Take a look at her:

Video Link

She lives in Canada but was born in Ukraine.

Good luck on successfully integrating and assimilating your own country’s Russians, LatW! I mean it!

Possibly, the “open border� labor mobility within the EU will need to be rolled back in the future.

How so? If anything, the EU should have more labor mobility, not less of it. It might even become wealthier that way, if it will allow the US model of greater labor mobility:

https://www.economist.com/free-exchange/2012/07/05/america-settles-down

Making people learn Tatar in an area with a slight Tatar majority hardly seems worth getting worked up about. AFAIK welsh lessons are held in schools in South Wales that haven’t spoken the language for hundreds of years.

Adygea vs Krasnodar Krai is interesting. I wonder whether Ossetia would be natural nationalist territory; in my experience of “egghead emigres”, the most patriotic, nationalistic ones tended to be assimilatated , russified, non-russians.

Or border change in Crimea matters more to them.

As blogger Ivan Vladimirov noted, and as the above map confirms, Putin has become the President of ethnic Russians.

Putin appears to have outperformed in regions directly bordering the Ukraine. What does it mean? Are the people in these regions more Russian, i.e. with a stronger ethnic identity?

As I had posted earlier, the similarity is in marginalized, violent young men going to some other place to kill people for a cause

That’s what Ukraine did.

Donbas is within Ukraine’s recognized border. Troops mobilized by the government and sent to serve within the state’s borders are very different from Russo-jihadists flocking to Ukraine from Russia. Even the volunteers form Azov or Right Sector are mostly from eastern Ukraine – locals.

The Ukraine war is a more-civilized and more localized analogue to the Syria, with Russia playing the role of Turkey or Saudi Arabia.

Poroshenko exaggerates (to put it mildly), but about 10% at least of the Donbas fighters have been volunteers from Russia

From memory, the SBU could name fifty.

And how many others has it named?

A list of casualties early in the war showed 10% from Russia plus a few more % from Crimea.

It isn’t a fluke that people from Russia like Pavlov or Girkin have played such important roles. In the beginning, the first PM – Alexander Borodai – was an adventurer from Moscow, and 1 of his 2 deputy prime ministers – Vladimir Antyufeyev – was a Russian from Novosibirsk, a guy who had helped set up the Transnistria Republic.

“Then you can add Russian military advisers, a few hundred troops here and there (you think it was a fluke that the Ukrainians captured those Russian paratroopers?).”

Never bought the ‘North Wind’ crap and you’re not going to sell me on it. That business with the paratroopers happened because the Russian government was bending over backwards not to get into fisticuffs with the Ukraine.

You can buy or not but what you want. The ideas that the Russian paratroopers that Ukraine captured happened to be the only Russian servicemen in Ukraine, or that they happened to wander in by mistake, are not very realistic.

Let me guess: in your world this is fake news:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-ukraine-syria-insight/fog-of-ukraines-war-russians-death-in-syria-sheds-light-on-secret-mission-idUSKBN1FI12I

Azov and RS are not ideologically distinct.

Azov is neo-Nazi. RS has a Jew as one of its two parliamentary representatives.

Bandera nationalism is functionally indistinguishable from Hitlerism, whether clad in a swastika or not.

Review the meaning of the word functionally.

Bandera nationalism of the mid 20th century was evil, though not as evil as Nazism or Bolshevism.

So you confirm that for you Christian virtues are “peasant backwardness.�

Uniates and schismatics aren’t Christians.

So in your world non-Orthodox are not Christians. This is not even the position of the Orthodox Church.

“Lviv”

Has been defeated by Donetsk and Lugansk. The Sovoks beat you, and they did it with a considerable handicap.

Most of the ones doing the fighting were not from Lviv. And Russian aid was, of course, critical.
The Russo-jihadists wanted to build a New Russia from Odessa to Dnipro to Kharkiv. All they got was 60% of the Donbas. This doesn’t look like a victory.

::::::

So, to recap – you support the Bolsheviks in the Spanish Civil War; you are glad your own cousin was killed in a war and hope his death was painful; you believe Roman Catholics and other Catholics, as well as Protestants, are not Christians; you view any Ukrainians in their armed forces to be “genetic waste” and hope for their deaths; and you dismiss morality such as not committing murder or rape, not getting HIV, as “peasant backwardness.”

Is that an adequate summary of you, defender of Donbas?

An extremely petty distinction, even if I accepted it.

It doesn’t matter whether you ‘accept’ it or not. The distinction between the two was large. Franco’s movement was multiform, a fusion of two antique political strands with a novel one. It wasn’t the least bit revanchist or imperial-revisionist. The only enemy it much cared about was the nexus of organizations which it fought in 1936-39. Once the firing squads were done with them in 1939-40, the violence was over. The regime had no bizarre or vainglorious objects nor was it beset with madcap social paranoia.

Franco was a military professional of considerable accomplishment, not a no account like Hitler, nor a one-step-above-no-account like Mussolini. One student of him put it thus: “he had no ideology; none was necessary to justify his right to rule”. Although he’s been identified as an advocate of the union of throne and altar, what he actually did was make it possible for the Church to live and breathe and for someone to ascend that throne when the time came. Nor did the Falangists (much less the Carlists or Alfonsine monarchists) object catagorically to parliamentary institutions. The view articulated by Serrano Suner was that such institutions were unsuitable to Spain, not to every other place (as in fact they were to the Spain of the inter-war period).

You haven’t proved me wrong. That includes a believable reasoning for thinking that my logical basis is incorrect.

Twisted neolib thinking aside, there’s no need for a UN referendum in Crimea. The initial vote is in line with independent polling on that area since the reunification. Keeping in mind that roughly 17% of the electorate there were reported to have not voted in the 96% or so tally favoring reunification. Assume that the aforementioned 17%, pretty much don’t support the reunification. There’s a clear well over 2/3 pro-Russian majority in Crimea – including the majority of Ukrainians there.

Kosovo hasn’t had as referendum and not much of a fuss is made over northern Cyprus. So much for anti-Russian hypocrisy.

Just throwing out comparisons, which is what at least one other person does at these threads.

Meantime, whether Olga is derived from Helga or not, it’s quite believable that there were plenty of Olgas throughout Rus before the famous person who has been discussed here – once again noting that the Scandinavian presence within Rus had predated her birth.

As I had posted earlier, the similarity is in marginalized, violent young men going to some other place to kill people for a cause

That’s what Ukraine did. I don’t liken their troops to jihadists (except for a handful of Chechens and Tatars who are just that) because the comparison’s superficial and silly.

