Comments by "LancesArmorStriking" (@LancesArmorStriking) on "RUSSIAN REACTS to Zelensky Lex Fridman Interview" video.
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@DailyMusic
It being "madness" doesn't discredit the Crimean people's genuine wishes at the time.
Independence from Ukraine being impractical doesn't therefore mean it's okay to send a post-Soviet branch of the KGB in to silence people.
To that extent, though, remember that the "cutting off" (I assume you mean the Dnipro Canal) applies to Ukraine just as much as it does to Crimea. The Dnipro starts in Russia, passes through Belarus, then Ukraine, and flows into the Black Sea.
Would you make the same argument for Ukraine being "mad" to oppose Russia because Russia could divert or dam the river and permanently ecologically destroy Ukraine?
That's the language of appeasement and I'm frankly shocked that you're willing to use it after all that's happened since 2022. I guess it doesn't matter when it's your guys...
Anyways, the autonomy thing was never considered by Ukraine to dispel Crimean fears of Ukrainianization.
And frankly, the Ukrainian Parliament disregarding the 1991 election vote where most voted to leave Ukraine and sending soldiers in to take Crimea by force (never mind the later referendum in 1994) dampens the idea that they defended their borders for the sake of democracy.
The Crimeans weren't allowed the right to self-determination. The Rada (a few days before the annexation, on the 23rd) repealed the 2012 law that gave Russian legal status as a regional language within Crimea.
Were it not for Turchynov's veto, Crimeans would be forced to learn only Ukrainian in schools, and all legal documents and bureaucratic matters would have to handled in a lanuage they didn't even speak. And the law was repealed in October of that year anyway, but the Rada showed its intentions even without the annexation as a justification.
I'm not saying that the annexation was correct, but surely Ukraine could have done anything to even pretend that they didn't want to turn Crimea into ethnically Ukrainian land, despite supposedly being a democracy that respects multiculturalism.
About the UN— it isn't very good at its job. Somaliland should be separate, Basque shouldn't be part of Spain, yet the UN didn't do anything to endorse or propose a referendum.
In either case, Somalia and Spain quickly shut it down. Leaving elections up to a legal body that isn't capable of organizing them isn't a good solution.
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@DailyMusic
"Ukraine has other sources of water, electricity"
My point is that Ukraine could be affected by another country, I don't think the degree of risk is what matters here, it's the principle of self-determination. Something being "mad" shouldn't be an argument against leaving, for either Ukraine or Crimea.
If we go by your logic, then what level of risk is acceptable for Crimea to permanently leave Ukraine?
And why are you seeing this through the lens of force? Isn't that what Russia is doing, and Ukraine is supposed to be against? Was all the rhetoric about national sovereignty meaningless?
Your framing of Ukraine being unable to guarantee safety is disingenuous when they didn't respect the wishes of the Crimeans on issues unrelated to independence.
As I said, they repealed the status of Russian as a minority language. So they don't care about them at all, and pretending like keeping Crimea is for the well-being of the people living there is just plain lying.
Ukraine might be a victim to Russia, but it never had good intentions for Crimea. When Ukraine becomes the "Russia" in a political relationship, they don't act any differently to Russia.
Same goes for the Hungarians, Romanians, Poles, and Rusyns on their territory. Ukraine treats them like Russia treated Ukraine. And that's the most despicable part, knowing how it feels to be oppressed and choosing to oppress others anyway. It's sick.
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Ironically, I think you're betraying your own opinions here, by agreeing with Vexler.
He (and you, by extension) seem to think that Putin, under this framework, is acting from a knowingly evil perspective. That's fundamentally incorrect, and reductionist. Everyone is the good guy of his own story.
And I find it funny to think that the same people calling Lex naive apparently genuinely believe that Putin thinks to himself, "I want to spread suffering in the world because I, Vladimir Vladimirovich, am a hateful person and therefore will express that through violence!" Rationalizing and sugar-coating your own decisions is human. Putin is no different, so he wouldn't have the motivations of a cartoon villain.
I don't agree with Lex that Putin's motivation is a love of country, but his actions are too well thought-out, long-term (2014-2022, and counting) to be impulsive; and too reserved (why not use nukes? Prigozhin wanted to) to be purely fuelled by "want for destruction".
Vexler also misunderstands Lex's worldview.
Lex, being a compsci grad, and later alum to MIT, sees the world in a mechanical way. A series of stimuli and reactions. {If, then} lines of code.
It's not correct to say that he sees only the emotionally good motivations in people, he has trouble seeing the emotional motivations, period.
He's not a robot of course, but look back through his interviews and the way he frames questions about motivations. Vexler is simply wrong.
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