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Ask HN: Aren't you afraid of a possible world conflict?

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Re: Ask HN: Aren't you afraid of a possible world conflict?

#41

Post by leviliebvin »

peepeepoopoo89 wrote: post #31
beretguy wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you are ok with if nobody will come to help you when your life is in danger because your life is not anyone else's problem.

NATO as it exists today is a welfare program where US taxpayers subsidize the defense budgets of European countries so they can afford lavish social benefits programs for their citizens while the US drowns in both personal and federal debt. You were never going to come help us, and the exploitative relationship between our countries is now over. Good luck.

This is a fascinating perspective. Because a lot of people would rather say that NATO is a US-led project intended to protect US hegemony.

Re: Ask HN: Aren't you afraid of a possible world conflict?

#42

Post by hkpack »

mnky9800n wrote: post #17
euroderf wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> old weapons to ukraine AFAICT this is not a serious problem. Russia is in many cases fighting with junkyard scrapings. https://x.com/Jonpy99/status/1860694569102258607

It doesn't matter what Russia is fighting with. The war is not about winning, it is about war profiteering. Both for Putin and the West. While the West gives out fat new contracts to build new weapons, Putin has stolen much of the grain produced in Ukraine and launders it through ship to ship transfers then sells to Egypt and other countries. This has made billions for Putin in the last year alone. Putin wins if the…

> war profiteering

As with anything, there will be the ones who profits from it. Always has been, always will be.

But the overall description is a ridiculous oversimplification of what is happening.

Re: Ask HN: Aren't you afraid of a possible world conflict?

#43

Post by peepeepoopoo89 »

leviliebvin wrote: post #41
peepeepoopoo89 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NATO as it exists today is a welfare program where US taxpayers subsidize the defense budgets of European countries so they can afford lavish social benefits programs for their citizens while the US drowns in both personal and federal debt. You were never going to come help us, and the exploitative relationship between our countries is now over. Good luck.

This is a fascinating perspective. Because a lot of people would rather say that NATO is a US-led project intended to protect US hegemony.

NATO needs the US a lot more than the US needs NATO. It wasn't always this way, but today we really don't get anything out of being allied with a deindustrialized and demilitarized Europe that is currently doing its absolute best to provoke an irrational and unstable neighboring world power.

Re: Ask HN: Aren't you afraid of a possible world conflict?

#44

Post by hkpack »

dingosity wrote: post #7

Should we be scared? [asked in all seriousness, not as a quip.]

Not scared but acknowledge that the world in which there were long periods of peace and short wars is over.

There will be long wars and short peace from now on for undefined time.

Whether it will be wars on the periphery or a global war depends on which stage western democracies will wake up and collectively realise the reality of the situation.

Re: Ask HN: Aren't you afraid of a possible world conflict?

#45

Post by leviliebvin »

badpun wrote: post #32
082349872349872 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you counting russia as part of Eurasia here? Because to me it's looking more like becoming part of Eastasia instead.

Russia was always the weird case of a country with a cruel, Asian steppe mentality (early in the days of the Dutchy of Moscow, they were conquered and thoroughly subjugated by the Mongols, the Mongol mark of cruelty and disdain for human life is still there in XXI century) that is also Christian. The Christianity has confused Western leaders throught the ages, who thought Russia is like any other European country, an…

Right. The English, the French, the Germans, the Dutch, the Swedish, the Spanish, the Portuguese, the Romans, the Greeks, the Austrians, the Belgians, ..., the Cossacks ... none of those ever did anything to show any kind of "cruel mentality". Right.

This kind of completely unhinged dehumanizing nonsense is bordering hate speech.

Re: Ask HN: Aren't you afraid of a possible world conflict?

#46

Post by throwaway-1124 »

I don't think there's much to be afraid of, for one simple if nonobvious reason: Russia has already won. There's no point in fighting a war if you can turn the enemy into a satellite without firing a single shot.

They did so by deploying an incredible hybrid and cyber warfare machine, outsmarting what little defenses the West put up. They turned our democracies against us, weaponizing hundreds of millions of simpletons. In the 90s we dreamt that the Internet would galvanize democracy. It became an amazing weapon of subversion instead.

Russia leveraged kooky franchisees on the extremes of the political spectrum. Aware that they did not belong in politics otherwise, they were all too happy to cooperate.

In 2000 Trump sought the nomination of the Reform party and lost [1]. He was unable to leverage his money and Russian support into securing a primary win of a 2% party. Fifteen years and billions of rubles later, the Russian hype machine had been fully built out. He was guided to the 2016 Republican nomination with the precision of a hypersonic missile.

A similar story played itself out in virtually all other Western countries. Beware of the usual exceptionalist apologies - Trump, Orban, Le Pen, Farage are all cookie-cutter stories.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_2000_presidential...

Re: Ask HN: Aren't you afraid of a possible world conflict?

#47

Post by skwee357 »

arisAlexis wrote: post #28
skwee357 wrote: post #16

The thing is, I no longer trust any news source. They all exist to serve their agenda, while rarely providing the real picture. So there is no way for me, as a regular citizen, to truly know what happens in the world or a particular regional conflict. So while I do worry that there might be a bigger war, I also realize that the picture painted by the news, or the "promises" that different country leaders make, are me…

Yes there is. For example there is war in Ukraine and in Gaza and you can find more information on those digging deeper. Not trusting any news source and never combining news to "unbias" them is same thinking that leads to " maybe they are lying to us and the earth is flat". There is always a solution.

You can find information, that's true. But for an ordinary citizen, this is usually where it ends. All kinds of feelings such as "being afraid of world conflict", is your interpretation of the found information, either because you've reached this conclusion yourself, or because you live in an echo chamber where this conclusion is the accepted one (see: Russia being anti-west).

While I don't discourage people to seek information, and reach conclusions, in today's world, unless you are directly involved in the conflict/decision-making, the chance for you to get accurate information is an extremely hard task. News either take things out of context, or simply lack professionalism due to poor journalism, lack of time and or desire to perform thorough deep dives, etc. Social media is filled with fake information, both as a tool in the information war, as well as by "influencers" who keep reposting everything that brings them views.

And in the end, the saying "history is written by the victors", was, is, and forever will be - true.

Re: Ask HN: Aren't you afraid of a possible world conflict?

#49

Post by MrMan »

peepeepoopoo89 wrote: post #38
gadders wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Trump has the best chance of ending the war, but I don't think America and the CIA gets to dodge responsibility for helping to start it.

Fair point, although the way things are currently shaping up with his administration, I'm expecting there to be some serious consequences for the spooks that orchestrated all of this.

[dead]

Re: Ask HN: Aren't you afraid of a possible world conflict?

#50

Post by skwee357 »

ahartmetz wrote: post #33
skwee357 wrote: post #16

The thing is, I no longer trust any news source. They all exist to serve their agenda, while rarely providing the real picture. So there is no way for me, as a regular citizen, to truly know what happens in the world or a particular regional conflict. So while I do worry that there might be a bigger war, I also realize that the picture painted by the news, or the "promises" that different country leaders make, are me…

As a strong emotion, creating fear is an effective means to an end, but rarely/never an ultimate goal. If you really want to understand what's going on, don't stop at "they just want to scare me". As far as the news are concerned, they just want viewers / advertising customers / money in most cases.

I doubt you can "really understand" what's going on without you being directly involved in said conflict, either as a tool for executing a particular agenda, or as a decision maker.
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