Posts by hollowdriver13

urbanotter said:It isn't about that, rather I find this level of hypocrisy and these shifting double standards absolutely nauseating.

Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine, and as a direct result, massive amounts of weaponry are being funneled into the country.

Meanwhile, when NATO went into Libya under the guise of "bringing democracy," there weren't any sanctions imposed for that aggression, yet the arms embargo on Libya was actually extended.

The UN Security Council has extended the arms embargo on Libya for another year.

https://www.geopolitika.news/vijesti...cyId7LlrmnB6Qg

Why didn't the Russians secure an embargo then? Not their fault if they're running a "special operation"—Ukraine has every right to get help, so keep whining.

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/statu...04777551421442

Hey, feel free to come over here and explain how Russia did everything for its own good and people just showed up to help them out.

But please, tell me more about NATO. There’s honestly nothing better than using Soviet-style whataboutism as a "valid argument."

Let me break it down for you:

"Whataboutism is a logical fallacy where you try to discredit your opponent by accusing them of hypocrisy instead of actually addressing their point."

rowdymaker17 said:India and Japan have officially decided to sit out the NATO sanctions regarding the halt of Russian oil and gas purchases. India made it quite clear that they aren't interested in anything other than the direct interests of their own citizens, arguing that an embargo on Russian raw materials serves absolutely no purpose for the American-style consumer stability they prioritize; naturally, the USA and the EU have responded by labeling them hypocritical and arrogant. Meanwhile, Japan stated they have spent far too many years working on bilateral agreements with Russia to simply throw it all away now, and they have zero intention of imposing sanctions on Russian oil and gas. In fact, both nations have actually ramped up their imports of Russian energy because they can secure it at such significantly lower prices right now. It appears the EU is the only group of fools blindly following the lead of the USA. And looking at the current trajectory, it seems we are watching European economies slowly wither away one by one as Russia shuts off the valves and redirects its oil and gas toward the East, Latin America, and Africa. We can all look forward to a very pleasant winter. 👍

🙏🙏

Famine is already breaking out, and you've got Europeans looking at wealthy Indians with envy, thinking, "Man, I wish I had the lifestyle of an average Indian." In other news, apparently the Sun has turned green and the ocean is purple now. ☕

Anthony Taylor3 said:By that logic, I suppose you won't have any trouble listing all the SS divisions that are celebrated in those same countries.🙂

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FTw2Eq9W...pg&name=medium

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/...awmaker-a77867

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FURes8pX...jpg&name=small

https://twitter.com/WarAgainstPutin/...07552735522816

Here you go—have fun spotting all those Nazi symbols floating around in the regular Russian military.
And don't even get me started on Wagner...

Come on, give us more of that "what about the Ukrainian Nazis" routine.
Yeah, what about Azov?

Anthony Taylor3 said:What exactly did it state?

Respect Belarusian, Kazakh and Ukrainian independence and sovereignty in The existing borders

Refrain from using economic pressure on Belarus, Kazakhstan or Ukraine to influence their politics.

So, who was actually the first to disregard the agreement?

Back in 2005, Russia started playing those heavy-handed economic games with Ukraine, basically using gas supplies as a way to squeeze them. ☕

That’s pretty slick of you, pulling that specific paragraph about economic pressure out of thin air just to keep the momentum going. Nice move, though—keep it coming.

Anthony Taylor3 said:I'm asking you because you latched onto the Finns. Clearly, you don't have an answer, so you're forced to play dumb and dodge the question.

And what's wrong with Mexico or Belarus? Aren't they "European" enough or "Aryan" enough for you? And yet, here you are, lecturing me about fascism.
That's hilarious.

Of course they are. Honestly, they’re just little baby dictatorships, which is exactly why the Russians are so obsessed with them. There aren't any bigger fascists out there, if you ask me. Everything they’re trying to offload from the Azov guys over to their side? You see that same stuff playing out there, just amplified about a hundred times over.
It’s like that old saying about the owl mocking its own shadow... you know, when someone spends all their time pointing out everyone else's flaws just to avoid looking at their own mess.

urbanotter said:You're absolutely right,
some people really don't care about the hundreds of thousands of lives lost along the way.

Sources close to the situation say that Riyadh is now prepared to satisfy those interests and ramp up production to drive down oil prices from their current highs. They are reportedly ready to increase supply further if a crisis occurs, according to those sources.

