3 ms·

World War III became possible (2015)

20 points by acqbu 5y ago

firebaze 5y ago
We're dealing with a potential WW3 scenario, but our benign censors decided to flag this post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30481744 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30481744 Wtf went wrong with all of this.
- acqbu 5y ago
  not surprised. the amount of censorship on here is absolutely shocking
- georgia_peach 5y ago
  Opaque scoring systems as a means of population control. Your thoughts have been quantified as incorrect. Few ever stop to think about the possibility of UPDATE SET score = score - 10 WHERE title LIKE... Mix this with the theory of neuroplasticity, and this is probably how the world ends.
- guiambros 5y ago
  Yeah, it's really unfortunate someone flagged as dupe; it's definitely not the case. Related, for sure, but I think Prof. John Mearsheimer's video offers a deeper and richer context of what is happening in Ukraine, which complements Vox's "are we close to WW3 or not". (btw, doesn't HN has a "vouch" button for dupes, like on dead posts? Would be great to have an "undupe") Another interesting documentary is Oliver Stone's 2016 "Ukraine on Fire" [1]. Keep in mind that Oliver Stone has been criticized before for his views o US foreign policy, so the documentary may have some of his bias. Still, it helped me understand better the historical context of what's at stake in Ukraine, Putin's motivations, and what role Western countries played over the last few decades. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKcmNGvaDUs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKcmNGvaDUs
- detaro 5y ago
  The [dupe] marking happens because software thinks its a dupe. That seems wrong here, so contact the mods to fix it.
  - mtmail 5y ago
    If there's (1.) only one reply (2.) the reply contains a link to another thread and (3.) the post is flagged shortly after, it ends up as [dupe][dead]. (In a worse situation when the flag is removed, like other users clicking 'vouch', then the [dupe] is never removed adding more confusion).
- Jtsummers 5y ago
  Users flag, not the mods. Users can also vouch for flagged/dead posts (and comments). Which seems to have happened with this post. If something is also marked as [dupe] and you think it shouldn't be, you can reach out to the mods (there's a contact link at the bottom, above the search bar and with a slew of other links).
  - georgia_peach 5y ago
    Are you certain of this? Under a previous incarnation, I've had a heavily upvoted comment administratively grayed & sunk. I'm sure the admins here are also human.
    - Jtsummers 5y ago
      I probably should have clarified, the mods can flag. But there's only one publicly known mod, presently, and dang is one man. He's not everywhere, so if you're seeing flags on posts they're probably: 1) users or 2) automated (dupes and certain domains). Flags on comments are the same, though I'm not aware of automatic flagging of comments (aside from shadow banned users, and that is an admin decision, I'm not aware of automation based on comment content). Pointing at the mods when you see flagging has a high chance of being wrong (just by the numbers). And are you certain it was administrative? Did dang respond to your comment and say something? Or did it just quickly get downvoted?
      - georgia_peach 5y ago
        It wasn't flagged. The points were still highly in the positive. I only knew something happened because the points stopped skyrocketing abruptly. I looked at the same thread in an incognito tab, and my comment was strangely gray and at the bottom. This is a PR outlet for a startup incubator. If things like u/spez & u/maxwellhill can happen on reddit, they can happen here.
- rvz 5y ago
  > Wtf went wrong with all of this. No idea. It's a disaster on wheels and everyone knows it. It means that diplomacy and appeasement from the west had failed with Putin the moment that Afghanistan was invaded by the Taliban after that withdrawal disaster. It cemented the weakness the US has towards the whole world and they put themselves on a weak foot and enabled Putin to have a go on Ukraine. It turns out that as expected, Biden has created another war again rather than the orange man, who everyone thought was going to be the one to kickstart World War 3.
firebaze 5y ago
> Buzhinsky, when I met him in Moscow, had a warning for me. Those in the West who worried about the possibility of a major war breaking out in the Baltics were missing the real threat: Ukraine. The US, he feared, does not appreciate how far Russia is willing to go to avoid a defeat in Ukraine, and this miscalculation could pull them into conflict. Just one of many passages hitting the mark. Creepy.
Day1 5y ago
> ”One in three Russians now believe the US may invade.” That’s wild. But the more I think about it, the more plausible it is.
Jeema101 5y ago
The doctrine to use nuclear weapons in response to an overwhelming conventional attack isn't really anything that new. It originates from the early part of the Cold War when NATO had inferior conventional forces to the Red Army and were afraid they would be overrun quickly if the Soviets attacked [1]. Everything old is new again I suppose. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulda_Gap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulda_Gap "In response to the quantitative superiority of the Soviet forces, the U.S. deployed Atomic Demolition Mines for many years in the Fulda Gap. In the early '60s, the Fulda Gap was also protected by V Corps Artillery units equipped with the medium-range MGM-5 Corporal guided missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads."
FranksTV 5y ago
This is some needless scafemongering. American responses to a tactical nuclear weapon aren't just wipe out life on earth or roll over. As we are seeing there are political, economic, and social levers that can be pulled. Beyond that, the cyber domain is highly active. Both Russia and the US have advanced cyber capabilities -- look at Stuxnet. While I don't doubt that Putin is crazy enough to believe this nuclear deescalation strategy, I find it hard to imagine that somehow this writer at Vox has thought it through but it somehow escaped the notice of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

