed this) Russia has been just losing territory for 15 months straight - all they conquered in Kyiv region lost, everything in Chernihiv region lost, Sumy region lost, Kharkiv region lost, Kherson region 50% lost, Kherson city lost. Just non-stop losses (confirmed by Russian side, so it's not a speculation) and then Wagner (not even Russian military) conquered Bakhmut, 56. largest city in Ukraine, irrelevant (yeah, then you can ask why did Ukraine defend it so ferociously... because they are stupid, they didn't want political loss and Russians wanted political win, and 20000 Russians died for it minimum (confirmed by Prigozhin) and unknown number of Ukrainians (7000+ minimum). So 15 months only losses of territory and no gains - so you can say Russia is losing, technically it's true. Is Russia going to collapse tomorrow? No. This is a very long war of attrition - industry and economy is going to win this war, not military maneuvers, and it will take years (unless something unexpected like Prigozhin's coup happens, then it may end sooner, but who knows, in Russia anything is possible). Then again Ukrainians are having heavy losses, a lot more than people think. I know it from the two Ukrainian mothers that live here (with 4 kids), I know it from my best friend and from many Ukrainians I know personally. Almost everyone has lost someone from extended family or friends. Also foreign fighters fighting for Ukraine confirm this - heavy losses (don't get me wrong, Russia also has such heavy losses, but Ukraine does too). So I know this is not some glorious easy win for the Ukraine. This is bloody brutal trench war of attrition - just like First World War, but with drones. But one side is defending their homes and their very own families, they are home, the other side is in a foreign country trying to take it (as we've seen by annexing 4 Ukrainian regions 1 year ago - so much for "we don't want Ukrainian land", same lie as "We will not invade Ukraine, it's just western hysteria and CIA psychological operation").
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@ArawnOfAnnwn You were reacting to my: ""Never underestimate the suicidal irrationality of dictators""
-- You completely misunderstood my statement. If you think any war of USA, Russia or China since WWII was self defense then you are naive. Not a single one, of any of these three countries, only a naive person that eats their excuses for breakfast can believe that. Every single one of them is imperial expansion. When I said that never underestimate the suicidal irrationality of dictators I didn't mean "irrational aggression that cannot be justified as self defese" (no invasion can ever be justified as self sefense - it is written in the founding documents of United Nations of Geneva Conventions and it is morally indefensible, EVER), what I meant was that Russia will be completely destroyed by this war. 10 years from now, Russia will no longer exist as a state. West and allies are 67% of the world economy, Russia is little bit above 1%. NATO is 1 billion people, Russia is 0.14 billion. NATO spends 24x more on military than Russia and 240x more than Ukraine (Russia has serious problems fighting 1 Ukraine, now imagine fighting 240 Ukraines at the same time). NATO has 22000 military aircraft. Some people don't understand how absurdly one-sided NATO vs Russia is. These are just hard factual numbers. The West just sent 0.2% of GDP as military aid to Ukraine. Would you like to see the remaining 99.8%? This is what I meant - invading Ukraine was idiotic suicidal move from Russia, but never underestimate the suicidal irrationality of dictators. Xi Jinping might do exactly the same by invading Taiwan, and it will be his personal end and that of China as we know it today. But he will do it anyway (can't stop himself from talking constantly about how he is going to invade Taiwan).
You: "hell your 'last 30 years' list is almost entirely repetition"
-- Because those countries were invaded multiple times by Russia in the past 100 years. Learn history. It's all publicly available and there are still millions of witnesses over here for the past 50 years (including myself). How old are you son? You seem like edgy American teenager or someone in his 20s who just read some posts on social media and now is an expert. Buy a flight ticket, come here, talk to old people, you will find out what really happened. Any random old person will tell you, because we all had to live through it, It's not some ancient history.
You started your list with Angola, Argentina - there were no US invasions of those countries. What I sent you is a list of countries DIRECTLY invaded by Russia and in many cases brutalized, conquered, annexed and in many cases local population deported to far east. I am not talking about some covert support for a dictator or a coup, I am talking about brutal invasions and annexations of territory or wholesale military destruction. Now make that list for USA for the past 100 years. You don't understand the difference, you have never been under Russian boot, they haven't killed your family and destroyed your country. You have very romantic perception of it all.
