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ZorbaTHut  1yr ago (text post)   31279 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 17, 2022

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Ukraine doesn't need Russian "sympathies" to exist.

That's correct but also not a response to anything I said.

I am sorry, I should have been more open and say that Russian "sympathies" are what is existential danger to Ukraine. Unrestrained "sympathies" would gradually prevent Ukraine becoming a member of the EU, would diminish the role of Ukrainian language and would gradually make it a part of Russia or maybe a vassal state like Belarus.

"Russia is not optimal for Ukraine's long-term prospects" is a far cry from "Russian victory is an existential crisis".

Losing a native language is existential for a nation.

That's a sufficiently nonstandard take on what qualifies as "existential" that I don't feel like engaging it further.

That is perfectly standard take for most nations. I lived in Spain and tax authorities refused to speak with me in English even though they clearly were able to. They replied that I should speak in an official language of which Spain has several – Spanish, Catalan, Basque and one more which I forget.

Russians themselves are very notorious for not willing to speak other languages and use only Russian even abroad to the maximum extent possible. The US is exception that they don't have an official language but most countries do.

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