20 points by acqbu 5y ago

We're dealing with a potential WW3 scenario, but our benign censors decided to flag this post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30481744 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30481744 Wtf went wrong with all of this.

acqbu 5y ago
not surprised. the amount of censorship on here is absolutely shocking
georgia_peach 5y ago
Opaque scoring systems as a means of population control. Your thoughts have been quantified as incorrect. Few ever stop to think about the possibility of UPDATE SET score = score - 10 WHERE title LIKE... Mix this with the theory of neuroplasticity, and this is probably how the world ends.
guiambros 5y ago
Yeah, it's really unfortunate someone flagged as dupe; it's definitely not the case. Related, for sure, but I think Prof. John Mearsheimer's video offers a deeper and richer context of what is happening in Ukraine, which complements Vox's "are we close to WW3 or not". (btw, doesn't HN has a "vouch" button for dupes, like on dead posts? Would be great to have an "undupe") Another interesting documentary is Oliver Stone's 2016 "Ukraine on Fire" [1]. Keep in mind that Oliver Stone has been criticized before for his views o US foreign policy, so the documentary may have some of his bias. Still, it helped me understand better the historical context of what's at stake in Ukraine, Putin's motivations, and what role Western countries played over the last few decades. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKcmNGvaDUs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKcmNGvaDUs
detaro 5y ago
The [dupe] marking happens because software thinks its a dupe. That seems wrong here, so contact the mods to fix it.
- mtmail 5y ago
  If there's (1.) only one reply (2.) the reply contains a link to another thread and (3.) the post is flagged shortly after, it ends up as [dupe][dead]. (In a worse situation when the flag is removed, like other users clicking 'vouch', then the [dupe] is never removed adding more confusion).
Jtsummers 5y ago
Users flag, not the mods. Users can also vouch for flagged/dead posts (and comments). Which seems to have happened with this post. If something is also marked as [dupe] and you think it shouldn't be, you can reach out to the mods (there's a contact link at the bottom, above the search bar and with a slew of other links).
- georgia_peach 5y ago
  Are you certain of this? Under a previous incarnation, I've had a heavily upvoted comment administratively grayed & sunk. I'm sure the admins here are also human.
  - Jtsummers 5y ago
    I probably should have clarified, the mods can flag. But there's only one publicly known mod, presently, and dang is one man. He's not everywhere, so if you're seeing flags on posts they're probably: 1) users or 2) automated (dupes and certain domains). Flags on comments are the same, though I'm not aware of automatic flagging of comments (aside from shadow banned users, and that is an admin decision, I'm not aware of automation based on comment content). Pointing at the mods when you see flagging has a high chance of being wrong (just by the numbers). And are you certain it was administrative? Did dang respond to your comment and say something? Or did it just quickly get downvoted?
    - georgia_peach 5y ago
      It wasn't flagged. The points were still highly in the positive. I only knew something happened because the points stopped skyrocketing abruptly. I looked at the same thread in an incognito tab, and my comment was strangely gray and at the bottom. This is a PR outlet for a startup incubator. If things like u/spez & u/maxwellhill can happen on reddit, they can happen here.
rvz 5y ago
> Wtf went wrong with all of this. No idea. It's a disaster on wheels and everyone knows it. It means that diplomacy and appeasement from the west had failed with Putin the moment that Afghanistan was invaded by the Taliban after that withdrawal disaster. It cemented the weakness the US has towards the whole world and they put themselves on a weak foot and enabled Putin to have a go on Ukraine. It turns out that as expected, Biden has created another war again rather than the orange man, who everyone thought was going to be the one to kickstart World War 3.

firebaze 5y ago

> Buzhinsky, when I met him in Moscow, had a warning for me. Those in the West who worried about the possibility of a major war breaking out in the Baltics were missing the real threat: Ukraine. The US, he feared, does not appreciate how far Russia is willing to go to avoid a defeat in Ukraine, and this miscalculation could pull them into conflict. Just one of many passages hitting the mark. Creepy.

Day1 5y ago

> ”One in three Russians now believe the US may invade.” That’s wild. But the more I think about it, the more plausible it is.

Jeema101 5y ago

The doctrine to use nuclear weapons in response to an overwhelming conventional attack isn't really anything that new. It originates from the early part of the Cold War when NATO had inferior conventional forces to the Red Army and were afraid they would be overrun quickly if the Soviets attacked [1]. Everything old is new again I suppose. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulda_Gap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulda_Gap "In response to the quantitative superiority of the Soviet forces, the U.S. deployed Atomic Demolition Mines for many years in the Fulda Gap. In the early '60s, the Fulda Gap was also protected by V Corps Artillery units equipped with the medium-range MGM-5 Corporal guided missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads."

FranksTV 5y ago

This is some needless scafemongering. American responses to a tactical nuclear weapon aren't just wipe out life on earth or roll over. As we are seeing there are political, economic, and social levers that can be pulled. Beyond that, the cyber domain is highly active. Both Russia and the US have advanced cyber capabilities -- look at Stuxnet. While I don't doubt that Putin is crazy enough to believe this nuclear deescalation strategy, I find it hard to imagine that somehow this writer at Vox has thought it through but it somehow escaped the notice of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.