Ukrainian Government Calls For Game Companies To Cut Off Russia During Invasion (arstechnica.com) 128
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Mykhailo Fedorov, the vice prime minister and minister of digital transformation of Ukraine, has publicly called on "all game development companies" to "temporarily block all Russian and Belorussian accounts" in response to Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. In a tweet from his verified account, Fedorov also called on esports platforms to "temporarily stop the participation of Russian and Belorussian teams and gamers in all international esports events and cancel all international events holding [sic] on the territory of Russia and Belarus."
These moves, Fedorov suggests, "will motivate the citizens of Russia to proactively stop the disgraceful military aggression" by the Russian government. "In 2022, modern technology is perhaps the best answer to the tanks, multiple rocket launchers... and missiles." In an additional note directed at the Xbox and PlayStation Twitter accounts, Fedorov wrote that "if you support human values, you should [leave] the Russian market!" In a follow-up tweet, Fedorov also asked Riot Games, EA, Ubisoft, Gameloft, and Wargaming to "close your office in Russia" in solidarity with Ukraine. "There's no place for [an] aggressor on the global technological map!"
These moves, Fedorov suggests, "will motivate the citizens of Russia to proactively stop the disgraceful military aggression" by the Russian government. "In 2022, modern technology is perhaps the best answer to the tanks, multiple rocket launchers... and missiles." In an additional note directed at the Xbox and PlayStation Twitter accounts, Fedorov wrote that "if you support human values, you should [leave] the Russian market!" In a follow-up tweet, Fedorov also asked Riot Games, EA, Ubisoft, Gameloft, and Wargaming to "close your office in Russia" in solidarity with Ukraine. "There's no place for [an] aggressor on the global technological map!"
is it just me (Score:1)
or is this a ridiculous thing to be talking about? I'm sure this will stop Russia in its tracks. I don't see how any country engaged in war could stand up to being cut off from online gaming.
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May not even be necessary. Russia could possibly do this to itself because apparently it is getting difficult for them to control the public narrative:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/0... [nytimes.com]
The word is that the Russian Federation Council has schedule an emergency meeting for March 4th to pass some kind of anti-crisis laws. Something tells me that anti-crisis doesn't involve a therapist.
Crysis (Score:2)
Anti-crisis, not anti-Crysis [ea.com]. Ukraine wants Russia to be in crisis, but not be able to play Crysis.
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I don't think it's an end all, but anything you can do to antagonize the russian civilian population over retalitory behavior due to their governments actions is considered a positive.
The hope being if enough things upset the population of Russia it could put Russia is a position more likely to operate some diplomatic channels and actions, slow or halt advances and or future plans etc.
No one is like "That will do it." but mounting pressures combined might achieve something is the goal.
At the very least, shr
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I don't think it's an end all, but anything you can do to antagonize the russian civilian population over retalitory behavior due to their governments actions is considered a positive.
Is it? Which country on the receiving end of sanctions have became less militant or less hostile? Can you even name one? I on the other hand can easily name several that went the other direction. Creating a Russia-sized North Korea does not seem like a great idea.
All democratic revolutions that have occurred in history occurred during a time of growing prosperity. Ukraine itself is an example of that. The opposite does not seem to be true, as countries in economic distress tend to turn to dictators for lead
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And the world did nothing for a long time while Germany was launching war after war in the 1930s. That did us a fat lot of good.
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You realize Germany was under harsh economic sanctions right? The Treaty of Versailles was the reasons the Weimar Republic failed and Hitler rose to power.
If you mean military intervention, then yes, I would agree. NATO intervention in Ukraine is an effective way to stop Russian aggression*. Economic sanctions on the other hand do the opposite of what you want. To me, this is a case of "we must do something, this is something, therefore we must do it".
* Assuming we win and don't accidentally end the world (
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Which country on the receiving end of sanctions have became less militant or less hostile? Can you even name one? I
Economic sanctions on the other hand do the opposite of what you want. To me, this is a case of "we must do something, this is something, therefore we must do it".
