Just because you cannot envision another perspective besides constant war and death that you’ve been impressively convinced is somehow morally superior- doesn’t mean other people can’t.
you’ve got pretty binary view on things yourself. What is the alternative you suggest. Can you spell it out in a handful of sentences?
never cared much for US MIC until recent. putin laid out recipe for any looney toon to grab neighbours territory on a whim. Granted, US war in Iraq smells of the same. However claiming that war in Ukraine costs taxpayers money is plain ludicrous. US has enough economic capacity to both wage war with russia and improve things domestically. Ukrainian war cost is a “drop in the bucket” for US economy. Shall we take a look at how much did US move deficit ceiling? it’s in trillions, of which 61B is not even noticeable.
If we take a close look at overall situation: China has imperialistic ambitions, russia certainly does, there’s plenty of inflamed pockets throughout Asia and Africa. You need someone with enough firepower to step in. Out of all existing candidates US is the least appauling. UN proved it’s inadequacy. NATO exist mainly on paper. There is no other “world police”. Unfortunate fact is that US is controlled in large by cynical capitalists who care little for the people. But at least some of the democratic institutions do function and try to bring balance which cannot be said of China or russia.
Last point claiming that Ukraine will eventually break without considering that the same is very much possible for russia is borderline trolling. Tension within russia grows and there is a non-zero chance it will result in regime change and the end of war. Providing material help to Ukraine is the only way to tip the scales at least somewhat in Ukraine’s favour. Stating that peace agreement will immediately reduce number of deaths is misguided as portion of Ukrainian population will never accept it and will continue fighing resulting in further retaliating strikes from russia, not to mention a very likely probability of russia resuming it’s campaign of Ukraine domination at a later date.
Well then, if we are to go deep enough into history, russia belongs to Mongolia (well, most of it, anyway). Shall we start the “history game” now? Or shall we investigate peculiar fact that russia did not allow any territory to secede (Chechnya?) violently opposing that yet goes to full out war to allow territory of a sovereign nation, whose sovereignty it recognized and guaranteed, to secede? (we can also talk about realities of that secession movement that somehow leads to kremlin bowels). In other words stop repeating russian propaganda pretending that you know history and politics where in fact you come across as an uneducated neophyte repeating someone else’s soundbites.
you’re either misguided or malicious. Have you been to Ukraine? Have you seen what Russia has done to Ukraine over decades? What “special link”? It is as special as link between Jack The Ripper and his victims. russia is very much interested in restoring empire that includes Baltic states and middle asia etc.
russia had a chance at retaining Ukraine in it’s orbit prior to 2014. If they’d spent same amount of money they did on destabilisation of the country, on development instead, promoting Ukrainian culture etc. they could’ve had Ukraine forever. Honest. Before 2014 there was plenty of pro-russian sentiment in the country to pull it off as old crimes got forgotten and pain dulled. But from 2014 onward it became impossible.
At present if russia wins, either retaining stolen territories or grabbing some more - it will create destabilized zone that nobody in Europe wants in their backyard. russia is not there on humanitarian mission, and itls been made clear - they are on extermination mission. Like they have been multiple times before.
there is some truth to what you say, at least “just enough to keep Ukraine alive as long as possible but not to actually let Ukraine win”.
However I would disagree with over-generalised statement “Nobody actually cares about Ukraine except for russia”. Poland, for example, very much does not want to have common border with russia, esp. after this war. While US has a luxury of being able to ignore what’s happening it is not the case for some (most?) EU countries. Which also explains why some contribute enormously when comparing their contributions to respective country’s GDP. Ukraine independence also can be used by US as leverage against russia in the future, so while not humanitarian in principle, US has huge interest in Ukraine status.
There is a chance for Ukrainian win on battlefield without foreign soldiers, but it means lots of equipment. That window is quickly closing and then, yes, the only way to move forward will be foreign intervention.
it doesn’t have to. main reason for this war being this long is reluctance of western partners to deliver equipment necessary to keep initiative in present state of war. As a result - Ukrainian army get decimated while russians are getting better and everything awful they do: war crimes, defences, offense etc. Time is running out to help Ukraine and calls to “bust give up now” are self-fulfilling prophecy. I’m a pacifist at heart but in this case there is no way of stopping russian expansion (present and future) than to supply Ukraine with all necessary to win. Otherwise 1-2yr after “negotiations” we’ll have v2.0 where russia chomps off next piece of Ukraine (or other bordering country) while the rest of the world will keep repeating “what’s the point? we gave in last time, might as well save ourselves the trouble and give up now”. Solution by escalation is still possible as russia still has upper limit they are bumping against, but they keep on raising it so soon enough nothing will help, and that’s what russians hope for.
