Poland's aid to Ukraine if Russia invades - part 28

Nonsense with no evidence except that provided by hunters and gun manufacturers

I'm not wildly opposed to it - just think it's cruel and unnecessary and certainly not beneficial for conservation.

Want more hares ? Preserve their habitats, improve air quality and address climate change

Anyway back to the war - you don't think the Orthodox Church is a branch of Putler's Nazi government ?

:)

One red fox can eat anything between 100 to 300 hares a year. Without natural predators (wolves) there is nothing you can do about air quality (lol), climate change or habitats to prevent hares from going extinct. Unless, of course, you know a magic way of bringing back throngs of wolves to European forests (and whether you want to!).
Hunters serve as replacement for natural predators. Nothing to do with cruelty--death from a bullet is a quick one. I would be more concerned about animals bred and slaughtered for meat if I were to worry about cruelty.


I don't think that Russian government is nazi, that's one thing, and I don't think that the Orthodox Church encourages "nighttime murder of civilians, human safaris and rape and theft of their neighbors", as you wrote in your post.

I've got to agree with Torq here. The Nazis had quite a bit in the way of ideology behind them, although it was of course all completely wrong. Putinism is only about extending and securing the power of Putin. If Putin sincerely believed that forcing the entire Russian nation to become trans-sexual Jews, people who spoke out opposing trans folks or Jews would start falling out of windows.


Again Torq is right here, but only because the Kremlin Orthodox Church doesn't view Ukrainians (apart from the few Ukrainians who are loyal to the Kremlin Orthodox Church) as neighbours, civilians or even humans.

I could imagine something like what you described, which is not teenagers pretending to shoot people.... especially in the context of an aggressive expansionist war that is not.... going well for russia.

They just behave like Nazis towards their neighbor. They also worship the war they started in 1939 with their Nazi allies

And every right wing Nazi thug in the Western World now looks up to Putler - he even funds many of these Nazi groups

North Nigeria is a Nazi state - no ifs, no buts

russia doesn't want to end the war not least because it doesn't want soldiers coming home....

x.com/JayinKyiv/status/2024087964398022706

(just one of many such cases.....)

The answer is simple, they want to take up more territory.

Did you look at the link.... lots of these cases happening....

The optimal solution for russia now would be to starve soldiers of supplies so that Ukraine can kill them all and they don't have to deal with them returning home....

How are things in the russian army?

Very, very...... russian.....

x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/2024108367203934577

Who knows?

If you listen to Radoslaw Sikorski (or Rutte, or the Estonian military intelligence) - it is at the same time at the end of its resources, but ALSO capable of rolling through most of Europe unopposed.

We have a "Schrodinger's Army"....

Nobody can say - is it weak, or is it strong? It depends on the perspective of the observer.

Well it's a Wednesday evening so I will have a guess that they are drunk

You say that, almost as if being drunk is a negative thing.

The Spaniards conquered America drunk.

The Royal Navy was built, supposedly, on: (1) Rum (2) The lash, and (3) Buggery.

It would take a heart of stone not to laugh.....

Two Romanians, decided to go to russia and report back about how great things are there and recorded hours of footage praising the country's traditional christian values.... and they were detained, stripped naked and expelled with a 50 year ban on returning....

x.com/StratcomCentre/status/2023378968963899491

Russia is fvcked part 27.

Russophiles need to STFU....... Russia is losing this war..... without question.....



Russia is fvcked part 28!!! How much do you morons need to understand that Russia has fvcked itself???

So it turns out the NNs have a pretty awesome team of Paralympic ice hockey players who left their legs in a field 6km outside Pokrovsk

Trouble is that most of these are also murderers who have no place in the Olympic arena.

Thoughts ? Forgiveness or a total ban ? Would Nazi German amputees have been allowed in the 1948 games ? It's a difficult one - they could be victims too (albeit ones who have made a completely futile sacrifice for a few cm of Ukraine which has now been recaptured anyway.

Na ja....with the warring dictatorship still in place any success would be used by the leader for flag waving and propgaganda and keeping-the-morale-high stuff, so not during the actual conflict.

But when all is over there should be a new start possible! Not at last because amputees have paid a hefty price for something they don't have any control over, not being males of the right age under a dictatorial leadership hellbent on going to war.

Just my two cents....

Tell me you've learned nothing about russia without telling me.....

.....being from a "black sheep" of history myself I don't believe in the demonization of whole peoples for always and ever! ;)

I'm not demonizing. I'm just being realistic. Not even one percent of russians feel strongly enough about the destruction of the country (or atrocities committed by russia in Ukraine) to publicly protest.

russia has never undergone any process that would make most people want any kind of serious change... russians were fine with the soviet union (even though living standards there were well below the DDR).

Countries change by two ways, outside-in (top-bottom) or organically (bottom-top).

Ukraine changed in the 2000s in an organic process that was bottom to top (the citizenry standing up to the government).