You: "At least Russia says it's protecting itself"
-- You cannot be serious son. Invading your neighbor, killing half his children and annexing his house is "protecting yourself"? If you invade every neighbor your have and every neighbor they have to colonize and annex everything around you that is not "self defense", that is agressive imperialist colonial expansion - only you don't have ships, you do it over land, result is the same. Tens of millions died in the process. Entire ethnicities wiped out of existence. You cannot possibly be serious trying to defend it. Go look into a mirror and think what kind of person have you become. We are finished here.
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I don't think Elon takes drugs. I think he has some serious mental defect. Exactly as you wrote "immature psychotic decisions" and everything he does is "weird" (little weird is ok, but he is non-stop weird). I think being so extremely popular on Twitter and in the media made his mental state even worse - he ist like a drug addict for people's attention and approval (especially on Twitter, this reminds me little bit of Trump and his addiction to Twitter).
I also wouldn't say it's Elon's Falcon 9 (it is, but he didn't design it... he cosplays an engineer, but read quora testimonies from engineers working at SpaceX (even as far back as 2014), how ruthlessly capitalist Elon is and unpredictably fires people on a whim and then claims all the credit as if he invented SpaceX and Tesla. It's the incredibly hard work of hundreds of engineers working 6 days a week (Elon always trying to force them to 7 days per week). ... He lost all my respect 3 years ago when he forced thousands of workers into factories when he was strictly prohibited to do so by California government. He went on TV and said he takes full responsiblity. Well, absolutely nothing happened to him, because billionaires are untouchable (like aristocracy). If you did the same thing you would be rotting in jail. He endangered thousands of people and possibly even killed some. That was when I realized he absolutely doesn't care about human lives, he cares only about his companies and his personal goals. No empathy. No compassion. This thing with Ukraine just reinforced it. I love how he pretends he is saving Ukraine, when in fact Pentagon is paying for everything and even at extremely overinflated prices (more than 1 thousand per StarLink per month when commercial price in Ukraine is 70 bucks per month - and it is the same StarLink, it is not some "improved military version". And then he joins Pentagon's tender for military Internet in Ukraine, wins it, and then writes to media that StarLink is for peaceful purposes only... sure... then why do you apply for extremely lucrative tenders at Pentagon with it? Also offering Pentagon to build another StarLink specifically for military purposes (so is he a pacifist like he pretends in the media, or does he want those fat billion-dollar contracts at Pentagon?).
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@susannamarker2582 NATO doesn't force to you get into any war when one of the members is not clearly attacked. Iraq was NOT attacked by NATO, but by 4 countries - US, UK, AU, PL (their individual decisions). France and Germany were strongly against and were not involved. Absolute majority of NATO countries were not involved. (1) NATO doesn't force you to go to any war anywhere if noone from NATO is attacked, Iraq is prime example of how that works; (2) USA doesn't control NATO, it is a rules based organization where 30 countries call the shots, not the US (of course, US spends on military more than the rest of the planet combined, so they have disproportional influence everywhere, not just NATO, but they do not control the alliance). Then in 2002 more countries got involved in Afghanistan BECAUSE "U.N. Security Council Resolution 1386 officially mandated ISAF to “assist the Afghan Interim Authority in the maintenance of security in Kabul and its surrounding areas.” - UN Security Council where Russia has veto power and China has veto power approved that. One year later NATO got involved because Russia and China in UN Security Council allowed that to happen. Of course individual countries inside NATO can get involved in whatever they want. Membership in NATO does not force you to go to offensive war.
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@ccc_the_painful_truth UN Security Council is useless. It didn't prevent this war at all, because Russia can veto anything, China can veto anything, USA can veto resolutions when they invaded Iraq and Afghanistan. And all people are supposed to be equal, so all countries are equal (countries are just people), yet USA, Russia, China, UK and France are somehow more equal and have permanent seat and veto rights, when other LESS EQUAL countries don't have that. It's a pathetic attempt at major empires looking good and "democratic" when they pass resolutions against small countries, yet no resolution will ever be passed against them (permanent veto power). Is this the mechanism how to prevent war? To let large empires do whatever they want and then punish all the small countries who don't have veto power? Amazing. If UN Security Council was in existence in 1938, the would have NOT stopped the second world war from starting. Germany would veto everything. Useless.
