no despot with nukes (let alone the one with the largest nuclear arsenal on the planet at his disposal) has anything to fear from NATO, or even the bloodthirsty yanks. that's a fact. that's why rogue nations like north korea and iran so desperately want them. pootin not a moron. he is 100% aware of that.
of course he didn't want ukraine in NATO - but not because he was afraid of an attack, but he was afraid he wouldn't be able to do what he's currently doing: invade them to grab their territory, because he erroneously thinks it belongs to russia, because he feels entitled to their fealty and their land.
suggesting he was afraid that NATO would attack him if ukraine joined the alliance is nothing but propaganda. if NATO actually wanted a nuclear holocaust, they could just as well trigger that from estonia, lithuania, latvia, poland, a submarine anywhere near russias 40,000 km coast line... the options are endless - just like russia could start it at any point from kaliningrad or anywhere else.

being like switzerland means standing idly by while innocent people are being murdered. if every nation on the planet was like them, that'd be ideal - because no one would just invade their weaker neighbours either - but with imperialist war monger nations like the US, russia, and china around, it is a privileged position to claim for oneself, leaving the dirty work to others while still profiteering from every war. don't kid yourself about their noble ideals, mate. you should really know better.

also, you can call yourself out, but i for one am NOT "best buddies" with war mongers. i don't support them, i don't vote for them, i don't provide them with weapons. i don't know if you realised it yet, but you are not your nation nor are you your government. ties wondefully into crossbone's post btw:



you don't need help. whoever suggests that paying taxes automatically means you support everything your government does is the one who needs it, because they fundamentally don't understand how society works.

a bare minimum of nuance and common sense will tell you that. if you don't vote for / otherwise support those pushing for war, if you personally oppose it, it's not your fault. it's literally that simple. you can always do more of course - from attending protests, to political organisation in order to deprive the war mongers of power, to actively sabotaging the war effort... the options are plentiful...

This post was edited by fender on Mar 23 2023 06:04pm

This take is one I don’t have issue with. Just stating when there are agreeable points of view 👍

The amount of hate I had for the Bush campaign was higher for the person himself than trump. My anger around trump is specific to the MAGA CHUDS who can’t logic themselves out of a box. Without them trump is literally a cartoon character. Had to pay a porn start for sex with billions? Lol sad to level that’s hard to fathom.

This post was edited by theCrossbones on Mar 23 2023 06:07pm

I guess some crazy libertarian told you this. These people are pathetic.

None of Trump mistresses have ever claimed they were paid for sex, even once he was past his prime. He's said to have given them gifts afterwards or paid extortionate hush money, but nobody claimed they had sex with him for money. The guy had numerous supermodel girlfriends who defended his character with nothing to gain for themselves, what does that say about his critics?

But they blanket sanction every single Russian. Thats where things get dicey.

i mean, domestically trump is certainly one of the worst presidents in recent american history, alongside reagan. i don't think most americans even realise how close he was to succeeding with his coup, let alone what lasting damage he caused by normalising bigotry and fascism, by undermining the public's trust in elections and institutions, as well as the media.

that said though, from an international perspective he really is just an average evil - massively outdone by the likes of bush jr and bush sr... their legacy is truly devastating, and any amount of hate for them is well justified imo. i absolutely despise the fact they will never face any kind of justice for their crimes, and that jr even became somewhat of a media darling in recent years - just because he's not an unapologetic bigot, not an unsophisticated manbaby, and because he cuddles with michelle obama. it's disgusting really, it's like america collectively forgot how much suffering he caused in the world. glad to hear that some good people remember though.

This post was edited by fender on Mar 23 2023 06:26pm

we both know that encroachment is a thing, only a matter of time until russia would experience all kinds of fuckery, if fully surrounded by NATO, it does not need an open war to threaten a country (not saying this is necessarily and 100% true here, but you can think that way)

there is obligation to help ukraine, switzerland rightfully rejects this notion, that you are either pro ukraine or pro putin

once again, you posted the video about "realism" yourself, what has happened was actually explained there

plenty of people predicted this and called for a neutral ukraine, ignored

the US themselves predicted both the ukraine and georgia scenarios (wikileaks documents), still rejected compromise

lets not act like putin invading for the sake of just invading and grabbing land was some kind of foregone conclusion, thats just wrong and was created as a talking point AFTER the invasion

even without the eastern ukraine mess, the sevastopol base alone would be enough to trigger russia, they will never give that up to let NATO march in there

again, this has nothing to do with downplaying or justifying what happened and is still happening

i did not expect putin to take the bait, thats why i was wrong when i said putin would just threaten to invade, unfortunately the realist geopolitics are undefeated

to clarify: of course you or me are not "the country", but, for example, the support for US invasions i talked about earlier is still the policy of our elected government and those before them

you can support it or not, to at least some degree we individuals are still on the hook for this as its the result of a collective decision

This post was edited by JohnnyMcCoy on Mar 23 2023 06:38pm

You have it backwards. A critical mass of the voting public no longer trusted institutions and the media, that is the reason why Trump became president in the first place. And boy did they earn and confirm this mistrust during the Trump era.
Also, you're delusional if you genuinely think the bunch of angry hillbillies that stormed the Capitol on Jan 6 had any chance of successfully pulling off a coup. Or that Trump had any chance of actually earning a second term after hypothetically convincing a sufficient number of state officials to blatantly overturn the will of the voters in their respective state.



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How come Russia still hasn't taken Bakhmut yet?
This is starting to get embarrassing!

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Mar 23 2023 07:52pm