Putin BTFO.
I'd like to celebrate it by bombing Palestinians.
Slava ukraini!

its fine man... at least u wont need to cry no more over video games, now u will have real reasons to cry.

I think most world leaders are really pretty fake to begin with, most of them are yes men\women. Working for someone else or playing ball with special interest groups. But greater conspiracies suggest they were planning these kinds of wars and future events well before they even happened, I saw TV Show's in the 90's predict 911 and ISIS with perfect accuracy. And I've seen people talk about weird occult groups that seem to have authority over nations, what does it mean to me? Probably exactly that, we're basically being lead into endless staged chaos until they accomplish whatever they intend to do.

The world is a crazy place and there is little to no peace in it anywhere you look, but I happen to be on the side of people that think there can't be this many coincidences. So I just look at the signs and symbols of people and see if they're in any secret societies, or have secret allegiances and most of them at the front of society and culture do because at least more than half of them flash hand gestures like gang signs.

Idk who knows, but with that all said I think people need to keep in mind that your world leaders can turn on a dime and be completely different. We were just hearing 24\7 programming on SARS-COV2 and then it all went straight to Russia and WW3, now no one is wearing masks on TV and they stopped talking about unvaccinated people. People like Trudeau and Biden were manhunting the unvaccinated in their workplaces and now all of a sudden they start talking about freedom when confronting Russia and seeing the Ukraine fall. See, they can turn on a dime and focus on new fronts to fuck with people on.

I say no matter what, just screw all of them and just try and live life no matter how hellish things get. Look at the Ukrainians, they're getting bombed and still just trying to live life. They clearly get it, and the Russian people get it the same way.

Specific groups, yes, controlling the whole world, no. No conspiracy, they keep annual meetings where they talk and plan about their suprastatal goals, these groups. There is more than one group.

And one of the most corrupt if not the most corrupt of them all and should I say evil is being formed by a financial mafioso "special" group who enjoy special treatment in the West and is tending to rally people of the same ethnic affiliation.
Their main defense is that if you call them by their name, they call you in turn anti-, enjoying the protection of the media and the politicians who they bribe legally through lobby schemes and propagandize on a regular basis. Although it is not anti the same way you would not be anti-Italian if you name the Italian Mafia.
It is my opinion that their main problem is that their religion is of supremacist ideology, and although many adepts of their ideologies consider themselves anti-fascists, they in fact are under the payroll of a group who's main pillar of belief is of fascist nature.
The covid crisis and now the Ukrainian crisis are all caused mainly by this Western political class who is getting worst and worst. Let's not forget who threw out Putin when he came to power, which group did he found out that was screwing Russia mor than any other. All these crysis are symptom of a Mafioso leadership and will not end, only mutate from one form to another.

Its surreal how the west has basically made it a crime to be Russian/Belarussian and most people seem to be ok with it.

In time of war, the wrong nationality still makes you the enemy. Nothing has really changed, despite all those speeches by western leaders about facing the sins of the past and vowing to never make the same mistakes again. Empty platitudes

This is war. Unity, tribalism, xenophobia and propaganda. It's a self-defense mechanism of human species. Not pretty, but it works in hard times. West wasn't one to start it this time and did what it could to avoid it in Europe ("to avoid the same mistakes").

Yes, because othering of people is known to make them behave they way you want them to and not hate you instead...

Yeah let's hate the west for banning you from a using your VISA and playing a Quake tournament and not the jackass invading countries and threatening with nuclear war.

The West started this by launching a coup d'etat in a country bordering Russia and then trying to incorporate that country into an anti-Russian pact. And believe you me, the tribe is protecting itself. Desperately.

Putin is open about his imperialist and pseudo-fascist motives in his speeches and the propaganda accidentally published on state media. It must suck that he's saying the quiet part out loud as you guys try to cover it up lol

And? Maybe ask Ukrainians about what they prefer? Because the answer is simple, american sphere of influence is just better than russian one.
And believe me, none of the Eastern European countries want to be a buffer for both.

Why ask when you can just kill everyone?
Russian mentality.

West wasn't one to start it this time

What are you smoking?

I'm American and I truly am unaware/ignorant of the factors you allude to in implying that "the West" was the one to start the Russian-Ukraine conflict. I don't want to feel/be uninformed or ignorant, so can you help me understand your perspective and the facts/factors behind your statement?

The American policy of encroaching Russia and all states who do not share the Western ideologies -cynically called by the West "values" -is the main cause of the conflict. Remember the Cuban missiles crisis? Why did the US get into hysteria if CCCP wanted to put nuclear missiles in Cuba, in a truly free world -pay attention -in response to the Jupiter weapons system that the US put into Turkey?
The US was ready for a nuclear war if a foreign power would move its missile bases close to the US border. Yes? The same defense policy is active regarding the Russian interests.
After the 90s the US did come closer and closer to Russia, by bringing countries into the vassal NATO organization -who is in fact a bogus alliance created by the US and who would do what the US command them to do. NATO is just a US tool designed to give legitimacy to various US military actions focused on dominance, so-called "power projection".