Poroshenko exaggerates (to put it mildly), but about 10% at least of the Donbas fighters have been volunteers from Russia

From memory, the SBU could name fifty.

Then you can add Russian military advisers, a few hundred troops here and there (you think it was a fluke that the Ukrainians captured those Russian paratroopers?).

Never bought the ‘North Wind’ crap and you’re not going to sell me on it. That business with the paratroopers happened because the Russian government was bending over backwards not to get into fisticuffs with the Ukraine.

So you supported the Bolsheviks in Spain, against Franco.

The milquetoasts of Negrin’s outfit were vastly less cruel and weird than Franco, Yague, Serrano, Quiepo de Llano and friends.

Azov and RS are not ideologically distinct. Bandera nationalism is functionally indistinguishable from Hitlerism, whether clad in a swastika or not.

So you confirm that for you Christian virtues are “peasant backwardness.�

Uniates and schismatics aren’t Christians. Their inability to live without inflicting their stunted worldview on everybody else makes it pretty clear that Christian virtues don’t exist among them. They will be sleeping around, aborting and gay-marrying each other in due time, simply because that’s what it means to be part of the west that they want to join.

Lviv

Has been defeated by Donetsk and Lugansk. The Sovoks beat you, and they did it with a considerable handicap.

Not sure of your point in bringing it up but Yulia is a Latin name.

On the closeness of names and their origin, is Mikhail derived from Michael, or vice versa, or do they just happen to be close in pronunciation?

Not sure of your point here either. Michael is a Biblical and Semitic name. Both English and Russian versions derive from: מיכ�ל

Not funny but neither unusual historically: Charles II, Louis XIV, George IV* are all famous examples, not anything like the only ones either.

*(of resp. England, France, Britain)

“The joke is funny because it is based on reality.”

Yes, of course – all the suicide bombings and slave raids committed by the DNR army. Somehow I haven’t read about them even in the Ukrainian press.

As I had posted earlier, the similarity is in marginalized, violent young men going to some other place to kill people for a cause. Like the St. Petersburg puppy-killer. Or Motorola (who was a petty criminal in Russia but a “hero” in Donbas, similar situation to the Pakistani losers in London who came to Syria or Iraq). Of course in Donbas we are dealing with Europeans so things are not nearly as brutal.

Humor typically has some truth to it, this is what makes it funny.

You should really abandon untenable positions instead of doubling down on them.

You should take this advice.

“Motorola, Girkin, etc. were foreign citizens. No Russian assistence, the war would have been over long ago.”

Two of tens of thousands. SBU’s actual assessments of Russian citizen involvement are quite different from the crap Poroshenko spews to bored European audiences.

You think Motorola and Girkin were the only ones?

Poroshenko exaggerates (to put it mildly), but about 10% at least of the Donbas fighters have been volunteers from Russia. Many of them were seasoned from fighting in Chechnya. Then you can add Russian military advisers, a few hundred troops here and there (you think it was a fluke that the Ukrainians captured those Russian paratroopers?).

“So in your world, the distitnction between Franco and Hitler is “extremely petty.â€� Good to know.”

I don’t quite know where the rightist enthusiasm for Franco Bahamonde comes from – this is the man whose idea of defending Christian civilisation in Spain was to unleash an army of Moroccan murderers and rapists upon his country’s own working class.

So you supported the Bolsheviks in Spain, against Franco.

Good to know.

If you don’t see the enormous difference between the ideologies and governments of Franco (who is not terribly unlike Horthy, or even some of the Russian Whites) and Hitler I can’t help you.

So you consider low criminality, low promiscuity, low abortion etc. to be “peasant backwardness.� Good to know.

That is the source of them

So you confirm that for you Christian virtues are “peasant backwardness.”

noble savages don’t stay noble (don’t misunderstand me, Galicians are not that), but they frequently grow more savage. Technological progress and societal scale don’t respect creeds or peasant customs

Lviv with its intact Christian virtues is much larger by population, and more sophisticated, than Luhansk. Lviv is also much more technologically advanced. Don’t project moral degradation onto others.

The joke is funny because it is based on reality.

Yes, of course – all the suicide bombings and slave raids committed by the DNR army. Somehow I haven’t read about them even in the Ukrainian press.

You should really abandon untenable positions instead of doubling down on them.

Motorola, Girkin, etc. were foreign citizens. No Russian assistence, the war would have been over long ago.

Two of tens of thousands. SBU’s actual assessments of Russian citizen involvement are quite different from the crap Poroshenko spews to bored European audiences. No Maidanaut aggression, no war.

So in your world, the distitnction between Franco and Hitler is “extremely petty.� Good to know.

I don’t quite know where the rightist enthusiasm for Franco Bahamonde comes from – this is the man whose idea of defending Christian civilisation in Spain was to unleash an army of Moroccan murderers and rapists upon his country’s own working class. Hitler himself once complained that all the idealism in the Spanish civil war had been on the red side. Nor do I accept the distinction anyway – there are no meaningful ideological differences between Azov and Right Sector, only their leaders and their egos.

So you consider low criminality, low promiscuity, low abortion etc. to be “peasant backwardness.� Good to know.

That is the source of them – noble savages don’t stay noble (don’t misunderstand me, Galicians are not that), but they frequently grow more savage. Technological progress and societal scale don’t respect creeds or peasant customs – you wanted into Europe, you’ll have it and all that goes with it.

This sounds as parochial as some Jewish people who hate German composers because of what Germany had done.

They’re not wrong to.

were turned off by Jewish presence in Ukraine

LOL this being a new development.

Perhaps they are merely slow on the uptake.

I’ve not seen them develop new enthusiasm for the cause of Donbass though.

You ought to take part in a contest for one of the most useful websites on the web.
I am going to highly recommend this blog!

“They joke about it themselves”

They joke. You mean it in all seriousness.

The joke is funny because it is based on reality.

“A revolution isn’t an excuse for foreign soldiers/volunteers and bullets to be sent into the country.”

If you attack people you are not entitled to complain about how they choose to defend themselves

But they are not the ones defending themselves. Motorola, Girkin, etc. were foreign citizens. No Russian assistence, the war would have been over long ago.

RS is a Francoist neo-fascist, not Nazi, organization (unlike Azov). So, not neo-Nazis

An extremely petty distinction, even if I accepted it.

So in your world, the distitnction between Franco and Hitler is “extremely petty.” Good to know.

“decent virtuous behaviors, not backwardness.”

Peasant backwardness that Europe will be delighted to stamp out.

