- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- news@lemmy.world
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I don’t think Putin is an idiot. If he does like what Trump is doing, why would he say it and potentially make things harder for him? Putin must know that quite a few Republicans (whether they have the spine to say it or not) are at least uneasy about “aligning” with Russia. So why?
Is it a “whatcha gonna do about it” sort of power move? Is he trying to delay these “peace talks” because he actually wants to end things with Ukraine while Trump is effectively holding Zelensky’s arms behind his back?
Honestly this is insane to me given the Trump crowd skews much older.
Literally the generation growing up in the Cold War, having evil Soviets ingrained in them from childhood, and now Russia being happy with our policies doesn’t raise a red flag for them? Our President being pals with the ex-KGB Putin doesn’t mean anything to them? Hello??
The Republican brain just always does what it’s told, believes what it’s told, etc. It accepts whatever witches it’s told to hate and hunt and it requires fear to operate. It doesn’t care what it’s afraid of or whether its targets are logical or coherent. It just operates on orders.
They grew up with the red scare and maybe they miss it. Sorta like after the fall of the USSR a lot of the older Russians missed the way things were under the old rulers.
Let me tell you what I learned living around rednecks my entire life. They are the exact same as deer. They are dumb, they have no ability to have foresight, to think ahead or to plan. They just exist. My wife calls them NPCs. They go to work, breed constantly without thinking about money, drink beer, buy a truck and hate strangers. That’s all they know how to do so anything that any republican says, is blindly followed. They also mostly believe they are good Christians regardless of their deeds as long as they go to church. Religious people are the most easily manipulated of us so this is right up their alley. They are taught to follow and not question. I’m very much sure that a large majority of them don’t have inner voices or a concept of critical thinking. Just like deer, they just BE.
Maybe a controversial take on Lemmy to defend religious people but here goes. I don’t think it’s fair to place the blame on these people. I think for the most part, they are doing the best they can with the skills and capacity they have. None of these people, who you are denigrating by comparing them to literal animals, are born terrible people.
So ask yourself, who is to blame. Is it the fearful, working class person to the left of you in the store? Is it your neighbor who is fearful of transgender people because they don’t understand them? Or perhaps the family down the road struggling to make ends meet and don’t have the capacity understand the real cause of their struggle.
Or is it the media culture that constantly instills fear and hate into them. And the church that no longer preaches godly values, but is instead filled with grifters and charlatans. The rednecks are not the cause of the US turmoil, they are not your enemy. What is the difference between a redneck and someone with a successful career? Opportunity. Care. Support. Anyone can be successful with support.
It is the capital class that seeks to sow fear, hatred, and division because thats the only way they can retain power. A united working class is an existential threat to their existence. The “dumb rednecks” are vulnerable and hurting and they have been exploited. Place your hate where it is deserved, the ultra wealthy, who for decades have been allowed outsized influence to manipulate the people of the US.
I’m sorry, through some unfortunate events, I currently live in redneck land. There are some decent people here but they are a minority and usually people who are young/born there or too poor to escape (me).
The vast majority of people here choose to live in the middle of nowhere however and it shows. They’re paranoid, stupid, delusional, prejudiced, etc. Every time I’ve tried friendly conversations with them at various watering holes, they end up disliking me for bullshit prejudicial reasons. They literally tell me that I’m showing off by using big words or say I’m a weakling faggot or whatever else.
I commute into a small city for work for a pretty humdrum low paying office job and the people here are a million fucking times nicer and smarter and just as “working class” as the rural chuds.
Same dude, I’m a city boy, well traveled, ex air force, and literally nearly get into fist fights with these fucking hicks if I go to a local bar. We just drink at home or when we go to the city, that’s it. Can’t stand these mfs, I wouldn’t even live here if I didn’t get the best deal ever on the biggest house in town. There is not a single tolerable person in this town that I have met. I met people that like me, but then they do like coke once a month… who tf does that? Or just ramble and you can’t get a word in, it’s fucking crazy.
I’m not disagreeing with your experience or trying to defend their behavior.