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@mybestsongs2055 You very obviously don't watch Russian state TV. I do, every week. Russia is non-stop talking about invading Estonia, Latvia, Lithuaina (which means NATO, which means Slovakia will have to send everything to defend them, because we promised, gave them our word and signed it - our word means something and when we promise military alliance to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, we WILL defend them). Also 3x per year Russian state TV mentions nuking Slovakia (I know, it's nothing compared to Poland and France and the UK, but still - we are obviously military target for Russia and what they consider as their sphere of influence = ex-colony). So this is what is a threat to Slovakia if Ukraine loses the war.
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@Argonhubert I understand how it might seem like this from your point of view, so let me explain. The cost of university is transferred to the whole society, but it is much much cheaper to begin with. Our universities don't make any money, they are not supposed to, it's not supposed to be a profit making business, it's a public service. They have maximum job safety (professors) and are respected, because they are on a mission to better our society. Same with our doctors. These professions are not supposed to be a path to get rich, we do not even want professors and teachers who are in it for the money. So then hospitals and universities are not making any profits at all, so the cost of university education or healthcare is low (compared to US it's 20x lower) and so then it can be moved to the society as a whole, because it's not that much. You are doing exactly this in the US, but with the military budget - you transfer it to the society as a whole... and the police, fire department, roads, transportation, energy infrastructure, and many other things. I absolutely believe it is a good idea to pay taxes now to pay for all the education of young people, so they can do whatever profession they actually want to do and then reap the benefits 20 years from now when we have healthy and educated middle class to support my retirement (government funded, from them to me ... see they will pay it back, it's just spread over the whole population).
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@Argonhubert Regarding the lower salaries. It's not just university degrees, you have higher salaries in the US than in the poor and middle parts of EU (there are parts of Europe that are richer than the US, but not majority). Compared to my country, you get much higher salary and pay less taxes. But your cost of living and expenses are also much much higher. Your mortgage is higher (mine is 0.5% interest), rent, groceries, and all services and goods (because you have to pay those high salaries of the workers producing it, of course), so far it makes sense, higher salaries, higher cost of living, it evens out nicely. But then a lot of people have to pay off massive student loans that are the size of mortgage, and then you have to save money for retirement, and most dreaded thing - if you have serious health problems, you can go bankrupt very fast. I've been fighting with cancer for the past 15 years, has been very complicated. In the US, I would be already dead because I couldn't afford it even with my above average salary. What about children that get cancer or some other horrible illness? Are they going to die because they were born to the "wrong" parents? Or will they be saved but start their life with a crippling debt of millions of dollars that most of them will never be able to repay? I have a feeling US system is set up for millionaires and people somehow don't realize that 99.99% of population will never be millionaires, but somehow a lot of poor people in the US tolerate it because they think their situation is just temporary and they will be rich soon. It's like the rich dangle a carrot infront of them so they do not rebel. Do I see it in a wrong way? Is there something I don't understand about the US?
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@lucasworktv You: "Oh wait, did we really forget about the economy???? Oh dang…
Russia: 6 place and 4,988,829$"
-- First: What kind of numbers are these? 5 million USD? That's not right. Go and open GDP Nominal and take the absolute value, not the "per capita" one if you want absolute size of the economy... if you want to compare 150 million country of Russia to 5 million country of Slovakia or 1.3 million Estonia (literally 100x smaller population). ... If you compare pre-war GDP Nominal of Russia (to be fair, because massive sanctions, foreign companies leaving, 3 million young Russians leaving, 500k young Russian men conscripted do not exactly increase Russia's economy, of course, and also Russia is in a war state and Putin has full control on what numbers about Russian economy get published, so we can no longer trust it like before the war... so let's compare 2021. 1.779 trillion... with is between economy of Spain (much much smaller population) and Canada (also 5x smaller population than Russia). You wouldn't say Spain is a military superpower, or Canada... or even economic superpower. Russia is less than 2% of world economy. Collective West and allies are 67% of world economy. Even China is 10x the population of Russia nad 10x the economy. For some reason you created this image of Russia as some kind of superpower... they are not, and haven't been for more than 30 years. They are a 2nd world petro-state at best. I have been there, I have seen it with my own eyes. I have also been to Ukraine many times (it's very close from here and I know many Ukrainians and one of them is my best friend). Ukraine is ever more impoverished. Also you might want to check corruption index of all 44 European countries... 2nd most corrupt is Ukraine, 1st most corrupt is Russia. But there are 2 main differences. Ukraine is incomparably more free and democratic than Russia, despite being very poor and almost as corrupt as Russia. And second big difference is that Ukraine is not invading other countries, threatening everyone around them and trying to rebuild some idiotic empire dreaming of being a superpower again. Ukrainians don't do that. Russians do. ... I dont' blame Russia for being semi-poor petro-state. I have lived in Africa and Southeast Asia - and I absolutely loved it. I blame them for constantly conquering and occupying all the countries around them (there practically isn't a country neighboring Russia that theyhave not invaded except USA ... and that is including China and Japan). I can give you the full list if you want, I have it here.