West Germany changed after WWI because it was basically run from outside with democracy being more or less forced on the population until they agreed it was better than what they'd had.

Those are simplidications and ignore a lot of factors but the overall point is right.

The one thing that might provoke change in russia is improved living standards. As Galeev once pointed out starting aroudn 2006 the government tried to share the wealth a little and it led to the largest demonstrations of unrest in post soviet russia.... they're not going to make that mistake again and so living standards are going to stay artifically low. Keeping the population living hand to mouth is more or less official government policy.

It would pleasant to think that there were forces wanting a peaceful, prosperous russia but it's a fantasy.

Hmmm.....I dunno....I can only speak from personal experience but I think the GDR would still exist if they could have offered a better economy, a better life for their people.
But the GDR in 1989 was broke, with long lines waiting for bread and the most necessary things...

People can endure alot if they get something in return....and for most people it is not that important who rules them, or democracy generally or free press especially, but if they can live a halfway personally satisfying life....if the shops are filled with lotsa goods and that they have enough money to buy their daily bread!
And when both things come together, if the ruler can't fulfill the most basic needs in addition to suppression and force, then he gets opposition...its the beginning of the end, everywhere.

"Its the economy, stupid!"

So...IMHO....Putin stands a better chance of a longer rulership if he keeps his people happy...a failing economy will become his worst enemy!

but they couldn't, and neither can modern russia (without massive socio-political changes that I cannot see happening at all)

what makes you think russians are deeply dissatisfied with the current situation (apart from assuming they're just like you)?

They are humans, just like you and I? :)

They want the same in life, have the same dreams and fears, they grieve about their dead sons the same as we do....they are not some aliens from another planet, Maf!

And you never had to experience what it means to live in a lawless state, where you have no rights....you don't know how you will react....if you will be the brave hero, standing up to the dictator....or if you don't rather keep your head down to secure your family's survival...you can't know, hence don't judge others so hard!

I think another difference is that the well educated and competent Germans also made it a national mission to rebuild their industry better and quickly.

After this war the North Nigerians will stand around waiting for someone to tell them what to do, all the time wondering where they can get a drink. Meanwhile their elites will be long gone to Cyprus and Dubai.

As for these athletes I think you are right BB - it's inconceivable that they should be allowed to compete while the war is still ongoing. In fact, they should all be investigated for war crimes while they are in Italy, and held there until they can prove their innocence.

After the war they can have a fresh start

And in Germany it was implicitly understood that money should move in both directions.... I've yet to see any evidence that any decision maker in russia wants to improve living standards...


I don't care how russians live or what they if they stay in their own country and stop invading their neighbors.... if they like the system as it is, fine, let them have it.

And I don't assume others have the same values that I do. You're looking at your person values, redefining them as 'human' and assume they're shared by people in societies and cultures that are very different from yours.....

.....societies and cultures of course differ, but I just think when you look down to the smallest parts, the human being, they are not so different....nowhere!

And how would a western society fare under an oppressive dictatorship....and would a russian culture not flourish under democratic leadership?

If that were true then there would be no such thing as cultural differences....

The idea that Japanese, Chilean, Turkish and German people all have the same set of values doesn't hold up.

in cross-cultural research clear and obvious differences emerge.

A good introductory model is that of the (late) Dutch researcher Geert Hofstede....

He talks about dimensions of culture (problems that all societies have to solve, the different solutions reflect different values of the majority).

Take one of these dimensions, power distance (the degree to which those with less power accept inequality). To take some countries of interest, the rankings are (nb the higher the number the greater the acceptance of inequality and assume that about 10 points indicates a perceptible difference).

Sweden : 31
Germany : 38
US : 40
Poland : 68
France : 68
Mexico : 81
russia : 93

This indicates that poor russians accept inequality to a much greater degree than do Poles, who accept more inequality than do Germans...

This is one factor that contributes to the state of russia.

....but societies can change, and change they do! They wouldn't change without the will of the people!

And Maf, I remember harsh judgement about the "slavishly obedient" Germans too (during war times)...,and the ranking of some countries would differ wildly during different times in their histories!

I dunno what I should think of such studies....

But usually very slowly... and don't mistake politics for values. Values influence politics far more than politics influence values.


Not really. Values change at a very, very, very slow pace. How the values are manifested is another issue. Poland and France have the same score but the manifestations are pretty different (same with US and Germany).

....okay...maybe its another case of imprecision of terms and definitions.

Or maybe Russia just needs to go through all what comes with a self inflicted but in the end lost war....including self reflection and asking questions about themselves, who knows...

What I wrote was a simplified version of about 2% of a theoretical model that holds up pretty well (in replication).


They've never had to do that...

And look at this... complaining and no sense of personal agency whatsoever... just waiting for someone else to do something....

x.com/JayinKyiv/status/2024432936917848176