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  • Bobr@lemmy.libertarianfellowship.org
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    8 hours ago

    That is a discussion with no resolution. Like I said, I don’t know where the point is, when sacrifice become worse than surrender.

    So maybe the people that are actually affected should be able decide that (as opposed to a single dictator with western support)? Currently, thanks to western support of Zelensky, the only way people can “decide” anything is by doing a violent revolution against the regime, which would not have a good chance of success due to weapon supplies to Zelensky’s regime. Or by individually resisting/killing “draft “officers”” and bombing ““recruitment centers””… Which people already do but on a small scale so it doesn’t change the big picture…

    You seem to consider the matter from a purely personal perspective

    What do you mean exactly here? I left Ukraine before the war started, so from “personal perspective” I am actually safe (unless Zelensky manages to convince other countries to send back his cannon fodder…). I am considering this from the perspective of people (among whom my family and friends) who still live under Zelensky’s regime. Who are nothing more than slaves, cannon fodder for Zelensky and his supporters.

    And you obviously view Russia a lot more favorably than I do.

    FWIW I don’t consider Russia a good/bad country. I only speak of it in comparison to Ukraine, where it is objectively better and more free.

    • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
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      7 hours ago

      Let me put it like this.

      You are offended by a leader that sends his people to die in defense. As you should be. Such a thing is horrifying.

      What I do not understand, is your preference for a leader guilty of the very same crime, but for the difference that he sends people to die, in offense.

      If Ukraine surrenders, this will all happen again the next time Putin would like some more territory.

      And then, you and the people you care about, would be subject to the very same danger that current citizens of russia are. If not even moreso.

      Why would Putin sacrifice from his pools of supporters, when he can conscript from newly conquered territory, amassing a force to take the next slice of Europe that tickles his fancy?

      Maybe you’ll be sent to fight us finns?

      • Bobr@lemmy.libertarianfellowship.org
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        7 hours ago

        What I do not understand, is your preference for a leader guilty of the very same crime, but for the difference that he sends people to die, in offense.

        Do you see a difference between people being kidnapped off the streets and sent to die (Ukraine) and people being paid to join the army (Russia) (basically just a high risk job)?
        I don’t know why are you even comparing those two scenarios…

        If Ukraine surrenders, this will all happen again the next time Putin would like some more territory.

        This is a speculation.

        And then, you and the people you care about, would be subject to the very same danger that current citizens of russia are. If not even moreso.

        Why would Putin sacrifice from his pools of supporters, when he can conscript from newly conquered territory?

        What is this danger? Tell me more about it. Is it the danger of being able to leave the country at any moment? Is it the danger of not being kidnapped off the street and instead being offered a voluntary contract to join army?

        • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
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          7 hours ago

          Russia has mandatory military conscription. If they want to send you to war, they can, and will, paid or unpaid. Is this news to you? The laws are in place, but Putin is avoiding them for fear of national backlash.

          Do you think the country would go into uproar if he used those laws on the people who fought back for three years? I’m not sure it would even if he pulled it on his own people. Not for a while at least.

          The difference, is population size. Putin is allowing it to be voluntary, because he can still afford to (he actually can’t, and russias economy is eating itself alive to be able to keep paying fighters more and more, as normal jobs have to pay more and more, due to labour shortages as more and more working age adults are lost to the war… It’s a vicious cycle that’s going to culminate in involuntary conscription being the only option left to keep invading).

          But Russia can, has, and I am absolutely certain, will, send people to die against their will.

          And it is “happening again” right now. Last time, it was Georgia.

          • Bobr@lemmy.libertarianfellowship.org
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            6 hours ago

            Russia has mandatory military conscription. If they want to send you to war, they can, and will, paid or unpaid. Is this news to you? The laws are in place, but Putin is avoiding them for fear of national backlash.

