Echarmion

That's easy enough to say. But what does "taking the russian perspective seriously" actually imply?

Well I can't really make any claim in my own right. But it made sense to me as a reaction to trauma. Israel is not just another nation state. It's not...

The comparison with drugs ends up very misleading, because it seems to be the case that, where guns are not common, a gun is often a liability for any...

Naomi Klein has pointed out in her recent book, which touches on the middle east, that Zionism used to be simply one part of a wide discussion. Before...

It wasn't intended as a complaint. I haven't said anything about what I think the terms actually were, and I have already decided that it's pointless ...

There's always a bigger fish though. There are countless possible advantages, not just muscle strength. Yes. But then guns only help in a small subset...

You have no choice but to depend on others, period. We are born into this world as dependants and we can only realise our autonomy by engaging in rela...

This is almost a truism, isn't it? If the deal is good enough to avoid fighting then the deal is good enough to avoid fighting. Incidentally if that w...

Weakness is relative, so there is no equaliser. One of the tasks of living together is making sure that whoever has a physical advantage in any given ...

I don't really buy that though. If you want guns to protect you from the government you can buy your rifle, lock it in a safe and leave it there until...

How a term is to be defined depends on its function. Words are tools for communication, they don't contain some deeper truth. So the question cannot b...

The interesting thing is though that we do that all the time. A dense population cannot possibly function without risk management, and risk management...

I wonder if many people really believe that. Many might believe they believe it, but humans are very prolific in anthropomorphizing. We ascribe inner ...

The sticking point is of course what you consider "neutrality" to mean. If it just means "don't join NATO but you get some multilateral security arran...

In fact we can be sure of this because it happened. In 2014. An interesting read, but one should perhaps supply some context. One the central witness ...

It's beyond me how anyone can take this seriously. Not only was there no way for Ukraine to join NATO with the Donbas conflict unresolved. Launching a...

What about studies that exclude suicide but do include accidental deaths?

That's not what happened. I can't tell whether you're brazenly lying to my face or just for some weird reason unable to acknowledge anything that does...

Yeah, and if you'd continue reading rather than take out of context the one paragraph that seemingly agrees with you, you'd notice that the report is ...

Yeah, sure, and no doubt we'll soon see them rolling up the front in their Armata tanks, while a fleet of SU 57 jets clears the way. Oh, the irony!

My god you have completely lost it. Not only do you believe in Putin the 4D playing master strategist and that all western information is propaganda. ...

This seems less a prediction and more an unshakeable conviction, which is why any discussion with you about reality on the ground just runs in circles...

I think this would be entirely to convenient. A nice and easy self-absolution. If there are greater existential threats, then of course we would have ...

I think it all depends on what assumptions the planners were making. Clearly Russia had an immense geographical and political advantage, being able to...

That's an incredibly sketchy source citing anonymous reports that cannot be checked. I would not put much confidence in this article. It's not, howeve...

One could say that, in a sense, spite really is a major contributor.

Putin would know from experience that even your vassals don't always do what you want them to. Maybe, but without evidence, we wouldn't assume such pl...

Kinda. The entire eastern front is heavily fortified. There's a reason Bakhmut and Avdivka remained standing even as russian troops surged from Crimea...

Because in Putin's view, Zelensky is an effeminate westerner. A comedian, a joke. He'd never put his life on the line. When shit hits the fan he'd tur...

I do wonder why though. What is the specific motivation?

This doesn't seem to be an uncommon attitude among Americans. I always found this way of arguing kinda odd. It is after all precisely because the US p...

It is not simply a question of democracy. There's also the economic system to consider, the state of technology, and who wields it. The current situat...

There seems to be some strange compulsion to imagine secret knowledge, that only a select few are privy too. Things cannot simply be how they look. Ev...

They are. But it seems to me you're not interested in what everyone else has to say, and rather in having a soap box to display your "scepticism". Whi...

Sure. There's evidence. I was referring to an event specifically, that means something happening at a specific time and place. Things get trickier whe...

Perhaps that was a reason, but whatever the exact intentions behind the declaration it was never turned into British policy. Unfortunately plenty of p...

Not interested? Ok then. What are you doing here though?

How about some basic epistemology? If an event is reported in the news, that is evidence the event happened, correct? Mind you, not conclusive proof, ...

You're merely claiming they did not make a serious effort. But maybe they were simply intending their plan to actually work, take key points around Ki...

Right, you don't ignore it, it's just all rubbish, presumably compared to some mysterious source you have yet to reveal to us. And you would know from...

And in the meantime you'll just ignore the evidence because it suits you. Because that's proper epistemology, apparently. I didn't ask you to prove an...

Why would "the West" be the one negotiating in such a scenario? Which is still an unsourced claim that's only repeated by people with a known pro-Russ...

Kinda off topic, but this result is so odd given the history. It seems to me that in many respects, Islam is closer to Judaism than to Christianity (t...

Apparent from reading reports by the ISW, Oryx, or various commentators who cite their sources. I demand argument mostly, and some reference to facts ...

You should tell the paratroopers at Hostomel. Or all the dead tank crews on the road to Kiev.

Pah. A weak evasion. Is that what you call a discussion? After 2014? Again you're not even trying. Oh really? What major maneuver forces were held bac...

Ukraine won the battle for Kiev, the battle for Charkiv (that one actually was a major rout) and the battle for Kherson. Russia meanwhile has demonstr...

What is there to discuss if you don't justify your claims re the military situation? How many armored vehicles has Russia lost? How many artillery pie...

But shouldn't the debate be about how not to wage the war? Seeing as waging the war cannot but advance the objective of Hamas, and that nothing past o...

This is usually the elephant in the room when it comes to discussions with climate denialists. Insofar as the denialism is motivated by an emotional n...