Westerners need to come to terms with the bubble of materialism we live in. We want wealth and freedom and those things go together, so we assume wanting those things is the human condition. We negotiate, make treaties, plan strategies, all with the idea that people the world over want the same things we do. They do not. We cannot fathom that Russians care more about empire and pride than the latest Iphone. We can’t imagine a middle eastern democracy voting for oppressive regimes. The magic of the west isn’t democracy or systems, it’s culture. You cannot approach the world under the assumption all modern humans share the same values as the west.
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Low income individuals are more likely to be drafted in the event of all out war.
Now, what’s more of a necessity: a cell phone with 3 meals a day and a clean set of clothes, or not being sent to die on the hellish front lines of a war?
War is incomparable to any of the consequences we would face from imposing sanctions. Utterly incomparable. With all due respect, it is just creature comforts.
We agreed to help protect them if they gave up their nukes. We can argue about whether we should have or not, but we did. Not keeping our word shouldn’t be an option.
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I think we both know this is da racist. It’s why not leaving and going to Somalia is proof that people don’t really like freedom, or whatever.
Russia agreed to protect them as well.
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Perhaps. Like wise if he mobilised today and then tomorrow a 250kt device was set off over Washington people would be saying he was a fool to poke the bear further.
By this I’m not defending his position either way.
On a political front I’d like to say - Boris (the British PM) is a useless scheming piece of shit. And I hate him. BUT - by all accounts he’s trying to lead Europe in to harsher sanctions against Putin. Including kicking them off “swift”. A move Putin once called “like declaring war”. Perhaps he has a redeeming quality? Who knows.
America does have some responsibility for the situation. We are one of the main countries that convinced Ukraine to disarm their nuclear arsenal. Under apparently false pretenses of providing protection.
Between this and Iraq, I can imagine why any country would ever work with us again.
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Honestly, I don’t know why the American left isn’t on board with Putin. He’s anti-fa. I mean, punching Nazis is still OK right?
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What Antifa hasn’t realized is that Nazi stands for:
Na = National
zi = Sozialist
National Socialist movement… Which is EXACTLY what Antifa is for.
The irony
For being the most woke and left-wing poster on the site you are remarkably detached from the reality of low income people trying to make ends meet in the USA. I recall you acting as if a million-dollar asset was not particularly impressive, because it is a house in California. A million dollar asset is life-changing for nearly everyone on the planet.
Something tells me you’ve never had to spend a winter with little or no heat in the house or worked 70 hour work weeks for months on end just to stay afloat. I’m guessing your nutrition is probably very good and you have no shortage of options for food you can afford. You probably don’t know any kids who are being raised by bad parents making bad decisions who will make even more bad decisions when things get tighter.
Inflation, energy and broader economic impacts do much more than rob people of creature comforts for the folks barely getting by already. It’s not getting shot at in a war, but tell that to the small child whose parents are struggling across the board right now.
Good for you if you’ve been so successful to have no conception of these situations or the magnitude of a million dollar asset, but you really come across as a limousine liberal caricature.
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In other news, I filled up at the cheapest gas station I could find in a 50 mile stretch down in SoCal. Regular gas was $4.89/gal.
But it’s just ‘creature comforts’, so no biggie. Being energy dependent on a swath of countries who ideologically oppose us has always worked well in the past.
EDIT: this wasn’t in LA County
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Yeah. That’s true for pretty much every fucked up thing in the world anymore.
I don’t think it was a guarantee.
I can’t either. I don’t think the U.S. needs any more vassal states, though. Time to get out of NATO and the UN while we’re at it.
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You have no idea of my background, and I’m happy to keep it that way.
And you are correct, none of those creature comforts being lost compares to being shot at in a war.
Still not good news if they turn to Russian or China instead…
Why? Why is that a problem? They will then make China or Russia poorer instead of the U.S.
Aside from my general affinity for Human rights, it’s certainly bad for the world economy.
Plus as mentioned already, Russia is already a bankrupt shithole economy, but they still are putting the world on the edge of large scale war. Poor doesn’t equal less dangerous. Look at North Korea.
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I’ll be sure to let by friend’s 11 year-old daughter know that finding her father dead on the bathroom floor from suicide is nowhere near as bad as getting shot at in a war. Someone should get on the news and make sure all Americans struggling right now understand this important distinction. Remember folks, it’s all just creature comforts if you’re still alive.
Your woke perspective is always appreciated. It is an important contrasting opinion here on the forums.
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I don’t understand why this would be.
That takes two.