Shrug? Russia can do whatever they like to their people. Not our place to tell them what's right or wrong in governing their own people. Our problem is the unjustified invasion of Ukraine.
I look at recent history and many Arabic people rose up against their governments. Those people are a strong people and they did it despite high risk of throwing their civilization into civil war or worse.
Canadians have been there to help refugees from those torn countries each time. We will be there to help Ukraine just as we did for Syrians.
As for Russia, we are done being lied to by them. We don't need any interaction with them anymore. They are completely blocked for the immoral and unethical invasion.
>This is a callous viewpoint. My heart goes out to the Russian citizens living in an effective dictatorship.
You call me callous, that's fine. It would seem others agree with you as I'm quite downvoted. I have a surprising number of Russian interests like Chess. The Russian chess community rejected this war.
We have to remember that our liberal democratic way isn't the only way. It is not our place to tell other countries how to run their countries. That is up to the Russian people to decide. Do they agree with Putin and if not, are they as strong as the Arabic people? Will they overthrow Putin?
> our liberal democratic way isn't the only way. ... are they as strong as the Arabic people?
You seem to be suggesting that instead of elections, people can decide who their leader is by having a civil war instead.
I don't think it is chauvinism to prefer a system where fewer people have to die to effect political change over one where inevitably many more people die.
>You seem to be suggesting that instead of elections, people can decide who their leader is by having a civil war instead.
That's not my position at all. You cut context.
>I don't think it is chauvinism to prefer a system where fewer people have to die to effect political change over one where inevitably many more people die.
You and I agree here.
Would you say Russia has free and fair elections? Their election only months ago did provide a supermajority of seats.
If yes, would you agree than the average Russian supports Putin and the war?
Since this account has been using HN exclusively for political and ideological battle, I've banned it. We ban such accounts, regardless of what they're battling for, because they destroy what this site is supposed to be.
Please do not create accounts to break HN's rules with.
Even if I disagree with my government (and believe me, I do) I don't really have an option of starting a civil war.
If I do and I'm successful my livelihood will be at risk, my society will be a mess, my house and the currency in which I earn money will devalue. Unless I am poor and destitute, a civil war will never be an option that makes sense.
Voting a different candidate is unlikely to effect any change. Politicians change tune once they are in power (eg. Biden and his promises to forget student loans) and a lot of views are not represented in candidates.
I still don't see any reasons to be blamed for what my government does.
And I don't blame the Russians for what Putin is doing, I'm sickened by the amount of hate Russians are getting (especially the ones living abroad): a lot of them have been trying to escape Russia for decades and only the richest and most skilled are able to do so.
Heads of State as individuals are not any stronger, smarter or better than the rest of us. They become stronger and more powerful because of their support system. If you participate in a system, you are propping it up to at least some degree.
Your philosophy sounds like a dictator’s sweet spot. Lie, cheat, steal, intimidate, coerce, punish, etc. as much as possible, but not to the point where the people want to do anything about it. Make them feel disconnected, powerless and dependent on you. Present yourself as their protector, their savior, the only one between you and a world that wants to destroy the things important to them: their family, their job, their culture, etc.
So yeah no one citizen is directly responsible for their leader’s actions, but we’re all responsible to some extent for our country’s actions if we’re not resisting them effectively.
You don’t always have to kill to resist. Some people start an underground newspaper. Others collaborate with foreign governments. Others practice civil disobedience. Others flee the country. Others make art and comedy that helps turn popular sentiment. Others practice economic boycotts. There are lots of ways to resist if you’re willing.
There is a point where war is unavoidable, and the problem with fights between 2 parties is simple: if one party believes it is in a fight ... you're in a fight. It does not matter what the other party thinks.
If Putin believes we're at war with Russia, we are at war with Russia and we will need to fight. Fight a little or a lot? Today we could fight a little. Tomorrow we will have to fight a lot.
Our red line is NATO, same as it always was. And will Russia have greater or lesser capability to wage war in a year or two, with their economy ruined by sanctions? Dependence on international trade today is far greater than anyone could have dreamed in the 1930s, and it's dangerous to try to force historical analogies that simply don't hold up under scrutiny.
For a long time the nimby and environmental folks have lobbied against nuclear power. You can look up their reasoning. Without nuclear, you are effectively arguing for coal or other fossil fuels.
Here in Ontario, canada we have no coal plants. We have some hydroelectric, but mostly nuclear. For every MW of renewables created, we have to build 1:1 parity for fossil fuel as we stopped building nuclear. So if the goal is to get to carbon neutral, we aren't doing it. Not even in the plans to get carbon neutral. Largely due to lack of nuclear. Now some environmentalists are arguing for nuclear power, very confusing.
