They did it all over Latin America and Africa during the entire cold war as well. And, I assume, they still back coups all around, if it is deemed that the dictatorship to be instated will better foster the interests of the government of the United States and the oligarchies behind it...
Of course they do. Democratic societies vote for people who look after their own interested, and often times, the interest of these people are at direct odds to the interests of American companies. When politicians put the interest of their people over the interest of Western powers, they get labelled as "socialists" or "communists" and a dictator gets installed to stop the "contagion".
Dictators will gladly do the dirty work of repressing the population while giving American companies their cut. And if these dictators forget their place, the US government will send a little freedom their way.
It's not a foolproof strategy, but it works well enough.
ALSO: It's ok to criticize US for the past war, for faking evidence in UN and making up excuses to invade a country.
But to critique US involvement in Ukraine which is extinguishing a whole country with their forced mobilization just for the sake of drip buying US arms? That's heresy and punishable with de-platforming.
Please don't use HN for ideological or nationalistic battle, no matter wrong others are or you feel they are. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for.
Please don't use HN for ideological or nationalistic battle, no matter wrong others are or you feel they are. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for.
sure,everyone against this senseless war is a "russian troll". I am old enough to remember the rabid shrieking against Iraqi war, calling them traitors, death threats to anyone against the iraqi war (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_Chicks_comments_on_Georg...), boycotting france because they didnt want the war (Freedom fries?)
We are sleep walking into a global disaster by interfering in everyone else war.
Blame russia for all the problems in the country. Makes it easier to blame someone else
I agree with you that blindly attacking war critics is ugly, especially for remote wars and wars of influence.
At the same time, nobody was surprised that Russia and NATO disagreed over whose sphere of influence Ukraine resided in. The “Ukraine Problem” and how it would culminate was making it into popular foreign policy writing 50 years ago, and was part of diplomatic and intelligence strategies long before that.
Putin is getting old and sick and made a play for his legacy, hoping NATO would be too war-anxious to act. That didn’t work out.
Critics should have their voice heard because there always new questions about how to proceed, or whether past choices were well made, but that conflict was prefigured for decades and is not an “everyone else’s war”.
Ukraine is fighting for their continued independent existence. They know that, if they lose, they will be the victims of genocide (as those in occupied lands have encountered).
Crimea, lugansk, Donetsk, mariupol is all business as usual. Ukrainians care neither about Ukraine government nor Russian government. They just want the war to end regardless of which oligarch is ruling over then.
> Crimea, lugansk, Donetsk, mariupol is all business as usual. Ukrainians care neither about Ukraine government nor Russian government. They just want the war to end regardless of which oligarch is ruling over then.
The fierce resistance the Ukrainians are providing would appear to indicate they very much do care about who is ruling over them.
> The fierce resistance the Ukrainians are providing would appear to indicate they very much do care about who is ruling over them.
Yeah, they pretty much had a choice, no? I mean, they were allowed to leave the country, right? right? oh but atleast they could voice their frustration by joining opposition parties? right? Oh well but atleast the good comedian has made Ukraine far more tolerant of LGBTQ, right? oh...
> Yeah, they pretty much had a choice, no? I mean, they were allowed to leave the country, right? right?
They are in a war, its not at all surprising they have closed the border to people leaving there country is literally having a crisis over its very existence.
> oh but atleast they could voice their frustration by joining opposition parties? right? Oh well
They banned the pro Russian parties, which is totally reasonable given the current invasion by Russia, you can join any of the other political parties that aren't pro trying to actively wipe Ukraine off the map.
> Oh well but atleast the good comedian has made Ukraine far more tolerant of LGBTQ, right? oh...
>. In all these places the ukrainians are back to work. There are live webcams on the internet if you want to watch these places.
Yes for most, then occasionally things explode with the occupiers on board, I suspect being a mayor or high up position of an occupation government in occupied Ukraine is one of the deadliest jobs in the world at the moment.
> Mostly by the extreme far right azov regiment. Which were banned from receiving any funds from US till Obama administration. Trump overturned it.
The entire country and army is providing fierce resistance. But if you want to talk about far fight extremists why dont we talk about Wagner who was led, by a man with literal swastikas and other nazi imagery tattooed on him until he exploded in mid air.
Is a picture of Dmitry Uktin, who founded Wagner with his Nazi tattoo's.
There was lots of talk about him not being part of Wagner anymore then surprise surprise he dies in the aircraft carrying Yevgeny Prigozhin and other Wagner high ups and is later seen in videos with Yevgeny Prigozhin in Africa this year.
Rather than it being greediness by a class of individuals, in my view, it is that capitalism rewards greediness, and sometimes it obligates you to be greedy when you are just an employee or selling a service. People are inserted in a system composed by many layers that incentivize and obligate greediness.
"and this being russia...", is there a place where most people are not, for the most part, looking out for themselves? You seem to be implying that Russia is special in that regard.
It is. I think in most Western capitals most people in government are driven by ideology, patriotism, public service or simply professionalism and people are not in fear of their lives. I think in Putin's russia self-preservation/survival is top of mind. It's a brutal culture and it would only be more so at the highest levels. You only have to look to the high number of defenestrations of high level individuals that have happened in recent years.
Thank you! I got interested in using scuttlebutt, I would like to get involved in a social network not used by many; was sad to see that it isn't maintained anymore, so probably not safe.
A big chunk (most?) of the evil in the world is done by people convinced that they know what's best for everyone else, and so are justified in forcing it on them.
> A big chunk (most?) of the evil in the world is done by people convinced that they know what's best for everyone else
Not only do I think that's a small part of the harm done in the world, and that the vast majority of the harm done in the world is done through simple selfishness (with possibly overwrought moralistic rationalizations), but also that it's important to make the distinction that this is the source of none of the evil.
Evil can't include people trying to be kind badly, or else it's just become a general euphemism to give every petty grievance one has a grand, millennialist, Manichean cast. Or to be realistic, it's usually just warmed over early-mid 20c anti-New Dealer, anticommunist bullshit.
I'm currently considering the Pentecostal church which sent missionaries to Congo to build hospitals and teach/train doctors, for instance dr. Denis Mukwege[1], who was awarded The Nobel Peace Prize for his work helping and saving thousands of women who have been raped. The reason these women were raped is not religion, it's technology (the war is about valuable land with rare earth minerals).
The intense poverty and destitution and hopelessness in the inner cities suggests Americanism (America's brand of capitalism) isn't without it's own flaws though, so there's something to be learned from the communists
Education is one of the most important things for human and economic development, yet teachers are severely underpaid. Quality and availability of education would improve dramatically if salaries were higher.
