Kieselguhr [none/use name]

  • 3 Posts
  • 337 Comments
Joined 3 years ago
Cake day: September 14th, 2021
  • Kieselguhr [none/use name]toHistory•October Revolution (1917) - New General Megathread for the 7th-8th of November 2024
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    19 days ago

    One of the things I hate, not just about US elections, but European ones as well, is that how many top intellectuals turn out to be worthless, spineless shitlibs.

    Intellectually I know that the intelligentsia is petit bourgeois, but it's always such a disappointment that a smart and sensitive writer/director/musician/academic whatever (doesn't matter who, there are quite a few) turn out to be so fucking dumb when it comes to electoral politics.

    I get the lesser evil arguments, and I absolutely disagree with them as a strategy, but I do get it as a kind of utilitarian argument, but then these people behave like and talk like they didn't truly believe that the liberal career politicians are actually evil. And that's the whole premise of lesser evilism! If we don't agree on that, then we aren't even on the same side!

    But it seems like they actually tolerate, even like these fucking ghouls?! Fuck off

    The whole lesser evilism is just sophistry: I don't think I ever talked to someone who made the lesser evil argument who actually viscerally believed these ghouls to be evil.

  • Kieselguhr [none/use name]tothe_dunk_tank•GIRLBOSS!!!
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    20 days ago

    Republicans are fascists

    We'll give them a seat at the table

    Trump is the worst threat to America

    [loses election]

    we will peacefully transfer the power to fascists, but we are La Résistance

  • Kieselguhr [none/use name]tochapotraphouse•I give up, reddit wins
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    20 days ago

    The whole point of modern liberal democracy, from the liberal perspective, is that it's like a market: the entrepreneur/party identifies (or creates!) a demand for a solution/product/policy package, then brings it to market/nominates a candidate and launches a marketing campaign. If you profit/win the election, you did a good job; otherwise, you failed. You are bankrupt. You should leave the market.
    If your proposal does not represent the views of the voters, if you lose the popular vote, by definition, you did a shit job.

    Not only they don't know jack shit about Marxism, they don't even understand their own theory.

  • Kieselguhr [none/use name]tonews•Bulletins and News Discussion from October 28th to November 3rd, 2024 - LDP Falls Flat / Yet Neoliberalism / Rampages Onward - COTW: Japan
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    26 days ago

    The Western narrative starts to shift closer to reality, maybe?

    Show

    nevermind:

    spoiler

    In return for Mr Zelensky embracing this grim truth, Western leaders need to make his overriding war aim credible by ensuring that Ukraine has the military capacity and security guarantees it needs. If Ukraine can convincingly deny Russia any prospect of advancing further on the battlefield, it will be able to demonstrate the futility of further big offensives. Whether or not a formal peace deal is signed, that is the only way to wind down the fighting and ensure the security on which Ukraine’s prosperity and democracy will ultimately rest.

    This will require greater supplies of the weaponry Mr Zelensky is asking for. Ukraine needs long-range missiles that can hit military targets deep in Russia and air defences to protect its infrastructure. Crucially, it also needs to make its own weapons. Today, the country’s arms industry has orders worth $7bn, only about a third of its potential capacity. Weapons firms from America and some European countries have been stepping in; others should, too. The supply of home-made weapons is more dependable and cheaper than Western-made ones. It can also be more innovative. Ukraine has around 250 drone companies, some of them world leaders—including makers of the long-range machines that may have been behind a recent hit on a huge arms dump in Russia’s Tver province.

    The second way to make Ukraine’s defence credible is for Mr Biden to say Ukraine must be invited to join NATO now, even if it is divided and, possibly, without a formal armistice. Mr Biden is known to be cautious about this. Such a declaration from him, endorsed by leaders in Britain, France and Germany, would go far beyond today’s open-ended words about an “irrevocable path” to membership.

    This would be controversial, because NATO’s members are expected to support each other if one of them is attacked. In opening a debate about this Article 5 guarantee, Mr Biden could make clear that it would not cover Ukrainian territory Russia occupies today, as with East Germany when West Germany joined NATO in 1955; and that Ukraine would not necessarily garrison foreign NATO troops in peacetime, as with Norway in 1949.

    NATO membership entails risks. If Russia struck Ukraine again, America could face a terrible dilemma: to back Ukraine and risk war with a nuclear foe; or refuse and weaken its alliances around the world. However, abandoning Ukraine would also weaken all of America’s alliances—one reason China, Iran and North Korea are backing Russia. Mr Putin is clear that he sees the real enemy as the West. It is deluded to think that leaving Ukraine to be defeated will bring peace.

    Indeed, a dysfunctional Ukraine could itself become a dangerous neighbour. Already, corruption and nationalism are on the rise. If Ukrainians feel betrayed, Mr Putin may radicalise battle-hardened militias against the West and NATO. He managed something similar in Donbas where, after 2014, he turned some Russian-speaking Ukrainians into partisans ready to go to war against their compatriots. For too long, the West has hidden behind the pretence that if Ukraine set the goals, it would decide what arms to supply. Yet Mr Zelensky cannot define victory without knowing the level of Western support. By contrast, the plan outlined above is self-reinforcing. A firmer promise of NATO membership would help Mr Zelensky redefine victory; a credible war aim would deter Russia; NATO would benefit from Ukraine’s revamped arms industry. Forging a new victory plan asks a lot of Mr Zelensky and Western leaders. But if they demur, they will usher in Ukraine’s defeat. And that would be much worse

  • Kieselguhr [none/use name]toThe Dredge Tank•Academics
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    29 days ago

    In Hungary people are propagandized to think that Hungarian Stalinism is on par or even worse than the local nazis before them.
    Only counting the Hungarian Jewish people murdered in the Holocaust was cca. 600 000. If we add civilian fatalities on the Eastern front where the Hungarian army was committing its war crimes it becomes significantly more.

    According to Black Book of Communism type of statistics the "brutal Hungarian communist dictatorship" executed 1200 people. The list is public. I swear I chose someone randomly from the first page.

    Péter Rotyis, born in Mezőhegyes in 1890, who worked as a machinist in Budapest. During WWII, he was involved in the persecution and mistreatment of forced laborers [Jewish people] in Hungary. Arrested in early 1945, he was convicted for his role in serious crimes, including complicity in murder, and was executed on February 4, 1945.

    Győző Csikvári, originally named Győző Csicsits, born in 1899 in Budapest. After working as a shoemaker, he became a non-commissioned officer involved with labor service units during WWII. Known for his cruel treatment of forced laborers, he was arrested in 1945, convicted of war crimes, and executed on April 28, 1945, in Budapest.

    Yeah, some victims.

    alright: read some more... and... the literal nazi Hungarian prime minister overseeing the Hungarian Holocaust is also included in the 1200 victims of communism, absolute joke