Comments by "Paul Gibbon" (@paulgibbon5991) on "Jake Broe" channel.

  1. Russian Generals: "Russian forces are advancing rapidly and capturing multiple towns!" Putin: 😀 Russian Generals: "There's just one catch...."
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  2.  @ninemoonplanet  The thing is...for decades to come, if you're talking to a Russian man of a certain age, there's a chance you're talking to a murderer / rapist / torturer / child kidnapper. Of course, they will all say they were one of the good ones, innocent conscripts who never wanted to be there.
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  3.  @septimiufly5134  Nuclear threats cannot be a factor. The message cannot go out to the world that nuclear blackmail works or makes anyone go easy on you for your atrocities. There should be no restraint in breaking Russia's economy and military for the rest of the century and supplying whatever orc-slaying weapons Ukraine requires.
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  4. Remember one historical fact: Russia never talks about negotiations when they think they're winning.
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  5.  @tedferkin  But quite appropriate.
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  6.  @koma-k  Don't assume that this is a quality unique to Russians. It's the natural end point of people saying they're "not interested in politics" or "why vote, they're all the same".
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  7.  @reaper2943  "Whataboutism" is a Soviet-pioneered propaganda technique, whereas cricitisms are not answered directly, but distracted from by pointing out something that somebody else did. Whether the counter-accusation is actually relevant or stands up to criticism is not important, the intent is only to divert the attention of the audience.
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  8.  @blindinglight8604  The problem with the Republicans as a whole is that they very consistently bend the knee to the crazies in their party, whenever those crazies show signs of having any popular appeal. It's not just the actual abusers who do the damage in a company or family, it's the wider circle of people who cover up for and enable the abusers.
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  9. If Russia screams about escalation, that's an immediate sign to give Ukraine more of it.
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  10. One useful thing we have done with our smaller contributions is to have shown Putin's red lines to be hollow threats.
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  11. "It's amazing what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit." --Harry Truman
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  12.  @enemyofthestatewearein7945  There's a prejudice from history that Europe invented colonialism and were the only ones who ever practiced it. We did neither, we were just the most successful at it, and the fact that our colonies were largely overseas made it much more visible. Russia struck to brutalising and colonising their neighbours (not for lack of trying), and was VERY successful at exterminating their cultural identity.
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  13. China would also like to have a word about some eastern provinces, and Sweden would like St Petersburg back.
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  14.  @Pulstar232  Also, that STORING that stuff didn't come for free. Weapons need to be maintained, guarded and take up space in storage facilities that also need upkeep and staffing.
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  15. For Russians, the logic is that they fought fascists, therefore they can't possibly become fascists. The US is at an earlier stage of that same process of "It Can't Happen Here".
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  16. It's worth remembering that the abduction and forced adoption of children is clearly defined as genocide in international law.
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  17. I think it's also relevant, because the Russian attempts to dehumanise the Ukranians are front and centre of their war effort. The accusations of Nazism, the consistent "accuse the enemy of whatever we're doing" strategy, the denial that Ukraine has a culture of its own, the looting of museums to destroy Ukranian history....pushing back against that is important in its own right, even if it's not part of the struggle for survival.
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  18. That's the thing. Even for countries that decry Israel as evil incarnate, they don't want to actually help the Palestinains. It's far easier to stir the pot every now and then, to keep Palestine radicalised and to keep Israel as a bogeyman and a distraction from domestic failures.
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  19. "Some people" being botskis, you mean.
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  20. Nelson Mandela would be so proud of them.
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  21.  @katiehettinger7857  The actual cost is trivial. In the UK, we lost more money on Liz Truss' terrible budget, or on Johnson and co awarding contracts for ineffective PPE gear to their Oxford chums during the pandemic.
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  22. Scholz is one of Putin's People, through and through. At this point, it's time to just start ignoring the collaborator.
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  23.  @Carrera6rennsport  Botski reported, may you soon be drafted.
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  24. Like a video game, a late offensive is only late till it arrives.
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  25.  @gvaik  How's your helicopters, navy and artillery doing?
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  26. Of course they are. And they need quick and shoddy prefabs that they can stick actors in front of to talk about how nice Russia has been to them and how you should ignore all those reports of genocide.
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  27.  @simchalebovitch6944  They understand, but they need to pretend otherwise to keep the Kremlinbucks coming in.
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  28. When did he HAVE credibility? He was the foulest of the foul even before he started openly cheerleading for fascists.
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  29. "Neutrality" is inherently pro-Russian. Neutrality always favours the aggressor.
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  30. Russian and Maggat propaganda isn't aimed at people who think about it. It's aimed at people who don't really follow an issue, hoping to push a talking point into the mainstream through sheer weight of repetition.
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  31. @@4k40fps4 How are those Leopards coming along?
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  32. Evil cannot comprehend good.
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  33. It makes sense in a world where "Nazi" means "someone who opposes Russia".
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  34. I don't. No matter why he did it, the man is a traitor, he chose to be a traitor, and he put the lives of good people at risk. Make an example of him, and demonstrate what awaits dirty traitors.
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  35. There's a quote about environmentalism that always stuck in my mind: "We don't need a thousand people doing this perfectly, we need a million people doing it decently." 🙂
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  36.  @arturobianco848  Musk hasn't "innovated" anything, people in his companies do--usually, if you listen to the accounts of ex-employees, by making sure Musk himself is involved as little as possible. He's a company mascot, there to take credit and make the tech-bros swoon.
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  37.  @vp4744  Six of one, and half a dozen of the other. They also both have the same mystifying ability to attract zealous cultists who utterly refuse to see how flawed their waifu is.
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  38.  @dustyfloor1896  Fun bit of trivia--in the novel "Don Quixote", which first used the phrase "pull yourself up by your bootstraps", it was used an an example of something self-evidently impossible, which illustrated how detached from reality the character saying it was.
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  39. A nice side-effect is that it defangs Russia's nuclear threats. It's not total protection, but if you're actually launching a nuclear missile with all the escalation and risk that such a launch entails, you want to be damn certain it's going to hit what you want it to hit. Cutting that chance even a bit dramatically de-escalates.
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  40. Just remember to vote. Putin's banking on Trump getting back in and keeping his promises.
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  41.  @Whatshisname346  Because it works. It's not about creating a plausible narrative, it's about flooding every channel with nonsense and pushing it so hard that observers decide they don't know what to believe.
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  42. Only tragic for Russia.
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  43. Stooped? They were already stealing children, hard to go down from there.
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  44.  @gregbrogan9061  Anyone from there who wants to be Russian is free to go and live in Russia.
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  45.  @cindiheaton6469  In part, that's why it works. It's the "big lie" principle--make the lies so outrageous that people assume you'd never make something like that up.
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  46.  @dawggonevidz9140  You'd think people would have learned, on seeing Russia go from a communist dystopia to a capitalist dystopia, that maybe the problem is Russia.
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  47. Let's not forget that in 2013, Germany had NO problem with sending Leopards to Indonesia, so let's just not start with the lie that they're shying away from wars. Scholz is one of Putin's People, treat him accordingly.
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  48.  @lilacer6841  You're fighting 5% of NATO's military budget and 0 serving soldiers, continue coping.
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  49. Well, a lot of it is also to tell Israel's neighbours "Don't you even think about it."
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  50.  @peterc.1419  Botski reported, may you soon be drafted.
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  51.  @rustysutton  "Whataboutism" is a Soviet-pioneered propaganda technique, whereas cricitisms are not answered directly, but distracted from by pointing out something that somebody else did. Whether the counter-accusation is actually relevant or stands up to criticism is not important, the intent is only to divert the attention of the audience.
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  52.  @johannesvalterdivizzini1523  The guy who Trump mocked as a loser, and his cult cheered him.
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  53. In the First World, America is very much an anomaly in their love of guns, and also the sickening regularity of public mass shootings.
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  54.  @angrydoggy9170  The main difference is that it required Germany and most other European nations to suffer such great hardship that the idea of "We can't go back to how we used to do things." could gain traction. Russia, frankly, has not suffered enough for that sort of collective soul-searching, the war is just that thing they see on the TV where they're constantly assured that they're winning, but not supporting the war will allow the evil gay NATO clowns to destroy their way of life, or something.
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  55.  @Anmeteor9663  Difference is, we can excise our terrible government without actually needing to kill them first.
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  56. The big problem is, they never deliver on the threats. A year ago, a mention of nuclear forces being placed on high alert was alarming. Now, it's just crying wolf over and over. It really doesn't help that it's been demonstrated that Russia's "unstoppable" delivery systems are actually very stoppable.
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  57.  @JakeBroe  It's counter productive in another way--the faces of murdered children do a lot to weaken the resistance to sending orc-slaying weapons in the West.
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  58. I think he knows what he's doing. Either he's waiting for this to blow over so he can hook back up to that sweet Gazprom money, or he's an active collaborator who admires or is being blackmailed by Putin. Either way, we need to sidestep the quisling in Berlin and his stalling tactics on behalf of his master in Moscow.
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  59. There has always been accountability. If he's pretending that there wasn't, that speaks of someone looking to sidle out of promises.
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  60.  @ScottsFormula350TPI  "The horror being a military dictatorship"...that sounds like an excellent reason not to let it happen to someone else. We wil continue to be harsh on Germans until you jolt your appeaser of a leader into action and Free The Leopards.
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  61.  @crogeny  "I'm not a vatnik, I'm just recycling Kremlin talking points uncritically."
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  62.  @laurip7089  Probably the Big Vague Conspiracy.
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  63. Yes there are. And those words are "I'm going to protest." Silence is complicity with Orban and his master.
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  64.  @cristo6007  Glad you asked. "Woke" means "something I dislike" when used by a conservative, nothing more.
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  65. Wait till you see the Chronosphere.
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  66. Another factor is the delivery systems. Given that Ukraine proved that the "unstoppable" hypersonic missiles are very stoppable with 30-year-old interception systems, that's another point of failure. And if you're actually launching nukes, you want to be entirely certain they'll reach the target and detonate.
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  67.  @fuerstmetternich1997  Botski reported, may you soon be drafted.
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  68.  @katerinacervenkova5797  Lack of evidence noted, concession accepted. Collect your rubles and pray you don't get drafted.
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  69. Why is it you think he deserves your support? He probably hasn't done whatever it is you think he's done to warrant it.
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  70.  @memkiii  Nah, it's the guy blocking aid to Ukraine to score points and earn Russian sponsorship. Plain and simple.
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  71. It's probably because of the Kharkiv offensive. That too required a lot of setup and grinding, but the Western media only started paying attention when it began to move quickly.
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  72.  @PeterLawton  Agreed, but I find the comic to be a bit better in terms of depicting just how dysfunctional and self-destructive fascism becomes, and illustrating how the people can enable such regimes.
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  73.  @clorkmagnus  Meanwhile, in the real world, Russia is using WW1 tactics with nary a sign of learning anything, and production is crippled by sanctions, corruption and vranyo.
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  74.  @stargazer-elite  Then where are the long-range missiles? Where are the A10's? Why didn't training start for the F16's a year ago? Why is Russia not yet designated a state sponsor of terrorism, forcing all Western companies to stop doing business with them? Why are hundreds of tanks sitting uselessly in storage at the expense of the US taxpayer when they could be fighting fascism? The shameful foot-dragging and the excessive respect paid to Russia has cost innocent lives.
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  75.  @user_____M  Which is still far more efficient than what you get if you pay private companies.
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  76.  @scratchy996  Authoritarian regimes always fall prey to the same vice, as Russia (the most successful of them until recently, and a net exporter of autocracy) is demonstrating. Sooner or later, the leader starts to believe his own publicity and all the little lies that build up in the name of "don't give the boss bad news" come home to roost.
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  77.  @AnthropomorphicTrilobite  They copy-paste it in every relevant video. Just have a debunk ready to copy-paste back at them. Don't spend more effort rebuking a lie than it took to make it.
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  78. Right now, Russia is probably the biggest exporter of tanks to Ukraine. 😀
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  79.  @christianheisch8472  You're probably right--but sadly, it's kind of immaterial whether he's on the payroll or just burying his head in the sand in hopes that things can go back to normal and he can get hooked up to that sweet Russian gas again. Appeaser or collaborator, the effect is the same.
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  80. They'll deny ever having said it now, of course. The way of propaganda is to never admit anything from the past that contradicts the story that you're pushing right this minute.
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  81. It's unsettling how much Russia's relationship with its neighbours resembles the behaviour of an abusive spouse in other ways apart from that. "Don't associate with your friends, I'll provide you with everything that you need." "I never hit them, they're just saying that to make me look bad!" "Why are you MAKING me do this?"
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  82. Vote, and mobilise everyone you know to vote. If Trump wins, the US will go fascist before the end of the decade.
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  83.  @BlauKraut-gg5iu  Remind them that allowing wars of conquest and nuclear blackmail to work is also escalation.
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  84. "We didn't need those cities / lands / tanks / soldiers / planes / ships anyway!" EVERY TIME.
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  85. I never believe anything until I hear a Russian deny it.
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  86.  @johanstinson  Thing is, the Western coalition was the instigator of the Iraq war in that case, and it makes perfect sense to protest against a war that your country is starting. In this case, being anti-war NOW usually translates to "Ukraine should stop defending themselves and let Russia keep some of the land / people they stole so they'll go home happy". And that is appeasement--and both history, and Russia's conduct in Chechnya and other places, tell us loud and clear that appeasement does not ever work. It just kicks the can down the road til Russia rebuild their army and come back for the rest. Suing for peace now is also a statement that Russia's tactics (nuclear blackmail, sham elections, murderous attacks on civilians, campaigns of rape, astroturf insurrections and false flags) work, and are things that will get you what you want if you use them in war. That's a horrible precedent to set across the entire world, and absolutely will make the world a more dangerous place.
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  87.  Lookup2Wakeup  "Whataboutism" is a Soviet-pioneered propaganda technique, whereas cricitisms are not answered directly, but distracted from by pointing out something that somebody else did. Whether the counter-accusation is actually relevant or stands up to criticism is not important, the intent is only to divert the attention of the audience.
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  88.  @Mantarr1  You've got to wonder if they know anything about the wars with Finland, Chechnya, China, Japan or WW1 (Russia invaded Germany and got massacred). I'm really not sure they do, but maybe they do, and it's always spun so that they were "responding to aggression" in some tortured-logic way.
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  89. I think there are two factors. One is the assassinations that Russians have conducted in Britain, one of which killed an innocent person through the careless use of poison and resulted in a whole town being evacuated. And the other is that the defining event of our recent history is standing alone against a fascist invader, and withstanding endless bombing attacks aimed at civilians.
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  90.  @susanneg8983  Judging from what I heard? It's because he blames everything on LGBT+ people. Hungary is not painting itself as a good place.
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  91. Have you ever seen the "Evil Dead" movies, where demonic spirits jump into people's bodies and turn them into a sickening, twisted parody of who they once were? That's basically the Republicans.
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  92. I ate hamsters for Christmas. Not because I'm running short of food, but have you ever tried roast hamster with cranberry sauce? It's seriously underrated.
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  93.  @j.erickson8571  Russia was destroyed in 1917, and 1991. Anyway, a frozen conflict solves nothing and just kicks the can down the road until Russia comes back for the rest. Putin told you that loud and clear in Chechnya, but it seems that you chose not to listen.
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  94.  @bourbonstansell8823  Da, Fellow Americanki. 😀 Remember to claim to be a veteran.
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  95.  @ThorIsBoss  We see what you're doing, trying to equate all Muslims and all people who want Palestinians to stop being murdered with Hamas cheerleaders. Quit it.
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  96.  @murphy7801  I can definitely see a small town somewhere being left as it is now, as a reminder of what Russian "liberation" looks like.
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  97. Remember: Vote D to Drive, and R to Reverse.
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  98.  @robertholland7558  Every Russian accusation is a confession.
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  99. Answer is: With massive US and UK supply and logistical help, which they never mention in their own history books.
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  100.  arlekino1263  Botski reported.
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  101. Or...well, pick a location in Chechnya.
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  102.  @dujestancic7758  Botski reported, may you soon be drafted.
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  103. "Which is very dangerous if you are one of the facts that need altering."
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  104. The best explanation I've ever heard is that Democracy is a system to get a new leader without needing to kill the old one first.
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  105. Worth noting that for all it gets invoked as an example of gung-ho Murican patriotism, the original "Red Dawn" (we don't talk about the remake) was quite a grounded and sombre story that played up how much being a guerilla SUCKS, no matter how righteous your cause is.
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  106.  @emmata98  A lot of people have murdered other people, therefore you can't complain when I murder someone. --Tankie Logic
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  107. There is a word: genocide.
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  108.  @acebaker3623  It's curious how modern Russia has been allowed to squat in the seat of the USSR.
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  109.  @nyali2  "Whataboutism" is a Soviet-pioneered propaganda technique, whereas cricitisms are not answered directly, but distracted from by pointing out something that somebody else did. Whether the counter-accusation is actually relevant or stands up to criticism is not important, the intent is only to divert the attention of the audience.
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  110.  @AR15andGOD  Botski reported. May you soon be drafted.
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  111.  @gregoryadair3223  When he apologises and admits his error, then it gets forgiven.
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  112. The Norman invasion of England also got delayed due to storms in the Channel. If William had invaded earlier, he would probably have faced a battle-ready army of Harold's, rather than one that had just raced up north and back to quell a Viking invasion. So much ends up hinging on weather.
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  113.  @VajrahahaShunyata  Here's the thing. We've seen, over and over again, that "mainstream" Republicans will talk a big game and then they will bend the knee to Trump and his cult, without fail. America is divided entirely because of the protofascist Trumplican cult, and there is not a single shred of bothsides to be found. Republicans are now the party of fascism, theocracy, misogyny and Russia. They've been screaming this in your face for eight years. Time to take your fingers out your ears and start listening to them.
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  114.  @kparker2430  Define "woke" without accidentally making it sound like a good thing.
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  115. @tileux It's a botski. Report and move on.
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  116. Speaking of which, why is Russia still squatting in the USSR's seat on the Security Council? The UN needs heavy reform.
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  117.  @Theveganshift77  Ironically, it's easier to accuse modern democracies over their past misdeeds than it is dictatorships, because they actually ADMIT to them.
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  118.  @loracle540  And if they don't mind living in the world's biggest concentration camp and having their water and power cut off in illegal collective punishments, and occasionally being kicked out by illegal colonisation movements.
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  119.  @PandemoniumMeltDown  Careful, someone could break a leg falling down that gigantic excluded middle that you left by posing that a police state is the lone alternative to a culture where random mass murder has become unremarkable. In the UK, when a maniac opened fire on a classroom, we didn't have Thoughts & Prayers as the Republicans counted their NRA money, we had actual strict gun laws put into place. Notable lack of school shootings ever since. Same goes for...pretty much all of Europe. Equating "freedom" and "everyone has a gun" was a tremendous piece of marketing genius on the part of Samuel Colt to get people to buy his weapons.
