BF2S Forums Where are all the whiny peaceful "Enlightened" European now?

I barely remember it. I think some of it was displaced by Lord of War in my brain's movie bank. Need to refresh.

Hair loss treatments sound like a bunch of snake oil to me. Seems like much less of a pain if people were to just own it in all its stages. Shaving your head completely bald at the first hint of hair recession, cowardly!

Real-talk though, around the time of a Dune release is the perfect time for that kind of hair. Much better than during Harry Potter.

uziq wrote:

almost everyone here on this forum responded to you with specific comments about benzos, telling you to be careful and watch out, wishing you a speedy recovery, etc. so now you didn't take benzos? fair enough; let's move on. really not that important. still doesn't change the fact that making 'druggy' comments towards me is pretty funny considering everyone else here BUT me seems to have an active prescription. i am, again, not fazed and do not take 'lol you take drugs' as an insult, in any case.

I was taking temazepam, which is a benzo used to treat insomnia. No relation to anti psychotics.

Also your memory keeps failing you. I never once stated Russia wouldn't invade. I don't know where you all get this fantastical statement from. A full scale invasion was considered our least likely/probable scenario. We considered it, because you have to, but didn't consider it the most likely or even likely course of action. We started drafting scenario's back in november. There was, in the end, only one country that knew a few things noone else did.

Putin's call with macron has me worried as he simply reiterated the goals he stated in his 'declaration of war'. We might suppose a rationale that isn't there. The conclusion is that the war in ukraine will likely get much, much worse. The longer it takes to reach certain objectives, the more likely the Russians will escalate the level of violence (and/or barbarity) - which is already visible on the ground. That escalation will cause a humanitarian disaster, and may include all weapons normally forbidden in war up to and including wmd's.

The only stroke of luck may be that Putin stated it was his goal to also hamper ukraine's nuclear ambitions. Hence I don't see a tact nuke being used any time soon. Yet there are many other options at his disposal. Thermobarics have been in the news a lot lately, being one of many. There are other possible options that don't include these weapons, but which will cause mass civilian death.

As always, there are various scenario's to consider, but that seems a likely one.

Last edited by Larssen (2022-03-04 10:24:39)

haha. it certainly doesn't offend me. all of my friends and social milieu are very casual and blasé about that sort of thing. it's not controversial or transgressive. is it for people of our generation generally? i don't think so. whether it's medicine, prescription drugs (and abuse thereof), or recreational; drugs are not exactly taboo.

korean fast food and one too many beery walkabouts aside, the last few years have actually been the healthiest of my life. that's why i think it's funny to still be portrayed as a 'licentious pleasure-seeker' by weird puritans like dilbert. i eat well, i work out, i go hiking/jogging/long romantic walks, etc. i'm in good shape. a well-maintained specimen. my vices and intakes are no worse than the people accusing me (i share alcohol consumption with dilbert).

i'm in my early 30s now. it's entirely natural and right that i'm partying less and not as interested in chasing the neon lights and thrills as i once was. people mature; they get bored of things that used to entertain them; they, hopefully, if life is progressing as it should, get new hobbies and interests, explore new things.

my drug use never derailed or affected my 20s in any way. i graduated top of my class, got a scholarship, won the prizes, etc. never been unemployed or jobseeking for any period of time since graduating. never missed an opportunity or suffered a setback because of drugs. i indulged, had my fun, and have gradually moved onto other ways to spend my time. unfortunately for dilbert, there's no 'comeuppance' here, no moral lesson, no marvel movie manicheanism in which 'bad' people doing 'bad' things get shown by the 'good' guys. this sort of bitter expectation is just the psychology of the shy, nerdy, powerless geeky type who spites the cool 'bright young things' their fun, and had to tell himself through his own (no doubt miserable) early adult life that 'those guys' would one day 'pay' for their ways.

i literally think this experience of drugs is the complete norm for 98% of young people. i don't know anyone that spiralled into addiction, got arrested, went to rehab, etc. zero. though with all usual caveats that i know i'm not exactly from the demographic who are susceptible to life-disrupting poverty, lack of stability, yada yada. your mileage may vary, etc.

/shrug

Last edited by uziq (2022-03-04 10:40:16)

I'll say it again, I'm not comfortable with this insane fervor for putting sanctions especially on a nine-figure population. I don't think it's going to have the desired effect, and the economic fallout and ruin this is all leading into feels like its own brand of war crime, and in some cases is a bit of a self-own.

They even banned Russian cats from cat shows, which should interest you.

Banning Russian vodka, that'll make Putin stop and think.

unnamednewbie13 wrote:

I'll say it again, I'm not comfortable with this insane fervor for putting sanctions especially on a nine-figure population. I don't think it's going to have the desired effect, and the economic fallout and ruin this is all leading into feels like its own brand of war crime, and in some cases is a bit of a self-own.

They even banned Russian cats from cat shows, which should interest you.

Banning Russian vodka, that'll make Putin stop and think.

