Absolutely terrible. Now we pray time/entropy delivers us a world without Putin. Smh.
Seems like a safe bet that he doesn't live forever.
Alexei Navalny has died
691–700 of 1001 posts
Re: Alexei Navalny has died
#692The (small) upside of all this missery, death and pain is Europe will lose some territory but gain it's own military security after decades of living from the US strategy alignment. Countries like Poland will no longer buy US weapons but increase European defense spending - they fear just like Ukraine that US congress just turns around and will stop delivering parts for F-35s in a conflict [0]. The US lost all it's t…
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39395935 - not a criticism of the comment; I just need to prune the top-heavy thread.
Re: Alexei Navalny has died
#693So in latest news, last opposition figure in Russia dies together with any hope for regime change while Russia's war effort is starting to get some traction with it's overwhelming man power and Ukraine is forced to cede more territory all while west is busy either with it's in-fighting or comparing each others superior GDP and how Russia will crumble just any day now (TM). Man, are we in for a ride next decade in Eur…
Europe deciding to depend on Russia for their energy and not focusing on defense spending is the unbelievable part to me, but they've been doing this for quite some time now. They walked right into it. Russia is doing what they've always done and always will do.
> They walked right into it
Why past tense? Still walking...
Re: Alexei Navalny has died
#694Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Systematically calling russian people Orcs is the worst dehumanising things to do IMO. I have nothing to do with that conflict but I don't like how confident some people are that they're on the side of the Good, thus that they could do whatever to their opponents. (Cf Kasparov who wanted to nuke Russia at the beginning of the war)
Calling russian people Orcs is the worst dehumanising things to do IMO.
No, the "worst dehumanizing thing to do" is to gratuitously start a war that has probably killed or maimed 500,000 people so far and shows no signs of stopping.
To suggest that that this level of reactive name-calling (which in any case is used to apply to the invading forces; not to "Russians" in general) is somehow bigger and more dehumanizing than the awful, perverse and entirely one-sided war itself - is really quite silly.
Meanwhile the invading forces have all kinds of slur words for Ukrainians in turn, as I'm sure you know. So the argument is doubly silly, in that regard.
Re: Alexei Navalny has died
#695The (small) upside of all this missery, death and pain is Europe will lose some territory but gain it's own military security after decades of living from the US strategy alignment. Countries like Poland will no longer buy US weapons but increase European defense spending - they fear just like Ukraine that US congress just turns around and will stop delivering parts for F-35s in a conflict [0]. The US lost all it's t…
why rant and rave against US? This isn't 2012 post-Snowden era of "friends don't spy on friends". The US are not the enemy here but our long-term ally. Right now Russia, China, the Assad regime, and IRGC are. > We just need to get our act together, not every country building or buying it's own incompatible weapons (like tanks, planes, frigates). If "we" means Europe I agree, that "we" need to reintroduce mandatory mi…
Agree with your list of pro-Russian populists, except Meloni doesn't appear to be pro-Russian, in Italy it's rather Salvini (Lega Nord) and Berlusconi (Forza Italia).
Re: Alexei Navalny has died
#696Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you propose the west avoids conflict with Russia and China? Is there any examples in history of appeasement leading to less bloodshed?
I'm not sure we can avoid conflict now, I think we're past the point where that was possible (last 10-15 years were critical). I think both Russia and China understand that, and are planning accordingly. I'm proposing we wake up and start doing the same, planning and drawing "do not cross" lines in the sand to hopefully limit the total/final scope of the conflict. Yes this will force an earlier confrontation -- but W…
>planning and drawing "do not cross" lines in the sand to hopefully limit the total/final scope of the conflict.
The irony here is unreal. Yes, drawing red lines is a good way to avoid runaway escalation, if only world powers are willing to honor them.
Re: Alexei Navalny has died
#697Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Russians for their learned helplessness, calling them weak, docile, etc. "learned helplessness" yes "calling them weak, docile, etc." - I'm not aware of this going on in any meaningful scale. About the "learned helplessness" and general apathy it's true and the product of many things, one of them a very targeted effort to make the people internalize this during a whole century. China is very similar in this regard…
> "calling them weak, docile, etc." - I'm not aware of this going on in any meaningful scale. That is a shame because they actually are. I feel the same coward and pity venal attitude with the Hungarian people - being a soulmate of Russians in this regard - whom I grown up with. They would be very vocal about being proud and brave but the actions only show shortsighted submissive conformity to ruthless tyrants for pi…
At first I wanted to argue with your point (suggesting that the elites are to blame much more than ordinary folks) but thinking more, I just want to correct.
Submissiveness that you mention implies that people understand their interests, what's just (in broad sense), and just don't want to act. And we expect that finally they'll wake up and rebel. I also went to street protests in 2021 when Navalny was enjailed, expecting something to change, but was reminded of what I knew from sociology earlier.
Studies showed that it's not submissiveness in post-totalitarian people that stops them. It's rather immoralism and double-think. People see status-quo challengers as suspicious, and discredit them. They distrust the government -- that's why Russian opposition speakers insist that "Putin has no broad support". But they also hope the state will take care of them, and constantly seek signs of this. They hate state officials, but discedit those who challenge them and goes in politics -- especially those trying to pursue interests of common folk.
These traits of character developed as defense to totalitarianism -- interference with private life and demand of loyalty, and daily hardships.
This was describen in a book "Simple Soviet man" (1993) by sociologist Yuri Levada, summarizing his studies of post-Soviet people's views and their contradictions. There are brief descriptions of it in Englihs, try searching for them.
Re: Alexei Navalny has died
#698Earlier quoted context omitted.
Europe deciding to depend on Russia for their energy and not focusing on defense spending is the unbelievable part to me, but they've been doing this for quite some time now. They walked right into it. Russia is doing what they've always done and always will do.
The strategy of economic integration as a way to reduce military tension has worked very well in many other instances. It doesn't seem like an obviously insane thing to have tried.
The strategy seems to have gone 0-2 with Russia and China; can you name an instance in which it succeeded?
Re: Alexei Navalny has died
#699I'm trying to compare Alexei with some other known political figures. For Americans, I think Alexei is roughly comparable to MLK. USA was able to gradually turn from some positions to different others. For Russia it seems the current situation is still the fall to the deeper chasms of self-destruction.
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Re: Alexei Navalny has died
#700Earlier quoted context omitted.
Russia really is not to be feared. The Ukraine war is a tragedy and I hope it ends soon. But they have no economical & military power to really do any harm the Europe & the US. Putin makes a lot of noise but really can't even win a few km's in Ukraine. But the real threat is further east. China is slowly building it's empire, and it's a scary one. Taking over parts of Africa. Migrating it's people. Integrating it's t…
> can't even win a few km's in Ukraine. And the US couldn't win against a few thousand goat farmers with Ak47s, or maybe there this is a bit more complex...
The situation in Ukraine is not very comparable with the US occupation of Afghanistan. The US captured all of the major cities in Afghanistan in a matter of weeks, after which the Taliban were pushed into a sliver of southern Afghanistan and into Pakistan, which borders those Southern regions of Afghanistan. The issue, as the other commenter mentioned, was in holding the territory. This issue of maintaining stability was worsened by how the US both ignored the Taliban's attempts to negotiate early in the occupation and ignored the fact that the Taliban were being harbored in Pakistan (which was considered an ally), allowing the Taliban to regain strength. Had the US targeted objectives in Pakistan in the early 2000s when the Taliban were weak, rather than waiting till 2011, history may have turned out differently.