In 2013 Ukraine had the option to choose between a poor financial aid offered by the EU -which would have been falling just in the hands of politicians and not in the hands of the Ukrainian population -or to choose a much bigger help from Russia, but mainly consisting of natural resources -which by the way had better chance to improve the lives of regular Ukrainians by giving them cheaper energy.

Then Victoria Nuland, who by the way is part of the chosen Mafioso group whos ethnic specific we will not name, intervened, through other, and sustained the fomented revolt against Yanukovich. This was meant to supposedly support the will of the people to rally with the EU, but all was just an excuse. Remember how Victoria Nuland herself said regarding the EU concerns about the Ukrainian crisis? Back in 2014? "And... f* the EU!".

Remember the MInsk agreements? They were not respected. Remember covid19? During covid pandemic the West have been pumping massive arms dealings into Ukraine. Russia knew. They knew that Ukraine prepared to attack the East and thus to weaken Russia, if that operation would succeed.

Now the Ukrainian regime. Remember the chosen Mafioso group whos name we do not speak? They are four of them in the leadership of Ukraine. The financial Mafia carefully put their minions to lead the Ukrainian people. Not only that they act against the interests of Ukrainians. They actively and openly call for their masters, for Blackrock, to come and plunder Ukraine. They put Ukraine under massive debt.

Stop thinking as American in terms of us versus them. What do you think, that the US is the forces of good and Russia the evil? You still think that the US resembles in any way anymore the forces of good? You lost your identity, your culture, your religion, your normality, your rights, and you still think thjat you are in any way better than the rest of the world? Grow up, man.

Go and look a few youtube videos posted by Emil Cosman and colonel Douglas MacGregor, and usually try to listen to opposition as well, don't just swallow everything that the CNN is spewing.
Read both sources and then form an opinion. Well, if you can, because the EU decided for the entire population, just like for kids, communism style, not to read the Russian point of view.

It's a self-defense mechanism of human species

its hard coded into every life forms dna on planet earth.
even ducks are racist

Russians and Europeans are of the same Caucasian race, or subspecies, to be more precis, with minor differences. Tribalism, or ethnic discrimination, yes. Not racism. Even Chinese, Arabs, Jews and Amerindians are of the same race with Europeans. Westerners seem to be especially inclined toward ethnocentrism though. It has become so bad that they would now gladly give good treatment to sub-Saharran populations while spitting on East Europeans and Russians. Which is a bit comical, since they like to call themselves "tolerant". Tolerant against other race, yes -not implying that this is a bad thing -but toward other ethnicities, no.

This is mistakenly being called "racism" especially when the media and propaganda is talking about the Chinese, Middle Easterners and Jews, so they can freely enjoy the ethnical discrimination they perpetrate towards various Europeans, mostly Eastern, and the Russians.

It doesn't really matter if they support Putin or not, they need to suffer to make sanctions succesful. And don't blame the West, it's Putin's fault, not the West.

Compared to the what's happening in the Ukraine beying banned from some game is just a little bit unconfortable, Russians and Belarusian citizens are safe in their homes, not like Ukrainians.

ah yes, punish regular people for the misdeeds of a corrupt self-serving minority called the government

Yes, because Russian citizens have bigger chance to change something than any other country. Putin is punishing those people. He and his goverment are oppressing the regular citizens.

ah yes, because the information citizens of Russia AND the rest of the world receive, is objective, truthful and accurate enough for people to arrive at a sensible conclusion and identify who the real enemy is in order to battle corruption

It's up to Russian citizens to decide about it. In their situation it's easy, everyone in their government is their enemy and corrupt. Even the biggest Putin's opposition is quite similar to him.

The only truth is Russia invading the Ukraine. There are sanctions that will affect Russia and other countries in the world in every area

I'm Russian. I can tell you with confidence that everyone is tired of everyone's bullshit, especially our president's. What I can tell you with greater confidence is that everyone here also laughs at people who don't subscribe to the russian media, but still think they receive any more credible and unbiased news from their own domestic media. Western media says russia is invading ukraine and ukraine needs support. Eastern media says russia is protecting its interests, and americans are the ones who are invading ukraine and provoking russia under the guise of liberating ukraine.

Western media is privately owned, russian media is state-owned - the bottom line is a tiny minority decides what billions of people hear or see. These people are called oligarchs in our region, and they're called billionaires in yours. If you think that these people care about anything else other than playing chess with each other using us regular people as pieces - shaping, dividing and controlling public opinion, and protecting their greedy ass interests - in this case; the arms and energy industry moguls (among other things), sorry, but you live in a laughable fantasy.

