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Sweden Is a NATO Member

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Re: Sweden Is a NATO Member

#711

Post by guappa »

catlikesshrimp wrote: post #673
guappa wrote: post #617

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and the official threats of using nuclear weapons "Why are we shocked? Of course if a country has a weapon it also conceives a situation where it would use it. If a country would never under no circumstance use a weapon it would not have the weapon at all. Every country who has a weapon also conceives a scenario when to use it. Even if they don't issue reminders" -- My own translation from an interview to Alessandr…

To decomission a weapon is to weaken the army. Rulers must be very careful about taking power from the army, as army officials are wary of being stripped of power. A ruler must be in the good grace of the army. For that reason, it is difficult to get rid of inherited weapons. A plausible justification is required. With Putin, however, Russia is strenghtening an army. It is correct in this case, I think, to verbally r…

I'm not aware of russia doing nuclear rearmament. Do you have any source in that sense?

Re: Sweden Is a NATO Member

#713

Post by Ygg2 »

georgespencer wrote: post #704
Ygg2 wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> administration exercising soft power to help a favoured politician in another country – even if they sometimes turn out to be dictators You know. It would be fine if it was a few times thing. But US has a long history of putting dictators into power, calling them allies, then turning against them and invading/killing them. Which only seems to benefit the military and cause chaos everywhere else. > That the United S…

> No. The economic shock therapy. Ah, so you mean the United States' inaction in providing aid to Russia after Yeltsin and the IMF began to aggressively reform Russia's economy? Your logic is that the United States installed Putin by not interfering more ? > You know. It would be fine if it was a few times thing. But US has a long history of putting dictators into power, calling them allies, then turning against them…

> Ah, so you mean the United States' inaction in providing aid to Russia.

US is largest contributor to IMF it would be a joke to suggest their opinion has no sway. Especially application of neo liberal way of things.

> How many dictators has the United States installed, allied with, and then invaded or killed in your lifetime?

Two at least I can recall on the top of my head. Saddam in Iraq and Gaddafi in Libya.

Granted not all dictators are dumb enough to trust US, nor are their circumstances the same, for example some have nukes.

Re: Sweden Is a NATO Member

#716

Post by bumby »

lostmsu wrote: post #694
bumby wrote: post #664

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you propose a method of limiting the downvoting of comments that are salient and relevant but otherwise elicit a knee-jerk emotionally disagreeable response? Or do you consider that ability a feature? It seems to me to erode curious debate.

Not sure I understood your question, but you can't really control what others will do. E.g. people can downvote or flag without any reason whatsoever.

The question relates to how can you create a system that helps align peoples incentives with the goal of the forum.

Imagine if you could allow users to delete comments they don’t agree with. That would create the antithesis of a curious discussion, so that feature isn’t available. So, yes, a good system can constrain what users are allowed to do with intelligent guardrails.

Re: Sweden Is a NATO Member

#717

Post by Vecr »

gitaarik wrote: post #631

"Sweden’s instrument of accession was deposited with the United States Government, as depositary of the North Atlantic Treaty." What does this sentence actually mean? What is an instrument of accession? What does it mean for it to be "deposited with the US government"?

"Instrument of accession" is the document that says Sweden is now in NATO. "Deposited with the US government" means physically deposited, within the continental US.

Re: Sweden Is a NATO Member

#718

Post by yesco »

weebull wrote: post #699
yesco wrote: post #676

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't Trump just upset NATO members weren't paying their dues? What am I missing here?

NATO isn't a pay-to-play organisation. NATO takes no money from countries. NATO has no forces of it's own to pay for. There is a non-binding convention that member should spend 2% of their GDP on *their* armed forces. That way when other nations call for help they can respond. It's a guideline figure though and some countries do it and some don't.

Thanks for responding, I meant this when I said "pay their dues" btw: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/pay-d...

I didn't feel that strongly about this a few years ago but with the Ukraine war demonstrating how unprepared certain NATO members were (ex: Germany), despite their pledges at the 2014 Whales Summit[1], which was essentially preparing for this possibility. I can't help but view Trump's anger about this as fortelling, even if obnoxious. Still, I'm confused why this is getting re-interpreted as an attempt at disbanding NATO, from my perspective the allies who refuse to follow through with their promises are fundamentally what challenges the alliance's integrity, not the allies who call them out on it...

1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Wales_summit#Wales_Pled...

Re: Sweden Is a NATO Member

#719

Post by vajdagabor »

t0bia_s wrote: post #703
sobkas wrote: post #562

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do you mean, some people just consciously agree with being used and lied to and their taxes being stolen so that the leaders can be richer and more powerful while schooling, health care and economy is in decay? I don't think so. Many people actually do that, because in their minds alternative is "left" that will do the same but with added bonus of supporting LGBT, fight against climate change, unrestricted immigrat…

Also, there is 1/3 of population that don't believe in politics at all and ignore it as much as possible, because artificial culture war just distracts them.

Yes, however those people also have right to vote (in democracies) and many of them vote without being sure what they vote for. Democracies can be hacked because too many people are either not interested or not informed well enough to vote for what's really best for them and the country.

Re: Sweden Is a NATO Member

#720

Post by t0bia_s »

vajdagabor wrote: post #719
t0bia_s wrote: post #703

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, there is 1/3 of population that don't believe in politics at all and ignore it as much as possible, because artificial culture war just distracts them.

Yes, however those people also have right to vote (in democracies) and many of them vote without being sure what they vote for. Democracies can be hacked because too many people are either not interested or not informed well enough to vote for what's really best for them and the country.

Why would they participate in system that they don't believe? Also, you need to be populist to win in democracy, which brings another pathological behavior into game by definition of system.
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