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  120.  @hermelnderhans  It would be a tragedy, but it's hard to feel any sympathy when those young people have been torturing, murdering and raping their way through Ukraine, with a side order of child kidnapping. And of course, when the war's done, every Russian will claim they were one of the GOOD ones, who never wanted to be there.
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  121. Sometimes you can tell, down to the hour, when the troll farms get a new talking point from their handlers.
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  122.  @SansNeural  There was a quote I saw about environmentalism that stuck with me--"We don't need a hundred people doing a perfect job, we need a million people doing a decent job."
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  123.  @sstratford123  Botski reported, may you soon be drafted.
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  124.  erikbengt1074  Your concession and admission you have no clue what you're talking about is accepted.
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  125.  @Catinthehackmatrix  Look at Chechnya. That's where you see the final form of Russia's methods--a blasted desert of a country, with the survivors forced into Russian service.
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  126.  @divermike8943  Russia knows this very well. Why do you think astroturf insurrections and frozen conflicts are their stock in trade.
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  127.  @andersjjensen  Russia's recent history needs to go into textbooks as an example of how oligarchs and nationalists working hand in hand can kill a democracy.
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  128. @@davidmills1900 Botski reported, may you soon be drafted.
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  129.  @Quetzalcoatl-tq7su  It's a botski. Don't engage, just mock, report and move on.
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  130. Given the Russian love for scorched earth, triggering a new Chernobyl is entirely plausible. That plant needs to be watched 24/7, with NATO intervention ready to go.
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  131.  @Naptosis  Maybe it's time for the UN to go the way of the League. And we can get a new organisation that isn't just that place where dictators endlessly veto punishment for their crimes.
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  132. He's kind of lucky the alternative was a far right Putinpuppet.
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  133.  @sirnirvikingur  Reading your post made me imagine 50 Cent singing wiht a Swedish accent, and now I can't get it out my head. 🙂
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  134. Good for her!
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  135. Vote, and mobilise everyone you know to vote.
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  136.  @bourbonstansell8823  Do tell us, botski, how do you think cluster bombs, F16's or HIMARS missiles would help fight a wildfire? Be sure to go into lots of detail!
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  137.  @nas5276  Botski reported. May you soon be drafted.
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  138. Another factor is, how sure can they be that the nukes will work? They're high-maintenance items, and what are the odds the upkeep budget got turned into a superyacht? Even a 10% chance that the missile will blow up on the ground, or hit the target without detonating makes a launch a very risky proposition.
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  139. There's a saying I saw once about environmentalism that stuck with me: "We don't need a hundred people doing a perfect job, we need a million people doing a decent job." Keep it up! 🙂
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  140. I don't know if it was a factor, but the way it pulled the focus away from the Russians finally taking Bakhmut after so long banging their heads...seems to be really sticking in the craw of the botski brigade.
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  141. It can't. I mean...the fighting HERE might stop, but it'll only be a matter of time before he tries somewhere else. Another astroturf insurrection by """"""ethnic Russians"""""", some more false flags, another """""defensive"""" invasion. All the while funding far-right movements and destabilising democracies across the world. Putin has been telling us who he is for decades, time to start listening and react accordingly.
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  142. Remember, these planes will easily be destroyed and will make no difference, and they are somehow also escalation.
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  143.  @arturobianco848  That's what I said; capitalist. Russia is the final form of capitalism; the super-rich are in bed with the government and have free reign to impoverish the country however they like, just so long as they fall in line with the leader. Given their behaviour when they're semi-bound by rules, do you really think American billionaires wouldn't be doing this stuff if the law wasn't restraining them?
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  144. Thank you, but we should have those systems in Ukraine by the second month of the war. The foot-dragging is shameful.
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  145.  @Apophis1010  Allowing nuclear blackmail to succeed is also escalation. Threats with nukes must visibly and utterly fail,
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  146.  @f1daily305  Hey, botski, do you think you're being subtle?
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  147. You talk to individual Americans and they seem like great people. Then you see the sort of representatives that made millions of Americans look at them and think "Yeah, I want this person to represent me to the world!", and it makes you have second thoughts about that.
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  148. Putin isn't personally murdering, torturing, raping or kidnapping Ukranians. A LOT of Russian soldiers are making the choice to act like subhuman savages--of course, once the war is over, every Russian will claim they were a poor, innocent little conscript who didn't want to be there and never did anything bad themselves. Bear that in mind if you ever interact with a Russian man of the right age to have served in this war.
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  149.  @dixonpinfold2582  That dictators have no friends at all when they start losing.
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  150. This post is typical of the concern trolling that the Putinbots have been engaged in lately. Chain-report the botski into oblivion, and say a little prayer that he gets drafted nice and quick.
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  151.  @sallaMoussaIbrahim-ol5qh  "Whataboutism" is a Soviet-pioneered propaganda technique, whereas cricitisms are not answered directly, but distracted from by pointing out something that somebody else did. Whether the counter-accusation is actually relevant or stands up to criticism is not important, the intent is only to divert the attention of the audience.
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  152. I'm imagining that moment in Star Wars ep6, just before Darth Vader throws the Emperor into a bottomless pit.
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  153. "Russia, I don't think this relationship is gonna work." "What are you talking about? We've had some great times!" [footage not found]
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  154. France needs another nudge, Macron's not done him homework on how appeasement of fascists turned out for his country last time.
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  155.  @The_ZeroLine  He wouldn't, maybe. How about the guy who comes after him, when he needs a quick boost in popularity and decides to start beating the imperialism drum? Unless Russia gets NOTHING from this war and has measures taken to make further invasion impossible (a DMZ, etc), history tells us they'll be back for more.
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  156.  @speurtighearnamacterik8230  One of the reasons Barbarossa had so much early success was that Stalin was taken totally by surprise that his buddy had turned on him.
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  157.  @jloiben12  Indeed. The only reason that Russian casualties were so high was that Stalin refused to prepare for or consider the possibility that Hitler might betray him, even after the invasion had begun.
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  158.  arlekino1263  Botski reported.
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  159.  rodneyhoward9450  Botski reported. May you soon be drafted.
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  160. Remember that posed Hummvee in the crater?
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  161.  @rob6052  You might notice how Russia alternates between being a plucky underdog taking on a vastly superior force and a mighty empire that it's futile to resist, depending on the sheet of talking points handed to the botski farm on any given day.
    3
  162.  @RickySpanish12344  Shall we assume you realised something that nobody in Ukraine did, or shall we assume the situation on the ground doesn't allow such an easy solution? Which scenario seems more likely?
    3
  163. I don't think she's crazy. She had an idea for a grift and very coolly and rationally pursued it.
    3
  164.  @kirgan1000  Do you know better? It's quite possible, Scholz was very cozy with the USSR in his youth.
    3
  165.  @JJdV1980  Can you be more specific? There is no country called "Africa". I hear it actually has quite a lot of wildly different countries, like every continent does.
    3
  166.  @timspiker  Botski reported, may you soon be drafted.
    3
  167. Brave guy. Wonder who it was?
    3
  168.  @mmassehs3251  The people in Mairupol were mostly "ethnic Russian" (a term that means nothing). Didn't stop Putin's orcs from slaughtering them anyway. Botski reported, may you soon be drafted.
    3
  169. The problem with crowing about every win is that it makes it obvious when you don't have any new wins to brag about.
    3
  170.  @sharonlukey9763  You should look up what Poland, Finland and Denmark have been doing. Even Germany, for all the time they spent Scholzing around, have provided abundant civilian aid.
    3
  171. Agreed. Allowing nuclear blackmail to succeed (and be seen to succeed by every tinpot dictator around the world) is the biggest escalation imaginable. After making threats like that, Russia must gain nothing and lose everything.
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  172. ​ @alwaysdisputin9930  Freedom of speech means you can't be arrested for what you say. It doesn't protect you from criticism or mockery, and it doesn't oblige a person or company to give you a platform. Surprisingly few people understand this.
    3
  173.  @edub1170  We wish for Russia to go home, and to stop all the tiresome hot air about nuclear weapons that was kinda scary five months ago and has lost all weight since.
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  174.  @turningpoint4238  I'm kind of impressed--I was under the impression that "Notice me, Musk-senpai!" bros like you had kind of slunk off in embarrassment after seeing him wreck Twitter. This may break your heart, but your waifu doesn't love you.
    3
  175. We need NATO troops ready to drop in and liberate it at very short notice.
    3
  176. Obvious concern trolling is obvious.
    3
  177. Let's make sure of that. Just imagine if, after thousands of years, this was the last decade where Russia's neighbours lived in fear of them and had to center all their policies around "How do we stop them from invading or annexing us?". Wouldn't that be great?
    3
  178.  @UnicornMeat512  Have a read up on the things they've done to civilians. That should cure any sympathy you feel for the army of murderers, rapists, torturers and child kidnappers.
    3
  179. Worth noting even the USSR didn't overtly threaten that often, even in very serious or tense situations. Compared to them, modern Russia is like a monkey with a grenade.
    2
  180.  @daniellarson3068  Modern Mongolia is a far better place than Russia. Plus, the Mongols established states across Eurasia that endured for centuries and presided over a cultural golden age for China.
    2
  181. Key word: "US"
    2
  182. Indeed. If we roll over to Putin's ultimatums, we tell the world that the rule of law is dead, and we're back the the archaic model of "I can do what I want because I've got the bigger army". If we give into nuclear blackmail, we tell every tinpot dictator around the world that getting some nukes lets you bully your neighbours with impunity.
    2
  183. They're still there, so not devastating enough.
    2
  184. Vivek isn't ignorant. He's just pretending.
    2
  185. We don't know what would happen till it happens. But one thing that will not happen is that it will go unanswered--it simply cannot be the precedent that a country can use a nuke and gain any sort of unpunished advantage from it.
    2
  186.  @daniellarson3068  Look up what Russia did to the native people of Siberia when it was expanding. Not pretty.
    2
  187. I'm seriously impressed at the restraint of whoever arrested that evil and disgusting failed human, that he was actually taken alive. Then again, I suppose he can be exchanged for someone whose life actually has some value.
    2
  188. We can't absolve ourselves of responsibility. If voters didn't indulge so irresponsibly in "they're all as bad as each other" rhetoric that gives the corrupt ones a pass against being held accountable, and consistently stopped voted for ones that offer unsustainable short-term plans, hollow nationalism and bread-and-circuses populism....then we'd improve out government considerably. There are good people in politics, but they have to limit how good they are if they want to actually get elected and get a chance to act on any good intentions.
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  189. A scene from "300" springs to mind. "Pray they're that stupid."
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  190. Russian propaganda even talks about biolab-created mosquitos and dolphins and using nukes to set off earthquakes, so it's not that far off! No Kelly Hu or Gemma Atkinson, sadly. 🙂
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  191. Gazprom.
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  192. China's relationship with Russia is kind of like when your friend gets drunk and picks a fight with the biggest guy in the bar. You want to end it without him getting beaten up and while letting him keep his pride, but you're not SO invested you're going to make yourself a target as well.
    2
  193.  @zky10  We owe our existence as a nation to someone else giving us military aid when we stood alone against a fascist horde, and failing to return the favour would be the most base and evil act of selfishness. Also, it's not expensive--Truss' mini-budget cost us far more than protecting millions of innocent people from genocide has. If you're really worried about money, vote for a party that promises to properly tax the rich. Our reward is that millions of Ukranians have been saved from Putin's army of murderers and rapists. We need nothing else.
    2
  194. One common use for old tanks is dropping them into shallow waters, to create artificial shelters that acts as hosts for sea life.
    2
  195. Protest, write in, do whatever you can.
    2
  196.  @dimastyim  Article Five stands ready, and the coward in Moscow knows that he has no chance against anyone with allies. Bluster, threaten, but we both know you'll stay in your cage.
    2
  197. They had a good one for the death of Osama bin Laden: "Bin Bagged"
    2
  198.  @graphite282  "Whataboutism" is a Soviet-pioneered propaganda technique, whereas cricitisms are not answered directly, but distracted from by pointing out something that somebody else did. Whether the counter-accusation is actually relevant or stands up to criticism is not important, the intent is only to divert the attention of the audience.
    2
  199. Remember how Russia bombs civilian buildings, then tells us that it was totally the Ukranians doing it to themselves?
    2
  200.  @kevinoliver788  Russia squawked about escalation when they were mentioned. That's a solid, reliable sign that they need to be delivered yesterday.
    2
  201. Look up the actual costs, and don't be bamboozled by impressive words like "billion". It's around 5% of the US defence budget, and costs you a bunch of semi-obsolete military gear that would have cost money to be decommissioned anyway. When you've done that, look at what the investment in supporting the war effort of the UK, and then the rebuilding of Germany and Japan did for the US. Clue: it made you a LOT of money in the medium and long term.
    2
  202.  @bigbrowntau  Worth noting that Russia is the largest in terms of land, but nowhere near that in terms of population.
    2
  203.  @dallysinghson5569  Who's "they"? How many Palestinian children do you think signed off on that decision? Be super precise when you reply.
    2
  204. In the famous photo of Soviet soldiers raising the flag over the Reichstag, neither of those soldiers were Russian.
    2
  205. Yes. It doesn't really matter if they're assets or just "useful idiots", the result is the same.
    2
  206.  @S0ulinth3machin3  Don't be ashamed. Vote, and mobilise everybody you know to vote.
    2
  207.  @teddypicker8799  Don't remember seeing your name bonking any Russian spambots. Curious.
    2
  208.  @j.erickson8571  Concern trolling botski reported, may you soon be drafted.
    2
  209.  @sstratford123  Botski reported, may you soon be drafted.
    2
  210. But Russia is failing to advance at a far bigger cost, while Ukraine continues hammering logistics, and pecking away at soft spots in the defences.
    2
  211.  @arturobianco848  Any moderately charismatic person with a basic knowledge of tech could have filled the mascot role, and most of them would know their limits instead of entertaining delusions of being "Tony Stark, but less cool and less good".
    2
  212.  @dorotheakiwi  Hamsters are actually quite tasty if you cook them right, Jussayin.
    2
  213.  @BAtadCrazy  If you've ever seen the "Evil Dead" movies, where an evil spirit possesses someone and turns them into a shambling, malignant force of evil that can ape the gestures of the human they once were but is fundamentally something monstrous and inhuman...yeah, like that.
    2
  214. Ask Vietnam, Korea and Afghanistan.
    2
  215. So do I, but you can't get so deeply into that utopian view that you assume that all wars are equally bad and all sides are always equally guilty. Pacifism like that gets exploited hard.
    2
  216. They weren't "his" innovations. If you look at what he actually does at Tesla and SpaceX, and the testimony of ex-employees, his main value to the company is as a mascot to excite the techbros, and they work hard to keep him away from the actual decision making.
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  217. Can you explain why you believe modern Russia is communist, vs a hyper-capitalist kleptocracy?
    2
  218. If nuclear blackmail accomplishes anything, then Putin will be back for more--we've told him that he can rattle the nukes whenever he wants to annex something else. Also, every tinpot dictator round the world will get the message that nukes let you bully your neighbours with impunity.
    2
  219.  @hungrymusicwolf  The UN is showing its irrelevance more and more since the Cold War ended, and is now just a club where dictators investigate and excuse themselves. Like the League, it needs to be dismantled and rebuilt as something that can punish tyrants.
    2
  220. You're also paying for the upkeep of equipment that's sitting around in storage in your home country.
    2
  221. BUT WHAT ABOUT--
    2
  222.  @speurtighearnamacterik8230  I used to be that sort of 2edgy4u atheist. Then I turned fifteen.
    2
  223. Florida maaaaaybe?
    2
  224.  @petebrown6952  China is the equivalent of that guy who tries to break it up when his buddy picks a fight with the biggest guy at the bar...but who gets far out of the way when the punches start flying.
    2
  225. Almost like it's two entirely different situations. Take your whataboutisms, and go home. Off you trot.
    2
  226.  @marysergiu20  Botski reported, may you soon be drafted.
    2
  227.  @robertholland7558  Tell me, botski, why do you bother choosing "Western" names and then make it so obvious you're at a desk in St Petersburg, frantically posting so that you don't get drafted?
    2
  228.  @seanbinkley7363  Ironically, it's because of a democratic and free society that the wrongs of the past get talked about at all. Dictatorships can whitewash, glorify and / or cover up their own historical atrocities and present themselves as being better.
    2
  229.  @arturobianco848  I twitch whenever I hear anyone talk about Russia as being "communist". It's probably the most capitalist country on the planet, and an object lesson about where giving power to oligarchs and not caring about politics will bring you to.
    2
  230.  @richardhack9830  A lot of it can be summed up as "fatalism". A belief that things can't improve and that horrible things will happen to you for reasons you can't control. Politics is also considered something that can't be controlled.
    2
  231. Russia never talks about negotiations when they think they're winning.
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  232.  @roys4244  The UN is an organisation that was basically set up to stop the US and Soviet Union from shooting nukes at each other. It's very unsuited to the modern world.
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  233.  @SkinE-Vadee-Veechee  And what in particular has gone badly that's his fault, rather than global effects that are hitting everyone equally badly? Also, do tell us how HIMARs and F16's would help with the Maui wildfires or migrants seeking a better life in the US.
    2
  234.  @londoncalling1757  Other EV's are available, and they don't require supporting a techbro cult of personality.
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  235.  @davidgray8089  "Whataboutism" is a Soviet-pioneered propaganda technique, whereas cricitisms are not answered directly, but distracted from by pointing out something that somebody else did. Whether the counter-accusation is actually relevant or stands up to criticism is not important, the intent is only to divert the attention of the audience.
    2
  236.  @davethorstry6700  If the tanks are utterly useless, then that means sending them isn't an escalation, so we might as well send every tank in Europe over right now.
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  237.  @nooboftheyear7170  Or taken over by squatters, as happened to some oligarch pads in London? 🙂
    2
  238. Russians don't feel shame. They do get mildly annoyed when they have to live close enough to a genocide to hear the artillery, but that seems to be about it. Russia wants this.
    2
  239. Define "woke" without accidentally making it sound like a good thing.
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  240. "'Ere! He says he's not dead!" "He will be soon, he's very ill."
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  241. "I never thought leopards would eat MY face." says person who voted for Leopards Eating People's Faces Party.
    2
  242.  @Grenadier1976  The problem with the Republicans is that as soon as the crazies get any support, the so-called "moderates" immediately bend the knee.
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  243. If you look back to WW2, you can see the EXACT same arguments being made against aiding England prior to Pearl Harbour--"We need the money here." "The Germans never did anything to us." "They're both as bad as each other.". The UK exists because those people were overruled and ignored.
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  244.  @Giganfan2k1  Something else you can do to help is to call out Russian trolls, disinformation and apologism wherever you see it. Make sure people know the facts about how little of the defence budget is going there.
