Spzi

Them not being involved in the peace talks underlines again how indispensable nuclear weapons are, sadly.

The DSA playing hopscotch with whose ally they are underlines how worthless a shared nuclear umbrella can be.

So a grim lesson for Ukraine, Europe, Taiwan and pretty much any country with any border tensions, or anything another aspiring imperialist might find desireable: Get nukes, own them yourselfes, or risk being thrown aside or being steamrolled. Trump undoing decades of existential anti-proliferation work in mere days.

Finally Ukraine is getting the help they need!

This might actually be the silver lining of it all.

There has been an uncomfortable disparity between words of support and actual support. I heard many times that the ultimate goal the Pentagon wants to achieve is Russia not losing the war. Out of (comprehensible) fear a falling dictator might throw a last Tantrum235. Germany has also been firmly sitting on the brakes from the start. Remember 5000 helmets? And the (for some Ukrainians literally) gut-tearing discussions at each and every step, wether this is Putins red line, or that is Putins red line, wether this or that might escalate the war, all while Putin escalates the war.

Now that the DSA have kissed themselves goodbye, Europe seems to finally realize what's at stake and oops they can do something about it. So there is hope Germany might get it's fat ass off the track. There is even talk about Germany taking a leadership role, though given the context, this must be dark humour. Gotta love that.

Fingers crossed Europe unites in action and Ukraine is getting the help they need! Doing otherwise would send a strong signal to the new Imperialists in east and west that you can pick and chew at our borders, be it the Baltics or Greenland.

Why would anybody expect a genocidal empire to stop another genocidal empire? They’re the same thing.

Nations don't cooperate/conflict over how many similarities they have (although that makes things easier), but over how much their interests are aligned. It is well possible for two genocidal empires to oppose as adversaries, e.g. Nazi Germany and Soviet Union, the latter being proud of stopping the former.

Another example, colonizing empires fighting over their colonies. Neither did so to free the colony of the oppressor, but to become/remain that oppressor. You can imagine these empires as much the same as you like, they can still have conflicting interests (as in who rules the colony, not wether anyone should) resulting in fights up to World Wars.

Ukraine should have allied with palestinians, the global south, and other people resisting invasion and colonization by empire(s).

How would that have helped them, apart from moral feelings? How many tanks, artillery systems, intel or even humanitarian aid would that have provided? Aren't the proposed countries more receivers of such things than donors?

It's bitter, but let's make lemonade. Embrace it as the fuel to drive whatever actions seem necessary and possible to you.

Take care of that light which lets you see how hate is no good, although, maybe you can yield it as a shield to brace the storm head on.

We could get philosophical about who that 'you' or 'your soul' is, which feels like being destroyed, and wether it really is. On one hand, this entity will still remain. Though not unchanged. But isn't that a good thing? I prefer being capable of feeling pain, as it sometimes just plainly is a totally appropriate reaction or sensation. I know that feeling of breaking, but on the other hand, if I could not feel that anymore, I surely was already broken. Dull and unmoved. So in a paradoxical sense, it is an affirmation that you are fine, a fine person.

The Iraq embargo, for instance, gave rise to Al Qaeda and the eventual destruction of the World Trade Towers.

This is a racist narrative that relies on the assumption that Arabs have no control over themselves and “they’re all the same”.

Nah. Even if we assume (which we do) that Arabs, like any other group of people, aren't all the same, and that they do have (partial) control over themselves, like anyone else ... the decisions and fates of a sufficiently large number of them can still be influenced by a sufficiently large external influence, such as revoked access to international trade. Sometimes in chaotic ways. Heck, if billboard ads work in influencing people, it seems difficult to believe more intrusive changes to people's lifes would have no effect.

Since the article already mentions it, for example Germany between the WWs. The height of reparations was helpful for nationalistic and ultimately again militaristic groups in Germany to gain power. Not as an automatism, not as a justification, simply recognizing a statistical causality. Peace isn't equal peace. What's a foul peace worth? We need conditions which support a stable and peaceful coexistence, not plant the seeds for the next war.

Did you leave it intentionally vague wether you were talking about P or T? I kind of find it nice how it fits both, how similar they are.

A browser of systems. Similar to the expansion planner.

It would be nice to see at a glance which system produces how much minerals/etc., both in potential and realized yield (stations built or not yet). When searching for the best systems for habitats (to get lots of whatever type of district I currently need most), it's quite a pain to manually hover over each system from map view, and mentally keep track of what the current best was and where that was again.

Perfectionist/Meticulous. Anomalies can lead to all sorts of great things to happen. Mostly it makes your systems more valuable, also for habitats. And getting more of these dopabing moments feels inherently nice. Stellaris, my slot machine.

In just over three weeks, Donald Trump has been able to redefine the United States’ position in the world from a global power to an international outcast.

As a European I’m all for it. Fuck up your own country for once and leave the rest alone. Nobody needs the corrupt self-declared policeman of the world

The Schadenfreude resonates with me, but that power vacuum scares me more. All kinds of potentially violent forces, who have been constrained by US hegemony, will test what the new limits are in the coming years.

At least, a corrupt policeman still has to play and pretend, which somewhat aligns her with the designated role. The Mafia, on the other hand ...

What I mean to say is, you cannot step down from that position "and leave the rest alone". It causes ripples across the world.

fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me

By repetition, trust has been eroded beyond elections. For security or even trade partners, it's bad to be erratic, violent and self-harming.

The American peoples have been played and fooled, much like it happened in GB. Hyped by fairytales of economic and nationalistic wonders, by stories of sovereignty appealing to the imperialistic dim-witted, in the misunderstood attempt to make their country "great again", they flushed it down the toilet, cheeringly.

Apparently, both forgot how much of their power came from being central parts of powerful networks. Isolating yourself, alienating everyone else surely makes you lose these privileges quickly, makes you lose influence on so many scales. Wether these losses can be compensated by any means remains to be seen, I'm doubtful.

And as much as I enjoy seeing imperialist nations falling apart, the power vacuum they create seems to invite even more imperialism. Like they say, even more dangerous than an evil person is a stupid person, because the latter is unhinged. You never know how much they will fuck up next time, and you cannot even trust them being restricted by self-preservation or "common sense".

I guess if it can happen to two nations from the West (and not just any two), it can potentially happen to any and all. They sure try.

And I might consider visiting that state! It seems so nice, but being part of that country ...

Weigh on Earth or on Moon?