Prokorov wrote:MrDollarBills wrote:gigantes wrote:NATO getting involved directly is part of what this is all about I think, as The Ukraine had been inching towards becoming a member, and Putin seems to feel that's disastrous for him. So this gradual move to annex Eastern Ukraine is not just about that vital port he wants, but also to push back on NATO before they have a more legitimate presence. Before NATO can say "Oi, you're messing with one of ours now! Here come reinforcements!" That's why all the pre-invasion reinforcements to Ukraine were so piecemeal, scattered, and completely voluntary coming from other nations around the world.
I think I have all that more or less right, anyway.
Also, in terms of ruining the Russian economy, most of that damage has perhaps already been done. It's a similar playbook to the GOP systematically destroying the American middle class and lower classes IMO. I.e., as long as the oligarchs and rich corporations have freedom to operate with impunity, and to keep their knees on the peoples' necks, then they're perfectly happy to slowly tank the whole situation as long as they can ride it out on top.
It's absolutely bone-chilling to me how the world is shifting in such authoritarian, right-wing directions so quickly. In places like Russia, the USA and other nations, they've monkeyed the situation in enough ways such that even a majority of citizens pushing back for first-world centrist policies is not necessarily enough to restabilise things.
Don't discount either how Putin has had a clear hand in elevating far right wing movements in Europe/UK/USA. Brexit/Trumpism had the GRU's fingerprints all over them. Even the antivax furor in the USA can directly be linked to Russian intelligence ops. Putin has played a long and dirty game to enrich himself and destabilize western nations.
Yup. I read an industry insider article (I work as a CIO for a large MSP) that over 80% of all social media identities are Fake/Bots. now, not all of those are malicious. Most of it is capitalism/marketing. Using fake accounts an AI to extract data to target ads and get them in your feeds. But alot of those are malicous. outside interests and bad actors manipulating americans to hate each other, preying on the 50/50 divide and our arrogance where we think we are special and all our problems are because of the poor or the other party.
It will be the downfall of western civilization as we have known it. They prey on our egos... they train us to make us think we are intelligent because we googled something. they have for years chipped away at our educaiton system.
Americans are arrogant, ignorant, lazy, and ready to blame anyone but themselves.
Bingo. And to piggy back off of what you said, Its not entirely 100% Russia behind the malicious bots either I'd wager, there are a ton of bad faith actors right now foreign and domestic working to tear apart the west. The rise of malicious bot networks paired with Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit have done irreparable damage. It has literally killed hundreds of thousands of people in real time over the last two years due to botnets pumping antimask furor in 2020 and antivax furor in 2021. And it's not just right wing conservatives being targeted, they literally have bots pretending to be Black people spewing antivax propaganda in Black dominated social media circles.
Social media needs to be heavily regulated, but its far too late, and frankly both American political parties are so compromised by the corporate oligarchy, that nothing will be done about it.
Also yes, another good point you've raised is about education being decimated. Critical thinking has all but been destroyed. Someone thinks that they can google stuff and regurgitate it regardless of context without corroborating the source. It's madness.
Also, Right now there is a concerted effort in several states to literally destroy public education under the guise of "culture war" politics. In Indiana and other Red states they are passing laws where teachers aren't allowed to teach about the Holocaust unless there is also a "differing viewpoint" presented to children.
Let that sink in for a second. What kind of "differing viewpoint" do you need to present when teaching children factual information about Hitler throwing people in ovens and gassing them to death? That's beyond the pale. State governments literally forcing teachers to instill Holocaust denialism into children.
Any teacher worth their salt will refuse to work under these conditions and we will see a massive exodus of teachers, if it isn't happening already. This is by design, so that poorer communities will be underserved while the wealthy can send their kids to private schools not hindered by batsh*t laws where the best teachers will flock to.
This country is going to be ripped apart after the 2024 elections and you can bet Putin, Xi, and other enemies of the west are waiting patiently.