    2
  245. It's nothing they wouldn't do anyway. Russia's words and wishes are no longer relevant, except for their surrender.
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  246.  @KillerRabbit1975  Well, I think quite a few Americans wouldn't mind Florida becoming another country's problem. But I get the point.
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  247.  @JakeBroe  Fun fact--he wriggled out of a lawsuit over telling lies, on the grounds that his viewers watched him for entertainment and knew better than to take him seriously.
    2
  248. It's not about presenting any kind of serious case against another country, it's a fire-hose of random accusations and whataboutisms. It's entirely meant to distract audiences and spread confusion, leading people to conclude "I dunno, everyone's accusing everyone else, I don't know what to believe, guess they're all as bad as each other".
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  249. It does help. Remember, the Russian propaganda and disinformation isn't put out there so people will believe it. It's put out there to swamp the airwaves and promote feelings of confusion and isolation, so that nobody knows what to believe.
    2
  250. You might notice the botski brigade have started to make the anti-Semitism more obvious, and Putin's poodle Tucker Carlson has been using anti-Semetic dog whistles to refer to Zelensky.
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  251. @@canislupuscanus Okay. So explain in detail what makes Russia any different, beyond the fact that they enslaved, annexed and subjugated their neighbours rather than distant lands? You are aware that Wagner has been stirring and destabilising countries in Africa for decades now, Y/N?
    2
  252.  @calebmauer1751  Was there the sound of an off-camera pistol being cocked during the second video?
    2
  253. "The tighter you close your fist, the more slips through your fingers."
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  254. Quoting Voltaire.
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  255. Can we fast-forward to the bit where the dictator shoots himself? Please?
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  256. Touch what? The deliberate destruction of a dam that was entirely secure, as an act of terrorism? You have no point to make, just a random hateboner against environmentalism. Fall silent.
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  257. The propped-up strongmen do.
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  258. Wasn't that an episode of "Jojo's Bizarre Adventure"?
    2
  259.  @donaldcarey114  Russia is already deep in the grip of the Nazis, or something so close that the difference is purely academic. Until they demilitarise, undergo regime change and show signs of having decisively shaken off the dreams of empire, it would be foolish to give them any slack. At best, armed neutrality, a cage of NATO states and a demilitarised zone.
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  260.  @Snugggg  A big difference there was that the German people were very receptive to the Allies. Before the invasion, there were contingency plans for managing an implacably hostile population that would be mounting constant guerrilla attacks on the occupying troops, but that largely failed to materialise. Japan was also relatively receptive, largely due to the shock of the A-Bombs (without them, combined casualties for a land invasion were estimated at 4-16 million). Russia...has not yet entered the hangover phase of imperialism.
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  261. The really clever part is that they're not just debunking the Russian lies, they're doing it in a way that makes Russia look stupid. Not to mention, the timing of the raid into Russia cut short Russian smirking about Bakhmut.
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  262. The risks are that certain German politicians will lose the easy money from Russian gas.
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  263. Even apart from the barbarity of such an act, it makes no sense on a purely logical level. The moral high ground is a priceless weapon for Ukraine in this war, and intentional attacks would dry up support very quickly. Of course, the oligarchs are up to their necks in supporting Putin or lining up their own palace coup, and should not be counted as civilians.
    2
  264.  @ivantchakalski4102  Botski reported.
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  265.  @CountScarlioni  British people also know what it's like to live in a country under constant attack and threat from a fascist dictatorship.
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  266. Obvious concern trolling is obvious.
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  267. Well said. You can also tell them that the terrible budget of Liz Truss during her very brief run as Prime Minister cost us more than what we've sent to Ukraine.
    2
  268.  @rickmoore3730  If life seems jolly rotten, there's something you've forgotten.
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  269.  @marymarlow3646  "Look, we're never going to USE these things, they're just there to threaten people with. So how about we split this year's upkeep budget between us, and get a new villa each?"
    2
  270. ​ @geofwassell  How dare we hold the Tories to account on their callous and inept handling of the pandemic. How dare we demand justice for those who died needlessly. How dare we demand justice for the dodgy PPE contracts to the Oxford Chums that cost us billions. How dare we be repulsed by language like "they were going to die anyway".
    2
  271.  @geofwassell  To say that we can't hold our leaders to account because of a crisis is silly. There's always going to be a crisis somewhere. The pandemic showed systematic flaws within the government and massive incompetence among many people who still hold office, yet you think if those errors stay unexamined and uncorrected, then they'll deal with a new crisis better than that one? That's very naive. Also, there's a difference between "mistakes" and "malicious incompetence and cronyism".
    2
  272.  @geofwassell  We can do both, and to argue that corruption should be swept under the rug because of some vague "terrorism" threat that will never entirely be dealt with is...ultra convenient for the corrupt and those who wish to cover up that corruption.
    2
  273.  @VilkatisJanis  I think / hope that in the future, we'll have an international system for monitoring the health of a democracy, with clear rules for taking action to isolate and reform those who show signs of slipping into strongman worship and nationalism. We could all see the rot setting in in Russia, we could all see what Putin was doing, but the leaders plugged their ears because they didn't want to lose votes by eschewing cheap oil.
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  274.  @rickjames18  The problem is, the Trumplicans have never been the majority of their party--but they don't need to be, when the majority has routinely bent the knee to the worst elements of their fringe.
    2
  275.  @frankv.2124  Worth noting that the Siberian reinforcements were originally there to guard against a feared invasion by Japan. A single spy confirmed the Japanese had no intent of attacking, freeing up the troops. Funny how history can turn on such tiny things.
    2
  276. Here's how Russia works-conquer, sabre-rattle, THEN cry for peace. If anyone in the West rolls over and lets you keep some of what you stole, the war was a net success, and you can come back for the rest later. If botskis are calling for negotiations now, that means Russia fears losing more of their stolen land in the near future.
    2
  277. The reason is simple. Gazprom.
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  278.  @Pippie5555  That's why either Russia needs to be excised from the Security Council (I can think of another ex-USSR nation that's far better qualified) or the UN needs to be dismantled and rebuilt0--like the League, it may have simply outlived its value. We got too comfortable with Russia and China (and the US to a much lesser extent) using it to investigate and exonerate themselves.
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  279. There is. Donate whatever you can easily spare. Message your politicians. Shut down vatniks whenever you see them on social media.
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  280.  @irishcanuck9489  What if I told you that it's possible for a terrorist organisation to be evil, and also possible for the government of a colonising apartheid state to be evil too?
    2
  281. The Russians control the dam, and have for some time.
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  282.  @sharon_shaw  Like every Russian propaganda tactic, saturation is more important than anything. The aim is to give an impression to mainstream media that things aren't going well, as a stepping stone to attacking Western support.
    2
  283.  @mrq6270  Tis but a scratch.
    2
  284. And Hitler loved dogs. Prigozhin was entirely evil and actively worked to make the world a worse place. He got what he deserved, don't be charmed because he had slightly better PR.
    2
  285. Look at what they've done, and all sympathy for the orcs will quickly evaporate. They deserve nothing good.
    2
  286.  @Lorenz1973  Stalin called it "Creating Facts".
    2
  287. Vote, and mobilise everyone you know to vote.
    2
  288.  @zanizone3617  Just remember--just because something's pathetic doesn't mean it can't be dangerous.
    2
  289.  @seth1455  They always have been. It's genuinely impressive how they've been satirising and lampooning the Russians to make them look grotesque, while also getting small-scale stories of human interest and the innocent casualties of war out there to make sure they look better than the Russians (I'm not saying that's a BAD thing or that they aren't actually better than them, but it still needs to be communicated--compare it to Chechnya where interest was lacking because the West saw so little of the Russian atrocities). Right now, the Russian army does appear as a faceless horde of savage invaders worthy of Call of Duty (or CoD: Zombies), and their purely negative campaigning is having less and less effect. Volunteer movements, from aid drives to donors to informal anti-disinformation groups like NAFO make this feel more and more like a war we all have a stake in.
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  290. As they should. The message has gone out that against the biggest threat to Europe, German weapons and politicians cannot be relied upon. Cut those contracts, make the defence industry put pressure on the Quisling.
    2
  291. All of that could have started vastly earlier than it did. No excuses for foot-dragging.
    2
  292.  @MikeKayK  It's easy. Just take the brakes off, stop Scholzing around, and give Ukraine everything they need to obliterate the orc horde. It should have been there a year ago.
    2
  293. Take that logic one step further, and suggest to them that Russian now belongs to Mongolia, courtesy of the Golden Horde and its successor states ruling those regions for centuries.
    2
  294. I'm sure someone that looks like him would do it!
    2
  295. Pay no attention to what Russia says, but watch which laws they're passing.
    2
  296. God is welcome to step in and help to stop the modern face of evil any time that He feels like it. Till he gets off his arse, better to put faith in military hardware and battle strategies.
    2
  297. But they have the word "hypersonic" in them, which sounds scary and lets Russia claim to have at least one high-tech weapon.
    2
  298.  @dominicjohnson307  Nah, let's do what we should have done a year ago, and take the fight to the terrorists.
    2
  299. The exit from Afghanistan was scheduled and set in motion by the Trump administration, Biden merely followed through.
    2
  300. Remember that Russia thinks that Westerners will over-identify with the donated vehicles and get angry that they were "wasted". It's not just gloating, it's a very calculated strategy to attack war support. The problem isn't that they got destroyed, it's that Ukraine doesn't have hundreds more ready to go because we Scholzed around for too long respecting Russia.
    2
  301. Have you ever seen the Evil Dead movies, where an evil spirit takes over someone's body, turning them into a horrific, shambling parody of who they once were, dedicated only to spreading evil and misery for their own gratification?
    2
  302. It's the weakness of all dictatorships--nobody wants to be the one who gives the dictator bad news.
    2
  303.  @ayanye99  Defend itself against WHAT exactly? Seriously, what ongoing or threatened conflict is Germany involved in where a land invasion is a realistic possibility? Be super specific here about what is happening in Europe that's more urgent than the Russian savages at the door in Ukraine? Waiting eagerly for your answer.
    2
  304.  @rogerphelps9939  Much like giving astrophysicists and flat earthers equal airtime.
    2
  305.  @nian60  This will probably be a factor in demand for German tanks going down in the near future.
    2
  306. Remember that even many Trumplicans who support Ukraine still endorse QAnon, the stripping of reproductive rights from women, voter suppression and the systematic demonisation of LGBT+ people. And if their lunatic fringe looks like it can get votes, they'll all bend the knee again.
    2
  307. And it's not like Russia needs help with the former objective.
    2
  308. Ask them if, if their country had been invaded by an army of rapists, murderers and child thieves, how many million people they would be prepared to sacrifice.
    2
  309. They said that the applause for Stalin's speeches was so long because nobody wanted to be noticed as the first one to stop clapping.
    2
  310.  @janb3625  I came to know Bitchute as the leading platform for anti-vaxxer grifters trying to make sure people kept dying from Covid.
    2
  311.  @davidhardaker192  Remember how it started, ten "red lines" ago? Stop rolling over to blackmail.
    2
  312. Unpiloted tanks sitting in warehouses are very hard things to count. Very elusive and shy. You can't expect to just snap your fingers and have the military quartermasters give you a tally of them within hours at most OH WAIT OF COURSE YOU CAN.
    2
  313. They also attacked English ships during that voyage. As in, a fleet of trawlers. Which they mistook for Japanese warships. In the North Sea. The casualties were two British fishermen, and....two Russian sailors killed by friendly fire.
    2
  314. Not for much longer, it won't be. Germany has just shouted out to the world "Hey everyone! You can't count on us when you need our weapons!", and the world will react accordingly. Bad time to be a weapons manufacturer in Germany.
    2
  315.  @UkraineJames2000  It's a gambler who had a good run of luck, pushed things a little too far, and failed to walk away from the table, certain that the NEXT roll of the dice would make it all worthwhile.
    2
  316. Good that you're not saying that, because you'd be totally and utterly wrong.
    2
  317. It's both. Horrifying to imagine what it's like for them...but hard to sympathise if you read even a little about the sickening things they've done.
    2
  318. HOLD IT!
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  319.  @ichtozavuzovsky8370  Communism tends to work best in small communities where everyone knows, or knows of, each other and they can see for themselves who needs support the most.
    2
  320. Also bear in mind, this is Russia's version of attacking supply lines. They're working hard to create a narrative of Western weapons being "wasted", to try and attack further supplies of weapons and vehicles.
    1
  321. The entire world dodged a bullet when Putin's useful idiot was voted out of the White House.
    1
  322. How many of them cheered for Putin, and how many still support his wars of genocide? Null sympathy for orcs.
    1
  323. Trump happened, aka "Putin's useful idiot".
    1
  324. Missiles don't just flash out of existence when they get hit. Other fires were caused by falling debris, and a bus was set ablaze.
    1
  325.  @JakeBroe  For me, this reminds me of the situation in the 1930's. We were about 20 years out from a different war, one which was sold as a glorious defence of freedom, but which turned out to be a morally murky quagmire that didn't really produce anything except body bags. Everyone was disillusioned and thoroughly sick of war, so when someone else started getting belligerent, everyone was very eager to appease, see both sides of the story, not be seen as another warmonger, etc.
    1
  326. Russia has a powerful anti-tank weapon, they call it the "Scholz".
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  327. 3: Gazprom shares.
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  328. The situation is as escalated as it can get. The posturing and sabre-rattling is designed to produce fear and appeasement. Give them what they need, and who cares what the squalling babies in Moscow threaten?
    1
  329. ​ @Snugggg  Get ready to have some Daily Mail fantasy regurgitated thoughtlessly in your direction. Brexiteers are living proof that it's much easier to fool someone than to get them to acknowledge they've been fooled.
    1
  330. I think it comes from the same people who shriek about NASA getting too much money--they hear "million" or "billion", and don't understand the truly titanic scales that global economies, especially the US, operate on.
    1
  331.  @robertokandal  Botski trash reported.
    1
  332.  @marcellogenesi6390  Because Russia controls the dam, because they bragged about mining it, because they bragged about blowing it up, because State TV has been crowing about their plans to destroy infrastructure and force Ukranians to go without power, becaus Russia has a long and vile history of scorched earth tactics that hurt them as much as the enemy. Next question, you silly little botski? Oh, and if you can show evidence for your claim about the pipeline than the Russian ships sniffing around it before the blast, do please share it. But you won't. Fingers crossed your draft papers arrive real soon.
    1
  333. "'Ere! He says he's not dead!" "He will be soon. He's very ill." "I'm getting better!"
    1
  334.  @jonson856  No "cultural" about it. It is literal unqualified genocide, as defined in law.
    1
  335. She's not that far off from many Westerners either. Political apathy and a jaded attitude of "they're all as bad as each other" has become dangerously fashionable, and that's a process fully encouraged by the fringe--the more that mainstream voters switch off, the more a small but dedicated voting base can do for you.
    1
  336. Thing is, it's not even a "tax dollar" yet. Per person, the cost is measured in cents, and that's before deducting the saved cost of decomissioning and dismantling all the old hardware that's being sent.
    1
  337. Let's hope it's the trigger for revolts, and that Russian people aren't too drunk with their cult of martyrdom.
    1
  338. "If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make the case for the devil." --Winstn Churchill.
    1
  339.  @bobjohnbowles  The EIC were as close as we've ever come in history to a cyberpunk megacorporation.
    1
  340. [citation needed]
    1
  341. The UN is that place where dictators block investigations into themselves. It's as obsolete now as the League was.
    1
  342. It's also about as useful and functional as modern Twitter.
    1
  343. Any involvement anywhere would be ideal.
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  344. Scholz has had ELEVEN months to be ready, and filled that time with delays, foot-dragging, stalling and appeasement of the genocidal madman to the East. Not to mention, he's still blocking other countries from sending their own tanks.
    1
  345. Same here, now. The BBC has a really good podcast, but their swallowing of the Russian disinfo after the dam was blown was a very shameful thing to see.
    1
  346.  @rodsalvage7121  Their Ukrainecast podcast is really good, and doesn't spare anything on the horrors of what the Russians are doing. But they really drop the ball in giving Russian statements any credibility--they are obliged to be neutral, but after a certain point it's like giving equal time to geophysicists and flat earthers.
    1
  347. Air defence systems and rampant inaccuracy. Next question?
    1
  348. The most important election in American history is coming up in less than a year. Vote, and mobilise everyone you know to vote. If the Trumplicans win, you probably won't ever get another election. Trump has been very frank about his dictatorial ambitions.
    1
  349. Russia does not have Queen Elsa on speed dial, despite their mythmaking. Winter favours whoever is better prepared for winter, and it only worked against Barbarossa because the invasion was launched later in the year than originally planned and because supply lines were not strong enough.
    1
  350.  @Apollonos  Just a reminder to every that calling someone a Nazi warrants a hate speech report. Let's work together and deplatform this botski, and hopefully get them drafted!
    1
  351.  @safeandeffectivelol  Didn't you lot used to claim it was 14K? You took an already absurd number with null proof when talking about the Kremlin-funded astrotruf insurrection and Russian "little green men" there illegally to false flag, and arbitrarily increased it by 8K. Thankfully, your use of the N-word makes it a hate speech report,
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  352.  @ontario1411  Hate speech reported, may you soon be drafted.
    1
  353. If we'd been getting tanks and jets to Ukraine this time last year rather than Scholzing around, cluster bombs might not have been necessary. Right now? Ukraine should use whatever orc-slaying weapons it wishes. Russia can go home tomorrow, and must suffer until they make that choice.
    1
  354. There's no country that doesn't have skeletons in the closet. But no part of a nation's history is ever justification for a war of genocide.
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  355.  @occamraiser  Worth noting that forced reeducation of children to erase the culture they were born with is one of the types of genocide.
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  356.  @octavianpopescu4776  Remember that Brexit had the support of barely half the country, and that was before the Russian interference came to light, and it became clear what an absolute pig's ear the Tories would make of it. The gammon who voted for it are slowly realising that imposing sanctions on yourself wasn't a good idea.
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  357.  @BramBREAKDOWN  Article Five stands ready' the goblin of the Kremlin never attacks countries with allies. The opinions of Russian savages no longer matter.
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  358.  @polarvortex3294  There already has been a full accounting, as you know perfectly well. Shoo, little botski boy.
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  359.  @polarvortex3294  OK, let's deploy some facts to counter that maggat drivel. The pullout from Afghanistan was Trump's doing. Turump blackmailed Ukraine for dirt on his rivals, he had secret meetings with Putin, he called Putin's invasion genius, he threatened to pull the US out of NATO. Trump is a Russian asset / useful idiot, and Johnson is clearly demonstrating where the maggat loyalties lie.
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  360.  @murphy7801  Russia tells the far right they're heroically fighting for macho family and religious values against a disgusting tide of tolerance and not murdering LGBT+ people on sight. They tell the left they're the victims, just protecting themselves against the eeeeeevil US and they're still kinda communist. Lies tailored for every audience. Incidentally, the actual cost per American is around 80 cents.
