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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   26531 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 17, 2025

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I reiterate: And?

The problem with the thug's worldview is that they create the world they think they are merely describing. Nobody in Eastern Europe would be clamoring for an alliance with Uncle Sam if not for Russia's own behavior.

And therefore American politicians are hypocrites (wittingly or not) when they say that large countries like Russia have no right to exert influence on their neighbours.

If they believe the same for America (which I doubt, they’ve never been shy about steering their vassals allies away from getting involved with geopolitical rivals, see Nord Stream 2) it is because they are the proverbial man in a gated community patrolled by police who believes that nobody has the right to self-defence.

Now, it may be that you personally would strongly oppose any such behaviour by America as strongly as you oppose it when done by Russia. But I don’t think many Americans would, and I certainly don’t think America’s government would.

Personally, as an Englishman I would vote for taking action should Ireland or a hypothetical independent Scotland start discussing alliance with enemy nations for example. Letting yourself be put into a position of weakness just because nobody has actually used it against you yet is stupid. So I can hardly order that nobody else does so. Of course, one hopes it never comes to that, but part of making sure it doesn’t is that everyone has to take care not to tread on each others’ toes.

And therefore American politicians are hypocrites

And?

it is because they are the proverbial man in a gated community patrolled by police who believes that nobody has the right to self-defence

This is the strangest conceptualization of self-defense I've seen in a while.

And?

You stated that "Russia has no more right to demand subservience from Ukraine than the US does from Canada or Mexico". Others have pointed out that the US acts as if it does have that right, and always has. To the extent that you believe what you say, you are rare. The majority of people who assert that Russia has no right to care about its neighbour's alliances are hypocrites who willfully refuse to put themselves in Russia's shoes, which they don't have to because America owns most of a continent and quelled its only neighbours centuries ago.

it is because they are the proverbial man in a gated community patrolled by police who believes that nobody has the right to self-defence

It's a fairly standard criticism of the kind of people who condemn others for physically defending themselves against assault - that the condemners can afford to take a high-minded view on such matters only because they live in a fortified community from which potentially-dangerous elements of the underclass have been forcibly excluded.

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