ferdia, i'm curious: do you personally think pootin is a "killer"?

personally, i am sure he's not only demonstrably a killer (not just talking about his wars, the countless deaths in chechnya, georgia, ukraine... but also the murdered journalists, opposition politicians, unruly oligarchs, and critics of his), but that he's actually proud of it, and doesn't mind being seen as such by the general public. i think it flatters his sick ego to be perceived as a ruthless strong man. it's part of the image he cultivates of himself, and a big factor in his appeal to western edgelords.

the "outrage" regarding biden's comments is purely performative imo. diplomatic pearl clutching over an obvious truth, complaining about a lack of decorum while murdering women and children. it's absurd really...

This post was edited by fender on Mar 16 2023 05:34am

Yes, Putin is a killer. There are several aspects to this:

(a) I would 100% be confident that he directed the deaths of his rivals and those that dared to question him (politicians/journalists/you name it). This sets him apart from the US/China and is more in keeping with North Korea etc.
(b) All leaders are killers to some extent noting they sign laws or carry out foreign interventions which results in deaths.

My Question to you Fender:

Do you think that Biden saying Putin is a killer, he has to go, and Biden's policies of providing intel to Ukraine and doubling down on Ukraine becoming a Nato member will lead to a positive outcome, or do you see all this war mongering as precursors to a direct conflict between the US and Russia, when it has already been admitted by various national security advisors to the US that US policy relating to Russia could have been alot better for a long long time.

and btw, if you dont reply to this it means I will not reply to any of your future questions. I am not being hostile here, just stating a fact. its give and take.

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6322661390112

This post was edited by ferdia on Mar 16 2023 05:58am

i do not think those statements will lead to a positive outcome, no.
i do not think those statements are particularly wise or diplomatic.

however, i do not think that those statements will prevent a positive outcome either. russia wouldn't withdraw its troops and end the war if biden was fawning over pootin (like his predecessor did). it makes no difference. the chinese were careful not to criticise russia, any yet they achieved nothing. i think the outrage over those statements is absurd - and highly hypocritical given what russia is currently doing in ukraine.

i also think that providing intelligence to help the ukrainian people defend themselves from russian aggression is well justified. it's not like the US supports a ukrainian invasion of russian territory. if that was the case, i would certainly regard that as aggression. currently, however, they are merely helping ukraine to fight invaders in THEIR country - people who came there to kill and conquer them.

regarding (a): you might want to look into chinese politics a bit more - particularly what happens to dissidents, critics, oppositionists, challengers... i think you will find it's much closer to russia / north korea than it is to the US or the EU.

China and Russia have no clout whatsoever to make the US sit down and talk. China does have the ability, or relationship, to sit down with Russia and sway what Russia might do. For the world this is a good thing. The fact that the US _IS_ warmongering is not good for the worlds safety.

Also, Dissidents, Critic's, Oppositionists and Challengers, and Minorities, are disappeared (killed). This falls under (b) not (a) above, which is why I made the distinction. However I accept this is a poor comparison with Western (read: US or allies) ways of doing things. China's internal policies, ideology and outlook on norms are fundamentally different then ours and for human rights they are a long way away from what western nations would consider palatable.

With the caveat that we are no saints either in alot of respects and our history is also bad.

This post was edited by ferdia on Mar 16 2023 06:13am

mohammed bin salman

He is a ruthless dictator and a killer too. The hundreds of thousands of murdered Yemenis and starving children is partly due to his aggression.

On another side note bro.

Take note of this in the next couple of months.

1. Keep checking on US Debt situation
2. Mexico
3. Honduras

This post was edited by Hamsterbaby on Mar 16 2023 06:08am

1. US Debt situation is broadly irrelevant to the US administration other then for election soundbites. Ultimately the US has amazing spin machine for its media and all it has to do is go to war with someone for everyone to forget their troubles at home.
2. Mexico I am sorry to say is not a safe place to visit or live and it is quite frankly rekt. Mexico is broadly irrelevant to the US administration other then for election soundbites. No meaningful positive change in the situation is expected in the short term.
3. Honduras is allying with China. In such a situation the US will obviously do something.

This post was edited by ferdia on Mar 16 2023 06:22am

Let me explain for point 1.
If the Debt situation gets any worst the US might get directly involved in a special operation again , not with Russia / China of course. I am not sure if I make any sense ( But I will just put it here to review it later )

Point 2.
Possibly Panama 2.0 ??

Point 3. Taiwan Just lost another diplomatic friend, she is now left with 13 remaining countries most of them central America, The US will put pressure and do something, not sure if they will bring freedom and democracy or special operations.
Because if they do so, it will mirror what Russia is doing to Ukraine which will look pretty bad on them.



Gotcha. Did you have time to watch or listen to at least the Q&A from John's lecture?



This post was edited by Hamsterbaby on Mar 16 2023 06:24am

see my edit.

Its worth noting that as the Ukrainian conflict is going to go on for years, those users that cry whataboutism will ultimately be challenged by events elsewhere in the world perpetuated by other countries.

Should Russia allow a more capable enemy fly war planes close to its border?
Should Taiwan allow a more capable enemy fly war places close to its border?

these are not yes/no questions as they each have serious ramifications.

This post was edited by ferdia on Mar 16 2023 06:27am

You go tell the Russian that promising Ukraine NATO membership is just NATO cracking jokes while this is history and there's no fucking way to spin it differently you moron





This post was edited by Djunior on Mar 16 2023 06:55am

wait, mohammed bone saw is a killer? oh no! glad you told me, it's not like literally everyone already knows that...




i'm german. i'm a student of history. obviously i'm well aware that western nations have done horrible things in the past (and still do in the present).
however, i don't think that's a good argument to silence criticism - it's rather a motivation to speak out against atrocities, don't you think?
we're not our nation's history. we're individuals. if YOU have not committed or supported such things, you're not a hypocrite for criticising them when they are happening. i think some people get confused about this.

regarding chinese politics: while i agree that eastern asian norms and views can differ greatly from ours, it's not like we don't share some fundamental values and principles: killing people is bad - the chinese do understand that. there is a reason they're going to such lengths to hide / downplay / deny their genocide of uyghurs in xinjiang, why they aren't transparent about their death penalty statistics, why we don't learn what happened to disappeared protesters from HK...



russia is in no legal position to "allow" or "disallow" what happens in international air space. fact is that russia is currently waging an offensive war in ukraine. they are trying to conquer a foreign country.

providing intelligence to help the ukrainian people defend themselves from russian aggression is well justified. it's not like the US is facilitating a ukrainian invasion of russian territory. if that were the case, i would certainly agree with your attempt to portray it as aggression. currently, however, they are merely helping ukraine to fight invaders in their own country - people who came there to kill and conquer them - so why are you acting like it's some kind of violation of russian rights? don't you think context matters?



the fact that many former warsaw pact members asked NATO (not the other way around) to join, because they wanted freedom and protection from their former occupier, does NOT change what i stated in the post you replied to:

in 2022, when russia invaded ukraine again, ukraine had NO realistic pathway to become a part of NATO. that's a fact.

your constant name-calling in combination with your inability to make a coherent argument doesn't reflect favourably on your intelligence btw. lmk when you found a new talking point to justify russia's murdering of innocent people though - i'll happily debunk that as well, junior.