    1
  361. There are people suffering severely in the UK from crippled public services, the massive Brexit botch and rampant injustice and government cronyism. But the proper question to ask is why we don't purge the Tories from office, properly tax the rich, and help everyone here and in Ukraine.
    1
  362.  @Digmen1  You'd think Germans aged 50+ would vividly remember how it feels to live under the Russian boot.
    1
  363.  @vaevictis6990  No, Israelis cut off water and power to babies.
    1
  364.  @dedrickbroussard9797  I agree. Also, what Israel has been doing to the Palestinians trapped in the world's biggest concentration camp is evil AS WELL. The difference is that one set of evildoers has the West cheering them on as they steadily inch closer to genocide.
    1
  365. Just remember to vote against the Putin-funded Republicans.
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  366.  @izak5356  We saw the people of Iran take to the streets en masse to protest their regime. Russians fled, or bent the knee to Putin. Every atrocity in Ukraine has been committed by "ordinary Russians".
    1
  367.  @nikaley  Thing is, it obviously wasn't any sort of humanitarian consideration--Germany sent Leopards to Indonesia in 2013--it had much more to do with how entangled German politicians are with Russia and their cheap gas.
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  368.  @deformiertergolfball4847  Germany is like the antagonist in an anime series who gets defeated in the first season, has a redemption arc through the second season, and becomes one of the good guys in the third season.
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  369.  @MrJaldal  Oh, you mean the overthrow of the Putinpuppet who murdered and disappeared peaceful protesters? And I can't imagine why Russia's neighbours started rushing to join NATO.
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  370. Russia is what many Republicans want the US to be like. Managed democracy, a tame state religion, corporate oligarchs given license to plunder, and "traditional" homophobic and misogynist values.
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  371. I'm pretty sure Putin didn't do all of this single-handedly. A lot of Russians are complicit.
    1
  372. It's the Big Lie theory--make the lie so bare-faced and outrageous that nobody has a rebuttal for it, and it might convince people who don't know much about the topic (they're speaking with such confidence it must be true, right?) Mixed in with a sprinkle of Goebbel's maxim of always accusing the enemy of whatever you're guilty of.
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  373. Too servile and cowardly.
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  374. It's pretty simple. Bomb random things, then claim whatever you hit was actually a military target all along.
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  375.  @juliec5309  In fairness, it was spelt with a "V", as was common at the time. Maybe that confused him?
    1
  376. He knows, he absolutely knows. He just has his orders.
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  377. Moscow Money, that's why.
    1
  378. [citation needed]
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  379.  @0816M3RC  Who voted the current government of Israel (and their policies of collective punishment, land theft and colonisation) into power?
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  380.  @RantTheRetort  If we're whatabouting, how did the USSR do in Afghanistan?
    1
  381.  @murphy7801  And when they're not, that's NOT a result of the Russians being economic juggernauts that we can't do without, it's the callousness of the right-wing posh-boy government we're saddled with for up to two years more.
    1
  382. Take nothing for granted. Vote, and mobilise everyone you know to vote.
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  383.  @katiehettinger7857  Thing is, the conscripts who flung themselves into the rape and murder party....the torturers...the child stealers....or just the ones who are cheerleading Putin right now....they are all "ordinary Russian people", who will claim they were one of the good ones when the war is done (like how post-WW2, everyone claimed to have been in the resistance and never collaborated). That's something that will have to be borne in mind when dealing with any people who currently live in Russia, in the future.
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  384. He believed that "she told me she was eighteen".
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  385.  @molotovribbentrop2839  "First, they came for the Chechnyans...."
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  386.  @molotovribbentrop2839  "Then they came for the Georgians...."
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  387.  @TmackSD184  Bear in mind that there's no shortage of Western people who believe ludicrous things, and the disinformation is MUCH less ubiquitous for them than it is for Russians. You'd be surprised how malleable your mind can be if everyone around you is pushing a certain narrative.
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  388. The latter act is, quite literally, genocide.
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  389. Remember to vote against the US' Party of Putin, and mobilise everyone you know to vote. Next year will determine if American goes fascist.
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  390. It's easy if you realise that the vision of America that the Republicans are pushing towards right this minute would look a lot like Russia. Strongman president-for-life who runs a cult of personality around himself, nationalism and constant statements about needing to defend the borders against the Angle-Saxons / Mexicans, a tame population who never votes in an inconvenient way and who are kept tame with police brutality, one ethnic group favoured over the others, a state religion that approves whatever the government is doing, a 24/7 media diet of biased outrage, the super-rich with free reign to stuff their pockets in return for political support...oh, and rabid hate of LGBT+ people. You can see the early stages of every single one of those traits if you look at the Republican fringe.
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  391. Nothing happened. He was always a vile failed human, he's just a failed human who was on the right side of history exactly one time.
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  392.  @davidfairless1028  Botski trash reported. May you soon be drafted.
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  393. Botski reported. May you soon be drafted.
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  394. It's a contrast to the USSR, which made very few overt nuclear threats--they understood the gravity of that sort of threat, and knew they could compete in terms of conventional threats without needing to make the ultimate threat every time something happened they didn't like. It underlines the difference between an actual super power and the current mob of gangsters.
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  395. Botski reported. May you soon be drafted.
    1
  396. BUT WHAT ABOUT--
    1
  397. Spoiler warning: Putin wins with 110% of the vote.
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  398.  @tarunarya1780  Musk did not help at his own cost, he stole the credit for government subsidised aid. Stealing credit is the one and only thing Musk has any talent for.
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  399.  @universeisundernoobligatio3283  Look up who actually paid for that. Wasn't Elmo.
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  400.  @qadirtimerghazin  No it was not. Musk did not found SpaceX and if you look up the testimonies of former employees, his main contribution is being a mascot to get the techbros excited, while everyone else tries to work around his silly little bouts of ego.
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  401. Dictators tend to be invulnerable and untouchable...until, very suddenly, they're not.
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  402.  @VVV85650  Botski reported, may you soon be drafted.
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  403. Stop victim blaming.
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  404. Got a source for any of those rumours? If not, what is presented without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
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  405. Bear in mind that Trump is a Russian asset / useful idiot who promised his good buddy he'd pull the US out of NATO. The issues are very closely interlinked, especially when you've got Russian state media openly cheering for Trump because they think he can plunge the US into civil war.
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  406. Much like how a shield doesn't need to outpace an arrow to stop it.
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  407. This is how Russian disinfo works. They don't want you to believe what they're saying, they want you to be confused and believe nothing.
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  408. There was a time once before when America was asked to assist a country standing alone against a fascist invader, and they chose to do the right thing, despite isolationist and fascist sympathising elements within government. Ukraine has suffered more than the UK did in WW2--we never had our cities occupied, our civilians murdered and raped, or our children dragged away for forced adoption.
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  409.  @TJefferson8  I find it quite funny how you don't notice the contradiction in your statement. Climate change is already driving people from areas that are becoming arid, flooded or otherwise unusable and turning them into...guess what? Immigrants. You provide an excellent case study about why the average voter should never be trusted with such things, but you probably don't see the irony through the Faux News-induced red haze
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  410. Remember that they used the same tactic when they blew the dam and when their admiral was killed, and it worked. They just need to deny Ukraine a clear victory in the public eye by spreading denial and confusion.
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  411. Doubtful. Trump and many other of his cult are either bought and paid for assets, or useful idiots.
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  412. Remember to pressure your representatives, donate whatever you can spare and shut down vatniks and tankies wherever you see them.
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  413.  @bennykoh  We're looking more at how he blackmailed Ukraine when they refused to give him dirt on his rivals, offered to pull the US out of NATO, and by his own admission trusted Putin more than the CIA. When the coup attempt failed, we narrowly avoided a very dark future.
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  414.  @paulomora5942  Clue: You don't need to equal the speed of a missile (especially a very unmanoueverable missile) if you're in front of it. You're saying that an arrow is faster than a guy with a shield, thus it's impossible for the shield to stop an arrow.
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  415. Boring, predictable bothsides. Also, the only ones I've ever seen talking about the Ghost of Kiev are Russian botskis.
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  416.  @princeindoorandoutdoorplan3003  Oh, you mean the astroturf Kremlin-funded insurrection, along with the actual self-confessed Russian "little green men" there to false flag? Also, the war criminals who murdered the passengers on a civilian airliner, lest we forget.
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  417. The thing that makes Russia truly unique is that....they truly are dedicated to evil douchebaggery for its own sake. It doesn't matter if their country sucks, if they can degrade others. There's no aspirations or higher principles, only the aping of past Russian powers. There is no positive, friendly relations with other countries, only puppet rulers, threats, blackmail and--at best--dictators giving each other hollow smiles and assurances, with the knives ready to come out at a moment's notice. All wrapped up in unattractive, whiny rhetoric of being the eternal victim and being utterly blind to how they could get much of what they want through simply letting the paranoia and aggression ebb and dealing with the world as equals.
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  418.  @divermike8943  A fake popular ("grassroots") movement. In this case, pretending that the insurgents were Ukranian rather than self-confessed Russian instigators.
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  419.  @macmcleod1188  Remember the Norweigans and Irish!
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  420.  @KL-nj7vi  The problem is that the Republicans might make noise about their crazies, but very reliably bend the knee to them whenever they gain some popular support.
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  421. Remember that it's not just "territory", it's millions of innocent people who would be left to the mercy of Putin's army of murderers and rapists. Millions of Ukranians would lose their family and friends forever if any land is ceded to the orcs.
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  422. Far too much foot-dragging. Why has Russia not yet been declared a state sponsor of terrorism?
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  423.  @daniell1483  Russia was very good at always being the second biggest problem, and at painting themselves as a "necessary evil".
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  424.  @peetky8645  Anyone who is anti-war should want Russia excised from Ukraine by the quickest route possible, and measures taken to make sure Russia will not go on an empire building spree again for at least a century. Anyone who uses "anti-war" as a cover for appeasement (or collaboration, in the case of Trumplicans) is a useful idiot at best and actively, malignantly evil and anti-democratic at worst. And if a foreign power was engaged in an active campaign of genocide, torture, rape, murder and child kidnapping against your people, in between indiscriminately shelling your home....you would join the fight. Maybe not as a combatant, but you would contribute, on account of being a human.
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  425. Or in the case of Russia, morale is a force divider.
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  426.  @Acacontrols  Learn some pattern recognition. We'll wait for you.
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  427. It's a case of "the criminal thinks everyone is crooked".
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  428.  @rffromusa8319  It's what Russia does. Why do you think there are so many Russian populations in neighbouring countries? Stalin spoke of "Creating Facts", and making other nations de facto Russian through genocide and resettling. Kind of like China and Tibet.
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  429.  @clyde15  We wasted months Scholzing around while the tanks sat in storage, being maintained with taxpayer money. Even after Putin demonstrated that he'll squawk escalation about every form of aid and then do nothing. Wallace is a shameful cretin--I'd dearly love to see how him talk face to face with a Ukranian who suffered due to the west dragging their feet and tell them they ought to be more grateful. On behalf of the UK, I apologise for that narcissistic moron. Give Ukraine every last thing they need to slay the orcs and restore their borders, then immediately lock in NATO membership. That's how the war ends, and all that changes is how many innocents die before we do what we should have been doing a year ago. No more excuses.
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  430.  @clyde15  Sounds like you're saying we should have started the process this time last year.
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  431. It's like how sending tanks would have no effect on the war whatsoever, but would still be an escalation for some reason.
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  432.  @Einzeilhandery  Botski reported, may you soon be drafted.
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  433.  @kristinehansen4665  It's far more civilised to flip a switch and cut power to a hospital, or water to people you don't have to look at. And the West will pretend they don't see it, and that only one side is doing evil things.
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  434.  @MichaelPetek  The sad thing is, we haven't been able to RELY on the US since 2016. Yes, it's really nice when they are in a sane period like now, but Trump showed that America can never be relied on for more than 4 years at a time not to go bug-eating crazy.
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  435. In a way, things are better. Right now, we're seeing boils bursting--it's a nasty sight, but much better than if they continue to swell and build up poison.
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  436. Remember when we went to Iraq and deposed Saddam Hussein for trying to threaten people with WMD's, on far more tentative evidence?
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  437.  @petersinclair3997  Almost certainly. Here's the difference--we're not currently invading Canada, Jamaica or India and slaughtering their people based on historic claims. We can admit that our age of Empire was a bad thing. Russia fails to do this, and glorifies the time when they had other nations under their boot.
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  438.  @moxie591  "If the United States had not helped us, we would not have won the war ... One-on-one against Hitler's Germany, we would not have withstood its onslaught and would have lost the war. No one talks about this officially, and Stalin never, I think, left any written traces of his opinion, but I can say that he expressed this view several times in conversations with me." --Nikita Kruschev
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  439.  @yaya_is_real  "Whataboutism" is a Soviet-pioneered propaganda technique, whereas cricitisms are not answered directly, but distracted from by pointing out something that somebody else did. Whether the counter-accusation is actually relevant or stands up to criticism is not important, the intent is only to divert the attention of the audience.
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  440.  @yaya_is_real  Understand that when I call you a bot or paid troll farmer, I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt. Someone who simps for Russian voluntarily is a far more vile creature.
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  441. Remember to vote him out. We don't need any of Putin's People in power in Europe.
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  442. I think they mean naval. Not that that's a very scary threat, when you know their history: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Mdi_Fh9_Ag&t=1s
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  443. It's very Russian. If you've done anything bad at any point during the history of your nation, you can't criticise Russia now. They have the absolute bleakest view of human nature you can image--which again, says a lot about what living in Russian culture does to you.
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  444.  @BTinSF  The problem is, there's no punishments for knowingly employing illegal immigrants. So they get used as virtual slave labour with no rights, and then get thrown to the wolves when they become inconvenient.
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  445. And while we're waiting, Ukranians are being murdered, raped, tortured and kidnapped by the orc horde. More every day. Patience has run dry.
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  446.  @gregluker6875  But a related question is--would you launch a nuclear missile if it had, say, a 50% chance of failing to launch-or even worse, blowing up in the silo?
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  447. "Look, we're never going to USE these things, right? They're just there to threaten people with. So how about we skip the upkeep for this year, and split the money between us?"
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  448. You may as well say it's the Tsars 3.0. The imperial imperative has been pretty consistent from way before the USSR came to be.
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  449. It's interesting to note how the Botski Brigade have gone into absolute OVERDRIVE over the failure of the wonder missiles / the Patriot launcher being damaged. Perhaps their handlers are aware of how it defangs Russia's nuclear threats if the hypersonic missiles are shown to be reliably beatable.
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  450. Yes, hence why you get the rhetoric about Russia never losing / never having attacked anyone. Like how WW2 only started after Hitler invaded the USSR.
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  451.  @julianmorrisco  Yeah....I remember in the early 2000's when the future of space exploration felt very uncertain and it was refreshing to see private citizens who were prepared to get us into space and get some of our eggs out of the single basket they were in. But now? A Mars colony run by Musk would end up like the one in "Total Recall", with oxygen being shut off because a colonist said something mean about him on Spacebook. 😀
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  452.  @arturobianco848  Musk is proof that they can. Just be born as an apartheid nepo baby, make one or two good / lucky investment and once you've got enough of a cult of personality running, just fail upwards.
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  453.  @F.R.E.D.D2986  The "problem" is that the Conservatives have wrecked the country and have nothing to offer. So they've become Diet Coke Trump, and started beating the culture war drum to motivate their "not a racist but" voting base, trying to persuade us that five Albanians in a boat is worse than the systematic looting of public services to funnel money to their Oxford chums. The demonising of migrants is 100% a measure to keep their own failures out of the headlines and keep their noses in the trough.
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  454. What if I told you that both Hamas and Israel have been doing evil things? Palestinians have been stuffed into the biggest concentration camp in the world, and starved of water, food and power in illegal collective punishments, while their land is steadily colonised in defiance of Israel's own agreements. This will end with far more Palestinian civilians dead than Israeli ones, now that Israel have been given carte blanche to engage in an orgy of violence. Because that's how it always ends--Israeli dead prompts outrage and sympathy, Palestinian dead get a shrug and "Eh, they were probably terrorists anyway."
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  455.  @dominicjohnson307  Neutrality always aids the aggressor. At least have the guts to admit you're a vatnik.
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  456. Pity.
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  457.  @larsord9139  No human is illegal.
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  458. Remember that Call of Duty game where Russia invaded the US?
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  459.  @BVasquezp  Gazprom.
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  460. NATO made no such agreement, that's a Russian fabrication. The fact that you're even uncertain about it should be a reminder of how Russia pushes talking points into the mainstream through weight of repetition.
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  461.  @bourbonstansell8823  Again: Tell me how you think F16's, Abrams or HIMARS would help fight a wildfire. While you're there, tell me why the 5% of the US defence budget that is fighting fascism and protecting innocent people from an army of murderers and rapists (without risking the life of a single serving US soldier) should be cut before hundreds of other wasteful pork barrel projects. You will not answer either of those questions, because you do not have an answer for either of them and you're trying to deflect from that lack of an answer with overblown e-rage and an attack-attack-attack strategy.
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  462.  @bourbonstansell8823  What ground have they lost, then? Russia is the one whose defence lines are cracking and whose territorial gains are being ground away.
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  463. Silence is complicity.
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  464. Look up the things those conscripts have done. That'll quickly quash any traces of sympathy.
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  465.  @ThorIsBoss  The actual situation is one evil government vs another evil government, with innocent people being trampled by both of them.
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  466. Musk has used Twitter to shadowban discussion of the war in Ukraine, and ever since the """""free speech"""""" measures he put in, the number of Russian trolls and bots on there has skyrocketed. Russian asset or useful idiot, pick one.
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  467. Said by who? Cite your sources.
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  468.  @war-painter  If it did, they'd just do what the Conservatives in the UK did and somehow blame THAT on the EU too.
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  469. Remember: These tanks are utterly useless, will be effortlessly destroyed, and will have no effect on the battle. Also, sending them will be considered an escalation.
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  470.  @Felix-ve9hs  How long do you think the invasion would last if the orcs collectively said "Hell no, we're going home."? They want to be there at the rape and murder party, or at least enough of them do to make it the same result in practice. Russia bought this upon itself, every time they shrugged and said they "weren't interested in politics" or drank the ethno-nationalist kool-aid. Null sympathy.
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  471.  @benahaus  How about voting for the party that isn't a fanatic cult of Russia-loving traitors and insurrectionists?
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  472. Putin stalls out the war, and uses hybrid war and useful idiots installed in places of power to cut aid. Trump gets back into the White House and pulls the US out of NATO, as promised. We get a frozen conflict and a Russian Peace (ie, one that lasts till Russia decides to come back for the rest), That's how Russia wins.