The problem with this way of thinking is survivorship bias. Nobody remembers, or even knows, the nations that "would have" caused a world war sans world actions, but didn't. But everyone remembers Germany, because Germany did cause one.
The world has sanctioned North Korea, Cuba, Russia, India, Pakistan etc. at various times, and we have not had a world war for a while. The willingness of sanctioned countries to cause world wars probably increased unless the economic hardships caused regime change, but their
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The world has sanctioned North Korea, Cuba, Russia, India, Pakistan etc. at various times
And which of these countries are shining models of democracy? Maybe try plotting the seriousness of sanctions versus political freedom on a graph.
Nobody talked about democracy, or shining models. Not relevant.
The willingness of sanctioned countries to cause world wars probably increased unless the economic hardships caused regime change, but their ability to cause world wars definitely decreased.
Not if you sanction half the world. People are calling for sanctions against China and India because they're not willing to sanction Russia. Not to mention North Korea developed nuclear ICBMs despite all the sanctions, and Iran is trying to do the same and would have succeeded if it wasn't for Israel bombing their nuclear facilities multiple times (see my earlier point about the effectiveness of military intervention). Russia already has them. Do you really think sanctions can convince them to give those up?
I don't care what people are calling for, and I didn't ask to sanction half the world. Again irrelevant.
They are being sanctioned for what might be called the first leg of the world war III. Completely different, much fairer, and obviously so from the reactions of people in the affected countries.
I don't see how "fairer" plays into this. It doesn't matter how the rest of the world perceives it, it only matters whether Russians themselves perceive Putin as the source of problems, which isn't going to happen under Russian propaganda. They are being told it is NATO expansion that is the root cause of the conflict*. If anything, cutting them off makes national propaganda more effective. Just ask any North Korean what they think of their government.
Ok, so I also explained the situation about perceptions of Russians. You say it matters, but ignore my statements about it. Are you reading the posts you are replying to ?
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I don't care what people are calling for, and I didn't ask to sanction half the world. Again irrelevant.
Well, if you or I don't speak out against it, it might just happen [independent.co.uk].
Re: is it just me (Score:2)
With your attention span, before you "speak out" against one thing, you'd be distracted by something else. You'd have to stick to a subject for a while, to be able to speak out.
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Ah, resorting to personal attacks I see. So you've given up on making an actual argument.
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You've stopped responding to actual arguments long ago, and resorted to typing irrelevant fluff. You could go back and address real arguments even now.
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Ok, my mistake. I see why you think that now.
Contrast that with the 6000 Russians jailed in the last week for protesting against Russian war, even though a 20 year jail period and criminal actions have been announced for such an act.
Russia is not being sanctioned here for losing the cold war, because that happened long ago. They are being sanctioned for what might be called the first leg of the world war III. Completely different, much fairer, and obviously so from the reactions of people in the affected countries.
What I thought was obvious, and what you probably didn't realize, is that these protests are not related to the sanctions. They happened before sanctions even took effect. Yes, many sanctions have been announced, but most aren't actually implemented at this time, and their effects wouldn't be felt for weeks or even months. These protesters are young people who don't want to be conscripted into a war and killed.
My response is with regards to the actual effects of
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Great. This addresses only one point among many, but still a refreshing return to relevance.
What I thought was obvious, and what you probably didn't realize, is that these protests are not related to the sanctions
Protests will not be directly against sanctions, duh ! Sanctions (in as much as they are directed at the general public for whom protest is the only option) are there to shatter the illusion that everybody loves what Russia is doing in Ukraine. That was the only purpose of UNSC, given that we knew that Russia would veto. Same for UNGA, given that its resolution is fundamentally non-binding.
There are different ways at
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Protests will not be directly against sanctions, duh ! Sanctions (in as much as they are directed at the general public for whom protest is the only option) are there to shatter the illusion that everybody loves what Russia is doing in Ukraine. That was the only purpose of UNSC, given that we knew that Russia would veto. Same for UNGA, given that its resolution is fundamentally non-binding.