I know the above sounds superficially conspiratorial for most people, but your silly, armchair revolutionary virtue signaling and so called 'informed and truth-based opinion' is something most russian people wipe their ass with. People here are smart, drunk, tired, poor, emasculated, demoralized, ethnically divided and desensitized enough to know that they don't know shit, which makes them uncertain, confused, divided, depressed, nihilistic, powerless, indifferent and unfortunately apathetic. There's a small pocket of people who are trying to do what needs to be done, but the activities of these people never sees the light of day by any media, domestic or foreign, because the real war is invisible. It's a paradoxical situation, but it is what it is. If you don't want to become like us, turn off your fucking TV and organize against the bullshit of the people who claim they care about you or your country, because the war has never been horizontal, but vertical, and it transcends nations. If this sounds too edgy, funny or far-fetched for your taste, which I bet it does to some extent, then you deserve everything that is coming to 'you'.

The what? How do you know what I'm reading or watching?

And yes I'm kinda subscribed to the Russian media and I understand the reasoning behind of everything.

And yes there is western or eastern propaganda and everything is biased.

In Syrian conflict I would pick the side of Russia because Assad and Russia were fighting Islamic State.

In the end I will be always against killing civilians. And Ukraine just don't want to be in Russian sphere of influence and I can easily understand that because it was the same case in my country. Also Russians will be more than happy without their gov

it's common knowledge that Russians deal with their state being an authoritarian hell by imagining that westerners don't understand that uh, billionaires are selfish assholes and their our politicians are mostly out for themselves. Essentially, that there are contradictions or issues in our freedoms. Except western media, even some of the most mainstream media heavily covers that and critiques them in ways almost nobody in Russia is allowed to. The cynicism and superiority of your wisdom you bring here only exists to excuse the worse status of your political rights and freedoms in Russia.

Worse, the sort of things that you think people should be mobilized against are only possible if you stop pretending everything is gray as you do and notice that it's meaningful that the west gets critiques of these billionaires and corrupt politicians and can protest it, or write about it much more freely. We can try to nudge populations to elect leaders that will probably be still shit, realistically, and will still excuse imperialism in the middle east or something, but the difference in political agency is important.

I'd also like to note how you started:

ah yes, punish regular people for the misdeeds of a corrupt self-serving minority called the government

and how you finished:

It's a paradoxical situation, but it is what it is. If you don't want to become like us, turn off your fucking TV and organize against the bullshit of the people who claim they care about you or your country, because the war has never been horizontal, but vertical, and it transcends nations. If this sounds too edgy, funny or far-fetched for your taste, which I bet it does to some extent, then you deserve everything that is coming to 'you'.

I don't think you're doing a good job advocating against punishing regular people.

Yeah, it's also common knowledge that these rich people that the western media criticizes, walk away unscathed for committing major crimes, and no one seems to care. So where is the grass greener? Nobody is making cynical excuses, which is why I said it is what it is. It's reality - and the reality is that corruption and propaganda is rampant everywhere, not just in Russia, and people don't know who to trust anymore - they just want to be left alone, hence the apathy.

This distrust is what is fueling authoritarianism and censorship everywhere. The west says it's to protect democracy. The east says it's is to ward off corrupt darksuits who only pretend to protect democracy or peace. Both say they're 'battling misinformation' and both are treating people who point out their lies as domestic or foreign terrorists, nutjobs, bigots etc, especially when someone catches both sides being in cahoots with each other, which is unfortunately a rare occurrence.

No one is pretending that everything is grey, people are just tired of being served shit wrapped in golden foil. We are constantly fed hot air with day-to-day contradictions by our own media, which is not a theme that is limited to Russia, it's a world-wide phenomenon. And you're part of this 'grey' or multicolored chaos whether you like it or not. This short video excerpt accurately captures what and how I've been feeling for a long time now. If it was that bad at the time of its release, it's much worse today. The question you really should start asking is who really benefits from this (information) chaos and whether it's done by conscious intent.

And I don't know what you mean by how I started and how I finished, but I didn't advocate against anything. I implied that if the masses realize who the real enemy is and unite against that, the problem will remove itself without needing to resort to violence. But good luck arriving at this ideal outcome with the amount of discord, narcissism and distractions plaguing the world, not unlike the one demonstrated in this thread.

e: sry, misunderstood ur opening statements

And I don't know what you mean by how I started and how I finished

I mean that you started by advocating that regular people shouldn't be punished and ended by arguing that if people don't share your worldview, they have it coming. The contradiction should be obvious.

It's also common knowledge that the east has similar freedom...in the east... to discuss the shady shenanigans of the west, just as the west does with russia.

I implied that if the masses realize who the real enemy is and unite against that, the problem will remove itself without needing to resort to violence.

Yet there's a massive difference as to the freedom to criticize your own government, and if it threatens the powers in the world--as it must to change anything--then this freedom is crucial. Which makes your comments trying to muddy the waters about the differences in freedom an impediment, not a help for the change you claim you want. You should be pointing out the issues with restrictions on exchanging information, not saying it's the same everywhere.