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  473.  @fromgermany271  Thing is, a lot of ordinary Russians are showing a deep and sickening capacity for evil, whether that's the conscripts who are enjoying their rape / murder / torture party, or the people back home who whoop and cheer for genocide. Not all, nowhere near all, but enough to poison the reputation of "ordinary Russians".
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  474. Whenever Russia cries for peace, that means they fear losing what they stole. Russia wants a peace where they can freeze the conflict and come back for the rest later, like in Chechnya.
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  475. Kennedy is a professional grifter. He milked the anti-vaxxer industry for money a few years ago, now he's moved on to Russian paymasters. He has no ideals, he's just a grifter.
    1
  476.  @hughjazz64  A good way to assess the vacuousness of a political statement is--can you seriously imagine them saying the opposite? "I hate the middle class and want more wars."
    1
  477. Honestly, being a "lifelong" anything is antithetical to democracy. At each election, you should be changing your vote to align with whoever appeals most to you. If that's from the same party every time, that's fine, but the important thing is to be informed about whether they're actually representing your interests in terms of what they're actually doing.
    1
  478.  @playedout148  Russia is what they want the US to be. Unrestricted kleptocratic capitalism where the billionaires are free to loot and exploit. A tame state religion that approves of whatever they do. Managed elections with the threat of violence always there to make sure people vote the right way. The stripping of the rights of women to become baby factories. The perseuction of LGBT+ people as a handy scapegoat in a hazy and never-ending campaign against "immorality" as a tool of state control. A weaponised judiciary that goes after anyone the Supreme Leader doesn't like.
    1
  479. I sometimes think that this is like WW2 in another way--like then, we're 20-ish years out from another war, one sold as a glorious defence of freedom but turning out to be a bloody quagmire that nobody really won and which produced nothing except bodies and instability. So everyone becomes a bit cynical of their own governments and very anti-war. When a dictator rises, people are cynical by the propaganda of the last war, and slow to realise that maybe this guy actually is as bad as people say.
    1
  480.  @outdoorsandmuchmore  Weapons that are preventing genocide.
    1
  481. After Trump exhausted his use, Putin moved on to the next Useful Idiot.
    1
  482. Remember to adjust for gerrymandering and the voter suppression measures the Trumplicans specialise in.
    1
  483.  @drnantz  No, because Trump would have pulled the US out of NATO, and sold Ukraine down the river as a favour to his good buddy / campaign financier Putin.
    1
  484. When a botski like you cries for peace, Russia fears losing what it stole.
    1
  485.  @juliec5309  American political attitudes are why I support the continuation of the royal family in the UK. Having the "symbol of the country" be people with little political power cuts down on the risk of a politician building up a cult of personality.
    1
  486.  @allisonmarlow184  Vote, and mobilise everyone you know to vote.
    1
  487. Reconciliation requires a recognition that one party did something wrong, and honest effort to heal the damage, and Russia now seems utterly incapable of that, instead retreating into nationalistic fantasies. I'd be amazed if Russia is forgiven within the next century. Russia as it is now deserves to be economically broken, demilitarised and caged until its demographic crisis destroys it.
    1
  488.  @JohnDoe-uw9nq  Easy. If nuclear blackmail is seen to work, the doors to Europe are thrown open, since Putin knows that if he threatens nukes, he gets what he wants. Also, a new age of proliferation begins as every tinpot dictator gets the message that nukes let you push around your neighbours with impunity.
    1
  489. Palestinians are useful to them as a propaganda tool, and that's about it.
    1
  490.  @worldoftancraft  No, we name your blather for what it is, a crude and obvious attempt at DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim / Offender). Botski reported, may you soon be drafted.
    1
  491.  @cathjj840 BUT WHAT ABOUT--
    1
  492.  @tafdiz  It's genuinely hard to imagine any warlord being more irresponsible than the people who control the nuclear weapons RIGHT NOW.
    1
  493.  @RyanG0899  No, botski. that's the fascist state engaged in empire-building. Botski reported.
    1
  494. Organise, protest, do whatever you can manage. You've got one of Putin's People in high office, that's a very dangerous thing for your country.
    1
  495. You've sat and watched for 8+ years as your party has degenerated into a fawning Nazi-humping conspiracy-theorist cult of personality with nothing to offer voters except a culture war. What on earth about their conduct says they respect freedom and human rights? Stripping the reproductive rights of millions of Americans via an unelected junta? Waging all-out war against transgender people? Launching an attack on the Capitol?
    1
  496. Then they can just free up other countries, if Germany is choosing cowardly appeasement. But the Putin Puppet chose not to.
    1
  497.  @connectwithyourdeck  Let's oppose Russia by sending equipment to the frontline of Europe's war with Russia? Crazy idea, I know.
    1
  498.  @connectwithyourdeck  Lack of argument noted, concession accepted.
    1
  499. Did you know the term "mainstream media", which was biased and not giving you the whole truth, was pioneered by Josef Goebbels? If you could give an example, and proof that nobody's covering it, that'd be great, but I think it's more likely that whatever you think they "won't cover" is an insubstantial conspiracy theory or piece of Russian / Trumplican propaganda.
    1
  500. Russia can't win (they've already committed demographic suicide), but Ukraine can lose--in the sense that they give up a chunk of their country and millions of people, and a frozen conflict means they can't join NATO and are helpless against the next invasion. Especially if enough Useful Idiots are installed in the West.
    1
  501.  @NothingButSilicone  I'm disappointed nobody else called out that bit of homophobic hate you snuck into the middle of that otherwise reasonable-sounding paragraph. A clear sign we need to put more effort into shaming hatemongers like yourself and push them back into the shadows. You are a bigot, and a bad person. Fix your heart.
    1
  502. "On the plus side, Russian troops launched a highly successful raid and occupation behind enemy lines...just not OUR Russian troops."
    1
  503. As we saw in Chechnya, a Russian peace means "time to rearm and come back for the rest".
    1
  504.  @westboyles5859  Side that held the dam and planted bombs there, and announced their intention on state TV to blow it up. Nice and simple for you.
    1
  505.  @malbasedvalentine3210  Botski reported. May you soon be drafted.
    1
  506. The phrase is "useful idiot".
    1
  507. China's stance is kind of like when your friend gets drunk and picks a fight with the toughest guy in the bar. You want to break it up without him losing face, but you're not so invested you're actually going to get beaten up along with him.
    1
  508.  @Joy-fc6kg  You can write to your representatives, underlining your support for Ukraine. The Russians are bankrolling far-right groups (including the Trumplicans in America) with the aim of undermining internanational support for Ukraine, and it needs pushback.
    1
  509. Obvious concern trolling is obvious.
    1
  510. Hard to believe the alternative was worse, but important to remember it.
    1
  511.  @khiem1939  No, they had an old launch site with no weapons there.
    1
  512. ​ @speurtighearnamacterik8230  There certainly, unquestionably are lefties who are pro-Putin. Five minutes on Twitter will show you numerous examples of "tankies", who cheer for Russia. Their motives are generally some combination of a) Supporting whichever side the US is not on because of "imperialism" while ignoring Russia's long history of empire building and genocide, b) having overdosed on Kremlin-produced conspiracy juice about proxy wars and Ukraine being a Nazi state led by a Jew, c) somehow believing Russia is still Communist rather than a hyper-capitalist mafia state or d) Being "peace at any price" appeasers who hate war so much they think Ukraine should just give Russia what they want. Again, this is super easy to find. Look up George Galloway for a start, he's a fairly prominent one. Swallow your pride, accept that you're wrong on this one, and grow as a person.
    1
  513. Have look at what the conspiracy fringe...or your average Trump voter...believes. And these people live in a society where they can freely access opposing viewpoints and verifiable explanations of why they're wrong. Now imagine what it's like when every school, and every media channel is also promoting that conspiracy theory and anyone who might contradict it is keeping quiet because they can't be sure if you'll report them to the secret police.
    1
  514. It's a long-term win if they can keep a frozen conflict going to prevent NATO membership and come back later.
    1
  515. If it was the case, it was a very happy accident that they ended up in the enclaves of the oligarchs.
    1
  516. He's making the US look very bad. Every country is starting to wonder--if Russia or China goes for them, will the US help? Or will a useful idiot in the right place stall aid? And not just America's allies--the Chinese are taking notes about how easy it will be to block support to Taiwan.
    1
  517. Way to spit on Mandela's grave,
    1
  518.  @BoB10  The Brits, or the Tories? Most British people loathe the latter group just as much as you do.
    1
  519.  @SerendipityChild  I condemn both sides, the terrorists and the aparthied state. Will your next question be to ask if I've stopped beating my wife yet? 😀 You seem to be suffering from the delusion that every conflict must have a clear cut good guy and bad guy. Some do (the defence of Ukraine from fascist invaders, for example), and others do not.
    1
  520. Russia has invaded it's neighbors 7 times since Putin came to power. Each time he snatches some land and then is suddenly all about peace and "ready to negotiate". A short while later, he picks up where he left off. He counts on useful idiots in the West rolling over in the name of peace when he barks threats loudly enough.
    1
  521. Oh, and peace will come. Once Russia has left all the land it stole, is caged behind a wall of NATO, and all stolen Ukranians have been returned.
    1
  522. "Mr Putin, is it true that you're awesome and macho and super cool and have a huge wang?"
    1
  523.  @charlesburgoyne-probyn6044  Botski reported, may you soon be drafted.
    1
  524. It's not absurd, it's a logical result of Russia's hybrid war strategy.
    1
  525.  @coops1992  And that it was a military target. Same script every single time.
    1
  526.  @timspiker  Botski reported, may you soon be drafted.
    1
  527. The fourth point is exactly why Russia has been looting museums.
    1
  528. Which is meaningless so long as dictators can use the veto to pardon themselves. Time to defund the UN.
    1
  529. I mean, that really got out of hand.
    1
  530. Ask the Ukranian civilians being murdered by Ruzzian terrorist attacks if they're worried about escalation. It doesn't get more escalated than it is right now. Send the tanks. End the war. Break the army of rapists and murderers.
    1
  531.  @natalieturko4808  Should I have put a smiley face after that? I was pointing out the absurdity of Russian propaganda, where every weapon provided to Ukraine is somehow both entirely useless and an unforgivable escalation.
    1
  532.  @sqweege6432  It was a sarcastic parody of Russia's two-faced propaganda where "useless" weapons are somehow also an escalation.
    1
  533.  @ChucksSEADnDEAD  Little wonder, given the entirely straight-faced claims the botski brigade makes. I'll deploy more smilies next time. :-)
    1
  534.  @geretstarseeker453  Point of order, there's no evidence Catherine engaged in beastiality or any other bizarre sexual practices. She died in the bathroom, and the horse rumours were spread after her death by misogynistic political opponents who wanted to smear her legacy.
    1
  535. One thing we got very wrong in pop culture portrayals of Russian soldiers was believing that a climate of unsparing hardship and brutality produced superior soldiers, brave and pitiless killers. When in reality, it produces selfish, undisciplined and traumatised war criminals who are kind of crap in an actual fight.
    1
  536. Can you explain why you think modern Russia is communist, rather than a hyper-capitalist dystopia?
    1
  537. Careful you don't cut yourself on all that !!!EDGE!!!, you super-cool atheist, you. Meanwhile, in the real world, very few conflicts are entirely religious in nature. If everyone in Israel or Gaza became an atheist tomorrow, the conflict would continue along the lines of ethnic hatreds, historical grievances and revenge for the last act of revenge.
    1
  538. Heck, Mongolia could lay claim to a big chunk of Russia if we go back far enough. Look up what they controlled at the height of the Golden Horde.
    1
  539. The money going to Ukraine is 5% of the defence budget. Botski I name thee, now crawl off back to your handlers in Moscow. Fingers crossed you get drafted nice and quick.
    1
  540.  @itsallminor6133  Oh dear, you were doing so well, but then you said "zelenksy regime" and revealed yourself as a botski posting from a Moscow troll farm. Report lodged, may you soon be drafted.
    1
  541.  @daydays12  It's a botski. Report and move on.
    1
  542. Germany, please....get off your damn knees before Putin's throne.
    1
  543. A Russian Peace, as demonstrated in Chechnya, means "we keep what we stole, and we'll be back for the rest in a few years. Russia never talks of peace when they think they're winning.
    1
  544. Remember always that Scott Ritter is a twice-convicted child abuser. Bring that up whenever you hear someone mention his name.
    1
  545. First rule of being in a cult is, you don't know you're in a cult. Congrats on escaping!
    1
  546. If only three Trumplicans broke ranks, he could be kicked out. They have not. We're watching what Trump's cult does, not what they say. All the evidence says the Republicans are now Putin's People, unless they always were.
    1
  547. Right-wingers love how manly and rugged and homophobic Russia is, and how Putin is the strongman Trump aspired to be. Left-wingers are still salty about the War on Terror and see Russia as opposing globalism or (in especially deranged cases) still communist. The Russian propaganda engine feeds and funds "anti-war" and nationalist movements across Europe and the US. A telltale of all of these movements is that they don't feature any actual Ukranians.
    1
  548. The nuclear plant plant needs to be watched 24/7, with NATO intervention ready to be on the ground there within hours.
    1
  549. ​ @sharonlavery7656  "If the United States had not helped us, we would not have won the war ... One-on-one against Hitler's Germany, we would not have withstood its onslaught and would have lost the war. No one talks about this officially, and Stalin never, I think, left any written traces of his opinion, but I can say that he expressed this view several times in conversations with me." --Nikita Kruschev
    1
  550. It's almost as if Russia is admitting that the USSR was an empire run for their benefit, rather than an alliance of equals.
    1
  551. Follow the money.
    1
  552. It's not that strange. They want to rule, and Russia is their model for what they want the US to look like. Unrestrained capitalism with oligarchs free to loot and plunder, managed democracy with the threat of violence to make sure people vote properly, total media control, hate against minorities encouraged, and a tame state religion that rubber-stamps whatever the ruler is doing.
    1
  553. Obvious concern trolling is obvious.
    1
  554.  @Teh_Duck  Russia is very good at customising propaganda to appeal to extremists on both ends. On the right, it's all about simping for autocrats and Putin as a rugged manly man of action, and usually heavily laced with homophobia and transphobia. (Never mind that the manly army of toxic-male rapists that Russia deploys is quite crap at actual combat.) On the left, it's a combination of "I'm on whatever side the US is not on.", a deranged belief that Russia is somehow still communist rather than being more of a capitalist dystopia than the US, and an assortment of conspiracy theories about proxy wars, biolabs and Hunter Biden.
    1
  555. The danger of Trump and other loonies like him is that the "sensible" Republicans are very quick to bend the knee when the fringe actually gains some political success.
    1
  556. Why do you think Russia is kidnapping and indoctrinating Ukranian children?
    1
  557. Worth noting that Russian bot accounts and propagandists have become far more numerous on Twitter after musk took over. Foreign asset or useful idiot?
    1
  558. What they need is the biggest naughty step in history.
    1
  559. When they're hyping of the martyrs of WW2, they don't mention how many of those dead were due to Stalin being utterly unprepared for his buddy Hitler betraying him, and refusing to believe reports of the German attack even after it had started.
    1
  560. Trumpanzee detected.
    1
  561. The most powerful anti-tank weapon ever deployed!
    1
  562.  @Kim-J312  No, the Vichy party.
    1
  563.  @Khobai  Botski reported, may you soon be drafted.
    1
  564.  @landonsmith5151  Maggats are all about persecuting LGBT+ people, stealing the reprodictive rights of women through an unelected junta, uncoltrolled gun access no matter how many school shootings America suffers through, drooling admiration of Russia, denial of elections and railing against the horrors of treating people with respect and dignity ("Wokeism"), but they're somehow not bad people. Sure.
    1
  565. DARVO, meaning “Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender,” summarizes a consistent reaction and manipulation tactic used by perpetrators of abuse or other types of wrongdoing.1 It works by shifting the focus away from the original issue and attacking the actual victim. It attempts to switch the roles of victim and perpetrator to allow the actual offender to receive sympathy and compassion, publicly or privately, as well as to avoid consequences for their actions.
    1
  566. Clearly, a lot of you ARE a-ok with him and with becoming an autocratic Russian vassal state. Don't be sorry, be better.
    1
  567. Russia had that since 1991, but still chose to get drunk on nationalism. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.
    1
  568.  @ThePawel36  Perhaps, but not in this generation. If Putin or someone like him remains in power, the best option is for Russia to simply be locked out of the civilised world for decades to come, and left to rot. Because Russia didn't just use globalism to profit, they used it to actively export tyranny, instability and sectarian division.
    1
  569. It's not breaking fast enough. Russia needs to be bankrupted and driven into poverty for at least the next generation. They proved they can't live peacefully with their neighbours, so render them incapable of further empire-building.
    1
  570.  @CMY187  Russia's situation also shows the dangers of aimless, "they're all as bad as each other" political cynicism, and a popular attitude of "I don't get involved in politics". Refusing to support a lesser evil increases the risk of a greater evil.
    1
  571. Thing is...Putin isn't the one murdering civilians, shelling hospitals, commiting mass rape against men and women alike, manning torture chambers, or kidnapping children for forced adoption. Not all Russians are jumping aboard the train of racist total war....but ENOUGH of them are to make "Russian" a curse word for now and decades to come. Especially when you look at Iran and see them demonstrating what actually standing up to tyrants looks like.
    1
  572.  @chrismccaffery1091  Bowing down to nuclear blackmail is the ultimate escalation. It tells Putin that nukes let him do what he wants, and tells every other tinpot dictator around the world that nukes let you threaten your neighbours with impunity. Also, not Musk's choice to make. At all. People whose sole qualification is a lifetime of failing upwards don't get to choose how vigorously a country defends itself from genocidal savages. Also, hey look at all those QAnon buzzwords! "Globalists", "WEF"....we all know you really want to say "the Jews", but you need that plausible deniability. Don't worry, we're onto you.
    1
  573.  @HobbsterTheLobster23  Depends if they have enough fifth columnists to throw open the gates.
    1
  574. People join NATO at gunpoint....but the guns are Russian.
    1
  575.  @dearcastiel4667  So can you link us to some Russian soldiers who actually seem to be happy to be there? And are not being visited by a politician, obviously.
    1
  576.  @florete2310  It's far more civilised to flick a switch and cut off water to civilians and power to hospitals.
    1
  577.  @gsloehr  Your keyboard seems to be broken.
    1
  578. And it was, you know, over seventy years ago and before war crimes were formalised. There is no whatabout to be found.
    1
  579. Who do you believe to be communist, and in what way do you consider them communist?
    1
  580.  @antilarge7860  African intelligence? What, the entire continent has a single intelligence agency?
    1
  581.  @madyogi6164  Repeat after me: "Africa is not a country".
    1
  582. I do wonder, with how sophisticated fakes are getting, how long you could conceal the death of a dictator. Weekend at Bernies, anyone?
    1
  583. Problem is, not everyone is aware. And for those people, Russia is doing its level best to push the "Western equipment is being wasted" narrative into the mainstream through endless repetition.