Diplomacy hasn't worked

No military threat besides nuclear annihilation is going to work - that probably doesn't scare Putin who has already said Russia without him might as well not exist
The UN could declare a no-fly zone, they would have to be the ones to do it, and some non-NATO countries could get together and enforce it.
A declaration would be a start. It would be vetoed and not happen.
There could be something imaginative like Poland withdrawing from NATO and taking part, shielded by the Baltics, with tacit protection from NATO

Sanctions are the only practical option for a non-nuclear country to hit Russia. If they're global and hard and fast - which we have so far - there could be an impact. Putin is already subtly griping about sanctions and asking for them to be lifted. Add an oil and gas embargo and in the short term something could be achieved, the oligarchs, industry leaders, Russian people could get something done if the whole economy - which remember has the GDP of Italy - could come to a dead halt.
An oil and gas embargo has to be the next step but its being kept in reserve, might as well do it now and get it over with. Its already happening with no buys for Russian oil and gas shipments being refused docking.

Reading between the lines of what little information came out of the recent 90min phone call I would say Macron has concluded that Putin has lost his mind and is living in a bubble of his own imagination
With his finger on the nuclear trigger this is obviously very bad.

Putin is already flattening apartment blocks and villages, literally nothing left standing
The next stage - city fighting and resistance repression is going to be brutal. I was watching an analyst who pointed out it won't last long. One molotov cocktail thrown from an apartment - the whole block will be destroyed with artillery. Intel is already talking about planned public executions, 1,000s of mercenaries for assassinations and policing.

Is the world going to sit back and watch all of this?

unnamednewbie13 wrote:

https://twitter.com/nickclegg/status/14 … 7870989316


*violent coughing*

Facebook and Twitter ban

cutting users off

from reliable information

wheeeeeeeez



Also very ironic expressing concerns of users being cut off from friends and family when the bans don't always make sense, or are unexplained, or continue haunt new accounts. Can really tell how concerned Facebook is with all that. Express your feelings as long as you don't get report-botted.

Yes, no right to facebook and all that, but at least let's keep it real here …

nick clegg is the ex-deputy PM of the UK. he only landed a plum job at facebook, literally cashing in his credentials and goodwill from high profile ‘public service’, because said career in the UK was totally trashed.

why? because he sold out every key voter demographic who got his ‘also rans’ party (the lib dems) into power. one of his main swing voter groups was young people and students. why? clegg’s libdems vowed to preserve the education funding and fees system as it was, against the pernicious privatising drives of the tories (with whom they formed their coalition government). clegg was, like his role at facebook, slickly presented by his PR team as one of ‘a moderating influence’.

well, all of about 2 months into his tenure, they announced they were tripling tuition fees. not even a whimper from nick clegg, despite it being one of his main banner pledges.

in the next general election he lost his seat. his constituency, in sheffield, has a lot of those key student-age voters in it. a deputy PM and leader of a party not even making basic re-election. that’s about as disastrous a fall as can be conceived in electoral politics.

tl;dr: guy is a fucking tool and a sellout. he became a handmaiden to facebook despite years of stories of their influence peddling harmful ads and misinformation. no doubt he’s convinced himself he can ‘address the rot from inside’ … for mega-millions a year. /spit

Last edited by uziq (2022-03-04 23:36:26)

Dilbert_X wrote:

sanctions.snip

whilst it’s true the UK is dragging its feet in so many ways (the most serious of which is accepting refugees from the impending humanitarian disaster)… let’s cut the bullshit here.

germany is still paying russia half a billion dollars a day for its fuel. sanctioning ‘entities’ and seizing a yacht here and there, as if every single one of russia’s 100s of oligarchs has a personal line through to putin (hint: they don’t, especially these days), is all very well for making headlines, the EU’s vast bureaucratic apparatus is perfectly designed for shuffling around bits of paper and blocking enterprise, but it’s not tipping the economic balance.

putin even said himself in his recent speech “we will continue servicing our obligations and see no reason for friction with our neighbours”. propaganda, obviously; lying, possibly; but it’s clear that he’s perfectly happy with the gas still flowing. i don’t think he’s losing any sleep over the fact middle-class muscovites can’t buy iphones or book an airbnb.

the UK has spent the last 8 years training and arming the ukrainian military from a complete amateurish shitshow to the world’s-favourite-underdogs that everyone is cheering on today. that’s not immaterial. their resolve and the fact they’ve surprised putin by fighting back aren’t freak accidents or the stuff of heroic myth. they’ve been trained.

in contrast, germany made a big show of changing her position and finally sending arms and support to ukraine. they ended up sending a bunch of USSR-era shit that was rusted and unusable. the ukrainians are up in arms about it today. so well done, germany. keep up sanctioning those ‘entities’.

talk about ‘dirt’ that oligarchs must have on the tory party is one thing; but how are you going to reckon with a political elite, as in merkel’s germany, who shut down the entire nuclear sector and made their country dependent on a non-ally? gehard schröder, one of their most significant heads of state in modern history, is literally on the board of several russian energy companies. lmao.  lol nice one facebook group ‘scientists for europe’

Last edited by uziq (2022-03-05 00:38:02)

The Russian people are as pig ignorant and set in their ways as Americans. The sanctions definitely constrain the country's ability to victimize their neighbors.

Newbie is sympathizing with the enemy.