Aren't the UN votes sufficient? Are sanctions actually needed to send the message? As I stated before, the long term effects of sanctions are not aligned with a more peaceful world. And the specific sanction in this story really doesn't do anything at all but further cut ordinary Russians off from foreign influence.
I wrote "even though a 20 year jail period and criminal actions have been announced for such an act". I am not sure what your definition of "fairly easy" is, but how often have you been able to "whip up" anyone to get themselves into jail for 20 years and into criminal prosecution ?
Young people are not known for level-headed decision-making. See any street racing event, rock concert (think drugs), party (think alcohol poisoning) or extreme sport. I'd argue the risk of death
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Aren't the UN votes sufficient? Are sanctions actually needed to send the message?
No, UN votes are not enough. Strong messages need to be sent in different ways. A huge majority of people, especially under state controlled media guiding them this way, might think UN does not matter, or forget that it exists. (unfortunately, often UN does not matter, but that is another story).
Not voting against Russia in UNSC and UNGA would have harmed the cause, but voting doesn't produce a lot of "message" given the impotence of UN.
And the specific sanction in this story really doesn't do anything at all but further cut ordinary Russians off from foreign influence.
Yes, I have taken care to not support the specific sanction in this sto
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"Is it? Which country on the receiving end of sanctions have became less militant or less hostile? Can you even name one?"
South Africa
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Mhmm [wikimedia.org]. That sure looks like an economic downturn in 1989 right before the break up. /s
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At the very least, shrugging shoulders and going "Well, they're going to do it anyway so why bother" is a terrible attitude. If the world goes that way, I have a bunch of things I want to do that I'm going to do anyway, so just let me without consequences.
"We must do something, sanctions is something, therefore we must do it."
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Re: is it just me (Score:2)
Like getting vaxxed or wearing a mask.
Too soon?
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I have it on good authority that Putin is a huge fan of Among Us. Cut him off, and you just might be punching him where he really feels it.
Or he might just start WW3. Hard to tell with that guy.
Nope! Not just you! (Score:2)
Several of my friends have been pointing this out. We're all in support of the Ukraine fighting for its freedom. But it's unprecedented and feels "weird" how (at least in the USA), people are jumping on-board to support them like its another social justice cause, vs a foreign war we're not even directly involved with.
In the big picture, nations like China have done just as many unjust things that we've just looked the other way at and ignored. The vast majority have zero concerns about such things as the Ar
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It has gotten just plain stupid really. It feels like just more war propaganda, and social media type messaging. I guess now it is all about narrative management (which is what used to be called war propaganda). But people just eat it up. I'll put a like on the next anti-Russia meme I see. (Not).
Re:Nope! Not just you! (Score:4, Informative)
https://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=20824119&cid=62286211
> Russia is staying within their borders. I don't need to say anything else.
That you? Yeah, thought so.
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people are jumping on-board to support them like its another social justice cause, vs a foreign war we're not even directly involved with.
I'm glad that they've managed to turn warfare into more peaceful activism, but I'm also concerned that ratcheting tensions will eventually cause activism to spill over into a hot war or genocide. It's a strange dichotomy.
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Remember "Freedom Fries"? "Liberty Steaks"? We have governors banning Russian Vodka now. In the short term that only harms the poor retailers who can't sell what they have.
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or is this a ridiculous thing to be talking about? I'm sure this will stop Russia in its tracks. I don't see how any country engaged in war could stand up to being cut off from online gaming.
I think you underestimate the suffering of Russian parents after access to Fortnite gets cut off.
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I mean, the only ones who actually come over here to our section of the internet are fucking miserable assholes who are paid to cheat, grief, scam, hack, shill for and shit on everything. I think this is less about helping the war effort and more about doing what we've all wanted an excuse to do all along, which is just block them wholesale.
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Is that wise? (Score:2, Troll)
Would you rather have conscript-age young men playing games, or being brain-washed into the army by Putin?
Same with Netflix and other media...
Wisdom considers the roll-on effects of decisions.
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The roll on effect will be Russians hating Putin's guts more than they do already, they don't want their sons killing Ukrainians or being killed by them. When a Russian soldier dies, Putin compensates the family, he gives them $80, kind of shows how much he cares about his own people.
