Vlado @ Vlado @feddit.org

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1 wk. ago

There’s no evidence? Other than Russia saying that they want their “sphere of influence” and so on? What you are saying right now is the same that was already said in 2014. “Let’s don’t anger Russia. Let’s keep them dependent on trading with us and they won’t attack”. And look how much good this has done for Ukraine. So I’m going to flip your argument and ask a rhetorical question: Is there any evidence/precedent that Russia won’t invade again?

Maintaining trading as a manner of keeping peace only works if you’re dealing with rational actors. And if you look around the world, you’ll see that this is not what is happening. You will see USA making threats to Canada, to Panama, to Greenland. These countries were doing what you’re proposing. Trading. And now they’re the target. And it only took “few” irrational people that have other priorities than trade (even if that negatively influences their countries).

Regarding your stance on Ukraine: This is making me pretty annoyed. Because I’m already pretty sure that when Russia is going to invade Slovakia or Baltics or Romania, we’ll keep hearing the same thing. “But a lot of people were pro-Russian there. You don’t understand the intricacies of their local politics.” When Russia is going to invade Germany, you can also use the same argument that eastern Germany is a lot more open towards Russia then the rest of country. You can say this about a lot of countries.

I will repeat myself, but you’re saying things that were said in 2014. They’re being said now. And they will be also said during next invasion. So I can tell you what’s going to be said regarding French nuclear arsenal: “Oh you want to destroy the world/ww3 because of some small country that was already pretty pro-Russian to begin with?”. You can take your whole comment and apply it on all the future conflicts.

And before I reply to your last paragraph, I need to mention that pretty much all of your points are also raised by politicians in my country. Politicians which are proven to be paid by Russia and points which are mostly on Russia’s behalf. Because of that I simply don’t believe you’re arguing in good faith and because of that I won’t reply to any of your replies to this comment. Feel free to reply, but I don’t think it makes sense to continue this discussion. And now to the reply: The only one who conflates Europe having a bigger army with “calling for war” is you. This is what we keep hearing from Russian apologists since 2022. “Europe are warmongers. Kids on internet are pro-war”. The exact point for having bigger army is to NOT need to use it. No one is saying “let’s build an army to invade Russia”, so your point about anyone “wanting” to go to war is moot. What people are saying is that they want bigger army to make us a less-feasible target. And the only people who have objective problem with that are Russians, because it makes their dreams of conquest harder to execute. This is why when anyone uses this argument about “kids are heroes on internet”, it makes me not take the discussion with them seriously.

We will probably disagree on whether we’re defended enough. Is our defense budget sufficient to ensure that Russia won’t sweep through Europe without resistance? Sure. But the desired outcome is not to withstand the invasion further into Europe (at some point) but rather to:

• stop the already ongoing invasion into Ukraine
• prevent any further attempts to invade again

Without increasing our defense, we will always be at a risk that Russia will try to invade even if it would be fully aware that it couldn’t conquer the whole continent. They can always do what they’re doing right now:

• Depend on other allies to provide weapons/manpower
• Try to grab single country and hope that the rest of Europe consider it to be too big of a hassle to defend it
• Sow discord among Europeans and try to sway people by “rationally explaining” that “why should France invest in defense when they’re far far from potential front line?” (and similar)

We also need to admit, that our numbers spent on defense can’t be directly compared with Russia’s, because they are a single country. They have better control over their budget and over the control how and if the budget is spent. It’s a lot more complicated to get 100% of Europe on the same page when deciding how the money is spent.

The best way to avoid all of this is by making ourselves not worth attacking. And not just by Russia alone, but by Russia backed by their peers. Do you believe our current budget is sufficient for that?

Taking care of your defense is appalling? What’s the alternative? Stick our collective heads in the sand and hope no one will notice we exist?

Been there. It wasn’t as crowded as “first” protest that was over a month ago, but there was nice energy today. Although one might argue these protests aren’t changing much, there are still people that are not giving up and it’s great seeing that.

That’s the thing that confuses me. We have a Slovak bookstore https://martinus.sk/ which sells ebooks in epub/mobi/PDF formats. Unfortunately they’re mostly in Slovak/Czech language. Also frequently the ebooks marked as “sale ended”. So technically it works, but the offering could be bigger. That’s why I thought there might be something like that, but on a bigger scale.

But as I mentioned in other comment, for now I will manage with using DRM-free epub books. That should be sufficient for me while it still works. Thank you for suggestions.

I’m aware of that, but that sounds like a waste to me. And I don’t mean financially. I’m just not a fan of getting rid of a piece of hardware while it’s still working perfectly fine, just to “prove a point”. I’m not willing to send any additional money to Amazon for books, but the hardware is already paid for.

But of course once the time comes for a new device, it will be a different brand.

It’s iPad OS, which is (based on Calibre webpage) not supported.

Thank you for hint. That sounds like the easiest solution. Find a DRM-free book and upload it to Kindle. I’m fully aware that it might not be a future-proof solution, but I’m fine with that. I’ll use it while it still works and afterwards, I’ll look for other options.

That sounds like a great option, but my problem is that my main device is not a PC, but rather a tablet where this software can’t be used. That’s why I hoped for some store that provides books also in mobi format. We already have one such store in my country, but the problem is that their e-book selection is not great (as they’re mostly a physical book store)

But thank you for a specific software recommendation. I’ll keep it in mind and probably make it work somehow. Much appreciated.

Honestly it didn’t even occur to me that this could be a problem somewhere in this day and age. I don’t even remember when was the last time my bank sent me an SMS for MFA, but it’s a good point for people in US.

I’m not an expert in this field, so other people might have something else to add, but my takeaway is mostly - do not rely on phone services. Don’t use MFA via SMS, etc. Most of the issues described, you can avoid if you’re careful, except the geolocation issue.

Right, it’s not a big difference, but it’s at least something. Both communities can coexist and if they have something that differentiates them, all the better. For some people, it doesn’t matter that much. For those people that do care about the distinction, they can focus on their preferred community instead. In the end (as other people said), it’s fine to join both of these, so I don’t think it matters a lot.

I don’t mind either way. If we keep it separated there will be the split of community that you mentioned. But if we merge it there will be endless discussions about “what is the actual goal? Propagating EU products? Propagating European products? Propagating non-USA products?”. By keeping two separate communities, each can focus on something else. And they can also reference each other (“this community is for

<X>

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Yep, I am. I think it’s understandable what you’re saying (as there’s simply a lot less people here in general). But it’s always good to see a “local” “face” :)

I did the same and so far I’m satisfied. Browsing here makes me feel the “old internet” feeling.