I’m providing reasons for how they ended up with such toxic attitudes and beliefs. I don’t think they woke up one morning and said fuck that guy, for example.
Look, I don’t believe in free will. I don’t think wanting others to suffer for being “bad” is a rational mentality. (I agree with Robert Sapolsky) But I’m also not a rational being, I’m human and my emotions tell me “Fuck these assholes” and I’m tired of trying to be above it all. Especially, after this recent election. And at this point I can’t help but be indifferent to their suffering at best.
I’m just going to avoid them like the plague. I owe them nothing and I can’t waste my life trying to bring horses to water when I know they wont drink. Or swimming up a political waterfall by trying to organize them.
Ok captain fantasy land. “Ooooh the poor rednecks, won’t someone think of the rednecks” shuuuuuut the fuck up. They know exactly what they are doing or have you forgot that they tried to overthrow our capital, are racist, terrible parents, occasional child molesters, and seek to ACTIVELY harm you if you are on the opposite team. Spare me that bullshit, I’ve lived around them my entire fucking life, I know EXACTLY who they are.
Hate to admit it, but you’re spot on. I’ll add, in a D&D sense, they’re lawful good. They can’t imagine breaking laws, nor bending them, are shocked that others do so. Hard to explain, but it’s a thing I see IRL.
And yes, values of “good” may differ, but they have a hard-core version of “good” they follow unerringly. They see no nuance in behavior or politics, only black and white, good and evil. They’re like the annoying paladin in the group that fucks everything up over a moral stand.
tl;dr: Religious rednecks are devils, atheist rednecks like me are demons.
Everything has always been fake news and undrained swamps before new Jesus… Uh… Trump… came along /s
I guess they like the red flag 🇷🇺
Who knew it would be easier to conquer America than it would be to conquer Ukraine…
People that can see and think for themselves.
Note: this excludes a massive portion of US citizens.
So, funny story. I like to joke that I’m prescient.
In 3rd Grade, about the year 2000, I heard a news story about Vladimir Putin. This was long before I understood fuck and all about Jack and shit. I told my mom “that guy is pure evil.” I remembered her telling me “Gotta give Russia a chance.” I’m fairly certain she meant a “chance to remove him” now, but at the time I was like “ok, but he’s clearly evil.”
25 years later I remember that as my second premonition. I’m sure I heard something from someone about how he was behind the apartment bombing false flag and that’s what connected it.
The first premonition was when I grabbed a pillow in the car and squeezed it about 20 seconds before my dad hit an ice patch in our car and spun out into a bridge wall. Again, I’m sure I just got frightened by the cold weather and being on the road for about an hour.
Unfortunately, none of it has been terribly useful. Although one time I had a dream where they had rib sandwiches as school, and if I went with the burger I would be disappointed because my friends were all talking about this crazy good sandwich they served at school. So I got the rib sandwich and it was amazing and they were right.
the ribwich is back!
With Zelenskyy saying the end of the war may be very far off, it looks like Ukraine is preparing to go ahead without US aid, rather than be pressured to give in to Russian ultimatums.
We’ll see if he can hold out if/when we lift our sanctions on Russia and start allowing the transfer of everything they need to rebuild their military hardware. Or even worse, selling them our own weapons.
EDIT: And now around three hours after I posted this, White House announces directive to drop sanctions. gg
I mean, whats the alternative? Unconditional surrender?
As I see it, here’s the 3 options:
Bend the knee to trump, give up your resources, and keep your country with no security guarantee worth a damn, just to lose your country later. And not just the lack of credible security guarantees, but specifically agreeing to never join the one alliance that would give such a guarantee.
Bend the knee to Putin, and just let Russia annex Ukraine fully, therefore avoiding a war in the unspecified future.
Go at it with or without US support.
If you were the leader of your country, how much of your land and resources would you give away in the pursuit of temporary peace, knowing that it is only temporary?
Churchill kept fighting Nazis when it was hopeless and parliament was trying to force him to surrender because he said that 1. Surrender would get the UK no better terms (true here, also) and 2. Countries which go down fighting survive as countries. (I mean in the hearts and minds of people, not just on a map). Countries which surrender, don’t.