Re: a Tom Nichols' Twitter thread (Score:4, Interesting)
1) Tomorrow Russia is planning to have schoolteachers lecture on why invading Ukraine is a good thing, actually.
2) Gamers are telling Russians what they know about the invasion from the outside.
IOW, in-game chat is a good way to get information to ordinary Russian citizens, who may not have independent (or alternative) media. I understand the desire to make life in Russia as abnormal as possible, but what is the downside of maintaining some social contact that doesn't help Russia economically?
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Oh yeah, Russi
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1) Tomorrow Russia is planning to have schoolteachers lecture on why invading Ukraine is a good thing, actually.
2) Gamers are telling Russians what they know about the invasion from the outside.
IOW, in-game chat is a good way to get information to ordinary Russian citizens, who may not have independent (or alternative) media. I understand the desire to make life in Russia as abnormal as possible, but what is the downside of maintaining some social contact that doesn't help Russia economically?
Good point. Don't cut them off, make them play on European servers.
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What makes social propagandists persuasive is that we do not recognize them as such--they seem like ordinary people we are interacting with. But with the current international understanding and mood, pro-Kremlin propagandists are easily spotted as inauthentic and then dismissed.
(As a result, even on slashdot, we are seeing less pro-Russia trolling (they won't invade, it's NATOs fault they invaded, sanctions won't hurt them) and more pro-apathy and 'whatabout Iraq/Kosovo' propaganda--because it allows them t
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we are seeing less pro-Russia trolling (they won't invade, it's NATOs fault they invaded, sanctions won't hurt them)
The last two are things to consider and are not automatic trolls (they may be but these points don't equal troll.)
Hitler wouldn't have risen to power if the West hadn't pushed Germany down so low that they were ready to accept anyone. Acknowledging that it was partly the West's actions do not mean that Germany was in the right.
A more recent example would be the people complaining that 9/11 happened because of our treatment to the Arab world. We can view that and learn from it but it doesn't mean we suppor
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We may as well use the Russian Trolls here on Slashdot to spread the factual news back to Russia. Waiting for it to happen any day now...
Or maybe stop glamorizing war? (Score:3)
Heck, I like Call of Duty as much as the next middle-aged guy. But it does occasionally make me wonder if making war such fun might have some downside.
We know that militaries use these sort of games as recruiting tools, or at least try to.
I know that a realistic game where you score an average of one kill before dying would not be much fun. Or spend weeks of boredom in a trench with raging tinea before being shelled. You never storm the cleared "sniper nest" to find only the huddled charred bodies of women and children. No, everybody is a hero, picking off "bad guys" at a ridiculous rate. Its not turning me into a homicidal maniac, but is must have some sort of desensitizing effect.
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Does anyone here actually *know* someone whose feelings about *actual* war have been changed by playing a war video game? I've never even heard a "friend of a friend" story to that effect.
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I'll check it out - thanks for the recommend.
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Boys and girls need to learn at a young age, who makes the babies and does the killing. Go look at toys for girls and count the super-girl, bat-girl, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel costumes: Most shops will have zero.
Social conditioning aside, we compete to survive, although as complex organisms some of our needs can only be satisfied through co-operation. Still that need to compete, to fight even, affects our brains as much as the need to fuck. I've seen in-browser games, where there is no dying: Sure
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I don't think the kind of moronic dictators who destabilise the world by starting wars do so because of the glamour of video games.
Violence is inherent to some people and those who enjoy it will seek out entertainment which causes them to desensitize. Ban video games, but lets go watch Saving Private Ryan to see what a real hero is. Oh fat slob get off the couch and turn off the TV... yeah okay I'll take up boxing or shooting.
This isn't a problem you can fix by addressing just one source.
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Desensitising is what militaries want, and sadly what Ukraine needs right now.
After WW2 there was a study conducted on American soldiers who fought in it, and it found that most of them didn't even try to kill anyone. They would deliberately fire over the heads of the enemy, and only kill when absolutely forced to. Turns out human beings are just really averse to killing other human beings.
