Moonbox

I can't speak for Michael, but having grown up in a very Church-oriented family (grandfather was a Minister), I'd say you're a bad Christian. A good Christian spreads the Good Word, rather than wasting all of his time being angry and telling everyone how bad they are. If the early missionaries were anything like you, the world would still be pagan.

It's fascinating how some of these folk waste their day scouring the internet for hot-takes over which they can get outraged. Not many years ago it was the "SJW's" we were rolling our eyes at whenever they got their panties twisted. Now the counter-culture has escalated it into hysterics.

It's not my definition. It's the United Nation's. As for examples, I'm sure you could find examples of it in every single part of the world depending on how far back you go (including our First Nations). "Everyone else was doing it" is something we learn as juveniles doesn't work as a defense. This is something to acknowledge and remember as a lesson for what not to do. You seem to take it as a grave personal affront for some reason. 🤷‍♂️

What does "a bunch" even mean? I can say a bunch of people got rich from most centrally-controlled state projects in Soviet Russia as well. Whether it was value-adding to the economy at large is another matter. and was so predatory and monopolistic that the Justice Department had to slap them down in the late 90's and early 2000's, and thank God they did. Capitalism is the best system in the world because of competition. In any market where that's no longer in play, it loses its primary advantage. Microsoft did, of course, contribute to the computer/information age, but how much it helped drive us forward vs how much it held us back suffocating competitors (who could have potentially done things cheaper/better/faster) is something we can never really know. Every time these sorts of monopolies are broken up and markets are opened, however, things improve.

Well isn't that an exercise in self-confirming logic? "Only the crazies disagree with me". As for comparisons, I never made any. The term genocide isn't exclusively reserved for death camps and forced mass-migration rape and murder etc. Acknowledging more insidious methods of genocide doesn't somehow minimize that. The idea that there are holocaust survivors or Armenian grandpas getting their panties twisted saying, "No no no! That's OUR WORD" is just another one of your hysterical culture-warrior cries.

This is a pretty rose-coloured way of looking at it, and not really true at all. That's why we have anti-combine/anti-trust laws and regulated markets. Great examples of my point above. What did Bill Gates give us other than an overpriced operating system and a defacto-monopoly on office software that other companies were doing better? Bezos? Who is he making rich? Certainly not the employees. My boner for capitalism never goes away, but it needs a gentle hand steering it or things get royally f'd up.

Of note - he never actually criticizes Putin. He always avoids explicitly trying to embarrass him, and continues to mock and ridicule the Russian Ministry of Defense instead. One thing that's interesting about this is that Prig just did an interview where he reveals that Wagner lost 20,000 dead in the battle of Bakhmut, when Russia's official casualty numbers are still around 6000 total. The big influencers in Russia now are suspecting if he confirms 20,000 casualties, the real numbers are probably 1.5-2x higher for Wagner alone, nevermind the regular forces. They bring up Afghanistan and how they lost only 15,000 dead in 9 years, and point to how they can lose more than that since January fighting for a single city in Ukraine. The propaganda facade is being to crumble.

Yeah but what does the Bible tell you to think about this?

This is impressive. I haven't had much free time this week but I'll try to give it more of a look when I'm not swamped.

No, my first statement to you in this thread was the one I just posted there. What, it's only genocide if you catch'em all? 🙄 As for examples of actual genocide, displacing the indigenous from their homes in favor of settlers and funneling them into reserves by itself would probably qualify, and if it didn't then the residential schools definitely did.

Maybe I missed something about that little exchange, or misread.

What does that have to do with how the Indigenous were mishandled? 🤔

and in your own deluded fantasy, you picture yourself a brave missionary trying to share the Bible among the evil heathens. In reality, you're just being loud, obnoxious and pointing your finger at people.

If the Chinese government was intimidating your relatives in China, how well do you think it's going to go for them if they complain about it to you in Canada?

Denying basic reality. Cool. It's one of the stupidest things you've ever said on this forum. If you're intent on making an ass out of yourself, please proceed. 🫡

Putin can't be trusted in a negotiation. Russia's hobbling ensures Ukraine's safety and sovereignty - and not just Ukraine's eithre. One where shithole Russia is so poor and so desperate that they're relying on Iranian garbage-tech to try to terrorize fellow Slavs (who know how to suffer and endure far better than Russians) into submission.

You have an entire thread in the business/economics section where you've posted nothing but retweets of anything that vaguely sounds negative. Who's pushing fear? 😆

We only talk Canadian here, Hyuk Hyuk Hyuk.

Has nothing to do with what I'm saying. The Americans didn't suffer 200,000 of their own dead or wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan combined, over 20 years. That sort of body count tends to change sentiment back home. Nobody's hoping for or expecting a humble Putin. A humiliated and overthrown Putin? Now we're talking. Humble is reserved for Russia. It can and will drop its delusions of Imperialism. Yours is a trash kind of logic. "Just ending the war" is a bromidic platitude that means nothing. Putting pressure on Ukraine means ceding its home to invaders. Putting pressure on Russia means encouraging them to go home - diplomatically if possible but by force if necessary.

The justification isn't the question. The results are. If the invasion of Iraq had resulted in hundreds of thousands of American casualties and they had to roll out Pershing and Patton tanks to re-constitute their shattered armored units, perception at home would have been very different. Not destroy Russia, but shatter its strength and humble it. You cannot understate how badly Russia's image has been compromise by this failed invasion. Putin's proved himself a self-deluded fool. The Russian regime in general has been revealed as an incompetent mess. Perceptions of Russian military strength have been shattered and Russian military equipment has proven to be garbage.

What a wonderful self-serving delusion. Of course, because self-reflection and perspective are alien to you. The only possible explanation for criticism of your foolishness is REEE THE DEVIL!

Russia will either leave, or there will be a diplomatic settlement of some sort, but it won't be a status-quo settlement. Russia can pretend they're okay with that, but the Ukrainians aren't. The US is funding Ukraine with 5% of their annual defense budget, and with it the Ukrainians are humiliating what was supposed to be the second strongest army in the old. If we're talking about outside source funding, there's no comparison who has the advantage. China will absolutely benefit from a Russian collapse. Yes that's a broken record narrative that Russia has squealed about at every step with every new weapon delivery. Iraq was conquered and occupied in a month for <600 casualties and, whatever pretense was cooked out, they did topple an insane dicator.

That's for the Russian people to figure out for themselves. We don't need to humour megalomaniacs because the country is full of servile donkey-people. Losing wars has a stellar track record for shattering propaganda. The miscalculations were already made. The risk now is a nuclear temper-tantrum. Accommodating that is a non-starter. There's no scenario where Putin is not humiliated. The question now is how dumb the average Russian is.

Quickest way for this war to be over is for Russian soldiers to go back to Russia. It's a lot easier to go home than it is to give up your home to someone trying to take it.

Russia is already humiliated, and Ukraine is still fighting for their homeland. I'm more concerned about Ukraine's sovereignty and safety than about Putin's shattered ego.