Things I’ve said are factually true.

Truth can’t be whitewashing.

OK, so you live in Ukraine. This gives us what?

I am Ukrainian. So let’s just say you won’t convince me of the uncle Stalin coming to liberate eastern Europe BS narrative. I would you and your family to try and speak Ukrainian in the occupied territories.

Ukrainian language was not in any way suppressed in the USSR at any point. My grandmother happens to be from Ukraine.

It was less prestigious, because of technical education being given in Russian and the “distribution” system after university, where graduates were being directed to workplaces all over the union.

If you mean these days, I don’t think there’s been a vote on invading Ukraine.

A strong majority of russian are genocidal imperialists. Not because of any inherent qualities, it’s the choices they make.

Well, since you’ve pulled some Ukrainian roots for your position, I’ll say that I’m Armenian and those Ukrainians I’ve met who’d open their mouth on Artsakh did not lead me to believe that Ukrainians make better choices (and they can stick whatever they call “international law” where sun don’t shine, if that set of rules in their opinion makes a land consistently Armenian since before Slavs made it into written history and till now to be Azeri, because in USSR someone decided so and some bastards “recognized” it as such).

I will just add that the russians should take ownership of the outcomes in their history (not just 1996 election, but more generally). They are not children and they need to take responsibility without looking for scapegoats as they always do.

Do you do the same in full for every identity you apply to yourself? If not, then why are you giving advice to Russians?

The 2000 and 2004 elections in russia are generally considered free and fair (2004 perhaps less so, but I digress). That didn’t really have an impact later on.

I meant 1996. Wide protests, the first election in independent Russia widely put in doubt, but in the West - lots of enthusiasm that the bad thing didn’t happen and those communists didn’t win.

even their much fetishized celebration of WW2 victory is a ruse as the USSR initially sided with the Nazis to split up Europe

I disagree. (Sorry for the very long elaboration that follows, but it’s needed, I think. Stalin’s USSR wasn’t nice, but what you said is usually part of the narrative most of which is plainly not true.)

The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was a temporary (and very abrupt) change of policy and not what some common narratives make it seem. Soviet propaganda almost since 20s and till that short period actually portrayed Germans in some form as the main potential enemy.

Those Baltic countries USSR swallowed were typical fascist regimes, just small. Military aggression is not nice, but the narrative people from the Baltics love now, about how USSR was “worse than the Nazis” - well, very few Baltic Jews survived, I guess that makes their position consistent with reality, but doesn’t sell it very well to me.

Parts of Poland annexed were Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, and Wilno which is now part of Lithuania. And no, Polish Republic of that time wasn’t very minority-friendly. Again, not as clear-cut. There Soviet troops were really welcomed in 1939.

Even the Winter War was preceded by repeated offers of similar or bigger amount of territory given to Finland by USSR in exchange for what it asked, and what it asked was the really necessary territory to make Leningrad defensible from the Finnish side. It was not as barbaric and aggressive as the common narratives say as well. Karl Gustav Mannerheim, if you know who that is, not only supported accepting the deal, but was in favor of some concessions more than the minimum that USSR demanded. And after the war, forcing its victory, USSR took no more than that.

And Soviet Union did pay the biggest human cost of those fighting in Europe.

The fetish is disgusting, of course, and also anachronistic - there were no regular parades initially in celebration of that war ending, only those on November 7, and of course nobody was enthusiastic about an opportunity to “repeat it”. It was a hungry ruined country with disabled veterans in poverty, gangs of orphans, years of darkness and despair, one can say. The years between end of the war and Stalin’s death are not really remembered for anything other than that.

Actually for all the Cold War the USSR’s propaganda position was that it wants only peace and united humanity, and the people who want to “repeat” something are on the other side. I’d say that during the first Indochina war and even later this was, well, true.

Or send nukes from the Moon to silence the Internet, it was a mistake

Being a continuation of England more or less, you’ve got more. Especially since those democratic traditions were pretty English in the beginning.

Some appreciation for the Hezbollah please, they know that and they don’t care

The issue is that we believe we have a free democracy when the only power we have is to put an X in a box every few years.

Right.

WDYM, Hitler was pretty friendly with German oligarchy. No suiciding them or something, their relationships were pretty chill, having fun together, going to countryside, going to each other with families, having coffee.

They are elite. Not in quotes. The fact that they remain an elite and will remain an elite under Trump shows us that they are not losers and they don’t lose.

