Tretiak

I'll see your Olaf Scholz, and raise you John Mearsheimer.

... This is ment from Washington to be a very clear signal to Ukraine on what to do.

"There are two kinds of countries. Those the US sanctions, and those the US arms."

Anyone who's ever lived abroad is capable of comprehending what so many US citizens seem incapable of doing, and that's understand why the US isn't liked very much by a 'lot' of other countries; including the big players in Europe. Even former military advisors have said as much on the MSM, only coincidentally, to never get invited back on again, after mentioning it.

that’s some impressive mental gymnastics for supporting an illegal invasion and nothing you said changes that...

Lol, and I'm sure you were out there protesting just as much when the US illegally invaded Iraq, Afghanstan, bombed Libya, sanctioned Iran, overthrew the governments of practically half of Latin America, installed Suharto in Indonesia, and committed dozens of other crimes around the world.

Most of the people supporting the western 'moral cause' for Ukraine, have 'zero' understanding of the actual issue. They only know what the MSM in this country tells them. Until that changes, there's no hope for a productive conversation. They think the conflict began at the moment the Russian incursion happened. If you tell them to justify Ukraine's ignoring of the Minsk Accords, they have no answer and won't reply, because they don't know what it is. And in the midst of all that, Ukraine was shelling and murdering the Russian speaking population in Donbass and Luhansk, all the while Russia was waiting for them to implement the agreement and cease it's military actions. You heard 'zip' about it from the western media. And you hear 'zip' about it from the people raking Russia over the coals in this thread.

Russia essentially wanted the Ukraine to become a State to Russia, similar to what Japan's relationship to the US became, after World War 2. And it was 'signed off on', by Ukraine and other European states. The US encouraged Ukraine to ignore it and thumb it's nose at Russia, while they militarily armed Ukraine, flowing in weapons, and building it up to the point where it could then safely violate the terms agreed upon and become yet another US client state, on Russia's doorstep. The good old, 'hold the baby in your arms and then hit your ex-husband while he attacks back, trying to rescue the situation', and then call him the villain who's abusing the baby.

Hopefully it stays that way.

Nah. Terminator 3 already predicted this shit.

I switched to audiobooks. I just don't have the time to read like I used to. Originally got started on them by accident, but they've grown on me; considerably.

When it gets overwhelmed with users it eventually becomes a monoculture and then devolves into an echo chamber. I slowly became a more functional user with time, but generally stuck to the 1-2 subreddits that I thought were worth participating in, and observed the rest.

"You hand over to me all data and material regarding the project called... Genesis...

I really wish I knew this years ago. :(.

Arguing with low-intellect, 'meme'-intellectuals is never fun. But capitalism doesn't 'create' the 'inherent' social friction and inequalities between people. Because almost 'nowhere' in human affairs, do you find people evenly represented. Even before you had capitalism, you still had the arrangements of 'commerce'. Which were every bit as greedy and atavistic as the worst excesses of capitalism you find. And even before you had concepts like 'property', you had concepts like 'territory'. I don't like being a 'rung' on the ladder as much as anyone else, but I don't think it's a completely fair criticism of 'capitalism'.

I don’t understand how anyone still trusts any off-the-shelf smart device. Even the companies that explicitly promise not to do something have been found doing it.

They 'trust' it for the same stupid reasons anyone trusts bad ideas, uncritically. They don't think it'll happen to 'them'. Same reason people drunk drive. Same reason people smoke. Same reason people have unprotected sex. Same reason they do anything. It only ever exists as an abstract notion until the crosshairs visibly point in their own direction, and they suffer consequences as a result.

I thought I took privacy seriously as a person that's fairly conscious of it, until I turned my own, 'advanced', layman OSINT skills upon myself, and was shocked at what I was able to uncover. In detail; incidentally. And I was never prompted to do that, until I lost a job opportunity which involved an extremely 'extensive' background check, that included a 'highly' speculative interpretation of a few key events of my life, which were completely inconsequential.

And most people will continue to behave the same way, until something similar forces them to revise their prior thoughts on it. It's like thinking you're going to defeat prostitution through moral lectures; and you won't. Not until people experience loss or pain. Pain's always a more instructive teacher for people, because pain always raises the question of 'why' it's there. It forces you to think about how you ended up where you are. Unfortunately, most people are just blissfully ignorant.