The rise of populist right stems from genuine frustrations on ruling elites and politicians. Russia isn’t the cause, they only stoked the fire. And even if Russia collapses, the Pandora’s box is already opened. The only way for the far right movements to be tempered is for politicians to actually do their jobs as sworn public servants.

Yes, but that is one battle out of many more to come in a war. The AfD has to be decisively defeated and must stamped out for good, and destroy the source of sustenance for its hydra body to prevent another rise of fascism.

The Labour under Starmer is closet Tory. I wish that the popular Manchester Labour mayor (whose name I forgot) takes his place as PM, which actual leftist politicians try to make him to be. Although this will be a Sysiphean task under the ruthless politicking in British politics and Labour Party’s own strict rule on who could become PM.

Politicians: That’s the point.

Joking aside, now that I think about it, what difference does does it make if companies are stealing infos and spying on you with government mandated age verification checks, and hackers stealing your government mandated age verification info? This just reinforces my view that governments (and companies) are nothing but glorified gangsters.

And these 1/3 are perfect horde for fascist brainwashing and consolidate the power of techno-fascists. The fascists will tell the jobless that immigrants took their jobs and not robots.

Imagine his reaction when he comes back.

Also, this should be posted on “Not the onion” and not for anywhere else!

Lol, did you learn military strategy and tactics from videogames? Do you think you could end any wars quickly? Look here folks! We got someone better than the Ukrainian and all Allied generals combined. It is though as if you are playing against an AI and could finish a fight in one hour! Tell NATO and Putin about this random internet stranger!

Why are you defining Ukraine’s performance over on one battle? That’s like saying the Allies lost World War 2 because they lost the Battle of France, Singapore and Manila. You are conveniently forgetting the 2022 Kharkiv counteroffensive, the destruction of Russian Black Sea fleet and the ongoing drone campaigns. Those are good planning. The main reason the Ukrainian 2023 offensive flopped was because of intelligence leak and the Russians knew of the plan and had time to dig in. The best comparison to this is the WWII Battle of Kursk and when Rommel attacked first before the British does, because they knew what’s coming thanks of intelligence leaks.

How do you know basic facts? Lol that was the intention of Maginot line!

Fascism is the natural end stage of capitalism. Plenty of businesses that have no core connection and competency with the military are embedding themselves into the military. For now, most of the US top brass loathe the Trump administration, but eventually they will be replaced by loyalists. We might get a real life Enclave if something isn’t done to rid the fascists.

They famously were not prepared which lead to France collapsing as Germany outflanked the Maginot Line for the second time in two World Wars.

The Maginot Line did work as intended. The Germans did go around as intended after all. The Allies just didn’t expect the German’ main blow through the Ardennes.

Ukraine wasn’t prepared. Russia was barely prepared.

Ukraine knew what was coming after the intelligence reports started coming of possible Russian attack. They’ve been at proxy war with Russia after all for eight years before the full scale invasion.

The Russians weren’t even prepared at all. You’re conveniently forgetting that Russian troops were told they were going on a military exercise but surprised to find they are in Ukraine. They were also given outdated maps. They quickly rushed through Ukraine without their supply lines being protected. Meanwhile, Ukraine know how to protect their supply lines.

They didn’t need six months to mobilize.

Roosevelt and Churchill knew they will come to blows with the Axis sooner or later. Roosevelt made a speech about the US being arsenal of democracy long before US entered the war.

This war is Pyrrich for both countries. The only winners are the arms dealers.

They just needed an excuse to ramp up military spending in a recession.

Gradually showing the true colours, are we? Invoking the usual “only the arms manufacturers benefit” to try to smear a justified self-defense that Kremlin push.

Even at the late stage of the war, American spies and diplomats were eager to make peace with Berlin and pivot the Nazis back Eastward. The only thing that saved Hitler from the DC anti-Communist rubber chicken speaking circuit was Russian tanks beating Americans to the capital.

Do you have a source? Or is this voodoo historical distortionism? The Nazis tried to make overtures to the West many times in their self-delusion that the Allies will be convinced to fight the Soviets (which was the Nazi belief from the start of the war), but the Allies refused many times. You are forgetting the Allied and Soviet meetings throughout the war discussing war plans and their vision of post-war world. The Allies can’t reneg on the deal and so are the Soviets. So, it doesn’t make sense for the Allies to capture Berlin, since Berlin was agreed upon to be under Soviet influence after the war, and it’s a waste of time and needless deaths for the Allies.

The US was half in bed with the Germans

US ships were already in skirmish with German u-boats for well over a year before Pearl Harbor.

Oh the right, useful idiots for Kremlin.

The idea that Ukraine is some kind of model of efficiency is just war propaganda. The Spring Offensive of 2023 was a trainwreck.