    1
  584.  @mranonymous8979 Hate speech reported. Too much of a coward to say "Nazi", botski?
    1
  585. It's not designed to be scrutinised, it's designed to be endlessly repeated, and filter into the mainstream (as part of the "US proxy war" narrative) through sheer weight of repetition. The target is people who don't really follow the news but have a vaguely tankie "all war is bad, peace is always better" mentality.
    1
  586.  @KuopassaTv  Well, they certainly traded them well. Where did all your choppers go?
    1
  587. @johnhodgson8684 They want a Russian Peace, much like the script we saw them run in Chechnya. Eventually, thwe'll false-flag up a provocation and come back for what they didn't get first time around.
    1
  588.  @edelweiss2971  Can you explain in detail how Soviet Russia was "socialist", or how "socialism" is opposed to "freedom" outside the fevered imagination of Faux News viewers?
    1
  589. The thing is, it's not being "thrown around". As a percentage of the defence budget, the money being provided is tiny.
    1
  590. Given the performance of many Russian officers, it might slightly improve things.
    1
  591. Israel and Hamas is evil fighting evil. The only difference is that Israel doesn't need to look at the children they've killed.
    1
  592. Not rapidly enough.
    1
  593.  @machinerin151  Sounds like you should get out the country. Russia is a bad place, and it's not going to get any better if they catch even half of the punishment they deserve.
    1
  594.  @MsTendus  The boomers who are nostalgic for the Empire don't, but time isn't on their side.
    1
  595. Much like how Russia destroyed Bradley's before they actually arrived, destroyed the Ukranian air force three times over and destroyed more HIMARS launchers than actually exist.
    1
  596. It's eye-popping.
    1
  597.  @bearpaw72  Sorry, Russia has stolen land from so many people it's hard to keep track.
    1
  598.  @gideonmele1556  Difference is, the Russians choose to do subhuman things. Every Russian Is Responsible.
    1
  599. [citation needed]
    1
  600. Why would they bite the hand that feeds them? The Trumplicans are Putin's People through and through.
    1
  601. Press them a bit, and you'll usually get the blather about how no, there were totally military assets in that maternity hospital. It's the same contemptible crap about Russians believing their country has never fought a war of aggression, due to the prolific use of false flags and defending "ethnic Russians" who didn't actually want to be defended.
    1
  602.  @paulmes7667  The thing I come back to is that the war criminals who went on the rape and murder party, as well as everyone who was complicit in that, will pretend they always opposed the war and never liked Putin. It'll be impossible to tell who the savages are.
    1
  603. It's not unfamiliar. The British Empire was much the same, touting itself as the pinnacle of human culture while doing abominable things to the people of India, Ireland, Canada, Australia and...well, just about every other place we set up shop. The difference is, that was in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Even when there's misplaced nostalgia for the Empire and the days when Britain was a big deal, there's no serious talk about restoring it through force, starting with invading Ireland.
    1
  604. You're fighting 5% of NATO's military budget and 0 serving soldiers. Seethe and cope.
    1
  605. 'Ere, he says he's not dead!
    1
  606.  @AAB463  Exactly. Allowing nuclear blackmail to get anything for Russia broadcasts the message that if you get some nukes, you can bully your neighbours with impunity.
    1
  607. Free speech means you can't be arrested for what you say. It doesn't oblige anyone to be given a platform for what they say, especially Kremlin-funded fifth columnists.
    1
  608. Marx criticised religion as the "opium of the people", when it was used as a state-controlled institution that used the promises of reward of punishment after death to keep the working classes from demanding better in this life. Stalin took it as an instruction manual.
    1
  609. Trumplicans don't have hearts.
    1
  610. You support the war, but you're voting for Putin's butt-buddy? Strange.
    1
  611. "Allowed" is a loaded word. Show your qualifications to make such a statement.
    1
  612.  @greenwave819  Yes they are. Also, I am Spartacus.
    1
  613. Russia likes to threaten nukes...but the warheads are high maintenance. What do you want to bet their upkeep budget got turned into a superyacht?
    1
  614.  @wedgeantilles8575  And absolutely nowhere did they say Russia was at that stage right now.
    1
  615. I became familiar with his anti-vaxxer grifting during Covid. RFK was always a hideous failed human, driven by greed and nothing else.
    1
  616. Be sure to point this out to every tankie and fake "American veteran" when they protest the cost of the war.
    1
  617. Bear in mind that it's not meant to stand up to serious scrutiny. It's meant to filter into the mainstream through sheer weight of repetition and influence people who don't know much about what's actually going on. And it WORKS.
    1
  618. Indeed. Demonstrating that astroturf insurections, false flags, sham elections and nuclear blackmail get you at least some of what you want is a message that every tinpot dictator in the world will take to heart,
    1
  619. So you support cracking down on companies that use migrants as disenfranchised slave labour, because they can pay them less than American citizens?
    1
  620. Russia has invaded it's neighbors 7 times since Putin came to power. Each time he snatches some land and then is suddenly all about peace and "ready to negotiate". A short while later, he picks up where he left off.
    1
  621. Thing is, even if it's "just" 100K, that's still downright catastrophic compared to every war Russia's been in after WW2. And against any overreporting, that also needs to be adjusted for Russian underreporting.
    1
  622.  @eddgar-ce3md  The thing about venerating sacrifice is that it can easily become the fetishising of sacrifice, taking their huge casualties as a perverse badge of honour while never asking if it's necessary.
    1
  623.  @sallaMoussaIbrahim-ol5qh  Oh, you mean the astroturf Kremlin-funded insurrection, along with the actual self-confessed Russian "little green men" there to false flag? Also, the war criminals who murdered the passengers on a civilian airliner, lest we forget. Also worth noting that Russia blocked a UN investigation into that conflict.
    1
  624.  @iris1224wwad  Don't fall for the whataboutisms. It's doing the botski thing of assuming every war waged by a NATO member is a NATO war.
    1
  625.  @JakeBroe  You could just say "bullies" in general. The metaphor that always springs to mind is when one toddler hits another in full view of a parent or guardian, then whines about how iiiiit's not faaaaaaiiiir when they go to the naughty step.
    1
  626. You'd be surprised what you believe (or at least keep your head down and pretend to believe) when every school and media channel is chanting it at you, and there are steep penalties for believing otherwise. It's not so much that Russia thinks people are stupid, it's more that they know how to make them stupid--or at least, make them act like stupid people for their own safety. Look at the conspiracy theories that have infested the West, and the fanatical devotion they can attract.
    1
  627. Every time someone says they "don't care about politics", remember that this is where it ends. The far right loves apathetic mainstream voters, and works hard to create more of them.
    1
  628. They're still there, so they haven't lost enough.
    1
  629.  @markus717  Do tell us which country you come from, so we can point out their fascist sympathisers and anti-Semites. Because trust me, it will have had them.
    1
  630.  @JakeBroe  Probably because after Russia loses, he would have suddenly never spoken of it again beyond insinuating he was vaguely pro-Ukraine and any allegations that he wasn't were a librul smear job. Then he'd distract by moving on to bashing trans people or some other strawman. Part of the far-right mindset is that whatever you're saying right now has always been your stance. Conservatives don't really notice when their leaders are blatant and raving hypocrites.
    1
  631. And they're already breaking out the standard DARVO script: "We didn't do it, but if we did it was a military target." Utterly unchanged from every other time they've done this exact same thing.
    1
  632.  @misterwirez7731  What is happening to the individual Russian soldiers is hideous...but at the same time, it's a not-insignificant part of those Russian soldiers who are committing atrocities and attacking civilians on a daily basis. We are talking systematic rape, murder, torture, child abduction and shelling of hospitals and playgrounds, acts of pure subhuman savagery.
    1
  633.  @pauldorfman701  Bigot reported.
    1
  634. For Russians, WW2 started with Operation Barbarossa and ended when the USSR single-handedly took Berlin. The notion that someone else was fighting them first, that Russia cooperated with the Nazis early on, or that Russia had any aid to defeat them does not arise.
    1
  635. The British Empire also did a heck of a lot of this. The difference is that we now acknowledge those acts were monstrous, and we try and repair the damage where we can and make sure it never happens again. Russia does not learn from the evils of its past--it revels in them. (And indeed, forced reeducation is very old--look up the Janissaries, or medieval hostage taking.)
    1
  636. "I learned how to make a meat joint last a week from my mum" There are two ways to read that sentence... 🙂
    1
  637.  @Kira559  When you have a moment, take a look at how much billionaires and corporations dodging tax is costing you. Clue for the clueless: It's VASTLY more than you're sending to fight fascists. Also, you're going to need citations for all of those claims, but we all know you will not provide them.
    1
  638.  @mishterkhalid3117  Source: Russian state media / pure imagination.
    1
  639. At this point, NATO could immediately cut all support and it would be labelled a provocation.
    1
  640. Hypersonic missiles are old technology. They simply represent a path the US decided not to pursue, they're not a super new sci-fi weapon.
    1
  641. This is what Russian hybrid warfare looks like. The Netherlands are at war, and Russia just won a victory against them.
    1
  642. All wars are defensive wars...if you believe the entire world is out to get you. If it were a person, Russia would be suffering from severe paranoid delusions.
    1
  643. Immigration is like prostitution or abortion. You can't outlaw people doing it, you can just outlaw people doing it safely.
    1
  644.  @connorirons4542  I think they mentioned targeting Stonehenge. No, seriously.
    1
  645. Human, or Russian? A system like that doesn't evolve naturally, it takes an active culture of oppression and systemised bigotry.
    1
  646.  @geetee2694  Aw, the cowardly little botski is too terrified to say "Nazi"? Have a hate speech report anyway.
    1
  647. ​ @geetee2694  Botski reported. May you soon be drafted.
    1
  648.  @AstroGremlinAmerican  Extremists love that kind of bothsides talk. Makes it much easier for them to get genuine crazies into office.
    1
  649. You might notice Russia is also obsessed with transphobia and homophobia, and regularly uses it as examples of how corrupt the West is. Prejudice and othering directed at an out-group is the thin end of the wedge that fascists use to get their foot in the door.
    1
  650. "...are we the baddies?"
    1
  651.  @smlorrin  OK, doomer.
    1
  652. Much like Putin and other dictators, they love the IDEA of the military. They love the idea of conquering, of glorying in their military prowess and waving around their newest and most phallic weapons. They're just not so keen on the actual soldiers, especially those who are un-manly enough to get injured, suffer mental trauma, or demand decent pensions.
    1
  653. The worst part is that the soulless beasts from the troll farms will be spinning up the standard DARVO script about how it was actually Ukraine / a military base for NATO mercenaries and biolab mosquitos.
    1
  654.  @harmless6813  Let's go for "centuries". Time to break this cancerous mafia state for good.
    1
  655.  @wedgeantilles8575  Always funny watching the right mewl and bleat about how they're really the oppressed ones because people stopped laughing at their punching down. Continue dancing for our entertainment.
    1
  656.  @wedgeantilles8575  And you've chosen the "fake outrage" page from the thin-skinned conservative script after getting called out. Standard stuff.
    1
  657.  @bloggalot4718  The difference is that Joyce appeared to honestly believe he was a British patriot and that Britain and Germany should join forces against communism. He was hideously misguided, but he had ideals. Carlson is a mercenary.
    1
  658.  @emmata98  "Whataboutism" is a Soviet-pioneered propaganda technique, whereas cricitisms are not answered directly, but distracted from by pointing out something that somebody else did. Whether the counter-accusation is actually relevant or stands up to criticism is not important, the intent is only to divert the attention of the audience.
    1
  659.  @puraLusa  Give some examples.
    1
  660.  @alwaysdisputin9930  Meanwhile, in Iran...
    1
  661.  @blabla1177-r7u  Be careful. If you mention atrocities against ethnic minorities, people might start looking into what Russians did to the native people of Siberia and Kamchatka and you really wouldn't want that.
    1
  662. Russia goes home and returns what they stole. Anything less sends the message to the world that terrorism and nuclear blackmail work. World security demands the catastrophic failure and visible punishment of the terrorist state.
    1
  663. No, he knows what he's doing. He's either waiting for this to blow over so he can resume sucking on the Gazprom teat, or he's a useful idiot who's in Putin's pocket.
    1
  664.  @shurely2559  Just remember that every time you hear someone in the West say that. Dictators LOVE political apathy, and seek to disenfranchise and confuse voters, or to numb them with bothsides rhetoric, every chance they get.
    1
  665. One good thing is how much the nuclear threat has been devalued, not just from endless repetition, but also from their delivery missiles being shot down by a 30-year-old defence system.
    1
  666.  @georgesibley7152  Oh, you mean the astroturf Kremlin-funded insurrection, along with the actual self-confessed Russian "little green men" there to false flag? Also, the war criminals who murdered the passengers on a civilian airliner, lest we forget.
    1
  667.  @danielmiller3781  Nah, they just switched on to the script about how that was never really their plan to begin with! Part of fascism is to never acknowledge defeats, or admit that your past objectives were any different from what you're doing right now.
    1
  668. Yeah, the stance on Ukraine has been the embodiment of "Even a stopped clock is right twice a day."
    1
  669.  @bobwallace9753  Allowing nuclear blackmail to succeed is the greatest escalation possible.
    1
  670.  @jounik  Problem is, "the requirements" remain subjective, introducing the risk that a Putinpuppet might decide they haven't been met and sandbag for his master.
    1
  671.  @andersjjensen  So do we. It's very clear Brexit was a disaster on every level (except for a handful of super-rich). The problem is that it's a lot easier to fool people than to persuade them they've been fooled.
    1
  672.  @stephenpaul4258  Hate speech report lodged. May you soon be drafted, botski.
    1
  673.  @rorychivers8769  Not unassisted. Look up Cambridge Analytica and other Kremlin-backed psyops. Russia duped us like they'd dupe the US later in the same year.
    1
  674.  @rorychivers8769  Apart from anything else, we have a certain national sympathy for a country standing alone against a fascist superpower that tries to bully them into submission through bombing civilians. Standing strong during the Blitz has long been at the centre of our national mythology.
    1
  675. The Trumplicans have been telling you what they are for a very long time. They are a cult that seeks to rule rather than govern. Vote, and mobilise everyone you know to vote.
    1
  676. That has not yet been proven.
    1
  677.  @a5cent  Hopefully we can rejoin you before too much longer. People are waking up to how we fell for a psyop from Putin and the 1%ers, and the Conservatives burned their last shreds of goodwill with Truss' brief but apocalyptic time in office.
    1
  678. That's disingenuous, the money and weapons were already heavily monitored and accounted for. He was leaving his options open in case he decided to go with the Russian propaganda narrative of Ukraine stealing it all.
    1
  679. Allowing Putin to claim anything from this war is also escalation.
    1
  680.  @richardx6884  It seems a reasonable presumption, unless you can point to anything that Actual Ukranians have said about letting Russia steal more land, and condemning their friends and realtives to ethnic cleansing?
    1
  681. Botski reported, may you soon be drafted.
    1
  682. Money, and targeted propaganda. The far left get told Russia is heroically standing against American neocon imperialism, while the far right get told how Russia's super-cool strongman leader is purifying Europe of all that decadent tolerance.
    1
  683. Putin triggered this event. Not one other person in the world.
    1
  684.  @JakeBroe  Always remember, Russian disinfo isn't about presenting a believable story. It's about muddying the water with conflicting narratives. They don't want people to believe them, they want people to believe nothing.
    1
  685. It also doesn't apply to any of Russia's 21st century wars.
    1
  686.  @tomcarr1358  They do--there's still a severe infestation of left-wing tankies who are pro-Russia on the basis that they just support whichever side the US isn't on. Russia likes to "negotiate" so they appear as the peacemakers in ending the wars they start....but not giving up anything they stole. Just like in Chechnya, they use peace to recover their strength and then move back in a few years later to finish the job.
    1
  687.  @tomcarr1358  I have a vague feeling that we're kind of in the same situation as the 1930's. Twenty-odd years out from a war that was sold as a glorious defence of freedom, but which turned into a murky, morally ambiguous quagmire that produced nothing except body bags. And now, everyone's a bit cynical about war and the statement of leaders, reluctant to believe what the media says, nobody wants to kick off a repeat of the old war...and that gives a tyrant room to make their move.
    1
  688. They don't need to be civilised, they just need to be defanged and caged. Let them snarl all they want from the far side of a DMZ.
    1
  689. Even from the most selfish "Germany first" point of view, this is still destructive to Germany. They have told the world that they are unreliable when it comes to allowing their weapons to be used. Neighbouring countries are likely to be reluctant to buy weapons from the Germans ever again--if they're denying permission for them to be used against an existential threat to all Europe, then what else might permission be denied for?
    1
  690. Ritter is a kiddy fiddler, convicted twice. Bring that up every time you hear his name, vatniks hate it.
    1
  691. "Let them fight."
    1
  692.  @jonson856  Did you know the term "Mainstream Media" as something to be disdained and ignored (because it was a liberal puppet not giving you the hard truth) was pioneered by Josef Goebbels?
    1
  693. Well, congratulations on getting out of the cult. Because that's pretty much what it is.
    1
  694. Would you say it's worse than Italy or Greece?
    1
  695. The idea that "things would be so much easier if these people just 'went away', along with villifying them in the eyes of the world to make sure nobody really cares what happens to them because they're all wrong 'uns anyway. It's like the run-up to every genocide.
    1
  696.  @Rocket_scientist_88  People said the same thing about Trump in 2015. Nothing can be taken for granted any more.
    1
  697. It's what happened to a lot of indigenous people across the Americas, Australia, Africa and beyond. The difference, small but significant, is that the West acknowledges the evil they did and tries to stop it happening again. Russia glorifies it.
    1
  698.  @noidontthinksolol  Never had to look at a statue of people who murdered or enslaved your ancestors on the way to work, huh? Lucky you.
    1
  699.  @Gary-Seven-and-Isis-in-1968  OK, boomer.
    1
  700.  @adolfolerito6744  If it's a young man, he's quite likely to shrug and join anyway. Transphobia and homophobia are demographically the domain of millenials and older, and the younger generations are much more likely to consider it unremarkable. Russia goes for a hyper-macho military culture and promotes a MAYANLY image (with lots of hazing, sexual abuse and rape of civilians), and...well, look at how that army is actually working.
    1
  701. I never thought leopards would eat MY face!
    1
  702.  @akar2755  You really think Israel only just started killing civilians? You really think nobody died as a result of power being cut to hospitals, or the concentration camp that is Gaza having foul water? Israel's terrorist acts are more distant and impersonal, but the effect is the same, and if you listen to what Israel has been actually saying about the Palestinians for a long time, you'd recognise it from the darkest days of apartheid-era South Africa.