So you consider low criminality, low promiscuity, low abortion etc. to be “peasant backwardness.” Good to know.

Family has carefully preserved and extremely bad memories of Poland from the great old days. Aversion to them is an inborn Ukrainian quality that even Pans share.

But not yourself, evidently. No accounting for taste indeed.

This sounds as parochial as some Jewish people who hate German composers because of what Germany had done.

“IRC Karlin stated that at the beginning of the conflict 75% of Russian neo-Nazis supported Kiev but after a year or two it became the reverse. Was he wrong?”

I never noticed any change. Fairly sure that the shameful march where they shouted ‘stop feeding Donbass!’ took place in late 2015 or early 2016.

Which would be less than 2 years from when the war started. Karlin stated that Russian neo-Nazis, who hate Putin, were intially pro-Ukrainian but were turned off by Jewish presence in Ukraine and then switched their allegiance (or 75% of them did).

“Of a type developed by Russia.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-03/uk-authorities-unable-prove-novichok-nerve-agent-came-russia

100,000s were mobilized and entered the armed forces,

Factor in desertions to get a clearer picture – if public military data allows you to.

They joke about it themselves

They joke. You mean it in all seriousness.

A revolution isn’t an excuse for foreign soldiers/volunteers and bullets to be sent into the country.

If you attack people you are not entitled to complain about how they choose to defend themselves. As for the bullets, you should direct your complaints to Ukrainian military logistics.

RS is a Francoist neo-fascist, not Nazi, organization (unlike Azov). So, not neo-Nazis

An extremely petty distinction, even if I accepted it.

You are the type of person who revels in the death of your own cousin. I suppose of you knew that he had committed some atrocity it might be understandable

Blessing those who curse you can grow tiresome, and joining that band of savages is proof enough in itself that he’d done things his own mother couldn’t forgive.

shut out of power

All they had to was win the presidency. They were to have gotten their chance in 2015 – but it wasn’t enough for them to gain power. They had done that once, failed and lost it. So they preferred to take power and destroy their opposition permanently.

Handing over power to people who had won the most recent popular vote (despite their being of questionable quality) makes it a democratic revolution.

Using violence to remove the lawful president is rebellion and terrorism. Like most diaspora nationalists, you understand ‘democracy’ and ‘European values’ only as war totems.

By 2017 it is just a normal central European city

We have different notions of normal – obviously.

decent virtuous behaviors, not backwardness.

Peasant backwardness that Europe will be delighted to stamp out.

It ought to

Family has carefully preserved and extremely bad memories of Poland from the great old days. Aversion to them is an inborn Ukrainian quality that even Pans share.

But not yourself, evidently. No accounting for taste indeed.

IIRC Karlin stated that at the beginning of the conflict 75% of Russian neo-Nazis supported Kiev but after a year or two it became the reverse. Was he wrong?

I never noticed any change. Fairly sure that the shameful march where they shouted ‘stop feeding Donbass!’ took place in late 2015 or early 2016. Nor can I imagine why they would have changed their tune – the Lugansk rebel commander ‘Batman’ had such people in his outfit, and it is abundantly clear that Plotnitsky had him killed. The Donetsk and Lugansk authorities have drastically cut down on Russian Nazis’ opportunities to profit from the crisis. Ukraine however is content to have Russian Nazis in its ranks – and deport them back to the motherland once their service is concluded (although the latter is probably more due to bureaucratic inertia than policy).

No doubt killing the Bat was the right decision – the meagre military value of such people doesn’t even come close to justifying the disgracing of being associated with them.

Karlin may be right about their changing attitudes though – they are blithering idiots, every one – but Kiev is the party that accepts them as brothers in arms.

Only in the mind of a Russian nationalist, who considers anyone who does not believe that Ukrainians are Russians to be nationalists, am I a Ukrainian nationalist.

You are free to claim whatever nonsense you please, of course.

(referring to Ukrainian draft-dodgers) The number is not the point though – the point is that anyone with any shred of sense found a way to avoid serving in the Ukrainian forces.

Again, something like 30% avoided the draft (I may even be exaggerating) . 70% did not. 100,000s were mobilized and entered the armed forces, which is their obligation.

“Donbas Sovok-jihadists”

You see, this is your problem – you don’t get how stupid these slogans sound to anybody not marinated in diasporite idiocy.

They joke about it themselves. Here is Donetsk:

Marginalized, violent young people from places like Russia or Serbia come to Ukraine to kill Ukrainians. The St. Petersburg puppy-killer is analogous to those Westerners who join ISIS. Obviously, they are Slavs rather than Muslims so they are not beheading people at least, but it is an apt analogy.

“The Russian state, not the Kiev government, is to blame for this senseless war”

Let’s clear something up – the war did not start in April. It started in February. When you overthrow the lawful president, that is war.

A revolution isn’t an excuse for foreign soldiers/volunteers and bullets to be sent into the country.

“What is DUK?”

Ukrainian Volunteer Corps, Right Sector. I’m amazed you didn’t recognise the acronym.

RS is a Francoist neo-fascist, not Nazi, organization (unlike Azov). So, not neo-Nazis.

You are the type of person who revels in the death of your own cousin. I suppose of you knew that he had committed some atrocity it might be understandable (though the decent thing would be to mourn his fall, rather than hope for a grisly death).

Maidan had no justification for seizing power, and the character of the people they installed in office showed that their claimed motives were a sham. You don’t ‘uncorrupt’ or ‘Europeanise’ a country by handing power to a grab bag of Yuschenko-era politicians

The ” grab bag of Yuschenko-era politicians” were the ones who had won the most recent parliamentary election popular vote but had been shut out of power because Yanukovich after winning his election was acting like Maduro and monopolizing power.

Handing over power to people who had won the most recent popular vote (despite their being of questionable quality) makes it a democratic revolution.

“Unless you were there closer to Soviet times, your impressions were quite strange”

2010. Lvov was a madhouse even then. Food was alright.

Much improvement from 2010 to even 2011. By 2017 it is just a normal central European city, except cheaper and without gypsies. And arguably better food.

Lvov is not conservative or virtuous, just backward, and not even that for long.

Low crime rate with safe streets, low bribery rate, low HIV rate, relatively low abortion rate, low rate of children being born out of wedlock in Lviv reflect decent virtuous behaviors, not backwardness.

And bloody hell, ‘like Poles’!? Is that supposed to impress me?

It ought to. But, no accounting for taste.

Tesak and that red-haired character are both declared Ukraine sympathisers. Azov is full of Russian Nazis. RNE without Barkashov also declared for Kiev.

