Pasha
Defend Kebab
No bio...
User ID: 481
Pasha
Defend Kebab
6mo ago
I fully realize this comment might get me in trouble and it is ad-hominem and "tasteless". I will delete it if mods say so and apologize. It is even embarrassing if I got my basic assumption wrong. Here we go though..
I strongly suspect the real reason is because he is Indian, and the said occasional human rights violations are against Muslims. HBD is a thin veneer used to justify seeing human beings as bugs to be crushed because they aren't technologically advanced enough. Online high-caste Indian men seem to be highly susceptible to such viewpoints, probably because of their experience of living in India of all places, the pinnacle of HDB inequality.
Pasha
Defend Kebab
1yr ago
I think this is a bit dishonest. I read through all the discussion yesterday and it is quite clear that the revisionist poster is arguing their case much more successfully, while the other side is acting very offended, signaling disbelief and eventually flaming out. If this discussion was about any other topic, the balance of upvotes would be much much more skewed.
If where did all the Jews go is such a good refutation of their argument, you should go ahead and ask it, and then pursue them until either you get a straight answer or their evasion becomes obvious. Holocaust denial is clearly not a position held by vast majority of the users here so you would surely manage to change the voting balance in no time.
Pasha
Defend Kebab
21d ago
members of the US intelligence community
Has there ever been a more reprehensible neologism? These people are, at best, wildly overpaid midwit bureaucrats and at worst absolute crooks.
Pasha
Defend Kebab
11mo ago
Yeah this is ridiculous. The alternatives are:
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Sausage fest.
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Face checks at the doors which accomplish the same outcome but only the higher status men are allowed inside to mingle with the women.
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Invite only parties where any woman is easily invited while only higher status guys are.
I get the feeling that anyone who cheers something like this simply hasn’t had much of a nightlife.
Pasha
Defend Kebab
11mo ago
Is it healthy to dwell so much over it everytime some city degenerate dies and the media decides to make it a “thing”? What would you or anyone else gain from this knowledge?
Pasha
Defend Kebab
1yr ago
I don't have much to add about Zelensky's personality, but I would strongly urge everyone to consider that in 5-10 years time you might have a very different memory of the person and the country. Many events and considerations that took place in the first weeks of the war (some of which are likely really not that heroic) are totally unknown right now and Ukrainian government essentially outlawed any real opposition and critical journalism. Western media is in full war footing.
At some point emotions will cool down and Westerners will mostly forget about the country called Ukraine. Just like how nobody even seemed to have realized the recent political happenings in Iraq while it used to be the center of the world for a while. The incredible cost of rebuilding an already crazy corrupt, poor and now depopulated country will become an uncomfortable topic. You will start to hear Ukraine more in connection with Hunter Biden type of corruption stories than "heroic grandma quotes inspired by brave president" stories. Zelensky's hero status will hit the realities of ruling a country like that (is there any past Ukrainian president not totally discredit by now?).
I have the grim prediction that unless if he dies before the end of the war, he will probably go down in the history as someone whom we would prefer to forget.
Pasha
Defend Kebab
1yr ago
And that also means over 90% of people in the last thousand years have been fascist.
I do unironically agree with this. I believe humans have a natural tendency to organize around political forms similar to feudalism, whose combination with industrial society is more or less what most people call fascism. It is certainly what Mussolini seemed to understand when he was referring to his party's ideology. I also think the unique weirdness of the term fascism (it is really difficult to define in a way most people agree) has a lot to do with this underlying nature. Intellectuals of progressive/enlightenment bent keep recognizing signs of fascism everywhere because human societies keep reproducing elements of it adapted to the changing societal conditions.
You are right at recognizing the political terms of right and left can refer to very different positions on issues at different times. But I believe that is because the specific issues are not that relevant when coming up with these labels. What matters chiefly is the direction and speed of political change (or lack thereof) you want. Today's far right might look more leftist than yesterday's conservatism (case in point, Meloni is an unmarried mother of 1 hardly a Catholic motherhood icon) but it is still far right because it advocates for a fast reversal of the enlightenment project while yesterday's conservatism just wanted to conserve the society as it is.
