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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?

#91

Post by warkanlock »

gus_massa wrote: post #69

I try to keep some food at home (probably 2 weeks), it's just the normal food so it's rotating naturally. It's also helpful for weird local events that are very rare, but not unheard. (Hi from Argentina!) I should keep more water, but I'm too lazy. I have only probably only two days that is too few. If I had time, I'd pick some iodine pills. They are small and have a long shelf life. Anything else is too difficult or…

Que haces che! Two of us from Argentina; it seems like a traditional thing with inflation that my father taught me a long time ago to keep food for at least 2 weeks.

I'll try to do the same with the pills, sounds reasonable and low-effort

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

#93

Post by gadders »

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.

I think there does need to be a review of the "Neo-Con" world view, whether that is nation building via invasion or by "colour revolutions".

I think the CIA is doing in Eastern Europe all the things that they used to do in Latin America in the 60's.

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

#94

Post by appplication »

Yawrehto wrote: post #79
ipnon wrote: post #24

Military victory has been a precondition to military punishment for all of human history. You had to disable the enemy’s forces before you used the threat of further violence to enact your political will. In fact for all of recorded warfare, it was expected that the victors would be able to commit what we today call war crimes with impunity. The default consequence of defeat was all of your men being killed, all of y…

I always have trouble with claims that our time is unique,because I can quickly construct arguments for just about any other time. So yes, our era is unique, but is it uniquely unique?

We do have the unique ability for a very small number of decision makers (theoretically one, but in practice maybe a few more) to completely eradicate all life on earth, or at a minimum vast swaths of it, within minutes.

Nuclear weapons are uniquely unique. We manage to avoid self-extermination through having relatively cool heads in charge of these decisions, but that is a cultural norm, not a universal guarantee.

If you assume there any chance at all that someone willing to use these ever ends up in control of this capability, on a long enough timeline that is essentially guaranteed to happen.

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

#95

Post by dang »

libertine wrote: post #73
peepeepoopoo91 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

[flagged]

We've banned the other account, but you also broke the site guidelines badly in this thread and that's also not cool.

If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it. We don't want this kind of flamewar or political/national/ideological battle here.

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

#96

Post by aguaviva »

leviliebvin wrote: post #45
badpun wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The English, the French, the Germans, the Dutch, the Swedish, the Spanish, the Portuguese, the Romans, the Greeks, the Austrians, the Belgians, ...,

All gave up their psychotic empire-building games (or at least sublimated into forms not involving large-scale military conflict) long ago.

Russia's current regime, for some reason, has not.

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

#97

Post by MrHamburger »

People can feel scared (paying attention) only for so long. War in Ukraine or climate change, it is happening in a too slow pace for people to keep attention next to their daily life, while they can't influence those events in any way.

Can Putin end the world if he will be afraid enough of losing? Maybe. Can you stop it? No. Then why would you care?

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

#98

Post by joquarky »

The Chinese Farmer Story

Once upon a time there was a Chinese farmer whose horse ran away. That evening, all of his neighbors came around to commiserate. They said, “We are so sorry to hear your horse has run away. This is most unfortunate.” The farmer said, “Maybe.”

The next day the horse came back bringing seven wild horses with it, and in the evening everybody came back and said, “Oh, isn’t that lucky. What a great turn of events. You now have eight horses!” The farmer again said, “Maybe.”

The following day his son tried to break one of the horses, and while riding it, he was thrown and broke his leg. The neighbors then said, “Oh dear, that’s too bad,” and the farmer responded, “Maybe.”

The next day the conscription officers came around to conscript people into the army, and they rejected his son because he had a broken leg. Again all the neighbors came around and said, “Isn’t that great!” Again, he said, “Maybe.”

The whole process of nature is an integrated process of immense complexity, and it’s really impossible to tell whether anything that happens in it is good or bad — because you never know what will be the consequence of the misfortune; or, you never know what will be the consequences of good fortune.

— Alan Watts

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

#100

Post by tmaly »

mnky9800n wrote: post #6

russia is currently invading ukraine using russian and north korean soldiers with the aide of iranian and chinese weapons. russia has supported pro russian candidates in elections using social media propaganda through chinese apps like tiktok helping people like hungary’s viktor orban or 2016s donald trump get elected. they also likely will get an unknown romanian pro russian leader elected as well. russia has suppor…

That is quite a claim that Tiktok can do all that.
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