Putin can’t be trusted. Without security guarantees, it’s surrender. Even with security guarantees from this current US administration, I wouldn’t trust any agreement, since trump isn’t trustworthy either. There needs to be troops from all over the EU in UKraine, as well as US troops. Either that or give Ukraine nuclear weapons.
I didn’t say it was the wrong choice. Just that now it is more of an uphill battle than ever, perhaps with exception of the first month or so of the conflict.
Europe needs to step up and quickly.
I didn’t think you did. I was more continuing the conversation to point out that there is no alternative. Someone else replied to me with a great point about Churchill being in a similar situation as Zelenskyy during WW2.
It’s clear this go around, America is going to join the wrong side of history. That’s not a new thing, but it will be the first world war specifically where we are clearly are on the bad side. Typically America commits it’s atrocities in smaller skirmishes, and by destabilizing and taking advantage less developed nations for profit. That slavery habit does hard.
The world is fucked, and America is deciding whether to go through a civil war, or to let it be a “bloodless revolution” to quote the heritage foundation president. Europe is going to have to figure out how to defend in a post American world at best, or it’s going to have to figure out how to defend against America at worst.
Also, to your edit… Not just the end of Russian sanctions, but the full official cut of military aid to Ukraine. We’re witnessing the beginning of WW3. Hope we both make it through or that tensions die down.
Importantly Europe needs to step up before the US does.
I never had the U.S. switching sides on my bingo card. I thought at most they would stop providing aid and support. Trumps policies were very isolationist in his first term.
Wait, really?
Dude holds a grudge like an absolute motherfucker, in addition to being a complete shitbag. He is vindictive as all fuck. The second the war started, my immediate reaction is “Putin is gonna drag this out till the election, and hope (read: influence the election so) that Trump wins”. Not to mention, officials in his first administration had to talk him down from leaving NATO multiple times, apparently. This whole thing was in the playbook from the get-go, imo.
He’s isolationist (or “evangelical”, or “a hawk”, or what have you) so long as it serves his interests - and I mean specifically HIS interests. He is a malignant narcissist. He does not actually care about anyone outside of himself
I never had the U.S. switching sides on my bingo card.
I don’t know why anyone was caught flatfooted by this when it was clear to anyone paying attention that if Trump was elected, his plan to end the war was to hand control of Ukraine over to Russia.
This was as obvious and predictable as the January 6th insurrection.
Imma call one thing out; 01/06 was not predictable. Every single one of us watched in pure shock. I watched 8 hours, live, and I cannot do it again, shit left me with PTSD-light. I’ve done and seen some crazy shit in life, but not like that.
Here’s the PBS trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHQ6FoDjeDE
If anyone can take it, I’d suggest a refresher course. The event was worse than even I remember, and I’m a hater from day 1.
All you can eat documentaries:
Dude, I was watching live coverage of the 01/06 proceedings and saw the early breakouts of the problem and then the devolution of it.
Wanna know why I was watching such a boring, non-event? Because everyone with a Twitter account, the ability to read, and a pulse knew that Trump’s supporters absolutely were going to try something on 01/06.
If I knew there was a good enough probability that something would go down that I was watching live coverage of what’s typically not even something anyone ever talks about, the event was completely and utterly predictable.
I figured he’d stop supporting Ukraine. I otherwise didn’t think he gave a shit.
He was cheering the invasion and said Putin was a genius for timing it when he did or whatever.
We don’t need to switch sides overtly for our hyena financiers and industry captains to make a buck trading with Russia, giving their war economy a sigh of relief which they desperately need.
It’s idiotic Canada has a bigger economy than Russia, EU has many many times bigger economy than Russia.
This is done for personal favors and it isn’t just hurting Ukraine it is fucking up US as well.
Precisely. The only enemy that the US conservative party sees is China. Everyone else is a business partner that they must strong arm into favourable deals for the US.
I’m sure that there will be some capital holders who are willing to invest in Russia, however I don’t really think a lot of the big players will be rushing back to Russia.