Pasha
Defend Kebab
1d ago
Universities should be vastly reduced in size and should mainly consist of men. Any loan system should be abolished but the tuitions should be at a level regular middle class family can pay for their children, or, without family support, one should be able to afford with some part-time plus summer-full-time job. Bureaucracy for choosing research subjects and getting funding should almost entirely be abolished.
Until these things happen universities anywhere will simply be nothing more than rent seekers on a piece of paper that promises but rarely delivers upper-middle-class status, adult daycare, enforcers of bureaucratic power on the elite-minds, and speed bumps on actual science and technology development.
Pasha
Defend Kebab
1yr ago
What difference does it make?
Main difference it must make is that Russia isn't the real big baddie of this century from a Western perspective. It is China. If the Western aim wrt Ukraine was to avoid war and come to a peaceful settlement where both sides would become part of some rules based system where the rules are made by the Americans, then it has failed miserably. So it is pretty important to look at why/where things went wrong and take lessons if you want to avoid a proper World War.
Pasha
Defend Kebab
6mo ago
Perhaps because they were alive before last Saturday? It is not for nothing that people who actually spend serious attention on this conflict (and don't have certain affinity for one side) usually end up lament the evil done by both sides and shake their heads in despair.
Pasha
Defend Kebab
10mo ago
I agree wholeheartedly. Except that I don't believe it was meant to be a war of expansion but simply an instigation to a coup to install a pre-2014 style government to Ukraine and stop Ukrainian attacks on Donbas from being a headache on the Russian government who couldn't care less about the Donbas population but cannot let them get crushed either. Since then they are improvising rather poorly and had to annex the occupied territories as a sign of commitment.
Pasha
Defend Kebab
1yr ago
If there aren’t enough people who can’t discuss an event 80 years ago without flaming out, it doesn’t say good things about the degree of mythological significance that event has gained. Makes it a more interesting topic to argue about.
Pasha
Defend Kebab
1yr ago
That still definitely sounds to me like something the EU would never tolerate against any other ethnic group. You would likely get jail time in Germany for even championing stripping new comers of their citizenship.
Pasha
Defend Kebab
6d ago
I fail to see how this goes against anything I have said.
It’s trivial to observe that due to cultural factors eastern Slavic women have a tendency to easily become gold diggers or prostitutes under certain adverse conditions, while for example Muslim women don’t have this tendency under even more extreme adverse conditions. Your male relatives being prepared to use violence to keep your sexual purity is one of these cultural factors.
This doesn’t distract from my point at all.
Pasha
Defend Kebab
10mo ago
when its northern border with Russia is reinforced on both sides and makes raids impossible
Were those raids ever anything other than PR for Western media and Ukrainian domestic jingoism? They generate lots of media attention and allows headlines in Europe to the tune of "partisans advancing into Moscow" which are always useful as average normie has lost all interest in the war other than seeing the occasional headline.
Pasha
Defend Kebab
1yr ago
Probably you are right. But it doesn’t change the fact that the seemingly extraneous bits of trivia that the octopus alludes to, have a coherent target.
Pasha
Defend Kebab
1yr ago
The nationalist Ukrainian state, if it ever stops being such a poor corrupt shithole and enters the EU, will have to cope with millions of African/South Asian/Middle Eastern immigrants
Are you taking my sentence out of context on purpose?
This is entirely a choice of national governments, not the EU.
No it’s the migrants’ choice. Entire Eastern Europe gives massive youth emigration to the west because wages are low and living standards are low. That’s also why foreigners don’t go there. It’s naive to think this won’t change fast if they manage to catch up economically.
Pasha
Defend Kebab
1yr ago
Also attacking an EU and NATO country isn't exactly going to be positive for the support of the rest of them or probably even the US.
