It seemingly works well enough for a large enough majority that no one is out protesting in the streets. For things to get better, serious reforms are needed or things first have to get a lot worse.

Here's the kicker: reform is always needed. There will always be people who are cheating fair systems, dismantling checks and balances or helping their friends do both.

When was the last all you commenters were politically active?

Pseudonymous! Not anonymous!

I'd like to add: We're here for you. We all are.

🏳️‍⚧️

holy fucking bingle. what?! :3

C and C++ programmers get really confused at this one.

For you it's mindless scrolling. For us it's daily life. Help us.

The "net good" here is that it's torture for us. It's good sport for those in power in prison. There's also the fact that those in power can earn a little side hustle from relatively zero risk: you don't need to smuggle anything into the prison to sell, you just sell one prisoner to the next. That is the society we live in.

Things are pretty fucked up right now for us literally everywhere. We're fucking dying here. Educate yourself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-coding https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgender_rights_in_the_United_States#V-coding

I used to think this too. But I promise you, we're actively being persecuted in this country. I've had to bury friends this year. What have you been doing?

Yo, where does this guy work at? I wanna make sure he's telling the truth.

With my stomach.

Cool. Can I get a tax rebate for being too poor to own a home?

I'm basing this all on reports from the Institute for the Study of War (which is a Washington based organization, mind you). I'm just a layman who likes reading the ISW. So take it with a grain of salt.

The ISW has repeatedly said (bullet points ISW, comments are mine):

• Russia uses hybrid warfare to accomplish objectives it might not otherwise be able to reach in a traditional conflict. Psyops reinforce real battlefield conditions by, for example, discouraging the west from providing meaningful support such as equipment

A good example of this is over a year ago when there were discussions in The Netherlands against providing Ukraine with F-16's which were an "offensive weapon". (Is there such a thing as a 'defensive' weapon I ask you?)

• Russia is clearly not interested in coming to the negotiation table and they believe they are still able to make meaningful gains on the battlefield.
• The Kremlin might be smoking too much of it's own disinformation and is acting on false or misleading information.

They will keep the pressure on since a loss on a battlefield is a sure way for Putin and his 'strongman' image to go to shit. Russia needs a victory to sell itself. Nearly everything they do including the disinformation in their papers, the bullshit on TV and the diplomatic signaling to other nations is in service of that. The state controls everything because authoritarianism is a fact and a way of life over there.

I think Putin and his cronies feel existentially threatened because they can't sell a victory to the people. They're forced to sell god knows how many of KIA/MIA/WIA/POW. The ISW also reported that an immediate return of Russian combat veterans into society might lead to some nasty stuff and that would have to be dealt with either by Russia or in negotiations with Russia.

Back to what ISW said:

• Russia is in 'phase zero' and the 'information setting stage' of a conflict with NATO.
• Russia is banking on NATO somehow 'giving up' with the war when the going gets tough.
• These drone attacks (or any border/airspace incidents) are part of probing how the west responds and gauging capabilities of the west.

I think there might also a little bit of some soldier somewhere "accidentally" misprogramming a drone's path to fuck with the west a little? It doensn't all have to come from higher up. Drone attacks and border incidents can just as easily be one angry vatnik and now you have a diplomatic incident that Putin himself probably believes as "European warmongering". Who knows?

If Russia can't win this war? It's all the fault of the Nazi imperialist west, since the "expansion of NATO" threatens the "traditional" heteronormative values of Russian society. So we're the cause of this war, even though Russia annexed Crimea, shot down MH17, genocides the Ukrainians, indoctrinates Ukrainian children and kills people in the street and prisoners of war in cold blood.

'Just war' theory says something about when entering and continuing a war is 'just' or not. I have no idea where nuclear weapons fit into this but I don't want to find out.

wait, what the fuck? sorry smart fellas and fart smellas. I bumped into this on hackernews and I expected it to be fresh.