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The west has this weird idea that destroying its living standards is the way to support Ukraine and combat Russia. My guess: won't happen. Russia won't change i
by oxff 5y ago
The west has this weird idea that destroying its living standards is the way to support Ukraine and combat Russia. My guess: won't happen. Russia won't change its course, but I will be paying 5e per liter of gas in september, all in name of some "democracy, freedom" in Ukraine. Supremely delusional state of affairs.
- epistasis 5y agoThis isn't just about Russia and Ukraine, it's also about China and Taiwan and Russia and what Russian imperialists call the "little russias." Greater instability has far greater risks to your pocket book than some short term concern of tiny rises in fossil fuel costs.
- thriftwy 5y ago"Little russia" is not a condescending term, it's more like "asia minor", or "new york city" vs. "greater new york area".
- agapon 5y agoAccording to whom? I am a Ukrainian in Ukraine. Not Little Russian in Little Russia.
- epistasis 5y agoI've only encountered it through two lenses: 1) non-Russian people taking offense to their land being called a "little Russia", and 2) imperialists in Russia using it to encourage invading other countries. It might be used by some who don't consider it condescending, but many of those on the receiving end do consider it an insult. So, issuing a blanket "not condescending" can not be considered correct
- runeks 5y agoNo, the idea is that destroying the living standards of Russians will achieve peace — which is also highly questionable.
- mobilewatch7 5y agoNo the idea is to impair the Russian war machine and also to make credible the threat of sanctions to deter other future aggressor states
- simion314 5y ago>all in name of some "democracy, freedom" in Ukraine. Sorry, but this is not some internal war between 2 political factions where some other big power intervenes to help their preferred faction. It is an actual freedom war where many people are killed, many others are forced to leave their country and if Putin wins it will not stop there, he will continue. If you are from US I understand why you might be frustrated with wars already though, but the alternative of doing nothing is worse, is like we pay tribute to Putin and hope is enough and he won't invade half of Europe.
- MaxHoppersGhost 5y agoOr U.S. politicians could actually support the U.S. domestic oil and gas industry and the free world could have all we need. Instead we’re making the Saudis rich.
- hunterb123 5y agoThis is the answer.
- antupis 5y agoOr start investing decarbonization, power2x, green and nuclear energy.
- hunterb123 5y agoWhy not both?
- shrimpx 5y agoBoth, but burning fossil fuels is a holdover, not a long term strategy.
- randomopining 5y agoWhat’s delusional? You support Russia taking Ukraine by force? Or you don’t care?
- JumpCrisscross 5y ago> destroying its living standards is the way to support Ukraine and combat Russia It’s about degrading a volatile enemy. Shrinking Russia’s economy degrades its war machine. (The claim that impoverished Russians will revolt is crap. Starving, broken people don’t lead rebellions.) If we had literally any better solution, we should take it. But we don’t. So we hope Russia weakens enough that it can’t invade Latvia while encouraging it to become a vassal of China’s.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- sdenton4 5y agoHistorically, food shortages are one of the surest routes to rebellion. Perhaps the people leading the rebellions aren't starving, but starvation is a real motivation to enlist. That said, it seems unlikely that the sanctions will lead to starvation; the possibility of a Russian revolt or coup seems insane. (At least until it happens, and then it will be obvious.)
- baud147258 5y agoprobability of a revolt (of the people) seems so far unlikely, but a coup led by military/government elites with support from oligarchs is a possibility
- chupasaurus 5y agoThe last revolution in Russia started because of the war and starvation...
- CorrectHorseBat 5y ago>The claim that impoverished Russians will revolt is crap. Starving, broken people don’t lead rebellions. Rich people losing money lead them, starving people join them.
- throwaway290 5y ago
- russnes 5y agoIt's not only that, it's also reducing our dependence on an untrustworthy counter party
- brnt 5y agoDegrading living standards? That's an overly dramatic way of saying gas prices went up. The problem here is OPEC, not the war. There is plenty of gas and fuel to go around.
- trabant00 5y agoThankfully a commenter on HN has discovered a novel way to wage war that doesn't affect the economy. Please do share, you are about to revolutionize conflicts for the fist time in thousands of years.
- decremental 5y agoTotally agreed. We're getting roped into a bullshit war that we have no reason to care about, by people who don't care one little bit about how it affects us. The grossest part is watching these quislings on the internet who have bought into the propaganda try to tell us we're the crazy ones for not going along with this whole scheme.
- radicalbyte 5y agoThis always happens with Fossil fuels - they're controlled by a cartel, who - especially with the energy transition - have a vested interest in increasing the expense. The solution is clearly to be building out a massive amount of renewable electricity whilst electrifying transport. So in 10 years time politics in the US will not be driven by the whims of Saudi Arabia, Russia or some nut-job oil Barons in Southern states.
- benhurmarcel 5y ago> but I will be paying 5e per liter of gas in september At least it would do something to help reduce climate change.