Great comments by you sir! Id say western media only appears to be privately owned. 90% of news media is owned by 6 companies in the US. And all of those companies have essentially merged with the fed gov at this point. USA is a shadow of what it once was, and is becoming more and more totalitarian/fascistic. The west in general really, and now we hear unis are attempting to ban Russian authors such as Dostoevsky? There is propaganda on both sides. But the elites want us to kill each other

"If I have one message to give to the secular American people, it’s that the world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don’t know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same"

But the elites want us to kill each other

By the time that dawns on some folks, we'll be in the heart of the dark.

Some governments are closer to their people than other. The West went upside down these decades.

Someone here gets it looks like to me. I know that the media is just a psychological program by design, in America they always used it to radicalize people and control their thoughts, emotions and opinions. So for one, getting people psychologically conditioned to go to war with Russia. Or getting people psychologically conditioned to fear fake pandemics, or getting people psychologically conditioned to hate unvaccinated\maskless people, getting people psychologically conditioned for receiving vaccines either by force or by necessity.

The people that fall for it are not lost, but they're in a maze like a mouse looking for cheese. They're in a state of psychosis, psychological warfare, and they're exactly what the status quo needs. In order for a government to utilize it's assets and waste lives on things that it ought not be doing. That is how we (America) got stuck in a 7 year war and a 20 year war in Afghanistan. 911, inside job or not... they utilized it to get us into an infinite economic death cycle, when if they were really being honest with people... they could have just sent Special Forces after people like Bin Laden or Saddam, or even just used drones. They're liars, and they do it to peoples faces every single day.

But because people are seemingly waking up to reality that our governments and world leaders are shitheads, when they try shit like starting WW3 we all realize that they're really just planning these fucking events out and trying to get us to support them. I hate these assholes with a pure passion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TygmRhS3Zos

No need to bother replying. If it helps, I'm glad, if not, ignore. Cheers.

I must add to the video, they constantly complain about people dumping pollutants into the air. But everything is made with plastic, they won't just stop producing things with cheap hazardous chemicals. No matter who it is that is in charge, they play this fake ass 'environmental advocacy' role, but still produce everything in materials that destroy the earth. Idk if anyone ever pointed that out before, you always go back to the source, and that there is the source.

They could have raised awareness to this a long time ago if they really meant business, but once more... they're playing people for fools and just gobbling up their votes for things they never intend to end.

It's literally discrimination based on nationality! You can totally be against the war and all, but FU - you are from X country then suffer!

Russia is disconnecting their citizens from Global Internet anyway so they will be not able to connect anyway

Russian did not ban Western sites. The West banned Russian sites. Does this say something to you?

The only obligations states have to citizens of other countries are ones taken by signing international treaties. There is nothing about right to work for foreign citizens in my constitution. Anything else is luxury in times of prosperity and good relations, and we know who decided to end them.

It is discrimination based on nationality/citizenship, yes! For example I can't go get a job in Russia nowhere near as easily as a Russian can, if at all. The whole concept of modern countries implies discrimination based on nationality, otherwise what's the purpose of countries? High time to learn how the world works.

Disgusting behaviour. Shameless, open discrimination.

Now this crappy game and its pathetic pro scene has just become even less legitimate and interesting.

I'd like to hear something from the other pros, but i guess they're too scared about their paychecks and also happy they lost some competition.

Just when you though the game couldn't be deader and with a bleacker future.

If you click on the tweet he replied to - it says all Belarussian and Russia players had to be banned because of US sanctions. So I guess Russian were banned too?

People forget they are basically paying for each map (I think it's $50 map lost, $150 map won) and the government told them to stop.

I guess they could still compete with no money prizes, which would perhaps make sense only for Cooller... until AMD stops paying him as well.

Russian players are kicked too.

It's Good, ban all the things related to Russia or Belarus and everyone. Make their life really uncomfortable. They should blame Putin for that, because it's his fault. Don't like it? Go and protest on the streets vs Putin's regime.

And to be honest compared to the Ukraine where the bombs lands, cities get destroyed, civilians are dying, escaping their homes... the sanctions are not big deal in comparison.

Brain dead take. Should we ban Israelis from everything till they overthrow their goverment, or English, French, Americans.

Im sure you risked your wellbeing many times revolting against your goverment when they did something unjust. Its hilarious watching neckbeards supporting collective punisment from the comfort of their couch.

My nation was revolting vs Russia for ages, tons of times to be finally succesfull.

Putin is punishing those people, not the other countries, and he and his goverment are oppressing the regular citizens.

You are Brain Dead because it's so hard to understand for you.

When did you put your life on the line for justice? What war did you fight, what riot police did you fight?

