Quote (Black XistenZ @ Nov 21 2022 08:58pm)
Lol, now we've become so meta that the "accuse the enemy of what you are doing"-principle is applied to itself.
And yet you cannot respond to the substance there. The US predicted a short war against the Russian economy while proclaiming Russia was seeking to sack Kiev in 3 days. The inverse is true.
Quote (Black XistenZ @ Nov 21 2022 08:58pm)
Big doubt. Also, there is no denying that Russia's economy is only weathering the sanctions better than initially expected because of the absolutely bonkers oil and gas prices. Once these prices come down from their uncertainty-driven peak, Russia's economy and state finances will hurt a lot more than they do currently.
I have no interest in revisiting this, I've posted probably a dozen articles over the past few months and I can't recall you responding to a single one.
Quote (Black XistenZ @ Nov 21 2022 08:58pm)
Ngl, I just spit out my coffee reading this. If you seriously think Chinese cars are a proper replacement for BMWs and Mercedes, you are delusional.
Not what I meant. Lada production is subject to some quality downgrades that Korean and Chinese cars are not.
Mercedes and BMWs are status products, they don't offer any substantive quality advantages over a Kia except perhaps a greater ability to violate speeding laws.
Quote (Black XistenZ @ Nov 21 2022 08:58pm)
So why blow up one pipeline network while leaving multiple others (particularly the ground based ones) intact? And why blow up NS so early, before the protests gain steam, which potentially left enough time to repair the pipelines before the public pressure from a freezing and starving populace forces European governments to fold?
They blew them up when they did because they had assets in the area for their military exercises.
They don't care about overland pipelines because they run through client states.
Quote (Black XistenZ @ Nov 21 2022 08:58pm)
I have a bold idea: maybe, just maybe the European people prefer the US over Russia not because of a nefarious, decades-long psyop, but rather because the people in Western Europe were free and prospered after the war. Meanwhile, the people in Eastern Europe were saddled with an uncompetitive and stagnating economy, no freedom of movement or expression, had to be prevented from deserting by an Iron Curtain and saw multiple protest movements violently quelled by Russian tanks.
The opposite of everything you just said is true, but I don't feel like debating it with someone like you. Look up the Years Of Lead if you want an entry point into the freedom and openness the West offered postwar Europe.