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@ With your logic Malta is not Europe, Cyprus is not, Sardinia, Elba, Malorca, Cannary Islands, Iceland... not Europe. You are on the same tectonic plate and you have incredibly similar culture to us and common history. I feel sad that you don't feel European (and I mean it, I really feel sad about it). I know many amazing people from the UK, been there many times, and in my heart, you will always be Europe.
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@DonaldJevgenjevichPanasonic In USA? No. In developing countries? Yes, absolutely, even for less. Depends on what the capabilities of such robot are (humanoid robots are very expensive and limited, and non-humanoid robots are just machines we have in factories already - and they displaced a lot of workers, but still you have endless millions of people working there). Don't get me wrong, I am techno-optimist and I can't wait for the future. But it will take some time to beat the economy of human body which evolved to be self-replicating, self-repairing, self-maintaining, doesn't need any rare elements for construction or as fuel, only the common ones, and has tremendous flexiblity compared to machines of same size due to nature of muscles. Eventually, robots will replace everyone, but it won't be as soon as it might seem. Most of the world lives on far less than $1 per hour (and we need to count maintenance, replacement parts and energy costs for the robots, because all this is already included in the human salaries). But yes, high paying jobs will be displaced first.
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That absolutely depends on how many parameters the model has (1B, 3B, 8B, 13B, 34B, 70B, ... ?) and what is the quantization level of the model (HF16, Q8, Q6, Q4, Q3, Q2, Q1, and subparameters of quantization to a lesser degree). You can get 500 tokens per second or 50 tokens per second, even on the same model... but the 500 tok/sec will be "stupid" if you quantize it to Q1. We don't know what exactly he used in the video.
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@kisamehoshigaki09 Land doesn't belong to countries, flags or institutions. It belongs to the people who live there. History is IRRELEVANT, completely and absolutely IRRELEVANT. The only thing that matters where people living there want to be. If referendum in Crimea was with massive international oversight and ZERO Russian soldiers, I would accept the results. But it was not - I have it from a person who was born there and lived there. Russian soldiers everywhere, checking on people voting, no international oversight. Such referendum is a joke (that's why it's not internationally recognized). When Kosovo wanted to break away from Serbia, suddenly Russia has opposite principles - not independence. When Moldova wanted to go independent - suddenly Russia has opposite principble, but when it's Transnistria, Russia flips again and supports Transnistrian independence. When Chechnya wants independence from Russia, suddenly Russia is against independence - in the most brutal murderous way possible. When it comes to Donbas, Russia flips again and is for independence. You are a joke with your flip-flop morals and principles.