From that point on army training started to focus on making killing automatic, a reflex reaction, and on de-humanising
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Heck, I like Call of Duty as much as the next middle-aged guy. But it does occasionally make me wonder if making war such fun might have some downside.
We know that militaries use these sort of games as recruiting tools, or at least try to.
I know that a realistic game where you score an average of one kill before dying would not be much fun. Or spend weeks of boredom in a trench with raging tinea before being shelled. You never storm the cleared "sniper nest" to find only the huddled charred bodies of women and children. No, everybody is a hero, picking off "bad guys" at a ridiculous rate. Its not turning me into a homicidal maniac, but is must have some sort of desensitizing effect.
Firstly, COD stopped being fun years ago.
Secondly, the war mongers in society are not the ones playing video games. They're the ones lecturing others about "patriotism" whilst sabotaging their own country and listening to demagogues of misinformation like Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan. If they were to unwind with a good game every once in a while, they might see how pointless war really is.
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I know that a realistic game where you score an average of one kill before dying would not be much fun. Or spend weeks of boredom in a trench with raging tinea before being shelled. You never storm the cleared "sniper nest" to find only the huddled charred bodies of women and children.
For some reason, now I'm really in the mood for a "Papers, please"-like game of soldiers doing routine tasks in a trench...
They should cut of xhamster and manycams (Score:2)
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And the Americans.
https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com]
Honestly, I don't think it matters at this point (Score:2)
Russia is eventually going to win this, unless other nations start actively assisting Ukraine. They simply cannot overcome Russia alone.
Ukraine is certainly faring better than I think anyone expected, but Russia is more than powerful enough compared to Ukraine that they can brute force a victory here. The only reason they really haven't so far is that they are trying to minimize collateral damage, but considering that Ukraine is not going down without a fight, I think it's going to very soon get to the
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The only reason they really haven't so far is that they are trying to minimize collateral damage, but considering that Ukraine is not going down without a fight, I think it's going to very soon get to the point that Putin stops caring.
It started yesterday. With the humiliation of Russian troops, Putin has given orders to do what it takes to seize Ukraine. The rocket, artillery, and aerial bombardments picked up considerably. At this point, Russia is now doing the same thing they did in Grozny.
Pictures fr
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It is very easy to sit in a comfortable chair and speculate about what will or should happen. The war, however, is messy and seldom goes as planned. It most likely did not go as Russia has planned. Russia is m
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Ukraine capitulated in Crimea - there were barely any sanctions against Russia, and the few that were declared were not enforced.
Even in Feb 2022, sanctions increased only after Ukraine impressed the world with its fight back.
People in other countries don't feel like helping people who don't help themselves. And if Ukraine capitulates again, it reinforces Russian propaganda that Ukraine regime was oppressive hence Ukrainians are welcoming Russian army as liberators.
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Everything you said is correct.
But this all will apply again no matter when Russia will win and how in this invasion. So Ukraine has the option of
a) being under Russian occupation and a completely leveled capital and a hundred thousand dead.
b) being under Russian occupation with few destructions in the capital and less than ten thousand dead.
All of the options are shit. But some are less shit than others.
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Good points, the cynic in me wants to agree.
But there is a third option, endless guerilla war with Russian soldiers. It will be bloody, but maybe worth it for Ukrainians.
They'd be thinking, Afghanistan defeated USSR and broke it up into pieces, even though Afghanistan was not the sole reason. Afghanistan had lower nationalistic tendency than Ukrainians, lower education levels. Ukraine is likely to get equal, or more support from the West. Afghanistan had the advantage of terrain, I'd concede.
If Ukraine cont
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Afghanistan did not break the SU, several things did it, including Chernobyl (1 M soldiers wasted there, and a propaganda campaign that failed spectacularly).