    1
  703.  @sammiller6631  The same thing. But if you look up the definition in international law, abducting and forcefully reeducating children to destroy their culture is one of the acts labelled as genocide. This is why Russia needs to be methodically broken--economically, financially, militarily and culturally--until their ability to wage war is destroyed, then locked out of the free world and left to rot.
    1
  704. Good.
    1
  705.  @carsonboardman7073  The problem is, we don't really have a way to deal with how Putin isolates countries he plans on invading--start an astroturf insurrection, so they're in a state of "at war" that they can't end without prompting a full Russian invasion "to protect ethnic Russians".
    1
  706.  @jaytbo5676  Why would China get involved? Far better for them to let Russia flop so they have a supine client state and some free annexable territory (sorry, "goodwill handovers") to the north.
    1
  707. Botski reported. May you soon be drafted.
    1
  708. China watches with great interest, as it calculates if the US will defend Taiwan.
    1
  709.  @greenhammer3263  Botski reported, may you soon be drafted.
    1
  710.  @timspiker  You don't have a clue WHY that is, but you're still going to tell Russia that food terrorism works.
    1
  711.  @greenhammer3263  When a botski cries for peace, Russia fears losing what it stole.
    1
  712.  @greenhammer3263  You sound scared, botski. Try again, but this time try and make it sound like you believe what you're saying. Dance for us. 😀
    1
  713.  @greenhammer3263  Ooh, the "dead serious real talk yo" strategy gives you a bit more cred, but you're still not there. Come on, give it one more try.
    1
  714.  @greenhammer3263  When a botski cries for peace, Russia fears losing what it stole.
    1
  715.  @tylerdurden4006  We'll thank Putin, and react accordingly.
    1
  716. Doesn't mean much if the Trumplicans are sandbagging support.
    1
  717. I love how you took a bloated figure that could only be reached by lumping in Ukranian civilian casualties, and then randomly doubled it.
    1
  718. But how else can they Stick It To The Libs?
    1
  719.  @ingoditrust7784  What if I told you that only a tiny minority of Arabic people agree with Hamas (though many more sympathise with Palestinians being colonised and ethnically cleansed) and not all Jewish people support the current government of Israel?
    1
  720. Leading a country is stressful at the best of times. Look at Barack Obama and Tony Blair before and after they were in office. And in Ukraine, it has not been the best of times.
    1
  721. Considering all he needed to do was be Not Trump, he's really impressed! You can tell by how much the Trumplican disinformaton engine hates him and VP Harris.
    1
  722. What professional qualifications are you basing this statement on?
    1
  723.  @yedidyah-jedshlomoh1533  We call them traitors because they simp for a fascist terrorist state. Next question?
    1
  724. Apart from anything else, remember that a lot of those are not professional soldiers--each dead conscript means a job unfilled or a family without a father. No matter what happens now, Russia is going to be demographically destroyed in the 21st century--and frankly, good riddance to it. It's bought nothing good to the world for a very long time.
    1
  725. Bear in mind that it's about pumping out a continuous stream of disinformation and clashing narratives, all to dump mud in the water. Russia don't expect you to believe them, but they do want you to be in a state where you can't be sure who to believe and thus believe nothing. We allowed this tactic to work when Russia blew the dam, so why wouldn't they repeat it?
    1
  726.  @LawrenceReitan  Russia blew the dam, and the UN celebrated a Russian language day. Useless, corrupt, thoroughly subverted by dictators. Defund.
    1
  727.  @AstroGremlinAmerican  Everything Russia attacks retroactively becomes a military target. They break out the same script every time.
    1
  728.  @Katoshi_Takagumi  Stalin read Marx's criticism that "religion is the opium of the people". Rather than figure "Hey, capitalism using religion to prevent workers from hoping for a better life is bad, let's build a better society.", he figured "Hey, I can use this!"
    1
  729. I'd be more scared of those Japanese torpedo boats.
    1
  730. @@cjs472 Sorry, we all froze to death last winter. Gas reserves are topped up, and support for Ukraine remains high. Fingers crossed we get a nice civil war in your home country before then, botski trash.
    1
  731.  @EMarSounds  My favourite bit of that was that they were threatening Ireland. As in, the Republic of Ireland. As in, the officially neutral EU country that is not part of the UK at all.
    1
  732.  @AlexKarasev  Revisionist nonsense. The then president defied the will of the people and his own promises to try and make his country a Russian puppet. When people protested, he murdered and disappeared them. Then they kicked him out, sent him running back to his Moscow sugar daddy, and then had new elections.
    1
  733. Basically, nukes.
    1
  734.  @harrietharlow9929  Conspiracy theorists really can live in an alternate reality, and that's something Russia pushes with their fire hose of conspiracy theories and wild claims. They're not trying to present a coherent rebuttal, they're trying to throw out so many lies and counter-claims that nobody can tell what's true and what's not.
    1
  735.  @capadociaash8003  No, we absolutely will. There is no bothsides here, the Republicans long ago claimed the monopoly on treacherous craziness, and the mythical "good Republicans" have been extremely negligent in shutting down the crazies. The only real question for any given Republican is if they're a useful idiot, or one of Putin's People, bought and paid for.
    1
  736. Always get the full story. Russian propaganda relies on blasting out half-truths and leaving people with vague impressions rather than a factual overview of what's happening.
    1
  737. Based on what? China is walking down the same well-trodden path to autocracy that Russia has already mapped out.
    1
  738. Botski reported, may you soon be drafted.
    1
  739.  @carolwilliams8511  Canada's other shame.
    1
  740. Low-effort, botski, low-effort.
    1
  741. In the last election, the far right had around 2% of the Ukranian vote, one of the lowest in Europe.
    1
  742. I really don't comprehend the people who thought none of them were going to be lost. They're advanced tanks, but they're not the protagonist's super mecha from an anime.
    1
  743. A guy behind you with a gun and instructions to punish cowardice, too.
    1
  744. "The good news is, Putin survived the assassination attempt. The bad news is, he lost one of his arms."
    1
  745.  @istvansipos9940  If you're arguing that we should have sympathy for ANY Russians right now, that's a really hard sell.
    1
  746. How many of those innocent young people have participated in rape, murder, torture, child theft and the shelling of civilians? Putin didn't single-handedly do all those things.
    1
  747.  @MiySadochok  Nah, Trump doesn't get the benefit of the doubt after spending so long fellating Putin when he was in office.
    1
  748.  @Luvulong  Extremists love "all politicians are the same" rhetoric. Makes it easier for their small but passionate base to exercise more power.
    1
  749. And it's those same poor Russians who have been staffing torture chambers, shelling hospitals and playgrounds, and throwing a big rape and murder party for the last 11 months. Null sympathy for orcs.
    1
  750. Russia have shown that their red lines mean nothing, and the mutiny showed that Putin negotiates and accepts a loss of face when forced into a corner. If they threaten nukes, the only required reply is "Article Five, Bitches".
    1
  751. The really chilling thing is this: Every time you talk to a Russian man for the next 50-odd years, there's a small but not insignificant chance they were party to something like this (or rape, murder, torture, child stealing, etc). Of course, after the war ends, they'll all claim they were the GOOD Russians who didn't want to be there.
    1
  752. Ever hear the phrase "Useful Idiot"?
    1
  753. Russia didn't stop murdering in Ukraine on May 9th last year. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
    1
  754. Shill elsewhere.
    1
  755.  @ThousandCuts-tb2ej  Hamas won't be destroyed. If the conditions for Palestinians remain the same, there will be another Hamas, and another. Tell people that peaceful change is impossible, and they will believe you.
    1
  756. Sun Tzu emphasised the importance of always leaving the enemy a way out. Never force them to fight to the death, and make fleeing or surrendering as attractive an option as possible.
    1
  757. We have to face the very real risk that the US might go insane again come November. It's not a pleasant feeling.
    1
  758.  @damianm-nordhorn116  Because then he'd come up with a new excuse.
    1
  759. Bear in mind that "criminal record" doesn't necessarily mean violent or sexual offender. Indeed, it may not even mean "guilty".
    1
  760. NATO and EU membership will do that. Let Russia fume as much as it wants, so long as it's caged behind a wall of NATO (which may include their southern neighbours; Kazakhstan has expressed interest in joining) and under no illusions that a single Russian bullet crossing the border will trigger a massive Article 5 reaction.
    1
  761.  @wilberwhateley7569  It's interesting how the botski brigade is pushing this very specific line: "Ukraine is running out of troops, average age is 40, Russia can zerg rush forever." I can't quite figure out what narrative they're trying to push.
    1
  762. Not to mention, most neighbouring Arab states don't actually want to help Palestinians beyond stirring the pot and occasionally supplying weapons. They'll point to their treatment as evidence of how terrible Israel is to keep them as a handy external enemy, but do nothing to relieve the suffering.
    1
  763.  @remote24  Thing is, many of the Trumplicans regard Putin as their ally, and Russia as a model for what they want to the US to become.
    1
  764. Define "woke" in a way that doesn't accidentally make it sound like a good thing.
    1
  765. United24 is the official government fundraising organisation.
    1
  766. Republicans have very consistently bent the knee to the crazies and traitors in their party.
    1
  767. "The good news is that Putin survived the assassination attempt. The bad news is, he lost an arm...."
    1
  768.  @OzzyBloke  Tell me, botski...do you think ANYONE buys this any more? Reality has an anti-Russian bias, and anyone who tries to bothsides this immediately outs thermselves as vatnik trash.
    1
  769. Putin isn't committing every atrocity personally. Ordinary Russians (who are probably quite nice people to those who know them) are the ones engaged in rape, murder, torture, child theft and the shelling of civilians. You can be a good person, and still be complicit in an evil system.
    1
  770. There's no such thing a brave Republican, only a gang of spineless cultists.
    1
  771. I think like a lot of nationalists, Putin loves a romanticised notion of his country if it were Made Great Again, but dislikes just about every part of what it actually is.
    1
  772.  @JakeBroe  I'm pretty sure that's why the botski brigade is pushing HARD the narrative that Western weapon systems are being "wasted". After observing how the War on Terror went and then spluttered out, he Kremlin believes the weak spot of the free world is popular distaste for war.
    1
  773. The short answer is: too much legacy code that should have been updated years ago (see also: no term limits, unelected Supreme Court, filibusters, gerrymandering, electoral college, no guaranteed time off work to vote), and Trumplicans who are abusing the system at the behest of their Moscow sugar daddy.
    1
  774. Judging by the botskis, it's the usual doublethink of "This is fake, we didn't do it, but even though we didn't do it, he totally had it coming." Usual Russian lies and verbal diarrhea.
    1
  775.  @marcelgordijn1400  Now adjust those claims for vranyo.
    1
  776. Bear in mind they're not trying to construct a believable story, they're trying to saturate all channels with the talking point du jour--whatever the latest thing is that lets them maintain the attack-attack-attack strategy. When that becomes outdated or untenable, they'll move onto a new one. The aim is to get their talking points into the mainstream through sheer repetition.
    1
  777.  @AstroGremlinAmerican  So you support punitive measures against companies that employ migrants as disposable slave labour? Or just punishing the migrants themselves to look tough, while doing sweet FA to solve the root of the problem?
    1
  778. Also, the Russian wonder missiles proved to be entirely stoppable with 30-year-old defence systems.
    1
  779.  @larryo6874  That said, with modern CGI, I wonder how long you could convincingly fake a dead public figure being alive.
    1
  780.  @zeljkoopalic5994  Boring, low-effort vagueposting. Try harder.
    1
  781. I think a lot of countries are having unpleasant awakenings about how many of Putin's People have infiltrated their governments. The exposure of Scholz' appeasement / treachery is just one more bursting boil.
    1
  782.  @maritaschweizer1117  What if I told you that it was possible for TWO governments to both simultaneously be doing evil things? Also....stop typing, walk away and educate yourself on the situation Palestinians are in. There's nowhere they're wanted, and if they leave, they will never be allowed back to their homeland.
    1
  783.  @arturobianco848  In the UK, our democracy is a bodge job, put together over centuries of trial and error. We know it's imperfect and constantly needs tinkering. In the US, the national mythology and reverence of the Founding Fathers means the system doesn't get updated, obsolete and exploitable traditions don't get patched, and there's just generally a lot of "legacy code".
    1
  784. Generally, Russian strategy is to blow up random buildings and then try to claim they were military.
    1
  785. Here's how Russia works-conquer, sabre-rattle, THEN cry for peace. If anyone in the West rolls over and lets you keep some of what you stole, the war was a net success, and you can come back for the rest later. If botskis like you are calling for negotiations now, that means Russia fears losing more of their stolen land in the near future. We should continue to choke out the mafia state.
    1
  786. Russia controlled the dam, mined it, said they'd cause environmental disasters on State TV and bragged about blowing it up. Stop being a tankie.
    1
  787.  @issadraco532  Botski reported, may you soon be drafted.
    1
  788.  @thatplaneguy944  It's a botski, doing the standard concern troll "I support Ukraine buuuut--" dance.
    1
  789. Yes, and before that there were the Janissaries. We learned from the evils of our pasts--Russia still revels in them.
    1
  790.  @grantadamson3478  It's grimly hilarious if you look up the accounts of ex-SpaceX and Tesla employees. They describe abysmal working conditions, and Musk's whims making things harder, and trying to design around him so he has as few chances to screw a project up as possible.
    1
  791.  @Reticulated_Spline  According to....who? Always show your sources, Russian propaganda relies on repeating claims enough that they filter into the mainstream unquestioned.
    1
  792. Reckon it was genuine, or just one more false flag by lying Russians who lie a lot and stopped deserving the benefit of the doubt years ago?
    1
  793. It's really worth remembering that this is how Russia works. They saturate their latest talking point across all the airwaves to push it into mainstream discussion, targeting people who don't really follow what's happening in any detail. They want people who parrot their narratives as "just common sense" or "everyone knows" or "I heard that", without knowing that it originated in a Moscow troll farm.
    1
  794.  @diverdown48  Doesn't matter much, given how close you are to a fascist takeover and how deep the rot of ignorance, repression and conspiracy theories has gone.
    1
  795.  @telebubba5527  Perhaps...but remember some of their target audience will be vatniks ready to spam something new on social media, and the "I'm on whichever side the US isn't on." tankies in the West. It often doesn't matter how patently absurd something is when the tactic of endless repetition can give it traction anyway.
    1
  796. Russian propaganda, mainly--they target left-wing audiences with tales of the eeeevil US having provoked Russia, and right-wing audiences with Russia's manly, rugged, homophobic, rapey culture. And Trumplicans who are in Putin's pocket.
    1
  797. Logically, a counter-attack IS coming at some point, Ukraine's goals are impossible to achieve without one. Everybody knows that.
    1
  798. The Republican strategy is based around unyielding opposition and obstructionism to whatever the Democrats are doing. Biden could announce he was giving tax cuts to billionaires and banning abortion, they'd be in uproar about it. The one agenda of the Trumplicans is to rule.
    1
  799.  @S0ulinth3machin3  In both those cases, the invaders were counting on a quick strike to grab crucial cities and force a surrender, so didn't have proper logistics set up for their armies. Russia didn't succeed in either case--the invaders failed through not planning properly and underestimating Russia's willingness to sacrifice millions of their own.
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  800. Oh, Russia knows how to appeal to the left as well. There's no shortage of "tankies" who are so anti-US that they'll support anyone who isn't America, and who blame Ukraine for continuing the war / NATO for expanding.
    1
  801.  @st-ex8506  When people talk of nuclear disarmament, the uncomfortable fact remains that no country with nukes has ever had their homeland invaded or annexed.
    1
  802.  @dr.khadijaal-naki4302  So there are no believers in Ukraine? You can make up reasons why God allows Putin to engage in genocide without lifting a finger and causing him to burst into flames, just like God sat out every other atrocity He could have trivially prevented....but none of them would be convincing.
    1
  803. You can be a good person, and complicit in an evil system. The women of Iran rose up, the men of Russia fled.
    1
  804.  @suicidalbanananana  If they were "bending over backwards", the tanks and F16's would have been there this time last year. Millions of lives have been lost because too many leaders are listening to "red lines" and Scholzing around.
    1
  805.  @larsord9139  Given how cozy Trump was with Putin, and how many fringe QHeads in the Republicans are pro-Russia, it was an entirely sensible fear.
    1
  806. I imagine China's stance is kind of like when your buddy gets drunk and picks a fight with the biggest guy in the bar. You want to break the fight up and deescalate without him losing face, but you're not so invested that you're going to make yourself any kind of target.
    1
  807. It makes perfect sense--Putin is what Trump wanted to be, and Putin used his disinformation engine to get Trump into office.
    1
  808. We live in a post-shame age in politics, so if he wants to reverse it, he will and the voters will have collective amnesia.
    1
  809. Same here. It's obviously bad, but it feels like the boils have burst--it's ugly, but better than the poison continuing to build. Trump Fever seems to be wearing off in the US, Musk has exposed himself for the ugly little fraud he is, and Putin has blown so much of the soft power that he was using to corrode democracy away.
    1
  810. And why exactly did they not have this audit ready MONTHS AGO?!? More stalling and foot-dragging from the useful idiot.
    1
  811.  @Atheos-1  Well, we can blame every administration that failed to fix the flaws in the American system that the Trumplicans are currently exploiting. And we can blame every American who still votes for this deranged cult.
    1
  812.  @mqb3gofjzkko7nzx38  They could easily have. Just as we're not too far from the timeline where Trump got reelected and kept his promise to pull the US out of NATO. Hell, there's still a risk we get Trump (or someone just as evil, but smarter) in 2024 if people don't get out and vote.
    1
  813.  @leoorchard5992  Oh, you mean the astroturf Kremlin-funded insurrection, along with the actual self-confessed Russian "little green men" there to false flag? Botski reported--may you soon be drafted.
    1
  814.  @watchit65  The Russian elections are irrelevant. Spoiler warning: Putin wins with 110% of the vote.
    1
  815.  @KenshinPhoenix  You're not German, botski boy.
    1
  816.  reddwarf5173  Thing is, we never seem to see those "good solid folk" when the Republican party is trying to turn schools into military camps, strip women of their reproductive rights via stacking an unelected junta that calls itself a court, promote homophobic and transphobic hate, court neo-Nazi militias, embrace QAnon, or cosy up to Putin.
    1
  817. Got to love the "We'll kill you all if you try and stop us! Why are you so Russophobic?!" line.
    1
  818.  @smthnew861  Enough of them are. Innocent Russians can be attended to after their fascist mafia state has been bankrupted, demilitarised, broken and buried, and every last bit of damage to Ukraine has been repaired out of their pockets. Russians had a chance to choose democracy, they chose Putin. I am past caring about anyone who chooses to be part of Russia now.
    1
  819. If it was proven that the officer behaved recklessly or negligently, that could be a reason. But such things are none of our business, and entirely in Ukraine's hands.
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  820. It is relevant, considering the "self-made" entrepeneur got a big leg up from daddy's dodgy gem mines.