Disclaimer: I did not buy smart TVs recently. However from my research and experiences with other “smart” appliances - manufacturers now offloaded the most basic functions to the cloud and they LOVE IT. This gives them leverage in any extortion scheme they desire (just look at Toyota making some of their fob functions “subscription only” retroactively. This is a new era of digital extortion and the only way to shift is to avoid participating in a market of “smart things”. Corporations certainly capitalize on that, but if there is no market for smart things or it’s not lucrative enough they’ll begrudgingly cave as they need to sell. We’re not the majority though so unless we educate others this is the new reality.
from what I’ve observed so far outsourcing does not preclude proxying external entities through existing trusted domain.
not at all
I’m in the same boat. So I kill two birds with one stone when I shop for used dumb TVs - they are cheap and available as general population craves “smart”. Can’t loose there. I got 42" for $25 and larger ones can be had for under $100. So even if you’ll buy a lemon once or twice you’re still ahead
manufacturer may very well integrate add and update endpoints so that it’s rather hard to distinguish. For example, say Samsung decides to serve adds and updates. Doing so through https://serives.samsung.com/{ads,updares} they leave you with 0 handle on what’s going on, since the only thing your routers and proxies can see is “samsung.com” and differentiator is “hidden” after that. So TLDR; is: you either allow internet access or you do not, there’s no “a little bit”
don’t stress out about it - you’re on the right path, so just keep exploring. For music, depending on your location, there are various internet stations that broadcast indie and other stuff that is not mainstream. Also go to local concerts and buy CDs from artists - they actually need it. You should’ve been prepared to forfeit ownership of anything on amazon prime, kindle etc, for amazon has long history of denying people access to stuff they assumed they owned. For movies we collect DVD/Bluray disks as I don’t trust any of the streaming providers, nor do I want to share with them my viewing habbits (downside: you need storage space for those). For podcasts I love AntennaPod on Android. For books we always opt for unencumbered epubs, sometimes pdf which are abundant. Audiobooks through librivox are a thing as well. I will repeat myself: don’t stress out. Take it as a wild safari and go hunting for new and exciting things that are not entangled with big corps that suck the soul out of everything : artists, consumers, employees, shareholders, etc.
“Appall the supreme Court” . There, I fixed it for ya
depending on where you are in phone replacement/upgrade cycle I would recommend Fairphone or looking into e/OS.
Like others mentioned don’t expect to do a wholesale jump. Slowly replace services with alternatives: Proton mail, NextCloud, Box, Dropbox, Lemmy, Mastodon to name a few services. There are numerous apps that can interact with those services so you’ll be spending some time going over those sorting what works for you.
To get the apps FDroid coupled with Aurora you can get most apps (that do not have explicit dependency on Googleware). Amazon App store is a possibility too for some commercial apps. For Youtube there are several alternatives like LibrePipe and NewPipe (but there are more). For existing social media site apps there are thin wrapper browsers that would “sandbox” each site allowing you to still use them while you slowly detach yourself: SlimSocial, RedReader, etc.
I’ve been Google-free for a bit now but I went with LineageOS+microG setup which may be challenging for you at this stage.
Treat it less as a crusade and more like multilevel challenge when upon completion of one challenge you get to complete another. It could be fun and liberating.
Trouble is: Koch brothers are very much into the same things as Trump is but they want to be able to control POTUS not having to deal with lose cannon that shoots everything and everyone and is only predictable in his unpredictability. So I’d think that the same policies would be pushed forward but without as much drama and publicity. In the end everyone will end up just as screwed.
Your optimism is inspiring, but IMO misplaced 🙁 Here in Canada conservatives like to use the same trick election after election: they strip “safety net” bare all until ~6mo before election. Then they throw a few one-time cheques before election and… voila: all is forgotten and forgiven. Same here in reverse: any downfalls just before election would define voter behaviour, not the systemic view at ability to govern.
Either it’s my client or my eyes but I did not see mentions of “Gaza strip” in your previous messages in this thread. Sorry.
yeah, recent revelations seem to point that way
Best AI rant hands-down. I can agree with every word there.