IIRC Karlin stated that at the beginning of the conflict 75% of Russian neo-Nazis supported Kiev but after a year or two it became the reverse. Was he wrong?

“I certainly do not wish death upon Russians or Eastern Ukrainians, nor refer to them as “genetic waste.â€�”

If you differ from the standard Ukrainian talking head it is only because you keep such thoughts private.

I have read enough Ukrainian media and Ukrainian nationalist chatter to get a pretty good idea of what you say among your own.

Only in the mind of a Russian nationalist, who considers anyone who does not believe that Ukrainians are Russians to be nationalists, am I a Ukrainian nationalist.

How many?

The Ukrainian defence ministry maybe could tell you, supposing that they wanted to.

The number is not the point though – the point is that anyone with any shred of sense found a way to avoid serving in the Ukrainian forces.

Donbas Sovok-jihadists

You see, this is your problem – you don’t get how stupid these slogans sound to anybody not marinated in diasporite idiocy.

Dnipro and Kharkiv peaceful.

They are not peaceful. Perhaps they would be if the likes of yourself would clear out.

What is DUK?

Ukrainian Volunteer Corps, Right Sector. I’m amazed you didn’t recognise the acronym.

The Russian state, not the Kiev government, is to blame for this senseless war

Let’s clear something up – the war did not start in April. It started in February.

When you overthrow the lawful president, that is war. Maidan had no justification for seizing power, and the character of the people they installed in office showed that their claimed motives were a sham. You don’t ‘uncorrupt’ or ‘Europeanise’ a country by handing power to a grab bag of Yuschenko-era politicians, nor by covering them in the cloak of revolution so that they’re even less accountable than usual.

Unless you were there closer to Soviet times, your impressions were quite strange

2010. Lvov was a madhouse even then. Food was alright.

We can spend all our lives trading subjective impressions. It’s terribly pointless when one of us is wearing the old rose-tinted spectacles.

It is, rather, the behavior of the Donbas general population.

The people you refer to? They flocked to Kiev. They are the Europeans, not you.

Tedious isteve gibberish

One can only speculate on the mental degeneration that produces such nonsense. Lvov is not conservative or virtuous, just backward, and not even that for long. And bloody hell, ‘like Poles’!? Is that supposed to impress me?

Do you have figures for this?

Tesak and that red-haired character are both declared Ukraine sympathisers. Azov is full of Russian Nazis. RNE without Barkashov also declared for Kiev.

Gubarev repented of his RNE membership – keep up.

I certainly do not wish death upon Russians or Eastern Ukrainians, nor refer to them as “genetic waste.�

If you differ from the standard Ukrainian talking head it is only because you keep such thoughts private.

I have read enough Ukrainian media and Ukrainian nationalist chatter to get a pretty good idea of what you say among your own.

I’m tired of this, but I still disagree.

Take a plane and visit around either country – Hungary and Israel – and you will rapidly change your mind.

Hungary (and at least half of European countries) are anti-illegal immigration utopia, by comparison to Israel (which is total liberal chaos, flooded with illegal immigrants, who it refuses to deport – as long as they are not Ukrainian or Georgian).

Good for Ukrainians to know you consider them flies.

The Skripal case is not getting any clearer. Now it’s claimed that the “most traces� were found on the front door of his home, but it was also found elsewhere, albeit in lower concentrations. Those must’ve been pretty low concentrations indeed, for this is supposed to be the deadliest nerve agent, and yet it so far failed to kill either targets, with one of them already on the way to recovery. So the concentration on the door handle must’ve been already low.

Anyway, how did the poison get elsewhere? Did they carry it around? How long did it take for this deadliest of poisons to stop them from moving around?

It just doesn’t seem to make sense.

Thanks!

“Just had a call with a guy; so they basically formed a convoy, but did not get to their (kurds) f*** positions by some three hundred meters. One unit moved forward, the convoy remained in place, about 300 meters from the others. The others raised the American flag and their artillery started ours really hard. Then their f*** choppers flew in and starter everybody. Ours just running around. Just got a call from a pal, so there are about 215 f*** killed. ”

That is, according to the record 250 “Russian mercenaries” was killed at a distance of 300 meters from the Kurdish fortifications (in the territories controlled by the Kurds). Lying on the road piles of corpses, standing on the road burned tanks and armored personnel carriers.
But there are no pictures.

mobile phones (belonging to the fighters of the SDF), at this time stopped working and the Kurds could not take a picture? Or is the whole story just a stupid fake?

Excellent reference- thanks!!!

Peace.

about the merits of our concept of tolerance anyway

Tolerance is ability to bear pain and hardship. In Middle Ages they concerned themselves with tolerance as the tolerance of some evils that for various reason need to be left alone. Nowadays we are more like Voltaire:

https://www.law.kuleuven.be/personal/mstorme/BejczyTolerantia.pdf
When Voltaire pleaded for “tolerance” in religious affairs, what he had in mind was the peaceful coexistence of different systems of belief which, to him, had no real significanceanyway. “Tolerance” thus came to mean little more than “indifference.” This rather feeble notion of “tolerance” still dominates in modern political discourse. When nowadays people urge the poli- ticians (or politicians urge the people) to be tolerant, what they really have in view is an indifferent attitude. Admitting the relativity of our truths, we should be reluctant to condemn the acts or beliefs of our fellow human beings that differ from our own-that is the basic idea of our so-called tolerance. An idea that makes us morally defenseless if outright evil shows up; an idea, moreover, that should make us pray never to find the absolute truth again, for that would apparently imply the end of tolerance.

But when you believe that there is only one truth and you are on its side to be tolerant puts much higher demand on you. It is not that cheap. It is a real pain and suffering.

Jews were tolerated and not forced to conversion because conversion had to be an act of free will and Jews were the outsiders who preceded Christianity. They were the enemies from without. Heretics on the other were enemies form within. They knew the truth and abandoned it. Could they be tolerated?

Tolerance for the sake of the good that may result from the permitted evil seems to have been Thomas’s own idea. This idea did not alter the fact that the tolerated evil remained as evil as it ever was. Thomas alleged that the Jews sin in their rites and he called them “our enemies.” His argument shows that one did not have to like the Jews to be tolerant; to the contrary, one had to dislike them to be tolerant, for tolerance only applied to evil. Tolerance was not an imperative of love but a restraint on one’s hatred. It is thanks to this restraint, however, that Jews, in the Thomistic concept, were permitted to live their own lives within the bonds of a Christian society.

