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I'm not saying you are wrong but why stop here? Why are the ruling guys stupid? Why do stupid guys get to rule? I also am not sure stupidity is binary or all e

I'm not saying you are wrong but why stop here? Why are the ruling guys stupid? Why do stupid guys get to rule? I also am not sure stupidity is binary or all encompassing. I think they must be doing something right to be rulers to a country. Why do russian citizen take it? Maybe that's where stupid is the final answer, but maybe not. As for international relations, I am more and more coming to the conclusion that everyone tries to project their own logic to others and being mostly wrong about it. russia does not work according to the logic that France and Germany want to project onto it. China does not work according to the logic US and Germany want to project onto it. US and EU don't work according to the logic China and russia want to project onto it. Ukraine does not work like EU, US and muscovy project their logic onto it. etc etc etc

qikInNdOutReply 4y ago
This seems to be a weakspot of alot of ideological groups in the west(left/right) but also in the east(ccp), the assumption that one can just "sing" a version of reality into beeing by loudness. What is usually archieved is a placation act, by which the lower status parties involved pretends to kotau, but then gets on with its own life in its own style, with the calmed priesthood. Its a very strange state of affairs. For objective, measurable scientific reality to be experienced, this process is completely orthogonal. Its better to know what is, even if unpleasant or stressfull, then only to find out at the breaking point?
- krapp 4y ago
  If you have the power to force people to pretend a lie is the truth and behave accordingly, it doesn't matter if they accept it. A few weeks ago, millions of Americans believed their government was at war with alien spacecraft, or an invasion of Chinese balloons. That was reality. Now that reality has been flipped off like a light switch, and a new reality turned on. As Karl Rove once said "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too." People don't experience objective, measurable scientific reality, they experience a subjective hyperreality as the sum of signals from corporate media, pop culture and disinformation agents (including their own media and government.) This is what the whole "post truth" theory is about - not that objective reality can be manufactured, but that power comes from manipulating the perception of reality. And eventually, many people will believe it. Humans are not rational beings that consider truth by the most mathematically precise and logically sound methods available, we are emotional beings driven by the need to square the circles of our lives by any means necessary. That's how propaganda and great lies work. It's how innocent people can enter an interrogation and come out convinced of the narrative of their guilt, to the point of having fabricated memories of it.
sidlls 4y ago
Russia has a nearly unbroken 150-200 year history of tyrannical government (sometimes in just the classical sense of power vested in a single individual, but often in the more modern sense where oppression is added to that). Sometimes there have been rebellions, but always the end result is the same in Russia: power resides in a single individual. Most other countries, east, west, and other, put up more resistance to the kinds of power structures Russia historically has had. It's not projecting to postulate that maybe, just maybe, Russians (in aggregate, individual exceptions likely exist) are just okay with that.
- medo-bear 4y ago
  > It's not projecting to postulate that maybe, just maybe, Russians (in aggregate, individual exceptions likely exist) are just okay with that. just like germans were ok with nazis; italians, spanish, portuguese, with fascists; americans, brits, dutch, french, with slave owners i mean honnestly, is russia worst than the nato country turkey? not to mention the faithful western ally saudi arabia? is donbas really that different from kosovo? who are we kidding with this virtue hypocricy i fear that by the time people in large become sober about this hypocricy it will be too late and world will only become more polarized
  - jnsaff2 4y ago
    https://snyder.substack.com/p/playing-the-victim https://snyder.substack.com/p/playing-the-victim
    - medo-bear 4y ago
      how fitting as a response to what i just wrote to post a link to an anglo saxon lecturing slavs about their history and what "rusophobia" really means but maybe Snyder is right. maybe all these rusophobic, racist statements are made by russian state agents maskarading as hn readers to show russians that their imperial war against ukraine is justified and then again. shame on russia. US or UK never played the victim when pursuing their imperial ambissions

qikInNdOutReply 4y ago

This seems to be a weakspot of alot of ideological groups in the west(left/right) but also in the east(ccp), the assumption that one can just "sing" a version of reality into beeing by loudness. What is usually archieved is a placation act, by which the lower status parties involved pretends to kotau, but then gets on with its own life in its own style, with the calmed priesthood. Its a very strange state of affairs. For objective, measurable scientific reality to be experienced, this process is completely orthogonal. Its better to know what is, even if unpleasant or stressfull, then only to find out at the breaking point?

krapp 4y ago
If you have the power to force people to pretend a lie is the truth and behave accordingly, it doesn't matter if they accept it. A few weeks ago, millions of Americans believed their government was at war with alien spacecraft, or an invasion of Chinese balloons. That was reality. Now that reality has been flipped off like a light switch, and a new reality turned on. As Karl Rove once said "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too." People don't experience objective, measurable scientific reality, they experience a subjective hyperreality as the sum of signals from corporate media, pop culture and disinformation agents (including their own media and government.) This is what the whole "post truth" theory is about - not that objective reality can be manufactured, but that power comes from manipulating the perception of reality. And eventually, many people will believe it. Humans are not rational beings that consider truth by the most mathematically precise and logically sound methods available, we are emotional beings driven by the need to square the circles of our lives by any means necessary. That's how propaganda and great lies work. It's how innocent people can enter an interrogation and come out convinced of the narrative of their guilt, to the point of having fabricated memories of it.

sidlls 4y ago

Russia has a nearly unbroken 150-200 year history of tyrannical government (sometimes in just the classical sense of power vested in a single individual, but often in the more modern sense where oppression is added to that). Sometimes there have been rebellions, but always the end result is the same in Russia: power resides in a single individual. Most other countries, east, west, and other, put up more resistance to the kinds of power structures Russia historically has had. It's not projecting to postulate that maybe, just maybe, Russians (in aggregate, individual exceptions likely exist) are just okay with that.

medo-bear 4y ago
> It's not projecting to postulate that maybe, just maybe, Russians (in aggregate, individual exceptions likely exist) are just okay with that. just like germans were ok with nazis; italians, spanish, portuguese, with fascists; americans, brits, dutch, french, with slave owners i mean honnestly, is russia worst than the nato country turkey? not to mention the faithful western ally saudi arabia? is donbas really that different from kosovo? who are we kidding with this virtue hypocricy i fear that by the time people in large become sober about this hypocricy it will be too late and world will only become more polarized
- jnsaff2 4y ago
  https://snyder.substack.com/p/playing-the-victim https://snyder.substack.com/p/playing-the-victim
  - medo-bear 4y ago
    how fitting as a response to what i just wrote to post a link to an anglo saxon lecturing slavs about their history and what "rusophobia" really means but maybe Snyder is right. maybe all these rusophobic, racist statements are made by russian state agents maskarading as hn readers to show russians that their imperial war against ukraine is justified and then again. shame on russia. US or UK never played the victim when pursuing their imperial ambissions