I dont care about your country. You cant be personally responsible for bad or good things your country does. Stop claiming other peoples wins as your own, you're pathetic

You cant be personally responsible for bad or good things your country does

Who cares? It doesn't work like this and all know this. The country will be resposible and will pay for this and their citizens. Germany is still paying for their mistakes till now.

Its hilarious watching neckbeards supporting collective punisment from the comfort of their couch.

It's hilarious to cry from the comfort of the couch that somebody is banned from dead game like Quake when there are real problems there in Ukraine and people are suffering. Really?

You're pathetic, just insults.

Its not about banning someone from quake. Its banning anyone from their means to earn money and support themselves.

Saying its just how it is doesnt make it right. Strong countries bullying weak countries is also just how it is.

I will continue to insult you, as you wish bad things on inocent people under the guise of righteousness. Go to Ukraine and take up arms against the Russian invaders before you impose that standard on others, nobody is stopping you, loser

You are useful idiot of Putin or you just don't understand politics. Innocent people of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine suffer because of Putin and his gov, only.

"Inoccent" people of Germany has chosen Nazi Party in democratic elections. So they were responsible for that. And citizens of the country got influence on their own country.Still a lot of people in Russia supports Putin because of propaganda and it's probably way more of them than against him.

We have enough of stuff to do here to support Ukrainians refugees and this is the best I can do and I'm doing that. And no, it's not comfortable.

Also with the ban for internet services they will be not able to play anyway.

Why go so far back anf compare this situation to ww2, when you can look at 50 more recent wars? Im curious how do you rationalise to yourself the fact that some of the countries imposing these sanctions do simmilar stuff all the time? Also how do you rationalise your country being alied to those countries?

My guess is you just have Russians. What country are you from anyway?

Man, don't waste your time. Who are we even talking to? Every real person I know feels sorry for Ukrainian people, no matter their political affiliation. They just don't want another war in Europe.

What are these people here, russian trolls with fake flags? Rejects who want to get back at society for their harms? I don't know, but it doesn't feel real. Better let it go, I don't think people who care about getting their quake videos more than anything in the world are worth trying to reason with. Feel free to prove me wrong but I gave up on esr long time ago and not gonna argue with them.

I'm sorry for Russian and Belarussian quake players, they are some of my favorites, especially Cypher. But this is the logic of escalation and war, there are things more important than quake.

Yes, you are right, thanks!

Its banning anyone from their means to earn money and support themselves.

Honestly I would prefer not having means to earn money as opposed to getting shot at. GTFO of Ukraine and maybe then you can earn money?

Yeah, in Europe we will also suffer from higher prices of fuel, steal, gas, building materials etc. And it's all affecting innocent people, right? But I'm totally ok with paying higher price to avoid giving Putin more money. Ukrainians are paying the highest price so higher prices for some goods are not a big deal in comparison.

How's cooller invading Ukraine again? :)

It doesn't matter at all.
Why I should pay more for the fuel because of this war?

Some people in sports are not going to attend in tournaments because of the ban on the air travel. Also by banning internet services.

Nobody is going to check it individually for every case. It's about making the problem visible to every citizen. This is how sanctions work.

Gabe is even considering banning Russia from Steam, gud luck playing CSGO with such ban.

Honestly I would prefer not having means to earn money as opposed to getting shot at.

I completely agree. I never once claimed that Russians have it worse than Ukrainians

Should we ban Israelis from everything till they overthrow their goverment, or English, French, Americans.

If we could do that effectively, why not?

Exactly. We want equal standards, otherwise its just cold war politics and tribalism which I cant support

Sadly I don't think you can make any sort of progress politically by requiring equal standards for each policy you adopt

I think the intent of sanctions on Russia is not to punish the citizens, but is one of the only non-military tools available to influence Putin and his administration. Unfortunately, the Russian people will suffer as a result of Putin's decisions that led to these sanctions, but then again, the Ukrainian people are also suffering as a result of his decisions. Putin appears to have created a lose-lose situation :(

Afaik the US is the only country in the world who dropped two atomic bombs on civilians. Hague tribunal anyone?

What a rassist bulls*it this is!
Cooller, Cypher and Base (+ many more) have nothing to do with the army operations and politics. Why they got banned? This makes ZERO SENSE.
Just every russian, belarussian athlete (and paralympic athlete, too!) got banned from the tournaments and events.

Yes the holy "democratic" West countries started this sh*tshow, as by doing nothing agains the Nazi government in the Ukraine.
Nobody had the balls to say: stop this genozide against your own country men (Lugansk, Donbass people).

The truth is: ukraine and russian people are brothers and sisters, they should live in peace.

The NATO expanded to the east, toward Russia. Russia under Putin and Lawrow tried everything to calm down the NATO's heads, but the USA didn't want to hear.

Say NO to the Nazis in Ukraine, say NO to their nuclear weapons plans, say NO to their genozide.

Give Cooller, Cypher, Base and many others their freedom to play back. This guys are progamers, thats their job.