Tolerance applied only to evil; thus, if Erasmus had not considered the Jews evil in some respect, there would have been nothing for him to tolerate. Erasmus did not like the Jews, but he did not dispute their right of existence in Christian society either, and this is exactly what makes him tolerant (although his statements on the matter are rather weak in comparison to medieval tradition). Erasmus’s dislike of the Jews is a prerequisite of his tolerance, not an impediment to it.

In the West, you cannot just have many separate murders. They have to be a big conspiracy! Konspiracy Kookery is now widespread among our enlightened liberals. But they just cannot see how similar their thinking is to 911 truthers.

Nemtsov was killed by Chechens.

I can easily believe that. But that hasn’t stopped the new address assigned to the Russian Embassy in Washington: Boris Nemtsov Plaza

https://www.rferl.org/a/boris-nemtsov-plaza-washington/29066220.html

Yes. After that, Putin disappeared for a few weeks (apparently due to illness, but probably also to get to the bottom of things), and then Kadyrov wasn’t received in Moscow for several weeks. Kadyrov at first wrote on his Instagram page how he thought the people accused (he happened to personally know them) were such great people and sure to be innocent, but then after few weeks his tone changed, and mentioned the “former member� of his retinue etc.

Nemtsov was not the kind of person who people around Putin would like to see murdered. He was a previous deputy prime minister and once thought of as a possible Yeltsin successor. Even though he was an opposition figure, he was considered a member of the Russian political elite.

Anyway, I think the murder of Politkovskaya was a different category from that of Nemtsov, and neither was related to the case of Litvinenko. Which might actually be totally unconnected to the Skripal case.

You mean Ramzan Kadyrov?

By the way Politkovskaya also had a run-in with Kadyrov. Nemtsov was different in that the Russian government (including Putin) probably was angry about his murder. Kadyrov was reprimanded afterwards.

Actually the question that is rarely asked is why Jews were not hunted down in Europe and killed or forced to convert?

Because they had a special role in the Christian view of history; I don’t know the exact details anymore (and won’t look them up now), but fathers of the Church like Augustine argued they should be allowed to exist because even in their depraved nature they bore witness to Christianity’s truth. So in a sense Jews were privileged compared to other non-Christians. It’s also true that the church’s hierarchy often sought to protect Jews against popular anger (e.g. during the 1st crusade)…but imo this doesn’t change the fact that medieval Christendom was quite intolerant of dissent on the whole.
But anyway, your accusation of me being “SWJ-like” (lol), after the countless times you’ve called me a “cuck”, is hardly conducive to open discussion…I don’t appreciate such personal attacks.

Nemtsov was killed by Chechens. The Russian government didn’t want to find the person who ordered the hit, but it’s easy to guess.

Anyway, all those discussions about tolerance in the middle ages may of course be somewhat beside the point…the modern concept of tolerance as it has developed since the 17th century simply didn’t exist then. And given what it has led to, I’m having serious doubts about the merits of our concept of tolerance anyway.

Bravo! Few more awakenings like this one…

it’s an objective statement of fact

Objectivity is the last refuge of the arrogant person. You assume that you know history and the events that really occurred. All you know is just anti-Christian propaganda like any garden variety SJW knows and assume it is objective. All you know is a combination of Protestant anti-Papists, Jewish and liberal version of history of Christianity. You do not know economic and political motives behind Albigensian “crusade.” The same goes for the Jews. Their numerous expulsions had political and economic reasons and accusation of criminality that sometime were legitimate. Popes and Vatican usually tried to soften the anti-Jewish animus when it flared up. Actually the question that is rarely asked is why Jews were not hunted down in Europe and killed or forced to convert? Why did they survive as a group? Perhaps you should start with this question to make a first crack in the SJW version of history that was imparted on you.

I’m being the devil’s advocate here.

Yes, you are, but what seems certain is that being Putin’s “enemy” is a very dangerous position to find oneself in (Nemtsov, Berezovsky, Litvinenko, Skripal, etc.).

I’m being the devil’s advocate here.

This might be consistent with Putin being behind these murders and the guy being a provocateur put on the list only so that he could make the dramatic – and, let’s face it, unproven – accusations, or that he hopes he could escape Putin by pledging loyalty to him and making such a bizarre declaration of the British as enemies.

Regarding the Wagner incident.

https://www.polygraph.info/a/us-wagner-russia-syria-scores-killed/29044339.html

Can Russian speakers confirm what this source states? (I.e. that there was an audio recording of a Russian guy talking about having lost over 200 KIA due to the American bombing. The YouTube videos can be seen after scrolling.)

I’m quite skeptical, they only have identified nine dead contractors. Even this source only tells that.

Russian businessman ‘on Vladimir Putin death list’ dramatically flees London claiming real threat comes from British secret services

Sergey Kapchuk, 45, filmed last week flanked by two bodyguards, says he is now in hiding in fear of his life somewhere in Europe . . .

“When Glushkov was killed, journalists wrote to me and called.

“They were flagging that I was the next one.

“And when you hear something like this, if you are not an idiot, you should react . So I hired bodyguards.�

Asked if he had been afraid at that point of Putin’s secret services or the British, he replied: “When I ordered bodyguards I just did not know what was going on around me.

“But gradually, analysing everything, I understood that I was not interesting for the Russian secret service.

“They did not have any reason to deal with me, but another secret service may be interested.

“I won’t name them.

“Their aim is to darken Putin and to demonise his image, and this process is actively going on in the Western media now.�

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/russian-businessman-on-vladimir-putin-12238329

It’s also interesting that you never read about it. The wonders of the free press and media doing their job!

I still don’t see the “International community� accepting the will of Crimean people by a couple of centuries. The west is simply unable to recognize something that’s against her wishes. Crimea will be a sort of Tibet for the foreseeable future. Anyway, Crimeans just don’t care.
With respect to the wells, a direct deal between Russia and Ukraine should be the best option; but I think the current Ukrainian authorities consider this as a sort of mortal sin.

I read stories of the persecution of Christians in Tokugawa Japan

Nagasaki was the center of Christianity in Japan (due to Portuguese influence, for a few years the city was actually directed administered by Portugal). Following the measures to eliminate Christianity, a small secret Christian community survived in Nagasaki, and was eventually able to come out into the open in the late 19th century. Works on a cathedral began in 1895, and when it was completed (in 1925) it was said to be the largest Christian church in Asia.

All this ended, of course, on 9 August 1945.

Except that I think a good third of the population was still Catholic in the 17th century, so they persecuted a large portion of the population.

You’re right, I didn’t mean to condone that.

By the way the same could be said of Spain, they just liberated themselves from Moorish rule, and the Jews often allied themselves with the Moors. Like serving as government ministers.