They didn’t lose control over DNC, that’s what they care about, perpetual real power over half the politics in one big country, not temporary and limited power over all of it.

In this case they have also shown Trump and anybody else that they are a very convenient opposition, that should remain as it is. It’s a win.

But you’re the guys who flew to the Moon, invented nukes and the Internet. You’ll think of something.

Age caps are good.

A rating voting system would be good too.

But I don’t think there won’t be younger people with the same kind of hubris.

Like the last couple of elections were free and democratic.

I guess counting of the votes was.

But the system is sufficiently rigged already, Russians just don’t bother with such complex mechanisms. Why, when you can just steal. After all, a different kind of people.

Either you elect a party that wants to do that, or every time elect the other party that is not very democratic inside itself, despite the name. Both seem like autocracy to me.

Ukraine was always friendly with the Trump crowd, I think. So is Putin, but this is not as clear cut. Palestine is fucked, but it already was. Vance even said something along not interfering between Israel and Iran, so it’s about equally fucked, maybe even less fucked.

We live in a world with skewed media picture of what’s happening, and the distortion by Trump people and the distortion by DNC people do not cancel each other out. In some ways they work in the same direction.

Only the biggest and rawest facts should really be used in the comparison. What both have actually done in full. Not what they promise, not project 2025, just the real things. Weapons, money, territory, and not a token amount with some promise, but all. Same way you pay for groceries. Politicians are like shoplifters.

Well, provided you won’t get gas-chambered or something, there’s one good thing in this event - the electorate has shown that there’s no way DNC behaves in this arrogant “we know better and we won’t let anyone other than our bosses near power” and wins. First in 2016, second in 2024.

Then the next election might actually be the last with the existing system in your country. And this one might have been the last with the two old parties competing. I think it’s nice. Provided, again, … .

True. But I can’t feel scared by that, comparing it to point 5.

Oh, so that couldn’t be solved in 4 years, right? It surely would be different if the people who were in power these 4 years would get another try?

COVID - yeah. But there are countries with not right-wing governments in 2020 that mishandled it just as badly. So that “yeah” is not a full-weight “yeah”, it’s a 90% yeah.

OK, I don’t really have arguments. The thing is - if the people who just lost would take actual measures, I would. Real action is always destructive and unpopular. They played it safely and lost.

There are sometimes “no good choices” situations, I just don’t understand all this whining, it’s not like this is good news for anyone, but it has already happened. Brace for impact and all that.

Oh, the tragedy.

No, inside USA you are not going to have that much pain. Outside is where it’ll suck, but then I’m not sure how that is different from the other scenario.

It’s just another Trump term, you’ve already had that once.

BTW, about Opera - the newest events with OpenAI and other stuff and Winamp devs not being prosecuted for GPL violations all lead me to one thought.

Are leaked Presto sources really-really illegal to use?

1. I’m not an American voter.

2. My bullshit before the election usually involved saying that you still have to vote for Harris.

3. I’d say the media bullshit about the support of candidates, that communicated the wrong picture to Americans deciding whether to vote, has contributed much more than anything I ever wrote.

4. No reason to panic. It’s just 4 more years, and then another election. Usually when someone promises you massacres and other bad things, you believe them, but not in this case - you’ve elected people who’ve never followed up on their promises.

5. I live in Russia, so you had it coming for the older disingenuous bullshit about Russia being “just an imperfect democracy” and Putin being better than some imagined unholy alliance of communists and neo-Nazis.

“Center” is almost always the establishment. The whole problem with the status quo is that they have hijacked the idea to be associated solely with them.

People generally like status quo. When life is not perfect, but doesn’t become worse. The thing is - people also hate growing and entrenching elite whose power is represented by parties who generally represent that option (and who press out anyone else trying to present a better version of it).

Ultimately people feel that power as something they want to free themselves from, and thus vote for those who promise destructive action.

Anyway, let’s not forget that the last 4 years, despite the emotion in the media, were with Biden-Harris, not with Trump. All those nice things they promised - those really can only be done after year 2024, no way to try before it, right?

And Trump, despite all the scary promises, is not going to break too many things either. The difference between these parties is not as big as it would seem.

Also he attracted RFK. RFK, other than being an antivaxxer, is almost leftist. OK, not leftist, but a normal Democrat, one can say. That may mean a bit of moderation. That’s if he gets any real influence and has not been just fooled for votes.