• absentbird@lemmy.world
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    22 hours ago

    You’re making excuses for a genocide, do you really not understand why that could make people upset?

    Hopefully your powers of comprehension are more suited to discussions of history, let’s get into it:

    Ukraine split from Russia in the 90s with a referendum, over 90% voted for independence. Russia has wanted to regain control over Ukraine ever since. In 2014 Russia invaded and annexed Ukraine’s sovereign territory. In 2022 it escalated into full scale war, with Russia attempting to take the entire country.

    Ukraine is a distinct nation with its own language and culture. The people have the right to self determination, they are a sovereign nation. Fostering closer ties to the EU is their perogative as a free people, to call it provocation is to deny their essential freedom. Expanding borders through conquest is military expansion, plain and simple.

    • LinguisticKerosene@lemmy.wtf
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      22 hours ago

      What can I tell you, this lesson here (mind you from the university of Chicago) is pretty compelling no? Video

      why there is never nuance with this topic? Again the US is responsible for numerous war crimes for decades, it’s not crazy to think they did it on purpose.

      If we make a deal, you break it and i get mad, you can’t tell me “oh wo wo what are you so mad?”, pretend nothing happened and call me crazy.

      • absentbird@lemmy.world
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        22 hours ago

        Don’t pretend like Mearsheimer is some sort of objective observer, he’s a fountain of wacky convictions. It’s also wild to use ‘get mad’ as a euphemism for military conquest and genocide.

        Can we at least agree to call a spade a spade? Russia annexing Ukraine by force is military expansion. If we can put that to bed then the only issue in contention is determining if it was unprovoked or not. If we can’t agree on such a plainly obvious fact then I have misgivings we can come to an understanding at all.

        • LinguisticKerosene@lemmy.wtf
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          22 hours ago

          Nah comon bro, dont attack the source. Let’s work on the argument. We live in a post-truth world, everyone can be discredited.

          Can we at least agree to call a spade a spade? Russia annexing Ukraine by force is military expansion.

          Yes, but I don’t really believe Russia’s goal is to expand. I agree with the professor that Russia doesn’t have the power (but also willingness) to expand and successfully maintain a “European russian colony”.

          The way I see it is: Nato e Russia decided to not expand anywhere after the cold war. However NATO broke this pact and started expanding east (when they signed the agreement there NATO and Russia were geographically very far apart). We didn’t give signs of slowing down or admitting we broke a peaceful pact, we actually accelerated and promoted “red scare” propaganda tactics to discredit Russia.

          So I can clearly see Putin say: “If you only understand war then I can also use your language”.

          You should read about the Orange revolution, where NATO, US and EU fabricated news and speculations about fraud and changed the election.

          I just wish there was a bit more honesty with ourselves and the world. As a european, if we really want to point fingers to other people’s faults and mistakes, we should first look inside and in our past, without justifying ourselves.