            Why this would be news to me, and how is this relevant to out conversation? In Ukraine people are forbidden to leave the country so that they can be kidnapped off the streets and used as cannon fodder. In Russia neither is happening.

            and russias economy is eating itself alive to be able to keep paying fighters more and more

            Yeah western medias are talking for three years now about an imminent economic collapse of Russia and every time it doesn’t happen, but instead it becomes a fourth largest economy in the world…

            It’s a vicious cycle that’s going to culminate in involuntary conscription being the only option left to keep invading

            See, you are speaking speculation again (which might or might not happen, I don’t know, I can’t see the future). While I am telling you facts (about closed borders, kidnappings, etc. that do happen in Ukraine but not in Russia).

            and I am absolutely certain, will, send people to die against their will.

            Speculation again.

            And it is “happening again” right now. Last time, it was Georgia.

            What exactly happened in Georgia? Russia helped South Ossetia become independent of Georgia, and did not conquer Georgia (which is apparently the goal of an evil Putin who dreams about conquring the world, accorsing to western media) despite its army being a striking distance away from the capital?

            • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
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              6 hours ago

              I going to stop trying. I can see I’m not going to succeed in changing your mind. You’re holding on tight to some stuff that’s completely immaterial, and I won’t be able to show you what you actively refuse to see.

              Just think about what I’ve said. Maybe look some stuff up. Especially when it comes to conditions in russia, and how Putin is bending over backwards to keep the invasion going.

              Look into the weapons deals with North Korea, for example.

              • Bobr@lemmy.libertarianfellowship.org
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                5 hours ago

                I can see I’m not going to succeed in changing your mind.

                You are trying to tell me that it’s good (or at least justifiable/normal) that Zelensky wants to murder me, my friends my family and several million other people who happened to be born in Ukraine. Obviously you are not going to change my mind :/

                Maybe look some stuff up. Especially when it comes to conditions in russia

                What stuff are you suggesting me to loop up? While I personally never visited Russia, I have close friends from Russia, several others who visited it, so I know from “first-hand” sources what’s it like there… (More or less the same shithole as Ukraine, but without kidnapping and with ability to leave)

                • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
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                  5 hours ago

                  Good? No.

                  Normal? Absolutely not.

                  Justifiable? Arguably.

                  The way it’s actually happening? I don’t even know. You didn’t initially comment on that or the posted article, you commented on the general ability of a leader being able to send citizens to fight.

                  As horrifying as it is, and as someone who lives in a country where that question could become very relevant very suddenly, I think you’re wrong. The conclusion I came to, is that the ability for a nations government to “trade in” the few to save the many, is not optional, if continued long-term existence is desired.

                  You’re free to disagree on where the line for where that price is too great to pay in comparison to surrender, and you surely know better than I do where it is for Ukraine.

                  But it does exist. Countries the world over give their leaders the power to wield their human populations as a shield against threats. There is absolutely nothing unusual about that gruesome reality.

                  As for what I’m suggesting you look into, that would be the stuff you don’t get to see from a first-hand perspective. Statistics, large scale policy, international relations, industry and economic trends.

    • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
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      7 hours ago

      You got out. You made your decision. You were able to decide to begin with. A lot of people don’t have that option, and that means someone is making decisions for them. I’m not saying that’s a good thing.

      But AGAIN, democracy is not a tenable ideal in wartime.

      It is a peacetime luxury, often flawed in implementation even then. Frequently too far away from a meritocracy to function efficiently.

      You keep bringing it up as if there’s some kind of hypocrisy happening, because you see “democratic” people supporting dictatorship.

      But decisionmaking during wartime isn’t something you can just “call a vote” on. Democracy doesn’t work under siege. That’s the whole reason basically every democratic government has the alternate operating mode of martial law, complete with legal systems written up a ready to go.

      By personal perspective, I mean exactly that which you are talking about. You, what your situation would be like if you were still there, what it is like right now for the people you care about personally.

      Like I said, I would probably trade in my country for those same people, too.

      But I’m not sure I could live with it. I care about other things, many of which being a subject of the current Russian state would make it dangerous for me to care about.