From what I know about Spanish history (and there are large gaps in my knowledge, so I may be wrong), this is a bit of a conflation of different eras. As far as I know, the prominent role of Jews in government positions (vizier?) was during the caliphate of Cordoba (10th/early 11th century), also somewhat in the successor states (this was partly the reason for the anti-Jewish massacre of Granada in 1066). But after the caliphate had disintegrated – not least because of ethnic tensions between different groups of Muslims…so much for multiculti paradise! – Islamic Spain came to be dominated in the 12th and 13th centuries by the Almoravids and Almohads who were basically hardcore fanatics from the north African desert. They didn’t look favorably upon Jews (and during their rule the last native Christians of North Africa descended from Roman times seem to have left iirc), and many Jews emigrated to the Christian states in Northern Spain.
And after the Christians had reconquered most of the peninsula in the mid-13th century, the remaining Islamic state Granada was thoroughly Islamic in character and not very multicultural at all…I’m not sure Jews played a prominent role there at all. So it seems doubtful to me that by 1492 there was much of a genuine recent memory of Jews in Spain collaborating with or assisting the Muslims. Other factors probably were more important for the expulsion of the Jews.

Anyway, all those discussions about tolerance in the middle ages may of course be somewhat beside the point…the modern concept of tolerance as it has developed since the 17th century simply didn’t exist then. And given what it has led to, I’m having serious doubts about the merits of our concept of tolerance anyway.

Okay, so this idealistic pacifist opposed to the Russian chemical weapons program (while other countries were still operating such programs) and whistleblower of the truth turns out to be a Tatar nationalist.

He is in fact the head of the Tatarstant Government in Exile, which is a bit more than being a “Tatar nationalist”, especially when he is hosted by the Land of the Free and Brave (I remember growing up how “Captive Nations Day” used to be celebrated every year).

https://day.kyiv.ua/en/article/topic-day/21st-century-colonialism

Now if I were the exiled head of the government of the Confederate States of America, and also an expert in chemical weapons who was pointing his finger at the Northern States for their supposed use of my invention (our friend Vil has either claimed, or allowed himself to be credited, as a developer of Novichok), wouldn’t you find that interesting?

I am not suggesting that he is directly involved, just that this is a rather interesting situation.

Except that I think a good third of the population was still Catholic in the 17th century, so they persecuted a large portion of the population.

By the way the same could be said of Spain, they just liberated themselves from Moorish rule, and the Jews often allied themselves with the Moors. Like serving as government ministers. (I think the Moors had more Jewish ministers than from the Christian majority, which I guess is what makes them the ideal Tolerant Society of the Middle Ages, but I think it’s more like an Assad type minority government allying itself with any other minorities.)

So hatred towards the Muslims and Jews was understandable. The Reformation never was strong in Spain, but the authorities could be forgiven for not allowing it, since it had led to a rebellion in the Netherlands.

I read stories of the persecution of Christians in Tokugawa Japan. Essentially Buddhism was a state religion, and adherence to it was compulsory. Only religions which were compatible with it (Taoism, folk Shinto) were allowed. These religions (in the case of folk Shinto rather a collection of superstitions) allowed their adherents to be also Buddhists. I doubt if Islam or Sikhism tried to enter Japan, it would’ve been welcomed there.

Was it more tolerant than Christianity? Maybe, maybe not.

Ok, good point. But given the background to how it came into being (revolt against Spain, the atrocities of the Duke of Alba etc.), that might have been a bit much to expect anyway.

the Dutch republic in the early modern era was markedly more tolerant than major Catholic powers like Spain

It was more tolerant of Jews. Not of Catholics.

Okay, so this idealistic pacifist opposed to the Russian chemical weapons program (while other countries were still operating such programs) and whistleblower of the truth turns out to be a Tatar nationalist.

Sure, the Young Turks were Turkish nationalists. I don’t think the issue can be entirely separated from religion though, adherence to Sunni Islam was an important part of the Turkish national identity they wanted to promote.
In any case, I don’t think pre-modern Islamic societies were that great for many of their non-Islamic subjects either.

Yet strangely not one of their primary targets were Muslims.

Why do you hate Christianity that much?

It’s nothing to do with hatred, it’s an objective statement of fact. Latin Christendom in the middle ages was extremely intolerant of any kind of dissent or heterodoxy (just think about what happened to the Cathars). The only non-Christian minority that enjoyed some precarious toleration were Jews, and they were expelled from much of Western Europe in the 13th and 14th centuries. Muslims in Spain and Sicily were also eventually all removed or converted.
Stating this isn’t even a value judgement, one can of course believe that tolerance for false or dangerous beliefs isn’t a virtue.
As for my personal beliefs, I don’t think I owe you any justification.

Calvinistic ones were even worse.

I may not have expressed myself clearly enough, Latin Christendom for me is everything that belonged to the Western Catholic church in the middle ages, including areas that later became Protestant. I’m certainly not in favour of the more extreme kinds of Protestantism.
That being said, the Dutch republic in the early modern era was markedly more tolerant than major Catholic powers like Spain.

You’re of course correct that Islamic societies were more tolerant than Latin Christendom until at least the 18th century. But that’s not saying much since Latin Christendom was one of the most intolerant civilizations in all of history.

Tell us about yourself. Why do you hate Christianity that much? Where does it come from? Why do you sound like SJW when it comes to Christianity?

Anybody recognize the name of the author of this?

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE OF TATARSTAN

The Tatar people have already spent 456 years in slavery to Russian colonialism, which was as brutal as ever was known in the history of humankind. During this time many rulers of Russia came to power, as czars, emperors, first secretaries and presidents. Also, the social structure of this country changed: feudalism, capitalism, socialism, etc. Only one thing remained unchanged during all this time: a policy of forced conversion to Christianity, Russification, inhuman exploitation and physical elimination of the Tatar through permanent and goal-oriented genocide. At the beginning of the 18th century, according to a Census taken by Peter the Great, there were 5.5 million Russians and 5.5 million Tatars, and yet by the end of the 20th century there are 120 million Russians and the same 5.5 million Tatars.

ETC

Adopted at a Special Meeting of the Milli Mejlis of the Tatar People on December 20, 2008.

Vil Mirzayanov

https://kazbeginews.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/the-declaration-of-independence-of-tatarstan/

You’re of course correct that Islamic societies were more tolerant than Latin Christendom until at least the 18th century. But that’s not saying much since Latin Christendom was one of the most intolerant civilizations in all of history.

