This, by the way, is the same thing he does seemingly every time he comes around in the political threads. I forget if the last time was here or on Exiled or on 2p2, but he comes around, posts some contrarian takes, gets a bunch of in depth good faith responses debating his claims, then more or less ignores them and posts the same contrarian takes and the same videos or whatever. Then he gets another round of substantive, but slightly more annoyed responses, then he does it again. Maybe now and then he substantively responds to stuff he has a comeback for, but he ignores the strongest arguments against his position that he cannot refute and doubles down on the original stuff. It’s extremely bad for the quality of discussion, and extremely annoying to those debating him. Four hours off for that seems like no big deal, maybe he posts better for it in the future.
I didn’t go back and look but I’m pretty sure he’s got a history of being a Putin/Russia apologist, too, regarding the election interference stuff.
Since this thread seems active - I have no idea what you guys are arguing about, nor do I really care.
I’d like to make a point though - the Ukraine thread is the first thread since I joined these forums in which I have not trolled. Perhaps that could clue you all in to the gravity of the situation.
What is your basis for this statement - “made by someone who almost certainly didn’t have direct knowledge of the situation.” I will fully admit that I had no prior clue who John Norris was or even who Strobe Talbot was. That said, just reading the Chomsky link NBZ shared he described Norris’s view as a “very authoritative comment on that from the highest level of Clinton administration,” so unless you have some good reason for your statement dismissing Norris out of hand as a “nobody”, I’m sticking to my original position on your posts.
Again, if you want to argue with the substance of what Micro posted from Norris, feel free, but if you’re going to allege Micro is positing in bad faith by googling for contrarian POVs and posting the opinion of a “nobody,” posts like that are going to be scrutinized and potentially moderated.
Finally, your subsequent post challenging Micro to name the person who currently holds the position is trolling - whether you can name the current holder of the position is pretty irrelevant to the importance of that position (I’m pretty sure I couldn’t name a single Deputy Secretary of State, but that doesn’t mean Talbott should be dismissed as a nobody regarding Kosovo).
Posting this in the About Moderation in case others mods or posters feel I’m off base here. If that is the consensus, I’ll reconsider my view on this type of posting.
Look I don’t have the energy for the tired internet bullshit today. If you wanted to pm me instead of pushing off whatever dramabomb this will be I’d have been happy to talk further.
Hey it’s PC. I only meant to check in with the trans thread when I heard what was going on there, so maybe it’s unfair for me to sort of drive-by participate in any other discussions here, but… I really felt like it might possibly be helpful to a nonzero number of y’all to say that a large number of you seem to have lost any touch with reality you once had. Hopefully somehow some of you find a come to Jesus moment somewhere along the way in terms of the way war has currently got you going in some extremely nasty, dangerous directions
I’m not talking to Victor. He is mostly right, and y’all are seriously losing it
Victor has literally one spiel and he takes it to every single thread in which he participates. It’s not really relevant or welcome in a thread where we’re talking about war crimes and genocide being committed as we speak. He can take that shit to the Trump thread or something.
Just the kind of stuff that always happens in war, but it’s alarming to see it in a place that had supposedly learned lessons that are now all forgotten.
I wonder if this community got addicted to hating people and seeing them as subhuman and cheering for their demise. And now this is just the next thing. But the censorship is ramping up, not maintaining the rate during Trump or during Covid (which is now over!!!11) or whatever other events.
Any discussion of context is seen as whataboutism and seen as Russian apologia. It’s actually nerve wracking to watch. You can’t even try to compare this conflict to anything other than blitzkrieg. There’s no intellectual point to any of it. No discussion of the events that led up to this, none of NATO’s or USA’s history of funding hypernationalist right wing paramilitaries and militias throughout Europe, is relevant or allowed. If Russia uses it in propaganda, it has to be false, because nobody has ever used grains of truth in propaganda before.
Nobody is learning anything. Approximately 2.5 posters still, after all this time, have any idea what happened in Ukraine in the 2010s. Everyone thinks there is one united Ukraine that is under attack for voluntarily and democratically choosing to be less friendly to Russia and try to join NATO without any violent influence from the West to subvert Ukranian democracy to change which power they’re more friendly to. There’s no proxy war and positioning of US-funded military on Russia’s border going on that Russia is responding to, and if you point it out, that means you’re excusing Russian atrocities, never mind that a mirrored scenario involves the same kind of invasion by USA. Never mind that this is all following the fucked up rules and expectations that both sides have been following since the beginning of the Cold War. No, there’s only one bad guy.
There can be no blame on anyone other than one race of people. One race of people that must have no mercy. There can be no empathy for any of their soldiers and citizens the way you demand it be given to soldiers and citizens everywhere else. It’s just 24/7 bloodlust that unabated always turns to genocidal aspirations.
That discussion was taking place before, you know, all the bombing of civilians and war crimes and genocide started, which seems to be the more pressing issue right now.
There is little to no rooting for the quickest return to people living their lives. It’s 24/7 bloodlust
You ran off the only poster who was talking from her experience about how people outside the greatest military superpower have very different preferences regarding war and peace