This shift in policy from Riyadh happens to coincide perfectly with President Joe Biden's upcoming visit.

U.S. diplomats have been prepping for this first trip by Biden to Saudi Arabia for weeks now, hoping it might help ease the tensions caused by issues surrounding U.S. arms shipments, the war in Yemen, and the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Wat abooot the US….

Anthony Taylor3 said:Let me reiterate that for you.

The Baltic republics lack strategic depth and aren't viable staging grounds for an invasion of Russia. Between the bottleneck in Lithuania at the Panama Canal and the enclosed nature of the Baltic Sea, there isn't enough room to station a force large enough to launch an offensive.
Ukraine is an entirely different matter.
And since 1999, Russia hasn't had much faith in the Western Bloc. Just try to imagine why.

So, when is Russia actually going to deal with Finland?
Or are they just going to keep playing dumb, acting like Finland isn't even a threat despite being in NATO? (In reality, they're terrified of a conventional strike on Finland.)

Are we just going to pretend that Finland joining NATO doesn't put St. Petersburg at risk and threaten 81 miles from the direction of 37 miles, which is basically the only major road connecting Murmansk to the rest of the Russian Federation? Or should we ignore the fact that European militaries have never been this weak, and the US hasn't had such a small footprint in Europe since the end of WW2?
It's funny how Ukraine was somehow the only real threat...🤦

steelfox98 said:With current active wars, Turkey also launched a "police action" in northern Syria just a few days ago. Screaming, whining, sanctions? NOTHING. Zero points.
The best part? They’re attacking Kurds, who are American allies and favorites of the EU. But they aren't important enough.
Out of all the fake moralists on this topic, how many have stepped up? Zero.

We already discussed Yemen. Incomparably more dead, millions starving, and the West is still arming Al-Qaeda types from Saudi Arabia. Apparently, they're dear allies to us all.
That’s a recap of the forum commenters for you.

The drop in standards in the EU is happening because the EU itself started the sanctions, so in typical fashion, you're lying.

1. Neutrality—basically, staying out of NATO.
2. Resolving the conflict in the rebel Donbas. Just as a reminder, Zelenskyy wasn't exactly eager to play ball either; back in early February, when things were already heating up, he refused to even talk to his own fellow citizens from that region. And all while trying to pull them back into Ukraine.

Everything else was just standard high-stakes bargaining. The Ukrainians wouldn't budge, and now they're stuck in a much worse position that isn't going away anytime soon.

Maybe you can explain to me how "military neutrality" works for a NATO member? And please, provide a link to back that up.

They offered Ukraine neutrality multiple times, but they kept turning down demilitarization (for reasons that seem pretty obvious now). They also tried to settle the Donbass issue, but insisted that the US shouldn't be allowed to dictate Ukraine's entire foreign policy.

Is Ukraine a member of NATO? Can you give me a date for when that happened?

I still haven't heard a decent explanation for why nobody supported the Russian annexations if the Russians are supposedly so right. Come on, explain that one—why don't states like China support Russia's annexation of Crimea and Donbass?

Anyway, carry on with the shit shoveling you're doing.

Amanda Flores88 said:Look, I live in a city where—if you're lucky enough to survive long enough to see it—a 90-year-old has realistically seen five different countries and several entire systems change, all without ever leaving their apartment. And all those elites who thought they were carving out permanent empires through sheer force? They were all convinced that *now* was when real history finally began. But nothing lasts forever—it’s all just a matter of timing.

The regime changes within a country that you're talking about don't actually affect that nation's international borders, right?
Do you honestly believe that after some part of Ukraine has been under Russian control for XX years, someone in Russia is just going to pop up and say, "Oops, sorry we took that from you, here you go, take it back"???
Besides, if this is as harmless as you think it is, how come Russia hasn't managed to get a single country to support its annexations in Crimea or the Donbas—aside from its little puppet states in Syria, Belarus, and North Korea?
Not a single CSTO member, not even China, nor any of those wannabe dictators have backed Russia's moves. Doesn't that ring a massive alarm bell that Russia is doing something completely wrong? It's obvious to everyone else that what Russia is pulling is a direct assault on one of the fundamental pillars of the global order established after WW2 and the UN, along with its charter (which, ironically, Russia loves to cite every chance they get).

