.. which also explains why autocratic regimes are terribly bad for global progress.
Maybe the name Putin will enter the dictionary as a verb meaning to fuck up a functioning political system in an effort to revert to outdated and broken structures and thought patterns. What Ned Ludd* is for technological progress, Vladimir Putin is for political progress.
He's such a perfect example of getting it all wrong and causing enormous harm to millions of people because his power is unchecked by any domestic controls and balances.
*Who, in contrast to Putin, was apparently entirely fictional.
While I share the contempt for Putin I want to correct what looks like a misconception: that if Putin were out of the picture Russia would be a peaceful, prosperous nation.
Putin is the strongman who emerged from the political and cultural swamp that is post-soviet Russia. If he were gone tomorrow that swamp would still be there, ready to breed another monster like him.
Maybe we're lucky enough that he was unique, that the cultural and historical grievances that bred him were looking for exactly his personality and no other...but I wouldn't bet the safety of the world on that.
.. which also explains why autocratic regimes are terribly bad for global progress.
Maybe the name Putin will enter the dictionary as a verb meaning to fuck up a functioning political system in an effort to revert to outdated and broken structures and thought patterns. What Ned Ludd* is for technological progress, Vladimir Putin is for political progress.
He's such a perfect example of getting it all wrong and causing enormous harm to millions of people because his power is unchecked by any domestic controls and balances.
*Who, in contrast to Putin, was apparently entirely fictional.
I'd like to introduce you all to some historians whose work I enjoy (and support): Spartacus Olsen and Indy Neidel. They run a historical documentary operation called Timeghost, both as a YouTube channel and a stand-alone operation. Their day-by-day documentary approach to the recent history of Europe is timely and informative, and I recommend it highly. Here they counter a historical justification of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
nice. the best bit being, every state is a made-up state.
Eventually, the Crimean Tatars became a minority in Crimea; in 1783, they comprised 98 per cent of the population,[19] but by 1897, this was down to 34.1 per cent.[20] While Crimean Tatars were emigrating, the Russian government encouraged Russification of the peninsula, populating it with Russians, Ukrainians, and other Slavic ethnic groups; this Russification continued during the Soviet era.[20]
The Russian invasion of Ukraine may put at risk a network of US-linked labs in Ukraine that work with dangerous pathogens, said Robert Pope, the director of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, a 30-year-old Defense Department program that has helped secure the former Soviet Unionâs weapons of mass destruction and redirect former bioweapons facilities and scientists toward peaceful endeavors.
"The broad narrative he conveyed to me is that they will continue their aggression until Ukraine meets their demands, and the least of these demands is surrender."
I'd like to introduce you all to some historians whose work I enjoy (and support): Spartacus Olsen and Indy Neidel. They run a historical documentary operation called Timeghost, both as a YouTube channel and a stand-alone operation. Their day-by-day documentary approach to the recent history of Europe is timely and informative, and I recommend it highly.
Here they counter a historical justification of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Yeah, FUCK Putin. He initiated a war on another sovereign state and that war has included the deliberate targeting of civilians. On the other hand, the human nature of tribal, nationalistic bullshit continues to create circumstances wherein such insanity can be justified ("sovereign states"). As long as there are borders, there will be wars. Until humanity fully realizes that we are a single species living on a finite planet, this sort of obscene behavior will continue.
I agree
now can we keep that outrage for the situations in Yemen and Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan?
The cancellation of Russian cultural figures and products can be
understood as a successive step in this familiar choreography. âThis is
the globalization of moral outrage,â the Times columnist Thomas Friedman writes. âIt goes from watching a short video online showing Russian soldiers
firing on a Ukrainian nuclear energy facility to an employee posting
that video on his or her Facebook page to a group of employees emailing
their bosses or going on Slack â not to ask their C.E.O.s to do
something but to tell them they have to do something or they will lose workers
and customers.â
miamizsun wrote:Yeah, FUCK Putin. He initiated a war on another sovereign state and that war has included the deliberate targeting of civilians. On the other hand, the human nature of tribal, nationalistic bullshit continues to create circumstances wherein such insanity can be justified ("sovereign states"). As long as there are borders, there will be wars. Until humanity fully realizes that we are a single species living on a finite planet, this sort of obscene behavior will continue.
This stuff about Trump weakening NATO pisses me off, though. All's Trump did was try to make everyone pay their bill. The USA was carrying all of the freight, as someone mentioned about Libya somewhere, too. The French sucked us in because Sweet Libyan Crude was what their refineries were built to run and they were almost totally dependent on Libyan oil. Yet because they and the rest of NATO did not invest in their military like they were supposed to, they got us to run the air war, even though we had long settled our difference with Qadaffy and even had him on our payroll. We destroyed a country because of France / the EU's (NATO's) personal local economic problems.
The only true imperialist empires right now are the Russian's and the Chinese. They are the only ones seeking to add to their territory. And now they are doing it aggressively. The gloves are off. So Climate Change is a bigger existential threat than this overt imperialism ? Yeah, ok. I'll have what y'all are smoking and get over it then, cuz it seems to be working for you.
I agree, it pisses me off too that Trump thought NATO was no longer necessary and... if he had his way... we wouldn't be a part of it anymore. Finally a shared gripe about Trump that we can both agree on. It pisses me off too that he held up funds to Ukraine that were already agreed and committed to and got himself impeached because of it.
Finally, why are you so hung up on others who are rightfully concerned about Climate Change? The Ukraine Crisis is an immediate threat with long term impact and Climate Change is longer term threat but they are both threats any way you cut it. It's not an either-or proposition.
Are you saying America can't possibly work on multiple issues at once? You must be one hell of a multi-tasker.