More and more Western mercs are running for their lives. Snip:
"Prozorov elaborated that foreign mercenaries complain about the incompetence of the Ukrainian command, their cowardice and betrayal, as fighters were thrown into useless attacks and “meat grinds” under Russian artillery."
The former Ukrainian officer also pointed out that at least several hundred Neo-Nazis from all over the world came to fight for Kiev.
Who has those screen shots with the posts about the reddit brigade?
I'm thinking about the one where they thought it was gonna be like shooting at brown kids, but instead it was just Russian artillery and trenches.
It turns out not having total air superiority and fighting a peer force makes for a very different experience
I cannot for the life of me understand how they didn't get this, it was literally my first thought when I heard there'd be mercenaries: "Hm, I wonder how they'll fare without air cover?" I'm some random across the planet with little relation to the war, but these guys actually joined it without even giving it the amount of idle thought I gave it while sparking up a bowl?
I've seen telegrams of the Ukrainian Armed Forces doing impromptu executions of mercenaries for desertion, including some African mercenaries who they called "[slur] bastards" in Ukrainian and told them they "should've stayed in Africa" before shooting them. People still act like this isn't the beginning of WW3. I've also seen Ukrainian soldiers frag their officers, and officers frag injured soldiers for refusing to advance or follow orders. It's bad.
soldiers with phones will just record anything they do these days, the social media-fication of war is something else
So not to be like one of those overly sensitive types, but how do recover after seeing something like that? I wouldn't be able to focus if I saw even a second of those videos.
Are they really up close? Or are they filmed far away?
Be really careful exposing yourself to stuff like that. You can actually give yourself like a kind of second-hand ptsd. You might just have a terrible day or week after you see it or it might pop into your head randomly years after. Recovery depends on what you see, how much you see, time, all sorts of stuff. Some people handle it "better" (to use a slightly inappropriate word to describe it.) But, you might temporarily become numb to it and then it hits like a brick when the memory is quite literally triggered back to the fore of your mind.
I'm just desensitized I guess. I grew up when the internet was much less filtered and my parents were neglectful in supervising me while I was on it. Some people are able to be surgeons for a living, so... in a way the "economy" "needs" some people to be desensitized to the awful things that happen.
this is a war where you can watch a drone carefully drop a bomb on an injured soldier while the soldier looks up helplessly at the drone and waits to be blown up
Sure there's the concerning psychological angle but let's not overlook how the spam of these videos, gore, even brutalizing civilians (which we understandably no longer see much), and equipment gorn (bonus if misidentified, edited, or implied to be beyond repair when it's not the case) allowed Ukraine supporters and combatants to base their reality off of an endless supply of micro-victories
That's too bad, I guess it's different than terrorizing Iraqi civilians in their homes after dark. Western mercenaries have their limitations I guess
“Ukrainian servicemen, getting into the army — everything is like in serfdom, until the end or until death," Prozorov said. "Only a foreigner has the right to break the contract and leave."
The Soviets ended serfdom in a rather effective and convincing manner though
Not sure what you mean. Serfdom was abolished in 1860s. Are you referring to the subjugation to landlords and capitalists after that as 'serfdom'?
Read Lenin, he explains about remnants of serfdom going well into early XX century. Abolishment in 1860s was only formal and very shallow.
didnt some parts of russia keep basically buying/selling their serfs well after the legal abolishment?
Yeah in some parts landowners power were so much it basically happened, just not as openly as before, mostly together with land because that so called "enfranchisement of peasants" in Russia for most peasants kept them tied, just by debt and not law. Of course it did had one huge difference in that they could legally leave their land now, but they would have to leave everything - and still millions did it, though mostly from hunger and despair. As Lenin mentioned, one of the chief reasons for even abolishing serfdom was that capitalists demanded workforce which couldn't be satisfied by petrified feudal society.
Firstly, can you point to a particular work?
Secondly, that will have to wait, as I have thousands of pages of other stuff to deal with first.
Thirdly, I might have an idea what is being talked about, as, in particular, a lot of serfs did get forced to work for their prior landlords in effectively the same capacity. However, I am not sure if that is what the person I was replying to meant.Basically in most about peasants and agriculture. Most notable of which is "The Development of Capitalism in Russia", also a lot of others in few first books of collected works.
Keyword is "odrobki" although i have no idea how that would be in English version since i read it in Polish (work-offs maybe?)
can't spend your blood money if you get owned by an fpv drone in a useless attack against fortified ground