Idiot. Putin's troll spreading his propaganda

The NATO expanded to the east, toward Russia

Without this the Germany would be neighbour of Russia now, faggot. Was DDR fun? Also there are not so many russians in Ukraine as you think.

Say NO to the Nazis in Ukraine, say NO to their nuclear weapons plans, say NO to their genozide.

the fuck are you smoking?
https://twitter.com/GermanEmbassySA/status/1500032894261211138

The truth is fkin Germany collaborated with Russia too much and destabilized the whole region by making Germany and EU dependant on Russia about the Gas (hello Gerhard Schroeder working for Russian Gazprom) and making too many businesses with them. Germany's Energy politics was actually totally anti european.

Also Germany was slowing every sanction, few days earlier and maybe that war would never happen.

Germany and Russia had economic ties, each based on their own specific. This has been for centuries! Much of the German economy went well in history thanks to Russian natural resources availability. It is not the job of the US to decide who to ally with who. This is not their planet.

Let's not forget Eastern Europe. The Austro-Hungarian empire who was on par with the West in terms of technology and standard of living. This until the US decided to "wisely" intervene in ww1 and Eastern Europe did not regain their strength since.
At some point Jugoslavia became a small local powerhouse in terms of economic power and this could not be let unanswered by the West. The country needed to be isolated and disbanded.

In modern times since the corrupt US took over the Western hemisphere the worst case scenario for the US was when Germany allied with Russia. They would do anything and I mean anything this not to happen. And, like Nuland said "f the EU ! "

Say NO to the Nazis in Ukraine, say NO to their nuclear weapons plans, say NO to their genozide.

Okay there were many useful idiots around but you take the cake for straight up believing everything Putin says directly lol. Special kind of idiot.

Everyone who doesn't eat USrael propaganda is Hitler (Putin).
Post#1488

keep at it, not much progress so far but i'm sure you'll be funny by age 40

Programmed ZOGbot can't tell what's real and what's a joke.
Working as intended.

It's all about world domination, money.
USA or Israel are also the bad guys. And all depends on the superpowers interests and the context. For small countries it's always super bad to be in between.

Taking the example of Syria, Assad is not saint, but actually he was fighting vs ISIS and Russia supported that. And both super powers were providing weapons to both sides. But Middle East is even more complicated.

Israel is also doing bad things in Gaza area and nobody can say a thing about it.

They are all using cluster bombs, because they haven't sign the Geneva conventions about it.

In the end, you always need to pick the side.

Preach!
Not sure about the last sentence though.
No one cares what you think. No one cares what I think.
If there's need to get people support it's just a matter of brainwashing and PR.

It's hard to play as a neutral Switzerland every time ;)
It's not that easy to become a money laundry of whole world ;)

Just arrived from there after I stayed three weeks.
The main feeling I had once I left the country and I entered the EU was that I entered a dictatorial territory (one subjugated).

You put it so well. But so many brainwashed Westerners still think in terms of "good vs evil".

Which is a form of fascism, if you think about it. In order to call yourself "good" and the enemy "evil" you need to have a sense of superiority.

Sorry Nazi friend, you are an idiot.

I've spent a lot of time critiquing and pointing out the threats of nazis, hell I've called them out on ESR. You're just calling everyone nazis on no evidence at all while believing everything a far-right dictator says. Maybe it's your motives that are not too far from those of nazis.

The main pillar of fascism is the idea of superiority. It can well be of moral nature as well, unless you are very well informed, which you are not. Hence calling Russia or Putin "evil" is fascist rhetoric.

Cooller, Cypher and Base (+ many more) have nothing to do with the army operations and politics. Why they got banned? This makes ZERO SENSE.

So why doesn't russia attack the neo-nazis? They are killing everyone - including kids who I'm pretty sure had nothing to do with this war. You are shelling hospitals and bombing cities, killing civilians but OH GOD FORBID SOMEONE DOESN'T LET BASE PLAY A VIDEOGAME?

Are you fucking mental? If Russia doesn't care who or what they are killing, why should everyone else sanction JUST Putin and his cronies?

This guys are progamers, thats their job.

Those guys are soldiers and it's not their job to kill civilians yet here we are. Fucking idiot.

Exactly. This is only Putin's fault and they are trying to blame the west. They got banned from game while people were home deprived, raped banned, from LIFE.

I can understand normal Russians/Belarusians pain but it's nothing compared to what is happening to innocent Ukrainians by hands of their relatives and governments. It's SICK, WILD AND EVIL.

Nothing makes sense what you are talking about.

Politics is not religon! Delete the word "believe". You may believe in god or whatever... politics is about "understand". You understand this??!!

You fucking nazi idiot.

Exactly. Ukraine was created in the first place as a buffer state. It's literally the only reason it exists, if buffer states weren't deemed necessary by THE WEST and the east, the actual Ukrainian territories would just be Russia's westernmost border.