What Afghanistan has / had and Ukraine has not are
- a unifying religion contrary to the Russians
- a culture or religious interpretation that encourages suicide attacks
- a vastly different language and high cultural barrier, making spying and infiltration harder and more expensive
- a thorougly decentralised society
- densely populated urban areas
- the ab
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I think that you are seriously overestimating 'will not recover this century'. If we assume a scenario where Ukraine gets Russians running and sanctions are kept in place, they can ask a serious reparations from Russia. Regardless of that, there will be a huge international aid for Ukraine as soon as situation is resolved. See at what happened to Germany after WW2 - Marshall plan helped to bootstrap them into probably most economically powerful country in Europe in 20 or 30 years and level of destruction of
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Afghanistan did not break the SU, blah blah.
Do you understand the meaning of "They'd be thinking, Afghanistan defeated USSR and broke it up into pieces, even though Afghanistan was not the sole reason" ?
- Ukraine will make inroads in defeating the Russians and the Russians disable their electricity grid for years to come. Millions will die. Ukraine will not recover this century.
Ok, so now you agree that there is a third option. In your last post, there were only 2, roughly analogous to the first 2 options in this post of yours. That is some significant inroads I have made.
Now, the meaning of "recovery".
1. Since not living under Russian control is apparently important for Ukrainians, it is already "recovery" when Russians hav
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IMHO, Ukraine should capitulate and minimize the collateral damage and the damage to the infrastructure.
In fact, Ukraine should do just the opposite. They should destroy their infrastructure. Electrical stations, water plants, factories, docks, everything. They should, to the best of their abilities, do a scorched Earth policy. Anything and everything they can do to make the Russian occupation as painful and expensive as possible. Let the Russians repair things.
As mentioned in my OP and others also said
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For now, yes, the Ukrainians are letting the conscripts go home or simply holding them until a later time. Ukraine is even offering Russian soldiers compensation if they surrender [imgur.com]. The same cannot be said of the formal Russian [twitter.com] army personnel. Within the past day, a Major General [imgur.com] of the Russian armed forces was killed. We also know various paratroops have been annihilated trying to take over Ukrainian airfields.
As for the mobile crematoriums, I have heard the same thing but have not had any confirmation.
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Bombing cities is restrained? (Score:2)
Bombing cities and killing civilians is restrained?
Your definition of 'restrained' is seriously f.. up in my opinion...
The opposite (Score:1)
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There is dilute criminality in all of Russian people in allowing Putin to remain a dictator, and hence allowing this violence against Ukraine, and hence causing this violence.
In that respect, there is nothing wrong with dilute punishment to all of Russian people. Except in cases where the said punishment is itself counter-productive in reducing violence.
Death of a thousand cuts (Score:2)
None of this compares to having their airlines and ships banned from Western space, boycotts by global shipping companies, being kicked off SWIFT, and the seizure of their
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Anything Russian is now persona non grata pretty much everywhere except perhaps China. Bet they never expected that.
Totally without precedent. Were you born after 1989 by any chance?
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Anything Russian is now persona non grata pretty much everywhere except perhaps China. Bet they never expected that.
Totally without precedent. Were you born after 1989 by any chance?
Mid sixties. Closest thing I can remember was South Africa and the end of Apartheid, and that was not even close to the same scale. Even during the Cold War I don't think Russia was ever as isolated as it is today.
Why should Russian CITIZENS suffer? (Score:2)
The Russian citizens are not the ones attacking. Many of them have family in Ukraine and many of them are also victims.
The one doing the attack is the Russian GOVERNMENT. Blame the Russian Army, blame Puttin, blame other leaders in the government giving the order. Russian kids playing Robox have nothing to do with this. They should not have to pay for the sins of their government.
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Government rules by the consent of the governed.
Citizens, speak up and take action. Or carry the consequences of your inaction. These are your choices.
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Russian citizens pull the triggers.. (Score:2)
OK so who is pulling the triggers?
Aliens? Americans are pulling triggers and bombing schools and hospitals?
Sanctions are much more humanitarian way to stop them then war.
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> OK so who is pulling the triggers?
Military.
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So how do you propose to stop this "military" ?
And don't you think that economic sanctions are much milder response than what 'military' is doing?