I dont think we should build any more nuclear fission. The better future option is nuclear fusion. I realize we haven't quite figured that out, but lets build the first one and figure it out.
First of all, why is there male and female to begin with? Why dont we just have non-discriminatory competitions? If the answer is that no women can compete against the top male competitors. There is a biological difference between the sexes.
There's 2 good videos on this subject.
Joe Rogan on Fallon Fox. This is his domain of expertise and he clearly argues that there are sports in which trans shouldn't be able to compete against women.
Neil Degrasse Tyson interviewed Joanna Harper on the subject of trans people competing against women in sports.
It certainly seems like society needs to discuss this issue and make some hard decisions.
I'm originally from the Detroit area. Naturally you have lots of factory mentality. Wherein workers will not work unless you're standing behind them whipping them. Largely speaking unions got very strong because these middle managers live and die by metrics they themselves dont control and can become brutal to their workers. Like for a long time you couldn't go to the washroom while at work. So what would people do? They took a dump right there on the job.
Somehow this is how managers are trained; and this is how you're expected to operate as a manager. Doesnt matter if you're white collar or any other collar. Your manager is expected and actively trained to micromanage you as often as possible. Your manager will come by hourly or so and look at or ask you what you're working on. They'll often input how you're doing it wrong... even if they have absolutely no chance of knowing how to do it properly. The bikeshedding becomes extreme. It mostly demotivates people to be responsible for everything and often 1 person ends up responsible for everything and that person takes all the heat from the manager.
Who denies covid exists? Cant see anyone in that group.
Who denies the claimed severity of covid19 being equivalent to the spanish flu? Hopefully everyone stands up... because that's completely deniable now. However, that's the claim that justified the unprecedented actions of locking down civilization. As opposed to the established standard of locking down just the sick.
Who has lost faith and trust in the medical professionals turn politician because of the endless lies as proven?
How about the misrepresentation of health measures taken throughout the process? How about the endless human rights violations.
How many people lost their job because they were pregnant and couldn't get vaccinated? The list of medicines allowed during pregnancy is VERY low. A pamphlet would be too big. Business card would suffice. Oh but you want to say the vaccine is safe for preggos? LOL. No... you just wanted to fire all those pregnant nurses. But wait... werent nurses in huge demand before covid... now you fired a bunch? Now you have such a shortage that you are obligating nurses to work insane hours?
That report doesn't give any evidence of COVID denial. It's just graphs of how often COVID relate content is reported/flagged.
If you look at the paper the article cites as evidence COVID denial exists, it's actually also not true. They ask people variants of "do you think the danger of COVID was exaggerated" and when people say yes, they get classed as people who think COVID is a hoax. So the claim that people think COVID is a hoax, is a hoax. This is what "science" has become.
>There are certainly people who think that Covid is a hoax. There aren't many, but they do exist.
Sure, but there's no point writing an article about such a non-existent position. Unless the point is to strawman. Which we have seen far too much of lately.
Not only does the position exist, but it's a good example of a false belief. Identifying and excluding such beliefs from public debate is very important.
>Not only does the position exist, but it's a good example of a false belief. Identifying and excluding such beliefs from public debate is very important.
Ukraine doesn't exist. This is all fake news by western countries to smear Russia.
Would you like to debate me on whether or not Ukraine exists?
No, that's not a real position to debate. Instead what the article is doing is no different than all the 'science deniers' stuff. How dare you deny the dogma of science!
Russian currency will eventually bounce back some as it trades into other asian currencies. Not to mention the currency is still backed effectively by natural resources. But nobody wants to rush to those exchanges because that currency is going to be wrecked. BUT there will be a firesale. Russian folks are going to be working for cheap and be dumping those resources to maintain.
There's going to be a ton of due diligence on all these. Eventually it will be determined that Russia didn't intend to do it. It was some newb who shouldn't have shot. Won't matter. Eventually Article 5 will be triggered by Russia. That's the problem about the fog of war.
I look at recent history and many Arabic people rose up against their governments. Those people are a strong people and they did it despite high risk of throwing their civilization into civil war or worse.
Canadians have been there to help refugees from those torn countries each time. We will be there to help Ukraine just as we did for Syrians.
As for Russia, we are done being lied to by them. We don't need any interaction with them anymore. They are completely blocked for the immoral and unethical invasion.