Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why do you think that we all should feel pain of sanctions? Because we are not able to stand against gov? Well, we are not able. Every person can. That's why sanctions exist: to incentivize a government to focus on its people and isolate a violent government from the world, or conversely, for a people to hold their government accountable. What would you propose the world do instead of sanctions when diplomacy alone…
Collective punishment is against the laws of war and the UN charter. My preferred resolution would be NATO backing off and agreeing to Ukraine as a neutral buffer state with Russia withdrawing troops. The American foreign policy instinct is always for unrelenting brutality.
Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media
231–240 of 291 posts
Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media
#232Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's true but the sanctions do send a message, especially if those sanctions also affect the EU: that we are willing to take a hit to get this under control. Regardless: if Russia doesn't come to its senses quickly the country will likely not recover in the next 40 years or so from the kind of damage they are doing to their stature on the international stage, this is not the kind of thing you walk away from and cla…
Russia is a lot more than its military dictators, it is the Russian people you are talking about harming. Should cancer patients in Oklahoma not be permitted to buy chemotherapy medications because Bush invaded Iraq? We banned collective punishment in the Geneva Convention because it is insane and unjust. I have persian friends with family in Iran who can testify firsthand to how damaging sanctions are to people who…
Yes, and I'm sorry about that. But that is the country that is currently invading another country.
> Should cancer patients in Oklahoma not be permitted to buy chemotherapy medications because Bush invaded Iraq?
I'm out of patience for the day for silly arguments, sorry.
> We banned collective punishment in the Geneva Convention because it is insane and unjust.
That's not what collective punishment is about.
> I have persian friends with family in Iran who can testify firsthand to how damaging sanctions are to people who have no ability whatsoever to remedy the problems that caused the sanctions to be put in place. Personifying countries is an error.
Yes, this is called collateral damage. See also: photos of Ukrainian kids sheltering in the Kiev subway today in fear of the Russian onslaught headed towards their city, if you want to personify this then maybe have a look at those instead of trying to gain sympathy for the citizens of the aggressor nation.
Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
And I forgot to ask a question. Why do you think that we all should feel pain of sanctions? Because we are not able to stand against gov? Well, we are not able. And I think noone would be able if there is such a law and permissions of authorities. And for sure we, who know English(ok, not as good like any EU-person knows) and not working in gov-structures are the most small part of russians who have different opinion
The victims are the people in Ukraine, not you. People are dying there and the country has been dragged into chaos. Russia is 100% the aggressor in this case. If you don't want to feel the pain of sanctions, you better do something to change your government. This might not appear fair to you and certainly isn't easy, but don't forget that life is currently even less fair to the Ukrainians who die defending their coun…
This is such a simplistic take, considering a true dictator is in power, who has continually demonstrated a heavy, unforgiving, hand, with any concepts of democracy being laughably false (107% voter turnout!).
Multiple bad things can happen at once. Multiple people can be victims. Nothing is actually black and white.
The Russian people that didn't vote for Putin aren't associated with the army that's attacking right now, in any way, other than randomly being born within the countries borders, where one of the most powerful dictators in the world happens to rule.
Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media
#234Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why do you think that we all should feel pain of sanctions? Because we are not able to stand against gov? Well, we are not able. Every person can. That's why sanctions exist: to incentivize a government to focus on its people and isolate a violent government from the world, or conversely, for a people to hold their government accountable. What would you propose the world do instead of sanctions when diplomacy alone…
Collective punishment is against the laws of war and the UN charter. My preferred resolution would be NATO backing off and agreeing to Ukraine as a neutral buffer state with Russia withdrawing troops. The American foreign policy instinct is always for unrelenting brutality.
There's nuance that you're missing (e.g UN not empowered to sanction war crimes by a veto-power state), and your broad interpretation doesn't align with accepted practice.
A relevant analysis: https://www.epw.in/engage/article/do-sanctions-violate-inter...
Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
This incredible high brow view is a stain on what is happening in Russia. I’m in America and I am not at all surprised that our private company’s are in the pocket of our government interests, once again. This would feel like ANOTHER provocation, if you are a Russian official. I wonder if we will see Americans realize that (at least in part) this Russian aggression is a retaliation to how the USA / EU policies have p…
> ...how the USA / EU policies have put the Ukrainian people in incredible danger for their own political motive. Please excuse my ignorance but how did the US and EU put the UA people in danger?
Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
Collective punishment is against the laws of war and the UN charter. My preferred resolution would be NATO backing off and agreeing to Ukraine as a neutral buffer state with Russia withdrawing troops. The American foreign policy instinct is always for unrelenting brutality.
> Collective punishment is against the laws of war and the UN charter. There's nuance that you're missing (e.g UN not empowered to sanction war crimes by a veto-power state), and your broad interpretation doesn't align with accepted practice. A relevant analysis: https://www.epw.in/engage/article/do-sanctions-violate-inter...
The UN has had a structure for dealing with veto-power obstructionism since 1950.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_General_Assem...
Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
How much have they changed their minds in the last few days?
How much have they changed their minds in the last few days? Enough that there are protests in most major Russian cities against the invasion of Ukraine. Just yesterday, Moscow police arrested over 1,000 protesters. They can only keep up that pace for so long.
Sorry, do you mean the protestors can only keep it up for so long, or the police can only keep arresting for so long?
Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media
#238Russian here. Most comments here are pure nonsense. The only reason Facebook risks getting blocked is because in Russia it is predominantly used by dissidents and people in opposition to Putin's regime. It doesn't block groups, events, etc at Kremlin's behest. So it should be blocked. Upd: many commenters here clearly misread my comment, or maybe it's my poor English. "It should be blocked" means that it is in Putin'…
>So it should be blocked. Upd: many commenters here clearly misread my comment, or maybe it's my poor English. "It should be blocked" means that it is in Putin's interest to block it, but better under some pretext. I am personally in a very sharp opposition to Putin's criminal syndicate.
It's ambiguous, but I definitely think most English-speakers read a sentence like "So X should happen" to mean the speaker is prescribing an action they agree with. If I was writing about what I expected another group to do while avoiding implying I agreed with their logic or was trying to raise support for the action happening, I'd phrase it without the word "should" like "so it makes sense for them to do it".
It might be reading too far into this, but this makes me very curious what differences there may be between languages and cultures in how they talk about "should", their expectations, and their own values vs other groups' values. I wonder if it's common for a sentence meaning "bad outcome X is likely [for others to do]" to be mistranslated into something read as "we should support making outcome X more likely, [it's really not so bad]".
Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media
#239Earlier quoted context omitted.
Heh, "point to Russians". I have several friends in Moscow, and up until the last few days they were in complete denial about Putin's intentions or troops buildup. There were memes, jokes, etc. The propaganda inside Russia is very strong. Russians need sanctions, they need to start suffering (economically or otherwise). And then maybe they'll wake up.
I am not in Russia and I did not believe that Putin will attack. I did not expect him to be that kind of retard. >"Russians need sanctions, they need to start suffering" When you talk like this about whole nation I am not even sure what to call it. Well actually I do but I did not yet have enough of HN.
But, how do you see Putin getting pushed out of power, other than by the Russian people? If it is required that the Russian people push him out, is it not logical that they must be motivated, with the assumption that sanctions would not be required if they were already motivated enough?
I'm trying to understand all of this, and I appreciate your opinion/perspective.
Re: Russia to restrict Facebook access for 'censoring' its media
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
Russia is a lot more than its military dictators, it is the Russian people you are talking about harming. Should cancer patients in Oklahoma not be permitted to buy chemotherapy medications because Bush invaded Iraq? We banned collective punishment in the Geneva Convention because it is insane and unjust. I have persian friends with family in Iran who can testify firsthand to how damaging sanctions are to people who…
> Russia is a lot more than its military dictators, it is the russian people you are talking about harming. Yes, and I'm sorry about that. But that is the country that is currently invading another country. > Should cancer patients in Oklahoma not be permitted to buy chemotherapy medications because Bush invaded Iraq? I'm out of patience for the day for silly arguments, sorry. > We banned collective punishment in the…
Using techniques that will not affect those who caused the war, while severely punishing those who are not involved in the war (simply because of where they live), will not help the situation, it will make it worse.