A large reason Russia has had such an about face since the early 00’s is because a huge amount of western capital pulled out of Moscow after they invaded Georgia in 08. Since then Putin has had to double down in his overtly aggressive pillaging from Russia’s neighbors to maintain his hierarchy of control over the oligarchs in Russia.
The invasion of Ukraine is largely a part of a sunk cost fallacy of his blunder in 08. I don’t think he realized how skittish his power plays made foreign investors, nor did he predict the following sanctions that followed in his attempts to recover his power over the oligarchs.
I don’t know about “investing” and putting risk in the Russian state. But raw materials for cash? Dual-use components for cash? Cash for cheap oil? If Russia’s willing to rip the copper pipes out of the walls to pay for the things it needs, I’m sure someone here will be willing to take it.
I’m sure there will be some takers, but to be honest their real bread and butter is mostly petroleum products which directly compete with American petroleum companies. Sanctions against a competitor are vastly more valuable than the oil itself to American petroleum corporations.
As far as other minerals go, they are valuable… But most of them are going right to the production market in China.
It really doesn’t behoove corporate America to partner with Russian interests, which is kinda surprising why we haven’t really seen a lot of backlash yet. I’m guessing they’re keeping their heads down for now and seeing if the tax cuts are worth all the hassle.
I don’t know what the logistics are but how do we start a fundraiser for this man?
It would piss trump off…
It would show the rest of the world there are still sane people in America…
It probably wouldn’t help much but if it’s anywhere near successful it will probably make an impact… And force trump to actually help
Someone needs to do this…
How easy can it get…
Yeah I didn’t know about that one… But I was looking for something more in line of… I don’t support our idiot of a president and his actions so I’m giving this guy money in spite of him
You know the saying, be the change and all that. If you think it’s a good idea you should go for it. I don’t know much about fundraising or web design but I would be willing to offer some kind of support, be it some time and energy or helpful resources/tools I am able to find for example. Maybe you can help in ways other than financially as well. We are the ones who need to do the things. The number of those willing to act and speak out against oppression and regression and the cults of ignorance and capitalism has been going down as a result of a concerted effort by very well funded groups and individuals. The sooner we act to pull folks out of the pipelines siloing them off into hateful ideologies (alt-right pipeline comes to mind for example) the sooner we can start the work, individually and interpersonally and otherwise, to end the cyclical perpetuation of harm forced upon us by the systems that we live under. Please feel free to reach out if you want support and resources for taking steps to make changes, and that offer is for anyone who is reading this and doesn’t know where to start and is acting in good faith.
The ultimatums putin, erm I mean trump suggests is essentially completely surrendering to Russia (maybe with a brief ceasefire, to let Russian soldiers to regroup)
Congrats, murica, you sure owned the libs
It is our fucken duty to sabotage anything that tries to free the noose around Moscow’s neck. If they want to lift the sanctions we should lift their necks from their shoulders. Fucking kidding me? Remember McCarthyism? This is fucking batshit insane.
Fuck this shit.
Remember “Red Dawn”, back when we thought that Russia would try to take over the US with military might?
What a masterclass in asymmetric warfare that they’ve managed it with a few well placed memes
Well placed memes? There has been a massive, concerted effort to disrupt US politicsl perception since the 2000s, and only succeeded because tech billionaires were willing to play ball.
And they won on memes. Do you not see how social media influences us all? Hell, Mexican dude at work yesterday was talking about how Trump will lower our taxes. (He maybe makes $20 as a supervisor, I make $15 as a noob.) Imagine that. Really take a breath and think on it. Where did that idiot belief come from? Memes.
'MUЯIКAH!!
Ah yes, the White, Blue & Red.
Wasn’t that why they installed Краснов in the first place?
And trump won the dick sucking contest!
He’s still going for the world record
That tends to happen when you have successfully installed your puppet as the president of the United States.
Well of course it does. They finally have one of their own puppets back in the oval office
Christ, what a surprise. Almost fell off my unicorn when I read that.
