Everything bad that is happening in this war is the result of Russia starting the war. If the war continues, the bad things will inevitably continue. The bad things will stop when the war stops, and since Russia cannot be convinced with words, the only way to stop the war is to kill Russians.
This seems like a pretty reasonable position to take, more pragmatic than most in the west have been willing to publicly state. If this was a more commonly held belief in the corridors of power in the west, the war might have been over by now.
Mer
1yr ago
I agree with most of what you're saying, but I would argue that human beings are actually perfectly consistent with their beliefs and that the issue lies with the limitations of language to both rationally understand and express these beliefs. My view is that people struggle to translate beliefs (perhaps better defined as values), which are primal and instinctual, into words and concepts that the "civilised" part of ourselves can understand. This process is further complicated by the layers of self deception and censorship that accrue naturally from living with other humans.
As a consequence I don't believe anyone truly understands their own beliefs, let alone those of others. The best we can hope for is a vague approximation, good enough to inform decision making.
Mer
1yr ago
you're not going to research a topic you don't think is important
Of course you will, I'm a historical wargamer and frequently research topics of no consequence other than to sate my curiosity and interest in the given topic. There are plenty of people who will delve to incredible depths on topics for no reason other than the desire to know more.
A far greater predictor for if you will research something is interest in the subject, how important you judge something to be can play a role in that, but it doesn't seem to be a major one, given how absurdly heated people can get on topics that they actually have almost no knowledge of.
The odds of the progressive types changing their mind on such an issue over a single debate is very low indeed, as it's one of their sacred cows.
Someones willingness to research a topic has no bearing on the seriousness with which that person looks at the topic.
Mer
1yr ago
85% of all people will believe made up statistics.
As for your original question, it really depends on what is being debated, the seriousness of the topic to the listeners and the strength of the arguments presented.
Mer
1yr ago
I suspect that it's a case of people venting forth on topics that were previously forbidden.
It's made the motte somewhat dissapointing to open recently, as I don't particularly care either way on the matter and it feels like it drowns out more worthy topics.
Mer
1yr ago
But what if you're under any kind of artillery fire?
Be where the artillery isn't.
Just drive away, speed is armour.
Mer
1yr ago
You can use a Toyota as a troop carrier, you can put guns on it. But you'd be much better off with an actual military vehicle, something with armor, something designed for war.
Don't make me bring up the Toyota War, I will not stand idly by while one of the greatest modern fighting vehicles is slandered so.
Mer
2yr ago
If I don't know what a Torta is, then your average Britisher definitely doesn't.
Mer
2yr ago
English with no accent
And what exactly does English with no accent sound like?
Mer
2yr ago
And, tbh, even other Triple-A strategy games - despite being less complex - have serious problems with the AI. Total War has good enough tactical AI but I've always heard complaints about their strategy, for example.
This argument has never really held water with me, those other games have a lot of other things to sink their budgets into, paradox games do not, the AI and how it handles strategy is the game.
Paradox are just cheap and know they've cornered a niche market and are content to put in the minimum amount of effort they need to continue milking the whales that buy their dlc.
Mer
2yr ago
This whole war in Ukraine has definitely been interesting in the sense of what it has done to fringe online political communities, watching them turn on one another and split in what on the surface would seem to be unexpected ways.
Tankies supporting a right wing authoritarian invasion, Neo-Nazis cheering in support of the de-nazification of Ukraine, that sort of thing.
Mer
2yr ago
But for the encroachment, coup, and 8 years of shelling rebel oblasts, the invasion probably wouldn't have happened.
Like most wars, this one is not mono-causal
This one absolutely is, it stems entirely from a Russian inability to face reality and accept that it is no longer a great power and that Ukraine is no longer inside its orbit. If Russia was serious about the whole "multi-polar world" thing they would have recognised that their best bet was becoming part of Europe, instead they launched a war that will impoverish Russia and Europe, strengthening China and the US.
Mer
2yr ago
Thanks to the US, Western Europe has been pushed into a proxy war against their energy supplier.
No this is still very much thanks to Russia, the US may benefit from this, but Russia chose to launch this utterly idiotic and needless invasion in the first place.
Mer
2yr ago
OP's point about porn coming (cough) with a price is, I think, spot on--not to be an old man but porn used to be relatively a challenge to get one's hands on. Now free porn of almost any stripe cam be had for free as easily as literally tapping one's thumb a few times.
This remains just as true with romance novels and fanfiction. It also seems to be just as strange (if not stranger) than visual porn. I learned about this the other day and really drove home to me, someone who takes a degree of pride in my knowledge of weird internet cultures, how little I know about the female side of the internet.
Mer
2yr ago
We wouldn't have continually detonated any negotiations otherwise.
This is nonsense, the only people who seriously favoured actual negotiation were in the west, with Macron making an absolute ass of himself by trying to play the peacemaker for two sides with incompatable demands.
Russias idea of negotiating is to merely demand the castration of Ukraine through large transfers of land and assurances that nobody will be allowed to help Ukraine when they return to finish the job.
The Ukrainians recognise that Russia will not be deflected from their goal of annexing Ukraine by negotiations, and that their best chance is through battlefield victory.
Damn, how many invasions did I miss?
In all seriousness, the US (or more broadly speaking, the west in general, don't know why you're leaving western europe out here) didn't "expand into eastern europe", it was invited in, largely because eastern europe was sick of Russia and what Russia had to offer.
More options
Context Copy link