51–60 of 324 posts
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Why don't Americans split the USA into two parts, the red one and the blue one?
The divide between "red" and "blue" is not geographically consistent. The general political views of both groups are similar. They're not in active conflict at the moment.
United States of Canada vs. Jesusland: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesusland_map
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Is there a significant difference between a civil war and a revolution without respect to the outcome?
Yes. In a revolution, the population is more or less united against the government. In a civil war, there are two opposing sides, both made up of the general population fighting against each other. One of the factions in a civil war can also be supported by the government, but the point is there are civilians fighting on both sides, whereas in a revolution there are civilians only on one side.
I would suggest the dual of your definition: in a revolution, there are established political actors only one side, whereas in a civil war, they are on both sides. The English civil war looks very much like a revolution (people vs king and nobility), but the fact that parliament was on the people's side makes it a civil war. The American civil war pitted various states against the United States.
This is propaganda and has no place on Hacker News. Anything that says 'Civil War Has Been Ignited", when there is no civil war YET, is war mongering for some cause.
how would you define "Civil War"?
Nobody calls protesters Nazis, but Russian media view of the subject is indeed extremely biased.
What's worst of this is that the view of it from Eastern and Western sides of Ukraine is totally different, too (while both dislike Yanukovich strongly, which is a big difference from the state of things just 3 months ago). West dislikes him for being evil, East dislikes him from being stupid and not protecting their case strongly enough.
Why do some keep calling it a civil war instead of a revolution? Sure, the government has hired/collaborated with non-government people to cause trouble/beat up the protesters, but which tyrannical government doesn't do that during a revolution? They all do it.
Very scary similarities with what has happened in Turkey. I have amazing respect for all those brave people risking their lives to say "No!" to tyranny. They are the modern day heroes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuO53xeZkm8 Does this look like brave people risking their lives to say "No!" to tyranny, or like a bunch of young energetic people who have no idea about whats going on in politics throwing molotov cocktails at police?
It is quite funny that a community of skeptics being pedantic on silliest social networking apps takes what they see in a video for granted and makes harsh judgements about people.
EDIT after citation request:
So this is the famous video. The masks they are wearing are identified to be standard police issue. They are also holding radio transmitters similar to used by police but that would not prove anything.
However, this is the only instance where the police have not heavily "interfered" to the event. The pressure they use on these guys is one tenth of what they use against unarmed civilians. There are quite few videos showing how they shoot people with water canon and literally threw them away. These plus the fact that this is literally the only video shown by all news agencies clearly indicate that the whole thing is staged.
That's actually a very well done summary. I have an acquaintance that is Ukrainian and I have been asking her about it. Pretty much what happened so far can be summed up as "The leadership betrayed the Ukrainian people to Russia under pressure from Putin" and both of generally agree that it's too late now to stop, and that the protesters have to be at least partially successful or else it is likely there will be more…
All of this while the EU transforms into an EUDSSR where unelected bureaucrats decide everything (EU commission). Good luck...
That's actually a very well done summary. I have an acquaintance that is Ukrainian and I have been asking her about it. Pretty much what happened so far can be summed up as "The leadership betrayed the Ukrainian people to Russia under pressure from Putin" and both of generally agree that it's too late now to stop, and that the protesters have to be at least partially successful or else it is likely there will be more…
I wonder what you'll think if you have another friend who is saying completely the opposite.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuO53xeZkm8 Does this look like brave people risking their lives to say "No!" to tyranny, or like a bunch of young energetic people who have no idea about whats going on in politics throwing molotov cocktails at police?
I cannot account for what's happening in Ukraine but last time a video like this one released in Istanbul during protests, it was undercover police throwing molotov cocktails to armoured police vehicles. It was the only video shown by all the news agencies [0]. It is quite funny that a community of skeptics being pedantic on silliest social networking apps takes what they see in a video for granted and makes harsh ju…