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non_radical_centrist  1yr ago (astralcodexten.com)   2457 thread views

Book Review: Elon Musk[Scott Alexander]

astralcodexten.com

Scott Alexander’s review of a 2015 biography of Elon Musk. Elon Musk, to me, is one of the world’s most confusing people. He’s simultaneously both one of the smartest people in the world, creating billions of dollars of value in companies like Tesla and SpaceX, and one of the dumbest, in burning billions on Twitter. Scott’s review I think is a good explanation of what’s up with Musk.

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but fundamentally I’ve never seen Ukraine as having a peace deal on the table which I don’t think Musks entirely gets.

Can you expand on what you mean by this?

Russias war aims have been maximalist. Nothing less than either complete depopulation of Ukraine or an Iron curtain around Ukraine which are basically the same thing. Hence no peace deal was ever possible.

That's not true, peace offers have been well documented.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_negotiations_in_the_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine

Russia wanted independence for Luhansk and Donetsk, recognition of Russian control of Crimea, and neutrality from Ukraine (eg no Nato, no arms along the border).

The US and UK convinced Zelenskyy that Nato weapons would allow him to win the war and take back Crimea, so here we are.

In other words, a proposal to not punch back and to keep your guard down after getting hit for the second time for the last 8 years, and a pinky promise that it definitely won't happen again.

The people might have accepted that. No government would.

I don’t think those deals were ever on the table. And I think it’s Russian propaganda they just wanted “no nato”. They also wanted no EU and EU cultural connections. They didn’t want Ukraine to go the route of Poland (western and rich) even if that included no nato. It was basically national suicide on the table.

Putin in his speeches and Russian nationalist speeches at the time said those demands. It’s a motte and Bailey peach offering where they say they just want that but are invading without taking more.

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