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Comment by eldaisfish | Hacker News Reader

this is a terrible response.

Where are your customers? Predominantly the West, likely the US? This is not a question of "geopolitical judgement" but rather of funding a regime that illegally invaded another country, one that is responsible for a lot of cyber crime, one that oppresses its own people and one that directly uses misinformation to sow chaos in other countries.

Apply this same argument to North Korea or Iran. Assuming that either contributed meaningfully to the quality of your search results, would you be comfortable sending money to companies based in Iran or North Korea?

You can hide behind your technocratic arguments for a while. Look to Google and Facebook to see where that ends.

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It’s ironic the way you put it - the US has also invaded many countries, is responsible for a lot of cyber crime, and uses misinformation to sow chaos in other countries [1]. Should we all stop “funding“ the US? Somehow Ukranian lives are precious, but Iraqi and Bangladeshi lives are not?

I have no horse in this race - I’m neither American nor Russian, nor do I particularly love either country. But I am tired of US hypocrisy. I don’t understand how you all don’t see it - you’re all holed up in your cocoons and have no idea what’s actually going on in the world.

[1]: https://www.firstpost.com/opinion/bangladesh-coup-seems-stra...

let's not pretend that US democracy, flaws included, is in any way comparable to Russia.

Please, you know this is a bad faith argument, so let's cut the false equivalence.

I dislike the US as much as anyone, but I appreciate that the US is much better than Russia.

How many countries have Russia invaded in the last 50 years? And the same for the US?

The US invaded more and killed more innocent civilians, so pretending it's any better than Russia is hypocrisy at best.

I don't think Russia has many neighbouring countries it can still invade, because it literally already did all of them (except Norway?). And with their size, they have a lot of neighbours. It's very comfortable to restrict your argument to the last 50 years, but the true story of Russia is completely different.

Even the last 50 results in a silly long list.

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact — Moscow divided Poland with Germany (1939), invaded Finland (1939), occupied Baltic States (1940) — for two years of WW2 Moscow was Germany ally. After WW2 Moscow occupied half of Europe for 45 years, countries become free less than 50 years ago. Moscow made North Korea and China regimes, still supports dictatorship across the world, occupies and annexes neighbors.

Wars involving Russia in the last 50 years must be around 20, and don’t forget the occupation of half of Europe.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_Russi...

What makes you so certain the US is less bad than Russia?

Facts. Do you have no moral ground on WW2 Germany either?

Wars are bad and the person who wins is right. That’s how it has been for all of history. There are no just wars. Just, wars.

I’m deeply skeptical of the US. But how are the US and Russia behaving the same way?

Can you give an equivalent US atrocity to what’s happening in Ukraine right now?

I think you might be experiencing a “living through it” bias.

Some people do avoid US companies for the reasons you've mentioned.

People tend to care more about what they are familiar with. Someone in Zimbabwe probably cares more about the war in Sudan and avoids dealing with the countries involved than with the Russian invasion of Ukraine and use Russian products. Same with someone in Iran, they probably care more about Syria and Palestine, and avoid Israeli products while using Yandex.

Maybe it's hypocrisy, but humans don't have the capacity to support every victim of every war.

it is this plus the ability to affect the world.

I have no dog in the US / Russia debate but i recognise that both have tremendous ability to affect the world. Same with China and i avoid chinese products where I can.

That said, i'm much less concerned about North Korea, compared to Russia. The latter has sophisticated weapons and military tactics. North Korea may be an evil state but its small population and economy mean that their ability to sow chaos is limited.

Exact same argument with Sudan, the Houthis, etc. Iran is in the middle of this pack but Russia is far and away the most significant danger.

So why bias the US over Russia on the morality scale?

But someone in Zimbabwe would care if their country commits a genocide. But most Americans don't when their country does it.

We don't even have to leave the African continent do understand that people being okay with and performing genocides, waging war, etc, isn't an exclusive American trait.

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