Ferrus wrote: ↑Sun Oct 16, 2022 12:26 pm
Right, so all of history would be a Rousseaun paradise of hippy communes if it weren't for 'geopolitics'? Messianic nationalist leaders bent on imperialistic expansion and subjugation are just a product of shadowy cabals right? Have you ever considered the security of 'everyday life' is almost entirely dependent on the capacity for the state to prevent a brutal international anarchy from seeping into everyday?
Interesting, so any country that owes its existance to geopolitical reasons is illegitimate? But I mean, doesn't that include every country that exists? Or are you just against a rebellion that was aided by outside geopolitical forces is illigitimate? So by this argument the United States is an illigitimate country? I mean, a bunch of measly import duties to pay for their own defence and Quebec being allowed to be Catholic seem like a lot less serious reasons to assert political independence than having a kleptocratic leader imposed on you that is seeking to rob the country of its resources and slowly eliminate its existence. And also, didn't the French help out the American revolution for nakedly geopolitical reasons, and there was a far higher proportion of pro-British loyalist in the thirteen colonies than there are pro-Russians in Ukraine? Or maybe this reductio ab absurdum just suggests that these simplistic notions of what 'the people' want and feel clash with the realities of how populations feel about their country, home and the tensions of these with the realities of a Hobbesian world of power?
I might say that every state that currently exists is illegitimate. On what basis does any state justify itself? The preservation of 'everyday life' which is always a hierarchy with a large exploited underclass for whom everyday life is decided by those above them. The security of your 'everyday life' depends on violence and slavery. And as a matter of principle I don't see land ownership is itself as "legitimate" because what gave any of us the right to exclude any other from living on the land? People should own what they create and the land was given to us all to share. And "History" is usually just a story written by the privileged few who see the lives of the many as pieces on a board.
To clarify, I wouldn't go as far as saying that there should never be a state, and I'm not 100% sure where to draw the line wrt local autonomy. I definitely think that the current world order is one of elites plundering regions of the globe to nobody's benefit but their own in the short term.
And ridiculous to suggest that would be the outcome? In spite of quite clear proof that that is exactly what is happening in the city of Kherson?
War crimes are part of war, and I've also seen claims that the Russian civilians in Donbas have been the target of atrocities. I'm highly skeptical of all such claims and whatever you might call "clear proof". But I do believe that war crimes are happening, just not necessarily that it's one-sided, and I think that ending the war is the first step in ending these things.
Ukraine is unwinnable and funneling weapons into it is bad for Russia but also bad for Europe and especially for the people who live there. Peace would be the reasonable thing, but of course it doesn't seem to make any sense at the end of so many unreasonable actions.
starjots wrote: ↑Tue Oct 18, 2022 1:10 am
If you were wondering about the mobilized Russians, a very cogent first-hand account of a Russian from the far east who went from civilian to front lines to wounded in a few weeks. Something about this reminded me of a Putin-style 'Red Badge of Courage', if you're familiar with that book.
I glanced at that youtube channel and it's a bunch of videos that claim to be from the Russian side disparaging Russia. The background of the channel is the Ukrainian flag, and the About page uses language critical of Russia. I'm just saying.
If you're interested in the truth you have to really question everything coming out right now because there's just a huge amount of propaganda being disseminated. The internet sucks now. And the stuff we're being exposed to at least is overwhelmingly pro-Ukraine. Look:
https://theprint.in/tech/60-80-of-twitt ... y/1114878/