I don’t get why it is relevant. Energy is cheap and abundant today almkst everywhere that isn’t sanctioned or a warzone.

Sorry but the German people and not Schroder were the ones who chose anti-nuclear. And the reliance on Russian gas may have backfired, but at the time it enabled perhaps the most efficient economy Europe had ever known.

My argument is and continues to be that the Ukrainian government is more accountable to it’s population than the Russian government. Therefore the Ukrainian government must value the opinions of the Ukrainian population more than the Russian government values the opinions of the Russian population.

And I, once again, have explained why this doesn’t matter because the draft has nothing to do with democratic input. You refuse to address this.

You’re argument about Syria is a red herring fallacy.

Your*

And no it isn’t.

I’ve been arguing that the more authoritarian a government, the less accountable the government to their population.

Do you know what MARTIAL LAW means? What the hell are you even talking about? Take a step back - you are arguing that Ukrainian draft officers are having to beat and kidnap men to send to the front line because Ukraine is more accountable to its people. I am arguing that it is necause they have a manpower shortage. You are ridiculous.

You’re asking questions we have answers to and you seem to have totally missed some key facts.

Ukraine is under martial law and has been since the invasion. There are no elections, they’ve been cancelled due to the needs of the state. There is no concern of the government being replaced.

Ukraine isn’t a proper democracy but a “hybrid”, e.g an oligarchy anyways. The popularity or unpopularity of policies doesn’t translate into political outcomes so easily or transparently.

But your argument about authiritarian regimes is faulty. We just saw the complete opposite of that in Syria. Authoritarian regimes do not necessarily command loyalty and they also live in constant fear of popular unrest or dissatisfaction. In fact, there are many analysts who point to Putin’s current domestic policy choices as desparate attempts to placate the Russians that have lost something due to the war.

I’d prefer you respond to my arguments instead of rehashing what’s already been discussed. Or we could just stop here.

And I was disagreeing with you on that point, so I don’t know why you challenged me on the very first point you made, which I agreed with.

I don’t agree that the democracy index is really a quantifiable measure as it has several arbitrary criteria, but you could just assert that Ukraine is more democratic than Russia anyways, which is a matter of common sense.

Your argument that “democratic accountability” has something to do with it doesn’t make any sense and doesn’t follow. Ukraine has a draft. Drafts are drafts, there is no “democratic” objection to being drafted for war. Russia also drafts men as needed and the process looks quite similar sometimes, but in Ukraine it has become a severe social phenomenon.

This is how it went:

You said Ukraine values its manpower more than Russia.

I agreed with you, and added that it is because they have less manpower.

You then brought up some democracy index like that was relevant to the topic.

I inferred from this that you were explaining that you believe they value manpower more due to their hybrid regime versus Russia’s authoritarian regime and disagreed with you on that cause.

You called my inferrence a “strawman” and then asked for evidence against your first claim, that I agreed with.

Please read more carefully.

In an alternative universe where Europe isn’t US-dependent, they may be sanctioning the US for racialized prison labor because their tech companies can’t compete.

The Uyghur forced labor laws the US has put the onus on firms to prove a negative, that their dealings in China are essentially unconnected to any enterprise that has Uyghur workers because the US has a blanket accusation of “slave labor” when it comes to basically all industry in Xinjiang. The US also does not think Uyghur labor is a significant factor in China’s competitiveness becausd guess what, there are 1 billion+ non-Uyghurs responsible for that.

“Hybrid regime” is just a fancy name for oligarchy, and the argument that Ukrainian state cherishes the lives of its military aged men is a bit silly. Democratic states and authoritarian states are equally as capable of using human lives as currency when they view a war as existential. They weigh that against demographic and economic concerns. That’s all.

Only because they have fewer men. Have you seen the draft gangpress measures? People are being sent to be cannon fodder, under-equipped and underprepared.

Very funny how the article keeps mentioning “spyware vendors” generally when it’s basically just the Israeli ones involved.

Could you explain what you mean?

Again, I have no clue what you’re talking about. I’m not going to live in a hut in the woods and neither are you.

Do you think you’re being insightful or something? That’s not even true, states sometimes compel and coerce firms for that information even when it may harm the profit incentive through reputational damage.

Almost like it has less to do with security and more to do with securitization of economic competition.

I have no clue why you’re posting an X user called “Syrian girl” next to an image of a guy who was reacting to civilians burning to death in a tent in front of him.

Planned obsolescence isn’t even in my top 10. The worst things about Big Tech are existential, like its use for mass espionage and murder by evil regimes.

I can think of a lot of other uses. ChatGPT is miraculously good at Arabic to English translation, where every other service before it has been relatively shit.

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