Amanda Flores88 said:Look, a politician's whole job is hunting for solutions—that’s what they do. The real tragedy here isn't just some local spat between two countries; within certain independent circles, there's a feeling that the main players just lacked the willpower or the finesse to find any actual political compromise. War is the absolute worst-case scenario. Honestly? I’d rather see them make extra concessions they wouldn't normally touch. Politicians come and go—eventually, the policy will change too.

Right, you're just a regular comedian, aren't you?

So, what you're actually saying is that Ukraine should have just rolled over and signed away its own sovereignty.
That’s the exact kind of "concession" Russia was looking for, and you know they’d just come knocking for the next one a few years later.
And as for politicians changing—that doesn't change the fact that if Ukraine had signed off on losing territory, nobody would ever step up to help them get it back. There wouldn't even be any motivation to help, because people would just say, "Hey, you signed the deal yourselves, so why complain after XX years of serfdom?"

Amanda Flores88 said:It doesn't always have to be a violent showdown. Think about how the Berlin Wall came down—it wasn't through force, which would've just left a trail of bodies. It happened when the time was right, peacefully. Just look at it symbolically: everything eventually runs its course, including political movements. Nothing is set in stone. What looks impossible today becomes reality as time passes. History proves that all the time—relationships and power dynamics are constantly shifting. The worst thing you can do is create deep war traumas; those take forever to heal and they just plant the seeds for the next conflict.

But look, East Germany was never actually annexed into the Soviet Union or absorbed into Russian territory. De jure, it was its own sovereign state, even if, de facto, it was basically just a puppet on a string.
You really can't compare that to what Putin is demanding right now, which is to annex specific territories and declare them part of the Russian Federation as new federal districts.
If that happens, they will NEVER get that land back, whether through military action or politics.

Amanda Flores88 said:That’s one way to look at it, sure. But the other side of the coin is that maybe they didn't actually exhaust every single diplomatic avenue before things went south and war broke out.

Hey, feel free to dive deeper into that thought.
What else could they have possibly offered? The US actually offered them military neutrality, and they even rolled back that legislation in Congress regarding Crimea and Donbas. Seriously, what was left to negotiate that wouldn't have basically turned them into a Russian colony, which is exactly what Russia was pushing for?

Amanda Flores88 said:I guess it's true that "it's better to negotiate for a thousand years than to fight for one day." In that sense, we can keep trading verbal jabs on social media forever. And honestly? I'm not pretending to be some moral compass or claiming my heart bleeds for a nation I didn't even know the location of yesterday.

I'm not playing the warrior or Mother Teresa—I don't care about Ukraine any more than I care about Iraq. I care a bit more about things here at home and how we're living, watching this senseless destruction and seeing our own standard of living tank for reasons that seem totally foggy. I'm sure your heart aches for them, but politics? That’s supposed to be handled with logic.

So, how do you even deal with someone who has zero intention of being straight with you during negotiations? It’s like trying to play chess with someone who just wants to flip the table. Look at what happened with the Russian negotiations—they basically agreed to whatever we asked for at first. But then, once Ukraine rejected those absolutely insane demands of theirs, they just went full "might makes right" and tried to settle the score with military force. At that point, what choice do you really have left other than just hunkering down and defending yourself?

goldenpuma84 said:I never once said I thought the EU was going to fall apart.

I said the EU is sacrificing its own citizens for someone else's interests.

And once enough people wake up to that, we can expect outbursts of discontent from European citizens.

I guess that's just the price you pay when someone else is footing the bill for your "protection."

Aside from having perfectly good eyes, you're just blind.

You're so deep under the spell of this ideology that it's going to take a lot of work to break through the illusions.

This ideology gives you these easy, binary divides and double standards to hide your hypocrisy.

But looking at the numbers, most people in Europe actually back these measures. Recent polls from Ipsos show support hovering somewhere between 67% and 82%, and they seem willing to deal with the economic backlash. You could even argue that Russia has managed to stir up more militant sentiment in the general European population than the politicians themselves have.
Even on a global scale, the majority of people surveyed support helping Ukraine.
"On average globally, majorities say that their country must support sovereign countries when attacked (70%) and that doing nothing in Ukraine will encourage Russia to take further military action elsewhere (68%)."

https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/news/pol...ine-april-2022

The bottom line is that most people just don't support Russia's assault on the global order established after WW2. They aren't fans of trying to grab territory through brute force. Then you have the troublemakers who openly talk about annexation and act totally shocked when "everyone hates them," blaming the "evil West" for fueling Russophobia. 🤦

Amanda Flores88 said:You guys aren't exactly in any position to lecture anyone on morality or consistency. Anyone actually hyped up about waging war should've been in Ukraine a long time ago.
Just being loud and opinionated on social media or over drinks at a bar shows you actually care—you're supporting the fight only as much as your comfort zone allows.