But buffer states are needed, because in the age of nuclear missiles having NATO nuclear missiles right on your border means they can nuke Moscow and half of Russia in under 3 minutes, leaving no time to answer and cancelling the "MAD" balance. That's why USSR sacrificed some of its territories to create buffer states that should act as neutral "walls" between east and west militaries.

The same goes the other way of course, and it's the reason we almost entered world war III when USSR wanted to put nuclear weapons in Cuba.

America didn't accept that. But Russia should?

Classic first world mentality of "i can do whatever the fuck i want to you and i'm automatically right"

In the past century it was decided NATO forces wouldn't have expanded into buffer states.

But being the unreliable, honorless cheaters they are, NATO forces didn't care and kept creeping into buffer states, assimilating them and installing missiles bases.

Putin has asked to avoid that for a decade. Did everything he could politically to avoid this situation.

But american military complex need to never stop, it CAN'T stop, and now that Afghanistan playground is closed, it needed a new game.

Zelensky is an actor that was installed in 2014 with a golpe that removed the previously, democratically elected president.

Immediately following that golpe, Zelensky's neo-nazi squadrons started ethnically cleansing the russian population and political opposers. Burning them alive, torturing, etc.

It's nothing new, Ukrainian populations have seeked the help of and supported the nazi armies since world war II. This is historical fact, and today ukraine is the biggest concentration of neo-nazis in the world. There are plenty of videos and photos of ukrainian soldiers with the swastika flag near the ukrainian one.

This has gone on since 2014. After 8 years of poking the bear, the bear said stop.

It's really difficult to see this as unreasonable, when you actually know the backstory.

But retarded first world nerds that spend their lifes playing videogames and watching movies and series where the baddies are always Russians can't understand any of that.

They're too brainwashed, too deeply programmed to not just go with their governments flow and do and think as told.

You know, maybe these eastern-european countries are tired of being so-called buffer states. Apparently, instead of being russian-dependent shitholes, they want to enter the sphere of western influence. As a citizen of a country that, after joining the European Union, advanced from a shithole tier to "an actually pleasant place to live in" tier, their motives are pretty clear to me. And that a psychopath at Kremlin doesn't like these changes, well, it's not a justification of an attack on one of these countries -- that should be fucking obvious for anyone who doesn't treat people's lives like numbers in Excel.

This

Like in cold war thing. During cold war America were pumping FRG with money to make it look nice and shiny. So people living on the other side of the wall in GDR were jelous about this shiny FRG and wanted change and stuff. It's similar in europe, in this countries that is under control of NATO. Like in your story, your contry was a shit hole, poor country that have nothing to sell, but with one fingerclick, you joinned EU and became rich. How? because EU straight forward start pumping your contry with money to make it look nice and shiny. So people living in russia and non-eu countrys would be jelouse about this nice and shiny shithole.
And if you not willing to join EU or NATO they may force other EU countrys to not trade with you, they only gonna sell to you for tripple X price, but not gona buy anything.
And if you are this type of people who don't belive in a history, you can see whats going on right now. EU is trying to block Russia from trade. But Russia is big rich contry and doesn't care much about this sanctions. But think what EU can do with a small contrys. Maybe the reason why your shithole was a shithole is because EU were blocking you from trade?

"The concept of buffer states is part of a theory of the balance of power that entered European strategic and diplomatic thinking in the 18th century."
eastern-european countries are tired of being so-called buffer states? eastern-european wanna war?

Do you know why countries want to join the EU and NATO? Because russian economy and russian influenced economies are super poor. Russia cannot fullfil the basic needs of their citizens too. Also in western world at least you have some rights as a individual.

And nobody wants to be poor buffer state anyway. Ukraine is independent country and they can make their own choices. GTFO Russia and Murrica. Who the fuck gave Russia or USA the right to decide about the borders or policies of other independant countries? Like Yalta Conference.

Zelensky's neo-nazi squadrons
Ukrainian populations have seeked the help of and supported the nazi armies since world war II

This is just hilarious. WW2 was long time ago. It's like saying all ukrainians are Bandera guys which is not true.
https://twitter.com/SamRamani2/status/1500164010662060033

It's literally the only reason it exists, if buffer states weren't deemed necessary by THE WEST and the east, the actual Ukrainian territories would just be Russia's westernmost border.

Bullshit. Western part would be Poland right now because historically that part was polish (Lviv etc.). But Stalin made so stupid borders to mix everyone. Like Pomerania was almost never polish, now it is. But after so many years nobody gives a fuck, Poland is not willing to take the Western part of Ukraine, Germany doesn't want Pomerania back etc. We just want to live in peace and grow our economies.

you are quite conveniently avoiding to talk about the fact that Ukraine killed, bombed, tortured, raped and all kind of war crimes stuff the Russian speaking population for 8 years. Ofc people like you can't accept that it's more complicated than their own limited view and the propaganda they are subjected to.

