Comment by jajko | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jajko | Hacker News Reader

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Well you must read a different article, since whenever it mentions defense, its pretty damning from some made up virtual higher ground. Have to agree with the others, that person lives in naive fairy tale world, she should probably travel hard ie backpacking in 3rd world countries to understand it better.

I come from Europe, actually eastern part of it, having Ukraine as a neighbor. My country, my parents and grandparents, just like literally everybody else, were enslaved by soviets cough cough russians for over 40 years. Their military bases everywhere, people being regularly shot/electrocuted/torn apart by dogs on the border with Austria/Germany for the horrible crime wanting to escape that communist paradise. Non-conforming were put into gulags, uranium mines etc to die slowly. Those more visible were squished by regime ie by forced manual working (if you didn't have a job thats a straight ticket to long jail), and so were their whole families including children.

What russia is currently doing is an outright attack on whole western world and they don't even hide it, just listen to them, and only its lack of real military capabilities prevent them to steamroll across whole Europe.

Thats a naivety thats outright dangerous these days, and caused more stupid European leaders like Merkel to basically give up on army, so current Wehrmacht is a proper joke, ie current Polish armed forces would steam-roll them in a weekend. Why Polish? Well they have a wonderful history of persecution and murder from both russians and germans. Some nations learn from history and watch whats happening around them, some don't...

Well, I'm struggling with this myself. Should we be cynical because the world around us has been cynical historically? I prefer not to be cynical - to be blunt I don't mean to belittle anyone, but being cynical is just boring. I am an empathical being so I understand that some people might think "boring" is inapropriate, but I try to elevate the discussion. Sadly Russia often through history has chosen to be cynical and the war in Urkaine is of course no exception. Cynism is a yoke that enslaves and prevents innovation. Humans are able to follwo different patterns of behavior, lets call one pattern the "clan vs clan" pattern. In the "clan vs clan" pattern hierarchies are created through violience and groups fight against each other for power. This pattern is what runs the matrix that criminal gangs operate in. The pattern is "self balancing" since its basically the people with most violence capital that calls the shots. However, this pattern fails to provide for the many, abundance flows to those with power and there's not so much cause for innovating for your own sake since your work will just end up in the hands of the powerful. I beleive you can see in Russia and in countries where cartels run the business that they are less effective in providing for the many. In Russia the answer to this is to work with spirituality - the Russian orthodox church has been tied into the power structures and Russia tries to promote its orthodoxy abroad in attempts to gain influence, but just like the rest of the power structures it is corrupt. I beleive that Europe deserves a better future than falling into cynicism, not least the eastern parts. Its like resuming the dark ages. Its hard to predict the future and I don't know what will happen. Sadly weapons and armed conflict will most likely play a role, but I think that we must reason more broadly to really solve the conflict. Beating cynicism with cynicism is just cynical. People have an abillity, even if it may be suppressed in some people, to be reasonable.

Sure but the article wasn't focus on defence, it was talking more broadly. If you wanted it to somehow rationalise building weapons for warmongering nations i think it would be a hard job.

In my opinion its likely not naivety at all but a campaign following standard socialist ploys in subversion (cultural contagion).

They hit most of the common rhetoric talking points, and its common knowledge in some circles that these types promote narratives that attempt or build support for various stages of divide and conquer under communism.

Be it, demoralization, destabilization, crisis, or re-normalization (genocide).

The article promotes cancel culture, which is just another derivation of marxism. Reads like some of the more skilled propaganda pieces I've seen.

Knowing this, I wouldn't trust the author for anything that requires credibility.

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