No update today.

Somebody commented during my small break last week that I should try and insert breaks in, say, a day or so every week or two weeks, which I think I will try and do - though they might be irregular (i.e. on different days).

Happy International Day for Biological Diversity!

Links and Stuff

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Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Add to the above list if you can, thank you.

Resources For Understanding The War Beyond The Bulletins

Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map, who is an independent youtuber with a mostly neutral viewpoint.

Moon of Alabama, which tends to have good analysis (though also a couple bad takes here and there)

Understanding War and the Saker: neo-conservative sources but their reporting of the war (so far) seems to line up with reality better than most liberal sources.

Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict and, unlike most western analysts, has some degree of understanding on how war works. He is a reactionary, however.

On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent journalist reporting in the Ukrainian warzones.

Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.

Yesterday's discussion post.

  • ButtBidet [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    pro NATO Finns and Swedes are more likely to be older and wealthier

    I have 3 Finnish friends. Kinda odd, I know, as the population of Finland is just over 4 dozen. Anyhow all three have clearly moved to the right this year, and the Russian thing isn't helping. Previously they were pretty lefty and American skeptical. I know the canned answer is "demsocs not against alliances with Fascism". Ya this is true, but it hurts with close mates.

    Unrelated, but Finns are like the opposite to the Americans I complained about... Not snarky and mean, totally humble, talk about real shit.

    • SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      But the decision to join NATO does not just rely on a hollowed-out discourse of solidarity; it is also presented as a vital act of self-interest – a defensive response to the ‘Russian threat’. In Sweden’s case, we are asked to believe that the country is currently facing greater security risks than during both World Wars, and that the only way to address them is to enter a beefed-up military alliance. Although Russia is supposedly struggling to make headway against a much weaker opponent in Ukraine – unable to hold the capital, hemorrhaging troops and supplies – we are told that it poses an imminent threat to Stockholm and Helsinki. Amid such confected panic, genuine threats to the Nordic way of life have gone ignored: the withering away of the welfare state, the privatization and marketization of education, rising inequality and the weakening of the universal healthcare system. While rushing to align with ‘the West’, the Swedish and Finnish governments have shown considerably less urgency in tackling these social crises.

      (emphasis mine)

      Umberto Eco: “[…] the followers must be convinced that they can overwhelm the enemies. Thus, by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.”

      • MelaniaTrump [undecided]
        ·
        3 years ago

        The USSR couldn't take Finland in the last world war, so I doubt Russia would even try today

        • Alaskaball [comrade/them]MA
          ·
          3 years ago

          The USSR eventually fucking rolled the Finnish fascists in the continuation war and should have continued stomping the damn bastards all the way into the ground to allow the Finnish-Karelian SSR re-assume governance of Finland and fly the flag of the Finnish Socialist Workers' Republic in Helsinki