4 ms·
The problem is we were being very stupid about fascist regimes for a very long time in the West - the peace dividend of the end of the Cold War was treated as p
by XorNot 3y ago
The problem is we were being very stupid about fascist regimes for a very long time in the West - the peace dividend of the end of the Cold War was treated as permanent even as we watched states like Russia and China become more and more authoritarian again.
Basically the belief that "economic ties would supercede ideology or meglomania". I suspect if Europe had taken a stronger line on Russia and the strategic threat it represented, then they'd have a stronger launch market since "we'll just buy a Russian launch" wouldn't be treated as a serious option (i.e. even the US was treating this as an option for manned spaceflight, and ULA using old Russian engines on their rockets without a home-grown option till Falcon 9 is ridiculous).
- graemep 3y agoI think the word fascist is not accurate of Russia, at least. Maybe just dictatorship is more accurate. I entirely agree with what you way though. The west is extremely naive in its world view, and has been so for many decades. Silly ideas like "the end of history" are still influencing attitudes even though they are so clearly wrong that no one would explicitly espouse them. The west has forgotten that not everyone is going to go along with the idea of social liberal free market democracy, and that it is not as appealing to many people from other cultures.