drmanhattan16
No bio...
User ID: 640
drmanhattan16
2yr ago
Except the original post was the one to bring it up in games in general. I'm responding to that.
drmanhattan16
2yr ago
I've written enough long posts to notice the slight drag it adds, I think it's understandable why some people would not, especially if you're paid to crank out maximum articles instead of a few notable ones. Add to that the clear difference between writing news articles because you want to and writing articles because you have to pay your bills.
Whether that's how it should be is a separate question.
drmanhattan16
2yr ago
The contexts are different. ToaKraka produced one piece of journalism, legacy media is trying to balance a lot more problems and issues.
drmanhattan16
2yr ago
The relevance of that man is to explain why complaints of "WOKENESS IN GAMES REEEEE" is met with "it's not a big deal". The OP was arguing that he was being gaslit, I'm telling him that the gas lights are on because there's a gas leak.
drmanhattan16
2yr ago
I was just being polite, tbh. I saw the conversation, but wanted to confirm he wasn't referring to some possible post I missed. I totally supported what you said back there.
drmanhattan16
2yr ago
Where were you told this?
drmanhattan16
2yr ago
I fought for its removal the first time and I'll fight it again if I have to. There's no good reason to have it here and it's actively poisonous to people to engage with the culture war in that manner.
drmanhattan16
2yr ago
a small organized minority with preexisting goals
How do you square "small organized minority" with the overwhelming numbers on the independence side of the vote?
drmanhattan16
2yr ago
I was not aware there was a book. I will look further into it.
drmanhattan16
2yr ago
I haven't seen the left disavowing Barack Obama, and I treat them like adults who are responsible for the choices they make. The left wanted Obama, Obama supported a ten-fold increase in the number of drone strikes and greenlit support for the war in Yemen.
Hold on just one second. That's not the correct comparison. You would not use the events of 2014 to judge whether the left supported him for it in 2012. You would need to point to his foreign policy statements in the 2012 election or even the 2008 election.
It is my contention that the exact same principles apply to Ukraine - it might suck for the Ukrainians, but that just cause doesn't compel people to go to war. Furthermore, this war is going to have severe second-order effects to boot, and it isn't like the US victory is guaranteed either. Hell, from where I'm sitting, it looks like Ukraine is actually losing the conflict right now.
Except the US isn't at war with Russia. We're donating equipment and training Ukranians. So I don't see what your point is. In fact, the vast majority of Americans don't support US forces acting militarily in Ukraine at all.
I am indeed talking about Françafrique. I highly recommend that you learn a bit about it - there are a lot of interesting stories coming out of that part of the world these days.
I am indeed ignorant of Francafrique. I suspect the broader "left" even moreso. Ignorance isn't hypocrisy.
Even if it isn't an exact match, failure to consider "and then what?" is absolutely a sign of an underdeveloped and immature view of the world. "They don't view the world as a Marvel movie with heroes and villains, they just view it as a small child does, with no understanding of the fact that actions have consequences" is not exactly an amazing defence!
It is, nonetheless, a defense. If you're going to criticize someone, you should at least be correct in what you're criticizing them for.
drmanhattan16
2yr ago
Did you check the date on when that article was written? That post didn't come from Feb 22.
I'm not talking about the article, I'm talking about your assertion that Russia will win. That was expected when the invasion began because Western analysts didn't have a clear way of judging Russian military capability. Playing it cautiously, they overestimated the Russians.
That article laid out a fairly clear and well explained argument as to what's going on in Ukraine, one that deserves more than "it is irrelevant because I think it is wrong".
When the article is more interested in being going "ackshually, morality doesn't determine victory!" and talking about how this is a "NATO" war and about NATO involvement in the Maidan revolution, it should be treated with far less credibility.
Regardless, I refer you to Perun, who is an member of the Australian defense industry and has been covering the various issues regarding this war and military production and logistics for a while. The linked video goes over this exact topic. He doesn't give any kind of specific date, he only notes that Russia is currently and for the near-future not in a position to simply build its way through this war. He even explicitly argues that Western military production can support Ukraine and help them win, but it's a question of political will, not industrial capacity.
drmanhattan16
2yr ago
You're talking about Francafrique? I don't know much about that, it seems like they're trying to reduce their footprint there. You got a source?
drmanhattan16
2yr ago
You never heard of the anti Vietnam-war protests?!
Oh, you're not talking about the US decision to go to war, you're talking about NV's decision to invade SV. That is, you think the left was pro-invasion because it didn't support helping South Vietnam.
...You know what? Fair. I'll give this one to you.
The left at the time was taking the piss about the whole thing, because they didn't like Thatcher.
Let's be clear about which "left" we're talking about. Liberals? Center-left individuals? Radical Leftists? Marxists/Socialists/Communists? Once we clarify that, we can talk about whether they were against the idea of the British sending an army to the Falklands.
A contemporary source on Korea might be harder for me to find, but a film and TV show like MASH didn't write itself either.
MASH was produced towards the end of the Vietnam War and into the years after. You have to separate out Vietnam weariness and disapproval with what attitudes MASH actually captured of the Korean era.