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@xt7519 Thank you for your opinion. I would like to explain why we (EU) relied on you (USA) for protection. Just look at our history. We've been killing each other for 2500 years non-stop. We caused both world wars and brutalized the entire planet (colonization). Do not think for a moment we cannot build a brutal military. But new generations here thought we can finally leave all this behind, and after the fall of Soviet Union and freedom for all those European countries occupied and colonized by Russia, we really thought this time it will be different. We all unified under European Union and it really really looked that we would finally stop killing each other (and everyone else) and can start just building our economies and quality of life. I grew up during the cold war on the occupied side of Europe. I remember the constant dread of nuclear war. I cannot express how hopeful I was about permanent peace and cooperation in Europe all the way till 2022 (I was blind to Russia invading Ukraine in 2014, like an old fool, I didn't see it because I didn't want to see it). Now Russia came back from the dead to bring back Hitler's and Stalin's imperial ambitions and we are back to square one. The "peace dividend" that we were taking for decades is suddenly gone. Now we have to waste untold hundreds of billions if not trillions on useless military. From civilizational point of view, these are completely wasted resources and people's time. Yet we are forced to do it. ... So you see, it wasn't specifically that we would be like parasites latched on USA, it was just we thought no one would ever dare to attack us... which was wrong as we can see now. And China is preparing to invade Taiwan and you (USA) will want our support. This will be 10x bigger problem than Russia (China is 10x the population, 10x the economy of Russia, so it will be 10x the problem for the rest of the world, way more serious situation than Russia). The world is heading to a dark place... yet AGAIN.
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@KenSiTruePW You are the teenager who read something on social media a now you I writing about it to everyone. How Russian speakers were oppressed in Eastern Ukraine. I WAS THERE before the war, twice, I live right next to Ukraine, I have friends from there and I have 6 refugees from there in my second home, since the beginning of the war (you have no idea how they hate Russia, even more than western Ukrainians, just use brain, Russia klled their families, in this example her son, and now rest of their family is on the front line fighting against Russia). The fact they speak the same language means nothing to them. Same way UK, French or Spanish colonies spoke their language and still fought against them. You are just a colonialist imperialist who wants to return Russian colonies to their previous colonizer.
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@MrMah-zf6jk Citation: "In 1947, the UN adopted a partition plan for a two-state solution in the remaining territory of the mandate. The plan was accepted by the Jewish leadership but rejected by the Arab leaders, and Britain refused to implement the plan. On the eve of final British withdrawal, the Jewish Agency for Israel, headed by David Ben-Gurion, declared the establishment of the State of Israel according to the proposed UN plan. The Arab Higher Committee did not declare a state of its own and instead, together with Transjordan, Egypt, and the other members of the Arab League of the time, commenced military action resulting in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. During the war, Israel gained additional territories that were designated to be part of the Arab state under the UN plan."
-- So the truth is Israel uni-laterally took the territory from the UN plan without any acceptance from the Arab countries and then, big surprise Arab countries attack. You cannot uni-laterally implement a plan without ALL SIDES agreeing to it. Then that is not an agreement, that is just you doing whatever you want. And european colonial powers giving land that is not theirs to give. How typical. This has been source of so many wars all over the world in the past century.
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@bubena8255 I do look down only on people who have no human values and not even basic compassion (like people who during COVID didn't care who is going to die in agonizing pain as long as their personal comfort is not disturbed, or people who don't care about death and suffering in Ukraine, because it is not happening to him or her personally, but other than that, I respect every decent human even if he or she has completely opposite political values than me, I am actually glad we all don't think the same, because we could be all wrong, diversity in political views is important). People are not leaving Slovakia because of different politicial views (that was always here and it is in every country), but because of the democratic backsliding. Slovakia just made first few steps away from balanced democracy and many of us do not like this direction, however, we respect that these people have been democratically elected, so revolution or demostrations would be against all that democracy stands for... so what else is for us to do, only to leave and never come back.
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@Ch1cken_Nub Why should you continue to provide military equipment for Ukraine and what do you get in return? Because you signed the Budapest Memorandum, and it was your (USA) idea in the first place. You pressure and force countries to not have nuclear weapons (get rid of existing ones, not develop new ones) and in exchange you offer your nuclear protection. Seems like a fair trade. But then if you break your written word, if you break a contract, no country will ever trust you with any treaty or contract again. Especially not regarding nuclear weapons. So America (USA), either you stay true to your contracts and obligations and we are good, or you break it and then all of us will start to make nuclear weapons of our own, you will have 50+ nuclear armed countries. I personally am in favor of the second option, but it's up to the United States now to decide whether it has honor and will not break contracts and alliances, or whether it was lying and we all have to make nuclear weapons now. This is what you get in return (you were asking, I am asnwering).
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