Russians also describe 1990s Russia as an economic wasteland where all of Russia’s wealth and resources were gathered up by oligarchs. So yeah, pretty apt analogy.

Yep. Now, it should be mentioned that clean drinking water SHOULD be a constitutional right, but that’s a matter for an amendment, not for a judge to unilaterally decide.

That quote strikes me as suspect, since the UK doesn’t have “kindergarten”. It’s like hearing an “anonymous UK diplomat” quoted as referring to rubbish as “garbage”.

Sometimes it takes a while for statisticians to notice things, I guess.

The replacement rate is over 2, though.

People just liked it better that way.

Everything Trump says is a joke until he does it

I’m considering renaming the United States of America to Cringetopia

From what I can tell, the closest thing that Tellarites have to a main cast spot is Nus Braka , the recurring “Klingarite” (Klingon-Tellarite hybrid) main antagonist in Starfleet Academy, played by Paul Giamatti.

I hate the existence of billionaires as much as the next person, but it always rubs me the wrong way when journalism wears its bias as a badge of honor. Just the facts, please; trust me enough to come to the right conclusion on my own.

What?

Depends what you define as “okay”? My family moved back to Ireland in the early 90s when I was young so I don’t really know how it compares to Canada in terms of racism. Racism certainly exists, and it seems to be worse now than it was before COVID, but I can’t say I see it personally in my own life, maybe one minor incident (eg most recently a kid in the street throwing pebbles and shouting racist abuse at passersby) every fifteen years or so. And every time it’s happened, everyone else on the scene takes the POC’s side (most Irish people pride themselves on being sound).

TBH I’m not really sure I’m qualified to answer, though, as I’m white and I don’t hang around with racists so just because I don’t see racist stuff happening doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen when I’m not around. I suppose the most objective measure I can point to is that we have a racist political party but they’ve never won even a single seat in the Dáil.

Here in Ireland I’m getting a bunch of ads to come visit the USA that I never got before.

The sad thing is that that’s probably not true.

OK, I suppose that’s my fault for trying to establish a human rapport by acknowledging that we both find German governmental policy towards Israel frustrating. I guess it was a little condescending, but I didn’t mean it to be. But fuck me I guess. I retract the attempt to empathize with you.

Can we go back to discussing the issue? I’m gonna ignore the parts of your comment that were just personal attacks on me, but I’m only gonna do that once.

The UN vote back in 2022 also doesn‘t say anything about international support, it only confirms the international condemnation of the invasion. But you surely also can see the huge yellow parts, right?

Yes I can. I can also see the huge green parts. Considering that you said:

Ukraine has no international goodwill

…I think pointing out that 141 voted in favor of the resolution is a fair rebuttal to your claim. I think it’s possible that when I say “support”, I mean something different than you mean.

Germany is complicit in the genocide and are actively repressing opposition to their own criminality. Further, as if it’s only the German government, that does not recognize the truth about Israel and Palestine, right, not like in the UK people are being arrested left and right for the terrorism of speaking out. The EU sanctions their own journalists. In the US people are getting deported. Hell, they freaking bought TikTok and gave it to a Zionist billionaire to smother uncensored Palestine reporting, by getting a hold of the algorithm, after which it became a right wing pro Israel platform. This also has been openly admitted by, … dunno who it was, Graham or some ghoul.

My underlying point was that the German government was not motivated by malice but by fear of allowing itself to be overcome with antisemitism again, so it’s overcorrecting and now ironically it’s once again, as you say, complicit in genocide. The fact that we agree on the complicity in genocide was what I hoped would form common ground between us, but I think you thought I was trying to justify genocide and, well, now we’re here.

Nobody said that, further bad faithing. You pretend, as if I haven’t explained entirely different dynamics. BuT rUsSiA, sToP lOoKiNg At OuR sO-cAlLeD dEmOcRaCiEs!!!1

I honestly don’t know what you’re trying to say here. Can you rephrase?

But it decided, that it needed to, in order to survive against NATO aggression. It’s not like there’s an undo button. And only denying them their perspective and pretending like NATO is not the most dangerous organization on earth would be quite the unequal measure. Maybe that wouldn‘t have happened, if the Ukrainian fascists didn‘t murder 14.000 of their fellow landsman, just because they were Russian speaking. Who knows. But there’s no reason to ignore reality.

Do you really want to commit to the claim that the only reason that there was a war in Ukraine between 2014 and 2022 was that some Ukrainians wanted to kill other Ukrainians for speaking Russian? That’s really the theory you’re willing to hang your hat on? I’ll debate that point if you want, but I sincerely doubt you actually believe that.

Unfortunately, I didn’t say that “everyone against the West is good”. That’s not even an argument, it’s nothing but an empty phrase. You’ve got nothing. But yes, the West is the bane if humanity. It‘s the main aggressor, exploiter, polluter and oppressor. It‘s a fact. Again, no need to deny reality. The world is moving on, they‘re fed up with it.

I really don’t think any of that is true.

I suspect that part of the reason they’re also taking gold out of Canada is to give themselves plausibility when they say that it’s not a knock against the USA.

Ukraine, scrambling to survive in this unwinnable war they where forced into (by the West)

I rather think that Ukraine was forced into this war when it was attacked. By Russia. And there’s a UN resolution to that effect, which 141 nations, not just NATO, voted for.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_General_Assembly_Resolution_ES-11/1

I’m sorry the German government is incapable of recognizing the truth on Israel and Palestine. Obviously it is unwilling to risk allowing antisemitism to rise again, and that’s a valid concern, so I understand why, but I know it must be frustrating for you to not even be allowed to have the conversation.

That doesn’t mean that Russia isn’t targeting civilians in this war. It’s not the good guy. It doesn’t need to be at war with Ukraine. Unfortunately the world is more complicated than “the West is bad and everyone against the West is good”.

All right, well I think I’ve wasted enough of my time on you. Have a nice life.

“I know you are but what am I?”

It shouldn’t be that strange. I’ve demonstrated how… twice.