    1
  821.  @DainSmart-vm7pc  Honestly, it's gonna happen. they'll get captured or destroyed because this isn't an anime and the tanks are not the super mecha of the main character. And it doesn't matter, the important thing is Ukraine has replacements ready to go.
    1
  822. Indeed, and I'd like to see the supporters of the current government justify what Israel has been doing to Palestinians for decades with illegal collective punishments, the colonisation of their land, and the arbitrary cutting off of power, food or water. Hamas and the current government of Israel are both evil entities.
    1
  823.  @asscheeks3212  You are talking yourself into justifying ethnic cleansing against a population that is disproportionately made up of children. Good people do not do that.
    1
  824. Yes, flooding a far less populated area with clear value to the German war machine. Also, OVER SEVENTY BLOODY YEARS AGO.
    1
  825. The Trumplicans are entirely cynical creatures.
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  826. Can you show your citations that the Democrats "don't like the UK"? I doubt it.
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  827.  @AstroGremlinAmerican  The Democrats are merely following the example of the Republicans when Pelosi was voted in. Don't blame them for your own party being a corrupt, hopeless mess who don't know the most basic functions of government.
    1
  828. Unplug from the Daily HateMail. And while you're there, look up how much money we lost to Lizz Truss' budget, and Johnson giving contracts for dodgy PPE to his Oxford chums. I'd say look up the total estimated cost of Brexit to the British economy, but that would just depress you. Point is, the aid to both house the humans who migrated in decent conditions and to help Ukraine is chickenfeed compared to Tory robbery of the public. When I see people like you, I always think of a cartoon about three men around a table--an immigrant with an empty plate in front of him, a working-class man with a plate that has a single cookie on it, and Rupert Murdoch with a plate stacked high with cookies. Murdoch is warning the working-class man that the immigrant wants to take his cookie.
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  829. Terror tactics. It's exactly like how Hitler targeted British population centres during WW2.
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  830. If Putin gets ANYTHING from this war, he'll be back, because that's what he always does--invade, sabre-rattle and then wait for someone in the West to appease him. He's told you who he is over and over; will you listen? Also, how much of your home country would you be willing to hand over to Putin's legion of savages, and how many of your countrymen?
    1
  831. Take a look at the role that mercenaries played in conflicts like those between Italian city-states or in the Thirty Years War.
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  832.  @BTinSF  Da, Fellow Americanski. 😀
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  833.  @halflifeking156  And now look at it as a percentage of GDP.
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  834. They actually don't. That assumes Russia can and will mobilise everyone without causing a revolution and that absolutely no soldiers are needed anywhere else.
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  835. It was simpler, but it wasn't better. Russia has been exporting fascism for a long time, and the slow rot seemed impossible to stop.
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  836. Indeed--but don't assume this is some mental defect unique to Russians. We're all equally vulnerable to getting sucked into rabbit holes of disinformation and ending up in a weird parallel universe--look at QHeads, anti-vaxxers, election deniers and flat earthers. Now imagine that that the government and six-o-clock news is soberly confirming all of the craziest stuff, and threatening to imprison you if you doubt it too publicly.
    1
  837.  @heathermccall8015  What a moronic comparison. Comparing the conscious actions of a government to a weather system. I mean, MAN, I'm just perversely impressed by how dumb this argument is. Like...is this intentional? Did you come up with that argument and then smugly say to yourself "Yep, this'll destroy him with FACTS and LOGIC?", never realising how ludicrous the comparison was?
    1
  838. Better than none. And if it kicks the Germans out of their Gazprom-induced stupor and shames them into freeing the Leopards, that's a step in the right direction.
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  839. Allowing Russia to win is the ultimate escalation. Musk is a Russian asset, treat accordingly.
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  840. Because you didn't fix the broken and outdated bits of your government before a cabal of wannabe fascists started abusing it to pursue their goal of rulership.
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  841. For conservatives, a lot of them envy Russia--rampant Make X Great Again nationalism, pure hate for LGBT+ people and other easy targets, a tame state religion that endorses whatever the government is doing right now, a cowed population who "don't care about politics", and the super-rich given free reign to loot and plunder as they like. All with a macho strongman at the centre of it all. But in fairness, there are a sad number of left-wing "tankies" who hate war on principle and want to take whatever path stops the war fastest (no matter how injust or dangersou), or who simply take whatever side the US is not on.
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  842. It's a talking shop where Russia rolls out standard denials while their latest land grab goes ahead. On the day the Russians blew the dam, the UN celebrated Russian Language Day, and they more recently said there was no evidence of Russian genocide. It's bad comedy. Time to defund the UN, send it the way of the League and replace it with something better.
    1
  843.  @1stCallipostle  Nah, the Democrats have done good stuff for American citizens--much more than Republicans, who have little to offer other than culture wars and tax cuts for the rich. Step outside the Faux News bubble that you're currently trapped in, and you will see this binary choice is nonsensical.
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  844. It's good to see Germany get off their knees.
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  845. "Article Five".
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  846. [citation needed]
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  847.  @chusnacho4447  It's REALLY hard to feel sympathy for Russian soldiers anymore, when you look at what they've been doing. Yes, #notallrussians but when the war ends, every murderer, rapist, torturer, child kidnapper and destroyers of hospitals will be claiming that no, no, they were one of the GOOD soldiers who never wanted to be there and never did anything naughty.
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  848.  @ArmedSpaghet  But none of that actually benefited Poland.
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  849.  @almcfly7407  On the side of stirring the pot, in order to create a flood of refugees and a distraction that they hope will weaken Western support for Ukraine. Much like Syria.
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  850. Reality has an anti-Russian bias.
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  851. @@dons-tf1yo Plus, those who are the most hateful towards the LGBT+ community are those most likely to be deeply closeted themselves.
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  852. If we respect nuclear threats, or give Russia any ground whatsoever because of them, then the message is broadcast to the world that nuclear blackmail gives you an advantage. The only proper response to nuclear threats is "Article Five, Bitches."
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  853.  @ethanor  And that's a rule Putin routinely exploits by using astroturf insurrections to create frozen conflicts in countries he plans on annexing. We need a way to deal with that.
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  854. He's also an anti-vaxxer. Just an all-round foul little grifter of a failed human.
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  855. Offensives happen when they work, not when some random guy in the West thinks they should. If you're not in the Ukranian command structure, your opinion on when would be best is quite irrelevant.
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  856. They know. It just suits their purposes (and the orders from their Moscow paymasters) to pretend otherwise.
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  857.  @transilvlad  And how many Americans and Ukranians will lose their lives because of this traitor? Either directly, or civilians in occupied territory tortured to death and crammed into cellars to suffocate because the liberation had to be delayed?
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  858.  @transilvlad  Sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice. If anything, the lack of ideology in what he did makes him even more despicable.
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  859. Can you explain in detail how South African's current government is Communist? Lots of sources and citations, please and thank you.
    1
  860.  @allistairneil8968  You probably actually do believe that everyone would have done the same thing.
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  861. Russian culture is one of suffering, but never actually asking if the suffering was necessary.
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  862. Bear in mind, this doesn't stop the Botski Brigade from cycling the same old excuses. Soldiers in the building, it was a Ukranian missile, crisis actors there to make us look bad. You know, the exact same script you see every time Russia indulge in terrorist attacks on civilians. Even when their own MOD is crowing and exulting over murdering children, the disinformation department of the Kremlin is still following their standard muddy-the-waters script. And some Western tankies will be brain-dead enough to buy it.
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  863.  elenarus6382  That someone was Putin. Look up "Cambridge Analytica" for a breakdown of the massive Russian disinformation operation, something they'd later use again in the US elections.
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  864.  @kazekamiha  As Churchill put it when the USSR was invaded: "If Hitler invaded hell, I would give the devil a favourable reference."
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  865.  steven-gd6hp  It's a vastly better investment than Truss and Kwarteng's deranged libetarian experiments were.
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  866. Doubtful. A soulless mercenary like him will say whatever he's paid to say.
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  867.  @Nathanial-Lee-Vigder  Bear in mind a lot of those groups are bankrolled by Russia, and Russia embodies a lot of what they want to be (oligarchy, a supreme leader with a cult of personality, tame state religion, anti-LGBT+, etc).
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  868. "Drown them in our blood."
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  869.  @Hermod1995  He is pro-Russian, in deed if not in word. At BEST he's a useful idiot filling the role of Putin's premier anti-tank weapon.
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  870.  @awf6554  It's a botski, following the standard Russian "sow division" script.
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  871.  @KarlKarsnark  Botski reported.
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  872.  @krazytroutcatcher  Botski reported.
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  873.  @agffans5725  Almost as if socialism isn't pure evil, huh?
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  874. You know that famous photo of the Soviet soldiers raising the flag over the Reichstag? Neither of them were Russian, and one was Ukranian.
    1
  875.  @anthonywatson7735  The UN has proven itself obsolete and in need of dissolution and reform. It's now that place where dictators block investigations into themselves.
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  876.  @Gardor  It was never his decision to make. "Unearned Wealth" is no qualification for interfering in politics, and it's a chilling wake-up call for us to start curbing the power of the parasite class in politics.
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  877.  @dianag859  In the end, the only winner is Sumeria. 😀
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  878. He's not leading an unstable third world state, or an autocracy. If the leader of a democracy is killed, the successor takes over, or a new one is elected.
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  879.  @turningpoint4238  Hmm, why are you assuming Musk is synonymous with EV's and private space exploration, and that neither of them could exist without him? Tesla and SpaceX existed before Musk, and they are far from the only game in town in EITHER field, as much as their PR departments try to spin otherwise. How is pointing out Musk's many personal flaws and business failings and false claims an attack on the future? What about those companies makes them the sole destined saviours of mankind? Nothing. You've been suckered in by a PR campaign devised by advertising agencies (since corporations are never your friends), and you're showing every sign of being in a cult of personality, where any attack on the Glorious Leader could only possibly be motivated by envy. Repeat after me: "Tony Stark and John Galt are fictional characters."
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  880. I think some of it is based on the War on Terror. Like in the 1930's, we're about 20-odd years out from a war that was advertised as a glorious defence of freedom, but which turned into a murky quagmire that didn't seem to be producing anything except body bags, shell-shocked veterans and rising debt. Afterwards, everyone is very cynical of the concept of a good war, and doesn't trust politicians. A dictator starts rising, but everyone's slow to believe that THIS one is actually as bad as they say.
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  881. Here's what Russia are doing. From Wikipedia: "DARVO, meaning “Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender,” summarizes a consistent reaction and manipulation tactic used by perpetrators of abuse or other types of wrongdoing.1 It works by shifting the focus away from the original issue and attacking the actual victim. It attempts to switch the roles of victim and perpetrator to allow the actual offender to receive sympathy and compassion, publicly or privately, as well as to avoid consequences for their actions."
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  882. One other significance about the hypersonic missiles being shut down is that it seriously defangs Russian nuclear threats. If you launch a nuclear missile, you want to be really certain it's going to destroy whatever it hits. And even a 50% chance of interception makes it far less of a safe bet.
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  883. The idea of being a lifelong voter for any party is profoundly anti-democratic.
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  884. Vote blue, and mobilise everyone you know to vote blue. There are Russian-funded traitors and useful idiots in your government.
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  885.  @unconventionalideas5683  We hoped for the same thing about Trump, then found he actually believed all his crazy promises.
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  886.  @kaythegardener  Because you want to stick it to the libs, regardless of the damage it does to the world, to the US or to yourself.
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  887.  @cyberbuttcheese9256  Here's my understanding: He's one of Putin's People, like Trump and many of his cronies.
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  888. That has not yet been proven.
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  889.  @scipioafricanus5871  "These tanks will be easily destroyed and will make no difference--also, sending them is an unforgivable escalation."
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  890.  @natalieturko4808  Do tell us, if you were in the occupied territory, would you shrug and tell the free people to not bother liberating you? You'd be okay with being imprisoned in hideously cramped cells with no room to sit, with your children being stolen for forced Russification, and your home being looted by orcs? And that's before we get into the likelihood of you or someone you love being murdered or raped. You'd be okay with all that? You could say "yes", but nobody would believe you. Not sure if concern trolling botski or just a dull-witted tankie.
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  891. There's a trend of far-right factions being very chummy with Russia. They have their fingers in a lot of pies.
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  892.  @churblefurbles  Botski reported. May you soon be drafted.
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  893. My favourite bit of bonkers stuff from Russian state TV was when they threatened to punish the UK by nuking Ireland. As in, the Republic of Ireland. As in, the part of the British Isles that is NOT part of the UK.
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  894. My guess is that Russia expects to lose territory in the near future, hence why the Botski Brigade is going into overdrive about the need to negotiate, so some of those gains can be locked in.
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  895.  @canuckprogressive.3435  Just report them and move on.
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  896. Moscow money happened, and he also revealed what a failed human he actually is beyond being right one time.
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  897. Russia loves to talk, they love to chatter away with a torrent of nonsense as their soldiers conduct the latest annexation and genocide, utterly confident that the talking won't lead to any action. It's time to admit the UN is unfit for the modern world, and was only useful during the Cold War. Don't forget, Russia blew the dam and the UN celebrated Russian language day. It's entirely impossible to take the UN seriously after that.
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  898.  @shonuffizhere5670  Botski reported. May you soon be drafted.
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  899.  @larsord9139  Putin certainly pushes that message. Why do you think he approves such absurd stuff on state TV? It's so he can do the classic fascist dictator thing of "you need ME to hold back the chaos!"
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  900.  @knaller2k  We're not in a nuclear war, we're in a stage then of a massive conventional offensive, the obliteration of all Russian nuclear launch sites, and messages going out to everyone in the Kremlin to hand over Putin's head or become a target themselves.
    1
  901.  @dannym6675  Giving in to nuclear blackmail is also escalation. It tells Putin he can threaten nukes to get whatever he wants, and also sends the same message to every other tinpot dictator--get some nukes and you can bully your neighbours with impunity. That's how you start a new global age of proliferation. Russia must fail, visibly and publicly, to gain one single thing from their threats. Otherwise, what do you do when Putin says "I'll have Poland now--nobody interfere or I'll nuke you."? Other factors to bear in mind are that the Russian missiles have been shot down with 30 year old systems, their warheads have almost certainly been neglected due to corruption and vranyo, that drifting radiation triggers Article Five, and that China is also pushing Russia to wind down the nuclear talk. None of which makes a nuclear attack impossible, it just makes it dumb from Russia's perspective--you don't launch a nuke unless you're 100% certain it'll destroy the target. Nuclear threats are part of the standard Russian strategy--make extreme threats and count on someone in the West backing down and letting you keep what you stole.
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  902.  @sammenter1  [citation needed]
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  903. They understand. It just suits them (and their Musocivte paymasters) to pretend otherwise.
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  904. So far, the Russians have been entirely submissive and compliant. Most of the soldiers killed come from ethnic minority groups in rural areas, specifically to minimise the backlash.
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  905.  @traumvonhaiti  Anyone who wants to be Russian can go to Russia. But they don't, probably because they know what it's actually like.
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  906. It's important to remember that the Kremlin stories aren't told so that you'll believe them. They're told so that you'll be confused, unable to tell what the actual truth is, and be left with a vague impression of "both sides are as bad as each other".
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  907. Remember to keep track of how MUCH money is being sent to Ukraine, because it's probably far less than you / they think, and far more money has gone to far less worthy causes. For example, in the UK, the catastrophically bad "mini-budget of Liz Truss" cost the country twice as much money as we've sent to Ukraine.
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  908. If Russia blows the nuclear power plant, it will be because of the wishy-washy bothsides our press shamefully engaged in.
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  909. You haven't been paying much attention for the last eight years, huh?
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  910. Brand is a tankie and useful idiot.
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  911. "Hold my beer...." But seriously yeah, it makes no sense beyond the superficial.
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  912.  @Kas-d5b  There was a promise to enforce Ukraine's sovereignity in exchange for their nuclear missiles, which was ignored in 2014.
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  913. "If we are going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things — praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts — not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They might break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds." --C.S. Lewis
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  914. Also bear in mind that we've seen that a 30-year-old missile defence system, with relatively inexperienced operators, can shoot down Russia's "unstoppable" missiles. Even if it's not 100% protection, that's going to be a major disincentive--you don't want to launch a nuke unless you're totally certain it'll get the target.
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  915. It's hard to find a far-right movement in the world that doesn't have Russian fingers inside the puppets.
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  916.  @vasilistsitsas5088  The lives of soldiers engaged in rape, murder, looting, shelling civilian buildings and child kidnapping are worth far less. The good Russians are the deserters, everyone else is a war crime waiting to happen.
    1
  917.  @vasilistsitsas5088  The thing is, for decades after the war, there's a good chance that a Russian man of combat age at the time of the invasion was engaging in war crimes. Of course, all the subhuman savages will SAY that no no no, they were the GOOD Russians who didn't do any raping, murdering or kidnapping. And if they're not in that demographic, there's an excellent chance they were crowing about their desire to murder Ukranians and nuke the west, and supporting Putin as he Made Russia Great Again. Can the bothsides nonsense. NATO countries have waged wars, but this methodical embrace of savagery, racism, war crimes and genocide is entirely unique to Russia. Anyone who was party to it will be tainted for the rest of their lives, as they damn well should be.
    1
  918.  @maxwellblackwell5045  I'm very grateful that Americans such as yourself did not prevail in the 1940's, when the UK was the democracy standing up against a fascist bully-boy. Except of course, that the UK didn't have their cities occupied by an army of savages at any point.
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  919. Show your evidence for that (not including worthless Russian referendums with an armed thug at every polling station), because the polls conducted under a democratic government reject your alternative facts.
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  920. Also, "ethnic Russian" means jack and all, and the pushing of the narrative that ethnicity or language corresponds to political support for Russia is a well-known Kremlin tactic used to justify invasion. It's just as meaningless as Britain deciding to invade Australia to "free the ethnic British".
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  921. Conspiracy theories are more weaponised than they've ever been. Even the "harmless" ones like flat earth act as gateway drugs. Once someone's primed to believe that they can't trust their government or anything "mainstream", they cross over to the harder stuff.
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  922.  @rexsceleratorum1632  I hear none of those things have ever happened in a capitalist country, C/D?
    1
  923.  @gppsoftware  One of the greatest psyops of all time was presenting the Cold War as "freedom vs communism" rather than "freedom vs tyranny" or "capitalism vs communism". It worked out great for the super-rich, who could paint the acquisition of wealth at all costs as being synonymous with freedom. If you wanted to form a union, regulate brutally unsafe working conditions, and not get laid off on a whim so your boss could claim a slightly bigger bonus...why, that's UN-AMERICAN SOCIALISM, you might as well hang up a picture of Lenin! The billionaires are still taking advantage of that "socialism bad" reflex to brutalise their workers today, more efficiently than ever before.
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  924. It's not about presenting a believable story, it's about muddying the waters with disinfo, so that people who are uninvolved will say "I don't know what to believe."
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