mads_ravn

Joined 12 years ago

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Oct 10

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Comment · 2 years ago

I think number 1 is the essential point for anyone supporting democracy. Ukrainians, not Russians, decided who they elect as their leaders (1) and which organizations they want to join. It is depressing to hear people in democracies arguing otherwise.

As for point two: Yes it is also massively in the interest of democracies, that Ukraine wins and Europe is strengthened.

I think Stoltenberg summed up it up nicely in (2)

>So supporting Ukraine is not only the morally right thing to do. It is also in our own security interest.

(1) Queue Russian non-sense about Maidan being a western coup.

(2) https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/opinions_212041.htm

Comment · 3 years ago

Isn’t it just a reasonable application of the “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”?

And I say this as someone really hoping that this is true, since I assume this would be great news for renewable energy (and we really need great news on that front)

Comment · 3 years ago

Yeah, I also thought of Eternal September [1] in 1993, when I saw the claim to prescience.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September

Comment · 3 years ago

> I will make one point: in the US, it’s never been the government’s job to build homes.

That might be technically correct on the build part, but the US government used to subsidize home ownership through loans as described in [1], e.g.

> GI Bill benefits that guarantied home loans helped many Americans buy houses and move into the suburbs.

[1] https://www.exploros.com/summary/The-Growth-of-Suburbia

Comment · 4 years ago

Again, I don’t think we are going to end up agreeing as I believe that a significant portion of the Russian people are aware, that they are being lied to, but are to scared to do anything about this.

Please also note, that I don’t believe this applied to all Russians. The few I’ve interacted with more closely have been nice (the opposite of “shitty”)

Comment · 4 years ago

Hmm, I fail to see how this is even remotely comparable to Russian propaganda/related to the topic at hand, but I’ll give you that the “West” has also behaved atrociously in the past. Though please be aware, that arguments like the one you are trying to make, has a distinct feeling of whataboutism.

Comment · 4 years ago

Then we fundamentally disagree in how human psychology works: I believe that if authorities (be they government officials, parents or others) habitually lie and cheat, then that behavior becomes socially sanctioned as a way to get ahead. Thus you end up with more “shitty people” (and a worse society)

Comment · 4 years ago

I’m curious: You don’t think that being continuously exposed to government propaganda and threatened with jail/fines for dissenting opinions will increase the frequency of “shitty people”?

Comment · 4 years ago

It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it —- Upton Sinclair.

But agreed that this boggles the mind. The only explanation I’ve been able to come up with is lobbying by German industry.

Comment · 4 years ago