I also add that according to poll from the beginning of the war more than half of non-military supported this 'military'
So they demand Putin stop. (Score:2)
Putin doesn't care much about international opinions, but he can't escape his own people.
Bury the lead why don't you (Score:2)
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the bigger story is Ukraine wants ICANN to yank their domain. That would create chaos in their economy.
You do realise that Russia is capable of running their own DNS? Their domains would still work domestically, and anyone outside Russia who wants to use their domains can just change DNS server.
the larger game (Score:2)
We see the larger game here.
The purpose of the whole operation now is to raise up a new Iron Curtain. Some politicians have clearly said as much. Destruction of Russian economy, isolation from the world, stress and pressure.
Where have we seen this recipe before?
Correct, the color revolutions. Any US-orchestrated regime change.
No, I'm not saying the US is behind everything bla bla - but someone sure seized the opportunity and had all of that - the sanctions, the SWIFT exclusion, closing of airspace, etc. etc
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I'm always hesitant to advocate for a regime change, but when a leader threatens nuclear war with the rest of the world because they speak out against his premeditated and unprovoked invasion of another country, I won't lose any sleep over cutting off the citizens of that leader's country from video games. And I don't see how any reasonable person can characterize this conflict as being orchestrated by the US since the whole thing was precipitated directly by the actions
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So maybe it's the Jews or Israel?
Reading and comprehension. Try it sometime. I said that it doesn't require a conspiracy - just someone seing it as an opportunity. I'm not defending Russia. All I'm saying is that some people in the US are surely celebrating, because these events further their geopolitical goals.
Of course it can't be that Putin is a dangerous psychopath. It's the US or the Jews!/quoteÂ
IT CAN BE BOTH. Sometimes, there are two sides to a conflict AND THEY ARE BOTH WRONG. When an astrologer and a homeopath discuss who has the better diagnosis for a cancer patient, you don't discuss who is "more right". You tell both of them to fuck off and bring the patient to a real doctor.
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one of those courses of actions can be considered worse than the other
Yes, but that's a pointless discussion to have. They're both wrong, and figuring out who gets brownie points for being less wrong isn't what you should be doing while the patient needs actual help.
In your analogy how is the "tell both of them to fuck off and bring the the patient" to be accomplished
Analogies only go so far.
One thing we should stop doing is putting every bit of possible escalation on the situation, because the war is bad enough already, we don't need to enter a whole new Cold War and prepare the next five proxy wars. Some of the measures taken now do NOTHING to stop or shorten the war.
Also, t
Propaganda in games... (Score:2)
There is actual problem with propaganda in the games...
I've met dozens of cases of spreading Putins view in game chats...
UE bad, USA bad etc.
Are we ... (Score:2)
... going to do this stuff for every conflict, from now on? Just wondering.
You do know there's a war going on almost all the time somewhere, right?
Do we cut off DNS and stuff to the next, say, African country who's dictator goes on a rampage? Why or why not? (It would be just as (in)effective, so you know the difference if any isn't that.)
And do we stop at war? Once tactics like these are used, it's always easier next time. Maybe border skirmishes? Trade disputes? Inadequate global warning responses?
Re: Are we ... (Score:2)
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I think it's safe to reserve it for instances where the country's leader threatens nuclear war.
They have open offices? (Score:2)
Ukraine calls for... (Score:2)
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Air drop (Score:2)
Ukrainian Government Calls For Game Companies To Cut Off Russia During Invasion
Or airdrop a hundred thousand portable units over the Russian positions and encourage gameplaying.
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Most people seem to manage to enjoy video games in reasonable moderation. From what I can see they manage to hold down jobs, consume other media, and socialize in addition to playing games. Many that I know also manage to read books.
The useless people you see who spend *all* their times playing games would likely have been useless anyway; every generation has had people like that. Stoners, surfers and the like. The golden age of rock climbing started with homeless hippies at Yosemite, although it was giv
War machine vs people (Score:2)
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NATO spent months provoking
All those satellite photos of Russian troop movements were totally provocative.
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And NATO is still provoking and these poor Russians must defend themselves by bombing hospitals...