That said, your ultimate point strikes me as misguided. I agree that there was a left which opposed US involvement in Vietnam for a variety of reasons. But there was a big ideological shift - the socialists and communists fell out of favor and continued losing power. The character of that left has changed.
drmanhattan16
2yr ago
I need evidence on these things. Where are the people on the left saying these invasions were okay?
Regarding Falkland Islands, I suspect people defending the British in the Falklands War saw the islands at rightfully British. Not a war of expansion.
drmanhattan16
2yr ago
Do we pay for the defense of every country who wants to prolong their territorial disputes?
We don't pay for those who are invaded because the invader meets Just Cause, no. Russia doesn't meet that requirement and the US has a moral, ideological, and strategic interest in making the Bear bleed.
What ultimately matters here is that he is out begging for materiel and openly stating that they will lose the war if the flow of treasure (and presumably blood, albeit surreptitiously) doesn't get ramped up. That's not something you go out and say if you're winning!
Okay, fine. Material limits would prevent Ukraine from winning with what it already has.
I believe we're on opposite sides in this particular disagreement, because I do believe that Russia will ultimately emerge "victorious"
That may have been more reasonable in Feb 22, it's much less so now. Russia's military performance has greatly lacked in comparison to what it was thought to be and the Ukrainians have demonstrated they can fight and even reverse the gains Russia has been making. Russia's efforts at building more stuff are not going to drastically take off in the near future, they're relying on reactivating older stuff for the time being.
If you're interested in learning more about my perspective and getting a more elaborate understanding of the thinking of the people you disagree with
Linked article is completely irrelevant due to the previous point.
Edit: Ignoring the cultural and political analysis in that article, it just doesn't fit what we know about Russia's military production and the difficulty of Ukraine's counter-offensive. These things take time and Russia doesn't have my confidence in its ability to get things going at the rate it needs.
drmanhattan16
2yr ago
A Democrat being president probably also helped.
drmanhattan16
2yr ago
Except they greenlit the Saudi invasion of Yemen too.
???
What's the source on the broad left doing that?
They aren't insisting that we invade China over their actions in Xinjiang, they aren't even proposing military action against France due to their active maintenance of a colonial empire in Africa (this includes multiple military interventions!).
Xianjing may be a just cause, but a just cause doesn't compel people to go to war. War with China would have severe second-order effects and US or US + Allies victory isn't guaranteed either. Also, what is this French empire you're talking about?
And what does Libya look like now? I'm not going to say that Gaddafi was a saint, but I feel very confident in saying that he was better than the open air slave markets and violent unrest that is still plaguing the region.
That's a separate criticism. Failure to consider "and then what?" isn't the same as having a Marvel-esque view of heroes and villains as the original comment implied.
drmanhattan16
2yr ago
I think a great many people care about moral justification for a claim of rulership.
drmanhattan16
2yr ago
Voting is a justification ritual. The question is if that's only what it is.
What, in your world, does it mean Ukrainians to overwhelmingly vote in favor independence? Is the concept incoherent because Ukrainians, like all others, are not collectively anything?
drmanhattan16
2yr ago
Only wars to impose a way of life/ideology? It's incredibly arbitrary. If Russia said 'oh no we're not conquering anything we're just conducting a regime-change operation to get rid of the Zelensky govt and install a puppet state' or would that be OK with the left?
Sure, there's some incoherence when one is reacting practically to the world instead of having a fleshed-out theory of war. But I suspect most people on the left would agree that a war is only acceptable if it met Just Case.
Anyway, we have an easy test for this theory. Is the US (leftists or otherwise) leaping out of the bushes to shower democratic Armenia in arms, so they can defend Nagorno-Karabakh against authoritarian Azerbaijan?
Are we talking about left-wingers in power or left-wingers in general? Go and talk to left-wingers and tell me how many even know that those two countries are fighting in the first place.
Surprisingly, people don't act on things until they are aware of them.
Ukraine was then it's own state on paper, but in reality a Russian satellite state up until 2014.
Doesn't really matter. Russia signed the agreements to let Ukraine be independent. Can't complain if it actually exercises that status.
Russia isn't trying to expand its sphere of influence to USSR levels
Yeah, because it can't. There's no going back in that regard unless NATO itself breaks up, and Putin's invasion literally reversed the flagging support for that organization. Talk about a strategic blunder. What it is doing, however, is trying to gobble up nations while it can to its west. Because once the NATO aegis is established, it's over, that country is not coming back.
NATO bombs and murders everyone outside of the west indiscriminately and people that think they're civilized make endless excuses for the abuse.
Which bombs are we referring to? Bosnia and Herzegovina? Serbia? Afghanistan? The Gulf of Aden? Libya? Syria?
drmanhattan16
2yr ago
Except the person I was responding to literally used the word "shaming" as well. We don't typically speak of "shaming" in a positive light, especially not here. That's what I'm pushing back on.
Regardless, that person also said that Russia was just destined to win in the end due to material advantages. I reject that idea entirely, and it can be rendered false even further by Zelensky doing what he's doing.
There are quite a few people on this site who seem to have heard "amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics" or some variant of that and concluded that since Russia has BIG NUMBERS that it's going to win. A lot more goes into winning a war than one's military hardware count.
drmanhattan16
2yr ago
How did the left flip on these ideas? What invasion were they okay with?
Re-read the comment I initially responded to, it says the following.
This is what I was talking about.
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