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by ajl666 1369 days ago
It's sad to see how easily westerners are mislead by our own leaders, who ape Soviet contempt for constituents and maliciously ignore voter inputs.

You should at least make an effort to see things from the Russian point of view. To say there's nothing valid in the Russian state's actions, is really idiotic.

1) Are post WW2 borders sacred?

2) The dissolution of the USSR was chaotic, unnegotiated, and basically due to the magnanimity of Gorbachev.

3) Therefore, post USSR space resembles post-colonial Africa: former co-nationals are now minorities, depending on which post-Soviet state one examines. Armenia and Azerbaijan are good examples. Oh, but the news didn't tell you to get upset about it yet, so you have no opinion? That's why these opinions on Ukraine are so unprincipled.

4) The Turks depopulated Ukraine via the slave trade. Russia conquered the land, pushed the Turks back, and colonized E Ukraine for themselves. 18th century stuff. What I want to know is why the wokester position (the official Western "Good Guy" position, otherwise known the Party Line Winston) finds the USA's existence an affront to Native Americans and Mexicans, Israel's existence an affront to Palestinians, but cares not one whit for Poland occupying half of historic Germany, Turkey's ongoing genocide of Armenians (They back Azerbaijan, and Turkey is also a NATO power), and Greeks (threatening to invade... read proper journalists and you'll know)?

5) The West did the same thing to Serbia. The West in fact helped with the Muslim genocide of Serbians. Kosovo is the origin of Serbian culture and the Muslims overran it in the last 400 years. If you weep for the Native Americans and Tibetans, then you should care about what happened in Serbia too. Worse, the precedent is the one that the Russians used as the pretext to invade Ukraine.

6) Crimea was given to Ukraine in the 1950s by Khrushchev. It was Tatar and then it was Russian. HOW IS THAT SACRED? The same international law the US breaks constantly?

7) Remember that post-Cold War Magnanimity by Gorby? Know how people keep saying 'uh oh, if Putin loses, he'll nuke us all?' Do you really think that political shift came from nowhere? The west has been attacking Russia ever since the Cold War ended. If western idiots (sadly, most of us) haven't recognized (or are too ignorant to even know about because you don't read) the damage, that's only because you do the same thing the Russians do: slavishly listen to leaders without actually questioning the fact-stack. The US broke the promise not to move NATO eastward. That was the original sin. That was not nothing. That was as aggressive as attacking Ukraine. The demographic decline of Russia is not war damage? The economic damage of allowing China into the WTO and not Russia (when they were trying to be good) is not war damage? The use of western financial institutions to pillage Russia and financialize and control its mineral assets, while at the same time encouraging the de-industrializing of Russia is not war damage?

8) The Russians stopped the Cold War, but the US and the West did not.

9) Now they are mobilizing. They can't do it like we do: the US uses war to pillage its own people. The Russians are mobilizing the only way they can: the old fashioned way. The Russians are pushing back the only way they can: the old fashioned way.

10) Everywhere I go, supposedly intelligent people act like citizens of Oceana who can't seem to remember what happened the prior news cycle and remember only what the Wokeing class demands. Everything else goes in the memory hole.

11) THE WEST IS JUST AS BAD! CYBERPUNK IS JUST AS SH!T AS FALLOUT!

12) I didn't want any of this. The time to have stopped this was in the 1990s when the Western Trojan horse known as Chubais was busy annihilating the Russian economy. We nurtured China because their slaves were going to make our masters more profits and turn the majority of Americans from a free people with trades into a poor, welfare dependent people from the noblesse oblige of our 'elites' who shipped our manufacturing overseas... Russia has resources, China has slaves. Russia didn't play along when we tried financializing their economy and pulling it into our orbit. So now it's war.

13) To all you stubborn ignorant dummies: Good job. You have caused global starvation, European economic collapse, the annihilation of Ukraine, and it all benefits... you?

14) Hacker News is filled with beneficiaries of US policies. You can rely on a man to not understand something when his paycheck is dependent on him not understanding.

15) Keep on downvoting. The truth is a virus and I hope it destroys your brains.

7 comments

Confused. post-WW2 borders are not sacred, but 400yo events are...the history of something is more important than the current reality...an independent self-governing Ukraine means less than 'who gave it to whom'. This is mostly political doublespeak rationalization.

Reality: in this day and age it's not OK to begin bombing your neighbors for any reason. Never mind blamethrowing, equating old treaties to bombing, and appeals to good ol-fashion murder.