Calvinistic ones were even worse. They tended to exterminate, rather than convert and assimilate.

the Young Turks had already taken the first steps towards expelling Greeks from Asia Minor in the spring of 1914 (!)

But this can safely be attributed more to nationalism than to religion (which was my original point), wouldn’t you agree?

Russians killed in Vyborg by “soldiers of Mannerheim� did indeed “deserve to die� by your own words of agreeing with the punishment of revolutionaries. I can give a named example since I spotted one connection even in English language wikipedia. Two of the young victims were the children of this man……who was one of the highest-ranking officers to join the Reds in Finland

Captain….Konstantin Nazarov, as later told his wife Anna Mikhailovna Nazarova, ” left the house in the designated day …welcome the white Finns…he was arrested at 11 a.m. ” of Course he was shot

Soldiers of Mannerheim led the extermination on a national basis.

It was also prompted by the unwise Greek invasion of Turkey in 1919 trying to collect on the territorial gains promised to them by the Allies.

It’s true that violence wasn’t a one-way affair, the Greeks committed atrocities as well. But the process had begun earlier, the Young Turks had already taken the first steps towards expelling Greeks from Asia Minor in the spring of 1914 (!), before the outbreak of the European war.
You’re of course correct that Islamic societies were more tolerant than Latin Christendom until at least the 18th century. But that’s not saying much since Latin Christendom was one of the most intolerant civilizations in all of history. Islamic tolerance also has nothing to do with modern concepts of tolerance since it always was founded upon the clear supremacy of Muslims and the legal discrimination and economic exploitation of non-Muslims.

He mixed up notes and cue cards from another internet personality he is playing somewhere else.

On the other hand, while the west claims “Maidan was democratic but the Crimean referendum was not�, it just shows it true hypocrite face.

Neither was strictly democratic although both reflected popular opinion.

Hopefully Crimea will not turn into a Turkish Cyprus, and some normalization can be achieved (in exchange for easing Russian sanctions?). There would probably have to be a rerun of the referendum under UN supervision, return of some of those gas wells closer to Ukrainian territory (as well as for the gas that has been pumped out of them since the takeover) and compensation for wells recently built in Crimean waters by the Ukrainian state, etc.

the expulsion of the Greeks from Turkey following WWI had very little if anything to do with Islam

Perhaps no, but the holocaust also had nothing to do with Christianity, yet we never hear the end of how Christian intolerance led to it. The expulsion of the Greeks followed the few years earlier anti-Christian mass murder against the Armenians, which was enthusiastically supported by the population (and given the state and disorganized nature of the Ottoman Empire, would have been difficult without popular consent), and to my knowledge it was accompanied by violence against other Christian communities, including some pogroms against the Greeks.

Anyway, I don’t think Europeans are much more tolerant by nature. Multiculturalism leads to violent conflict, or at best mutual assimilation and so monoculturalism anyway.

I’m not convinced, at least if the reason for that religious diversity was the tolerance of Muslims.

In a clannish society there’s always fragmentation. Members of another clan could as well be aliens from another planet. You rarely want to have the same beliefs as they do, much less emulate them. So a new religion might find it easier to spread in such a society. But it might find it more difficult to impose itself as the sole religion of the realm. In Europe, there’s more individualism, but at the same time there’s more eagerness to emulate others, to be like the majority. Even if animosity towards other religions was lower in Europe, it’d lead to more religious fragmentation in the Middle East than in Europe.

But I didn’t say Europe was historically more tolerant, probably not, as long as we were still religious.

Modern technology has certainly facilitated ethnic cleansing.

But the undeniable fact is that both Christian and Muslim minorities historically fared far better in Muslim countries than religious minorities (notably Jews) in Christian countries (with the major exception of Poland). This is confirmed by the significant populations of both Christians and Jews in Muslim countries at the turn of the 20th century.

As a minor point, the expulsion of the Greeks from Turkey following WWI had very little if anything to do with Islam, it was pure ethnic cleaning. It was also prompted by the unwise Greek invasion of Turkey in 1919 trying to collect on the territorial gains promised to them by the Allies.

Jews love and need anti-semitism because it allows them to maintain their cultural identity

Which, if true, suggests why they (surprisingly to some) support the immigration of anti-semites.

I’m tired of this, but I still disagree.

So how do you explain the fact that Christian communities survived for centuries under Islamic rule?

First, for many centuries Muslims were a minority, and the taxes paid by infidels were the most important source of revenue. But even once they became a majority (a somewhat fragmented majority, with at least two different big strains), it was difficult to coordinate policy on a very high level. It’s easy to engage in pogroms (they often did), but difficult to sustain it and make a demographic impact.

I think it’s near impossible to engage in genocide without telegraph, and breech-loading rifles help a lot, too. Already in the 19th century there were attempts to exterminate the Alawite sect in Syria (the Ottoman Empire was not yet centralized enough for it to be pursued on an imperial level), which went nowhere, because the Alawites fought desperately and pitchforks and stones are not that much less effective weapons than hanjars and muzzle-loader rifles.

Almost immediately after the appearance of the telegraph and breech-loading weapons, you can see the first mass genocide of a religious minority in the Middle East. The expulsion of the Greeks was also accompanied by mass murder. Someone mentioned that the Greeks also expelled the Turks from Greece. I think it was only as a response, and of course there were many more Greeks in Asia Minor than Turks in present day Greece.

Since colonialism, Arab countries had mostly been ruled by at least somewhat pragmatic secular rulers, who didn’t want to engage in mass genocide of an educated segment of the population (unless they rebelled I guess, but Christians didn’t do that), but they have recently been toppled. (Of course, in many countries the secular rulers themselves hailed from and relied on minority groups themselves, as was the case in Jordan, Iraq, Syria, etc.) Still, there has been an inevitable move to ethno-religious homogeneity.

Not that Europe was that much better or more tolerant throughout its long and bloody history. I guess that’s just human nature: good communications (starting with the telegraph) and effective weapons (starting with modern breech-loaders) don’t go well with ethnic or religious diversity. Especially not with extremely low trust societies, like that of the Arabs. It’s probably somewhat better in Iran, though secularism might change the situation quickly, transforming them from a relatively homogeneous (90% Shiite Muslim) society to a much less homogeneous one (65% Persian). As far as I know, religious minorities have substantially decreased in Iran in recent decades anyway.

Some funny/interesting quotes from the article:

Reid McCarter arguing the game portrays an exclusionary view of Czech history “especially unsettling� given “the country’s reluctance to accept Muslim refugees and the rise of populist nationalism.�

I quite appreciate the fact that some random muttburger is more than willing to offer history lessons to the Czechs on their own country.

