Send his family to the frontline near Pokrovsk. I guarantee you, he’ll start acting in a more sober manner.

Hilarious to see my comment removed.

Russians need a taste of their own medicine. You have to treat them like they treat others. If they bring up “human rights”, you must let them know that you can see through their ruse and you know they don’t care about human rights and they are lying.

This is the only way to deal with russians.

Sure, not every russian is a genocidal imperialist, but when any and all research (quantitative, qualitative, preference falsification adjusted etc.) shows that something between 65% to 85% of russians are genocidal imperialists, you have to approach them in a sober manner. The world doesn’t always work as one wants it to work. White-washing russian genocidal imperialism benefits no one, including the russians themselves.

I am not getting involved in the discussion around “boycotting capitalism”, but you can definitely find pretty solid options for smartphones and computers (desktops, desktop components, laptops) if you go second hand. This is true of almost any country in the world (in some places with lower salaries, 2nd hand will still be somewhat expensive, but I digress).

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Your are not wrong that the US is more volatile, police often do act out even in routine situations and you will notice a lot of crazy people and degenerate behaviour, but it’s not that big of an issue if you stick to routine tourists activities and areas (or if you are with a local).

While I unfortunately haven’t been to China, I will speculate that you can get into serious trouble if you go outside of the tourist path and/or you’re not with a local.

Don’t get me wrong, I am no fan of the US.

While I’ve generally always defended the US while recognising their weaknesses, I am increasingly coming to the conclusion that the US is not a positive influence globally and their culture is perhaps more flawed than I initially believed.

That being said, it is ridiculous to position China as being “a better option”. China is a revanchist, genocidal and authoritarian country. I have no interest in being dominated by such a country.

You know what you’re getting? What does this even mean?

There is a lot to criticise about the US, there is no point in coming with some hysterical BS, if anything your approach ignores and plays down the very real issues with American society.

I am honestly surprised that you were able to get me to defend the US.

P.S. We both know that if you went to the US, you would go to the tourist parts of NYC or LA and it would be a pretty run of the mill tourist trip.

belt and road initiative

This is a neo-colonists project. USAID actually did a lot of good things. I dare you to show an example of Chinese foreign aid that did the good things that USAID did.

A single party state where you get sent to the gulag for public opposition to the government sounds like a great society!

And plastic consumerism is just as applicable to China as the US. Perhaps even more.

I was referring to the survey results.

Yet support for increased defense spending is limited. I guess there may be a change in attitudes once the Americans enact tarrifs against the EU and/or formally leave NATO.

The put down was always part of the plan.

Realistically, Trump can’t bring about a ceasefire because the russians have no incentive for good faith negotiations. They can easily press demands that will never be accepted in Ukraine (no army, micro-management of internal laws, surrendering Ukrainian controlled parts of Kherson, Zaparozye, Donetsk). This means Trump needs to position Zelenskyy as the bad guy for internal audiences (many Americans cannot comprehend that the russians are acting in bad faith, or they simply don’t care).

Fascinating stuff. You can’t really fight back against a criminal, oligarch regime if you’re not interested in upholding the rule of law and are open to working with oligarchs.

Good to see major news agencies pick this up.

You can’t say this publicly. Rules of diplomacy and there are other allies that we need to work with.

Everyone in Ukraine itself believes exactly that. I am no mind reader, but I am almost certain this would include Zelenskyy as well.

Any long-term agreement with any US administration is not worth anything.

This is not even purely a Trump thing. We saw this with the Budapest Memorandum.

Economic liberalism did away with the divine right of kings and rule by bloodlines. Replacing it with something ultimately, arguably worse.

Come on, man! The serfs/peasants/slaves had it way worse than anyone living under “economic liberalism”. There is no comparison! Not even close.

I will agree that zero tolerance policies oligarchs (all well as senior associates, propagandists and enablers) does benefit everyone.

Her foreign policy and her statesmanship on the other hand was widely respected.

FWIW, in Ukraine (and many other parts of Europe), her foreign policy w.r.t russia is seen as de-facto enabling russian genocidal imperialism (as a conscious and pre-mediated decision). She nurtured and enabled putin every step of the way.

I am of course not speaking for German public, since I’ve never lived in Germany.

He’s been low key rooting for russia, which makes sense as he is a racist oligarch.

They have the economic and military capabilities. It’s a lack of courage and genuine desire.

The devil is in the details.

Agreements with the US aren’t really worth much. It’s an oligarch-run proto-fascist state; such regimes tend to be unreliable. And we have the Budapest Memorandum to go by in Ukraine.

People in Ukraine would probably support this initiative if it meant actual security from the russians. Since Trump rejects Ukrainian membership in NATO (let alone efforts to get to our legal borders), the presence of US troops sounds like a ruse. A few soldiers hanging out in Lviv (far west of the country, close to Poland) aren’t going to be much good against a russian invasion and at any rate, Americans lack the guts to fight russians (not counting a russian invasion of continental US which will never happen).