I suggest you take a look at this page.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident
A country that has enough pull or support in American foreign policy and intelligence establishment can get away with virtually anything. Some evidence surfaces against Ukraine? It will be dismissed or classified. The media will basically ignore it and allude to Putin propaganda. Anyone who still remembers any of this will be seen as conspiracy cranks after 1-2 years.
The other problem for Ukraine attacking is that it would be rather hard for them to pull off.
I find this line of argumentation very irrelevant. Ukraine doesn't have to send some warship from Odessa to circumvent Gibraltar and drop depth charges. It is a very lean operation and this sort of underwater infrastructure is notoriously quite fragile. Pretty much the entire area is full of CIA black sites and countries that hate Russia and the Nordstreams at least as much as Ukraine. If there is a will there is definitely a way.
Pasha
Defend Kebab
1yr ago
Yes unfortunately I didn’t expect this basic label to be the object of discussion. Their ties with literal original fascism is plain and obvious. It’s a party that suddenly went from irrelevance to prime ministership so people need an introduction. When Lega had a similar sudden success, media coverage similarly mentioned their Northern separatist roots.
Unfortunately half the thread devolved into people scoring cheap dunks about the fascist/right wing label and not contributing anything to the conversation
Pasha
Defend Kebab
4mo ago
A bit of a personal question: how did you come to the conclusion that you are gay with very little sexual experience?
Pasha
Defend Kebab
10mo ago
think I see some "citation needed" here.
There is no great mystery here. Russian conventional army is very mediocre because they are spending enormous amounts of their military budget (which isn't even that high) keeping up with the latest nuclear capabilities and missile delivery systems.
"Where is the Russian Air Force?" has been the millionbillion-ruble question in this whole war.
Yeah but no, again there is no great mystery. Their air assets were definitely present early in the war when they expected a quick victory with a small force. But Russian Air Force is small, and is not really fit for fighting against capable air defense. That is what happens when you have a limited military budget and spend it on very expensive nuclear systems. None of this was unknown.
Pre-war, every serious defense analyst I could find expected them to systematically dismantle Ukraine in something that looked like the US Gulf War 1
Because they expected an invasion with near full power of the Russian army rolling across the border. This is not the invasion that actually took place and so what is the point of taking attrition to your valuable air assets when it is not going to accomplish anything because the army is not suited for it?
Pasha
Defend Kebab
10mo ago
Is the argument here that the US was upholding some important international norm when they kept ridiculous corrupt occupation governments in Iraq and Afghanistan for decades to the great detriment of their populations, and then left them as smoldering ruins refusing to take any responsibility?
Many observers in important positions around the World deducted from these events that American leaders don't give a shit about any of their rhetoric, are short-sighted, unreliable, agreement-incapable and live in their own media narrative where they are always right in the end. They will make up norms when it suits them and adjust them mid-game if it doesn't suit them anymore.
Unfortunately I believe Ukrainians are due to discover this as well after sacrificing their youth and their relations with their only important neighbor for drip-fed fickle promises.
Pasha
Defend Kebab
10mo ago
we really should have made that incredibly clear
Why? What would the Americans and even the Taiwanese ever gain from this? Taiwan got very very wealthy from acting as the competent capitalist step-brother to China trying to explore capitalism. All this rhetoric about liberal democratic Taiwan against big bad oppressive China is quite new. Taiwan was also an oppressive military dictatorship for most of its history.
I think there is an active media psyop when it comes to German-US relations that aims to hide or obscure that there is substantial mistrust between the two. How quickly did the people forget about this https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-security-agency-spied-merkel-other-top-european-officials-through-danish-2021-05-30/
Post-war Germany is allowed to prosper economically and have a semblance of independent foreign relations, but always within limits that the Americans set. When they exceed these limits (as in the case of Nordstream 2 or trying to negotiate a peace in Ukraine through the now forgotten Minsk processes), the US has many open or covert ways to correct the course.
Who knows if the Americans did this pipeline leak? But it certainly benefits them and wouldn’t be that unprecedented.
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