Look, I'm not out here rooting for war at all. But if I'm going to "root" for someone, it's definitely going to be the underdog fighting a defensive war.
Since you're supposedly against all this online bickering, I don't really see how your post helps achieve what you're suggesting (since nothing actually changes), especially since we have no clue about the people we're talking to—like, for all we know, the person you're arguing with might already be supporting their side financially through various NGOs over there.
But hey, please, feel free to elaborate more on why we shouldn't be making posts, while you sit there neatly upvoting them instead of actually doing something. You clearly have a knack for that. 👍

darkdriver said:Honestly, you can only make things worse

From what I gather—and please, feel free to set me straight if there’s some food scientist or whatever out there who knows better—natural gas is one of the biggest, maybe even *the* most critical components when it comes to making fertilizer.
Just a quick side note here...
Malaria is basically a disease that we could pretty much entirely prevent or at least treat, but despite all our crazy tech and medical breakthroughs, something like 400,000 kids still die from it every single year.
Does anyone sitting on their high horse about morality actually give a damn?
Is there even a thread about this on the forums?
Or is it just considered irrelevant because they're mostly just little Black kids who aren't being shoved down our throats daily by CNN, BBC, and the rest of the mainstream media?
I guess it's just that old saying—out of sight, out of mind.

This is what I call fake moralizing. Unless you've personally stepped up to tackle the problems in Africa—like volunteering in schools, organizing food drives for those in need, or coordinating medical supplies—it's just talk.
Practice what you preach.
And honestly, "out of sight, out of mind" is pretty much how most people function. Do you really think a Mexican, a Brazilian, or a Thai person gives a single crap about Ukraine when it's 3108 miles so far away from them?

The sanctions against Russia are still going strong, and now ExxonMobil is threatening to cut off gas supplies to Shell’s subsidiary over in Germany because they won't settle up in rubles.

https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/gazp...shell-deal?amp

goldenpuma84 said:Kudos to our politicians in the EU!

They’re more than happy to screw over their own people just to please their big overseas brother. It’s sad to watch what used to be the center of the world turn into nothing more than a tiny, insignificant appendage to a colonial master—one that doesn't care about them at all and will ditch them the second they aren't useful anymore...

BRAVO!!!

Man, you should try explaining to all those Germans, Austrians, Poles, and the endless stream of other tourists hitting the coast that they’re actually living at a level of poverty comparable to Africa, and that all that cash they're throwing around is basically just an illusion.
And regarding this "evil master" who’s supposedly going to abandon poor old Europe? Well, that same "evil master" is the one who allowed Europe to completely ignore their own defense spending while they sat comfortably under the shade of his military umbrella. If anyone's worried about being "abandoned," they can just look at how we're currently deploying troops to reinforce the eastern borders of NATO.

Michael Ortiz68 said:Compared to other EU nations, the Netherlands hasn't relied on Russian gas nearly as much, so this looks more like a strategic PR move on their part.

They were actually getting maybe around 15% of their gas from Russia.

Amanda Flores88 said:Nothing's changing before the year wraps up.

2023 is basically being labeled as a transition year. In plain English? That means we’re looking at about six more months of absolutely nothing happening—then maybe things start moving.

With Viktor Orbán, it’s kind of wild—everyone's out there publicly dragging him, but behind closed doors? Most leaders are actually low-key relieved he's around. He basically plays the bad guy so they don't have to. He steps up, says the stuff nobody else dares to say, and lets them keep playing their "perfectly polite" roles. It's pretty much a classic setup, right?

Regarding the oil imports, two-thirds are hit by the embargo immediately. The plan is to ramp that up to 90% by the end of the year—which is just a buffer period for those countries heavily reliant on specific pipelines—leaving that final 10% to Canada and Slovakia. Those guys have to scramble to upgrade their refineries so they can process something other than Russian oil instead of being stuck with just one option.