> Reality: in this day and age it's not OK to begin bombing your neighbors for any reason.

1) you didn't say "bombing anyone for any reason", does it imply it's ok to bomb distant countries for some reason?

2) if (1) is yes, then:

2.1) what is the appropriate distance to a country to count it as distant?

2.2) what are the appropriate reasons and is this list of reasons exhaustive?

3) where has "this day and age" begun and why on that moment specifically?

> Are post WW2 borders sacred?

You can stop reading here

They aren’t. But the only international law that matters says you don’t try to change borders by force. You don’t murder civilians or stage fake referendums to annex territories.

There is no “other perspective” worth nothing other than as an excercise in trying to predict the criminals next step.

Just to nitpick but this quote:

"What I want to know is why the wokester position (the official Western "Good Guy" position, otherwise known the Party Line Winston) finds the USA's existence an affront to Native Americans and Mexicans, Israel's existence an affront to Palestinians"

Is not entirely true in the US. The majority of the political class supports Israel and looks the other way to what is happening to Palestinians. In fact right now multiple states have introduces anti-BDS laws (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) to help stop any attempt to curtail Israeli expansion via peaceful means.The Native American population also isn't doing great either which goes against your narrative.

All your points completely miss the fact that Ukrainians want to be free from Russia. They're not a pawn to be passed between powers, they're a free country.
Are post WW2 borders sacred? Is Crimea, transferred by Soviet Russia to the Ukraine in 1954, sacred? It's called international law. Yes it should be sacred. Nothing you say justifies by any means Putin's aggression and war crimes. Putin is a thug. He is a mob boss. Ukraine will join the EU. Ukraine will join NATA. Ukraine's economy and culture will flourish while Russia will be a pariah until Putin dies of old age and a respectable and honourable leader takes his place.
AMerIcA bAd, ANti-amEricA goOD !1!1!!

Non-existent moderation and both side-ism is killing HN. Now the median post is barely better than reddit, but with lots of DK and idiotic contrarian garbage up top. @dang what's it gonna take for you to do start deleting this crap? A nuke?

That's not a rebuttal dummy.

Do you want the legitimacy debate confers your position? Then debate.

None of my points are any one else's talking points. That's a sign of a non-dogmatic thinker, dummy.

You ignore that entities other than 'the West' (one homogenous blob apparently) and Russia have agency. NATO doesn't expand, countries voluntarily join because they don't want Russia to fuck them over (again). Your points have been made by Mearsheimer and his ilk many times before. You people keep asserting that Russia is a superpower without backing it up with anything. Your worldview is stuck in the Cold War, you are unable to absorb new information. As was made clear by recent events, having nukes is not sufficient to be a superpower. Hell, fucking Pakistan has nukes. Iran, too, what a superpower, right? Maybe we should ask all of them for permission before we use the shitter, eh?

It's not like the mainstream US narrative is correct either, but you are so wrong it's not even funny. One of the bigger reasons we are in this mess is that 'the West' was too timid, not because it was too aggressive. If you give Russia an inch, they are (and always were) going to take a mile, because they see willingness to compromise as weakness. Weakness provokes, strength deters. But what the fuck do I know, I only live in a post-communist country. I'm sure some tankie or a champagne socialist will be along shortly to explain that if only we would all be nice to each other we would live in some post scarcity Star Trek paradise already and why the military budget should be used to house the poor instead...

Excellent post. Thank-you for this.

And to anyone who thinks taking the Russian point of view means you are Russian shill please view some John Meersheimer on YouTube. He also references prominent and respected IR American scholars who criticize American policy towards post Soviet Russia. It's been a disastrous mess. And now we face possible nuclear war because of arrogance.

Defending the invasion is being a Russian shill.

Arguing that policies have been poor isn’t.

It’s possible that this war could have been avoided through different policies, but this is an unprovoked invasion. Arguing it somehow has any responsibility outside Russia is like arguing rape victims should have dressed more appropriately.

By unprovoked I mean “no one walked into Russia or committed any acts of war against Russia”

It’s a term that’s used as “justified”.

One big difference with living in the west is that I can read your post, and the GP. I can "take in the truth" and I can (and do) go further and read other, more credible sources and come to the conclusion that the worlds history is not black and white. The US is certainly not an innocent player. And then I can read Putin's own words and I can read Dugin and come to the conclusion that Russia is 100% at fault for the current situation in Ukraine. I might be wrong in this judgement, but at least I won't go to jail for expressing it.