Oh, and Russia is better? Is that why they are stuck in Ukraine for two years now with the frontlines barely budging at the cost of something like 900,000 Russian casualties? The 2022 Kharkiv counter offensive liberated 200 km2 in just three months? The Black Sea fleet essentially nonexistent? Russia can’t defend itself from deep drone incursions for a country supposedly more powerful? I don’t know what your agenda is, but the results speak for itself. Like I said, it doesn’t matter if the person wields a bigger stick if he can’t use it well and keeps missing. The Ukrainian spring offensive failed in 2023 but the Ukrainians learned; the Russians didn’t.

Similarly, the mythology of British/American logistical accumen is wildly overinflated.

They are better. The Allies have prepared for a war with Germany. The US alone have been able to mobilise its factories for war production and enlist 600,000 men (if I remember the figures correctly) in just six months after Pearl Harbor, unlike in WWI which took them a better part of one year to do so. The country already produced and sent hundreds of Liberty ships to supply UK and USSR. Germany, on the other hand, by admission of German generals after the war, stated they only had enough men and supplies to last them less than a year at the start of the war, if they don’t defeat the West quickly. Because Hitler did not expect the Allies to declare war on him after invading Poland. Germany was actually on the brink of bankruptcy just before they invaded Poland.

On the Asia Pacific front, Japan also didn’t inform Germany of the plan to bomb Pearl Harbor. Couple of days later, Germany declared war on US unnecessarily. So yes, tell me how efficient this is.

Except this is accurate on all fronts. Compare that to the Axis, who barely coordinated. Hell, Mussolini didn’t even tell Hitler he was going to invade Greece. When that didn’t work out, Hitler had to bail him out. That pushed the German invasion of the Soviet Union by one or two months. Who knows, maybe those two months could have allowed Germany to arrive in Moscow earlier and avoid the freezing winter, and history as we know it may have turned differently. Don’t even get me started the wastefulness of the Holocaust (the brain drain and potential manpower wasted), which Mussolini himself stated long before that the Nazi’s racial obsession is wasteful. This is why I want to smash the myth of efficiency of Nazi war machine, because they never were.

Also read up on Truman committee, who monitored corruption and wastefulness during the war period. They saved about $15 billion.

Ukraine is what the Allies have been in World War 2-- a really fucking competent leadership. It doesn’t matter if the opponent has a bigger stick if he’s too stupid to use it and keep missing the swings. That’s what Russia is. So much for “corrupt Ukraine”. No country is void of corruption, but if Ukraine is as corrupt as Russian propaganda insists they are, they wouldn’t have been able to survive this long and embarrass Russia. Speaking of which, it’s funny I don’t see much Russian bots try to smear Ukraine anymore (maybe Putin is instead focusing on propagandising the Russians). Since Kursk and the deep drone strike campaigns in Russia, it is clear that Russia is losing the propaganda war.

Maybe Ukraine couldn’t retake the areas occupied by Russia, but they could deliver a Pyrrhic blow to Kremlin. Russian international prestige already diminished as soon as they invaded.

It’s understandable from law enforcement perspective that it’s important to snoop on actual criminal communications. The EU has pretty reasonable measures and good at cracking down on continental-wide criminal activities. However, can we trust authorities that they won’t over reach with the chat control and violate privacy and freedom of speech? Like, come on, nothing good ever came from spying on communications. Catching criminals and/or terrorists is a convenient excuse to spy on dissidents.

We’ve seen it happen in America with the PATRIOT Act. People dismissed the opposition to it with “nothing to hide” thought terminating cliche, or accuse you of pedophile or terrorist for not wanting spying on communications. Then twenty years later, Americans have a fascist government who allowed a corporate asshole to steal information from the federal government. And those information will be used for surveillance capitalism. The same will happen to us in the EU if we don’t push back hard on this Orwellian desires of politicians.

Haha! Do it if the EU does not give up on their Orwellian control!

Wait, I’m in the EU and I use Signal!

funded by Russia btw

This constant propaganda around the world is so depressing and not because its there but because truth is right next to it and nobody’s looking.

That much is obvious. Japan only has miniscule amount of foreigners compared to other countries but somehow managed to also have been stoken up with anti-foreign sentiment. It’s all the dark money flowing into social media algorithms brainwashing people. And the truth is that data is the new gold. Personal information is not only commodified but also weaponised. However, as you said, the truth is next to it but nobody is looking.

I was watching about singledom and loneliness in Japan, it seems like Okinawa is a world apart from the mainland because family ties and community is still strong in Okinawa. Well, fair enough that Okinawa is still culturally distinct in many ways than the mainland because of history, although it’s nice to hear some parts of Japan still have strong community and family values in a good way.

NGL, I didn’t realise it’s an actual Dolphin icon on the folder until I saw this post. I always have the Dolphin pinned on my taskbar but it’s teeny tiny so I couldn’t make out the symbol.

Defo. All this privacy invading measures are to gather data. Data is the new oil.