Czechs themselves seem to approve; while some American journalists want to quibble with the game’s historical accuracy, Masaryk University—the second largest in the Czech Republic—believes the game is realistic enough to be used in a history class.

Who knows better, Masaryk or random US shitlibs? We need a GamerGate sequel to purge the game journalism ranks completely.

The game does wink at modern themes, though not in the simplistic way Mr. McCarter suggests. The fate of refugees is important in the story. For example, when you find yourself in the city of Rattay, many of the former residents of your own village of Skalitz are in the streets, hands outstretched, begging for money.

You sympathize with your fellow villagers, even as the natives of Rattay complain about the crime, squalor, and begging of these unwanted guests. In a clever way of putting the player in a native’s position, one of your first jobs is to join Rattay’s security force. Suddenly, you begin to understand the natives, as you encounter beggars who squat outside businesses and won’t leave, lie about whether they have been given help, and try to recruit you to commit crimes.

Well played.

The game is a gift not just because it is an entertaining, but because it’s an invitation to explore our own history, including parts of which we may be ignorant. Unfortunately, it’s also a game that could not be made in America or Western Europe.

We owe Warhorse Studios a debt of gratitude for sharing with the world this part of our European story, in all its glory and sadness. Perhaps this is why so many journalists cum commissars wanted it to fail. Its success shows it is the critics who failed; many buyers seem deliberately to be defying the would-be censors.

If whites are free to choose, they take their own side, and will look for entertainment that speaks to their identity. Whites don’t need Wakanda; we had real legends. May we prove worthy of having our own stories remembered in the future.

This is the kind of games journalism we should see more of.

We know what caused the issues (wrong data in one of the levels) and hotfix is coming in a little while. Sorry for the problems. pic.twitter.com/i5U3KTbzPj— Daniel Vávra âš” (@DanielVavra) March 30, 2018

The game itself has been plagued by bugs and errors, which do not seem to be resolved quite yet. Folks are pointing this out in the latest Steam reviews as well. That is the only thing which keeps me from buying the game as of now.

Anyone wanting to buy the game should probably wait until the next Steam sale during the summer or maybe even the the winter. It was a rushed game and with some months of bug fixing, it should be much better.

This reads like a parody of something a college freshman who’s just taken their first course on post-colonialism would write. Religious minorities in the ME survived by allowing themselves to be heavily taxed and regularly publicly humiliated as a best case scenario during periods of relatively enlightened leadership. Otherwise large scale massacres and forced mass conversions were always a constant threat and are recorded as happening too many times to fit into a single book (and that’s just counting the ones that were significant enough to be written down). This was already a common and well-established pattern when most of today’s Western powers were still backwaters at the edge of the world.

The hostility to local Christian communities comes about because they’re the only available targets on which to vent frustration.

Then why do Islamists engage in vicious persecution of groups like Mandaeans and Yazidis which can hardly be considered as agents of Western imperialism, are completely powerless and have no links to foreign powers? Might it perhaps have something to do with Muslims’ deeply ingrained sense of superiority?
I’m opposed to Western interventions in the Islamic world since they have been indeed generally disastrous, but you’re engaging in the typical “people of color have no agency, everything is our fault” fallacy of all too many Westerners. It’s an arrogant delusion. The problems with Islam are intrinsic to the religion, and always have been.

But the fundamental reason just is that Muslims are viciously intolerant.

So how do you explain the fact that Christian communities survived for centuries under Islamic rule?

The vicious intolerance does not seem to be a fundamental feature of Islam. It’s a relatively new phenomenon. Partly it’s a response to a century of idiotic and vicious western meddling in the Middle East. Partly it’s a response to the (very real) threat of western liberalism. Partly it’s because Arab secular states keep getting invaded and trashed by the Americans and their vassals, which leaves a vacuum that gets filled by extremist Islam.

The hostility to local Christian communities comes about because they’re the only available targets on which to vent frustration. It’s also possible that many Muslims are still operating under the entirely erroneous assumption that the U.S. is a Christian country, hence increased hostility to Christianity.

Militant extremist Islam is something the West has managed to create.

but that doesn’t seem like a solution that will lead to lasting peace

Does Israel want lasting peace? Israel can only survive as long as it remains in a permanent state of semi-war with a permanent siege mentality. Without the alleged threat of war wouldn’t the Israeli liberals simply destroy Israel from within the way liberals have destroyed every western nation?

It’s a bit like anti-semitism. Jews love and need anti-semitism because it allows them to maintain their cultural identity. Israel needs permanent conflict with its neighbours to maintain its sense of national identity.

The worst possible nightmare for Israel would be lasting peace.

There’s an article at American Renaissance about that Kingdom Come: Deliverance game that is somewhat interesting (not least because of the links to the many bizarre pieces criticising it for lack of diversity):
https://www.amren.com/features/2018/03/the-racial-politics-of-kingdom-come-deliverance/

Also this:

As reported in the book, Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump and the Storming of the Presidency, Steve Bannon himself identified angry gamers as a key political force.

LOL

Ah, that makes more sense, thanks!

“total negative�.

I believe this refers to the total of negatives (some, a little, a lot) not “totally negative”.

Yeah, I’m surprised, too. I also imagined him to be older.

I was 6 years old when we joined the EU.

By the way, are you really only 20 years old? Color me impressed.

The underlying reason for the vicious hostility to Russia from the liberal-left and the fetishisation from the nationalist-right is the same, both understand Russia as fundamentally a rejection of the liberal order.

This is exactly right, and it’s also why the present hostility to Russia was always written in the stars. Georgia, Ukraine, Syria — these were all very real conflicts, with real interests at stake, but the true impulse for the New Cold War was internal to the West: the fear of rising illiberalism at home.

I find it difficult to believe that 72% of Germans have a view of Russia that is “total negative”. Sure, Russia isn’t trusted or liked much, but there’s no general perception of it as an immediate threat either among the general public as far as I can see, and quite a bit of sentiment that increased tensions with it aren’t in Germany’s national interests. But who knows, not a clear-cut issue either way imo.

So, it turns out that the Western anti-Russian coalition is increasingly becoming “Anglo� (to the extent one can call the US “Anglo� anymore).

That was always the case.
The “Anglo” countries among the G7 are the G7 countries with the worst relations with Russia.

Over time, a fully continental Europe would need to merge with Russia.

Continental Europe will be split between America and Africa, and China gets Russia.
Europeans ruled the World, now it is time for the World to rule Europe.