The same way noone wants to talk about USA "justice and democracy" all over the world in many countries and all the war crimes they did over the years. Where were the severe actions against them? Ofc when you are doing it - NP, but when someone else - FO! Cuba is good example and what USA did - basically the same f thing.

Stop making assumptions. I have said even in this thread that's more complicated especially with the USA and for example Syria. And I will never advocate for USA when doing similar things.

From the Crimea time there is a war in Ukraine.

you are quite conveniently avoiding to talk about the fact that Ukraine killed, bombed, tortured, raped and all kind of war crimes stuff the Russian speaking population for 8 years.

Please show me the confirmed examples of that, especially bombing.

There is plenty of material over the web, including 5 years evidence gathered by French journalist who was there. Ofc pick your sources as there is SO F MUCH misinformation from both sides that it's unreal.

Either way - war is never the correct way to solve anything and I am totally against it.

There is also a lot of bullshit in the WEB so show me.

And there is war for 8 years there.

I think your only reference is Azov Battalion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azov_Battalion#...war_crimes
Which was doing exactly same thing as "russian separatists", and most of the stuff is related to the spies treatment, like everyone is doing, Russia or USA, they are not going to drink a cup of tea with them.

Also whole thing was happening after taking the Crimea by Russia... It's war. Azov is not whole Ukraine.

Nex1, I agree with you. But, I have to say... we're all hostages of our nations. I look at the Ukrainians all trying to live life while they're stuck in their cities, getting bombarded, I saw a 14 year old girl get killed by an artillery strike while she was riding her bicycle. That little girl was stuck there, because her parents are stuck there, and she is just trying to pretend life is 100% normal. She was alive long enough to sit up for a second before she lost consciousness. If you allow state media to indoctrinate you, then you'll be in much bigger shit. They look at it as fair game, if you support the situation, then you're completely fair game to them. The key to survival is not getting invested, or involved in bureaucrat affairs. But listening and hearing them, and examining their actions enough to put space between you and them before hell breaks loose.

Because if they can do it to Ukrainians and Russians, they can do it to anyone dude. And trust me when I say this, these bureaucrats want to drag everyone down with them like human meat shields (just like Zelensky). We're all just trying to live life while these assholes live in underground bunkers planning out our demise, and I am 100% with you on this shit and I'm American. There might not be a whole lot of Americans that get it, but I do.

I feel we have more nazis here in Poland (hi pacman) than Ukraine has, so it only makes sense to "liberate" us too, eventually. And from my sampling of two samples in this thread, I'd say Germany's concentration is even higher, liberation is highly advisable.

Which half of Germany are you? Because you know what the actual West decided to be a buffer zone? Are you younger than me? I remember when there was Germany having only half of Berlin, and the Rotten West was occupying the other half. Now that's a buffer zone decided by the west.

And because you're a moron: Ukraine was created by Ukrainians, and its borders remained unchanged for a 100 years. Yes, they were one of the "united republics", but they were a republic all this time. One day the union split, nothing changed. What the fuck has the west to do with the existence of a country which has existed for a 100 years in this very place, and hundreds more with shifting borders/occupants (us included)?

The nex1 post contains so much bullshit it'd take an essay to debunk it all lol. The mentality is absurd, something akin to two players competing in a game, USA is winning versus Russia, the rest of the countries are filled with NPCs whose citizens don't matter and nex1 is repeating Russia's trashtalk as if it's fact, as far as he can remember it anyway.

Best part is that this guy thinks Zelenskyy who in 2014 was a Russian speaking actor/comedian that also spoke out against mistreating Russian language works in Ukraine and finally got elected in 2019 with heavy support from Russian speaking areas... is actually a Ukrainian nazi put into the government in 2014 that commands neo-nazi squadrons ethnically cleansing and torturing the Russians [that in reality voted for him in 2019].

This is somehow more stupid than Qanon thinking Trump was in power while Biden is there, on live TV, almost daily. An esreality exclusive. And you'd think it's a joke, but nex1 didn't start posting today.

I feel we have more nazis here in Poland

bullshit

As evidenced by the post above, any amount of patriotism classifies as nazism to Russia.

And we have a nationalist government (pretty extreme by EU standards).

So if attack on Ukraine is justified by Ukraine's "nazism", it's only logical to keep "freeing" more people from this condition...

It's not nationalist government, they are just retards, still far from nationalist.

Germany has "troublesome" history and it's hard for them to relate to national stuff. So they see everything national or patriotic as Nazi. And because they are dominant in EU (and creating EU standards) they think the same about other countries.

But first of all you cannot compare nationalists from one country to another. In Germany nationalists made a hateful doctrine and created racism industry and killed people in "factories".

In Poland on the other hand national / patriotic stuff got totally different character. Fighting for freedom.

"My nationalism is better than your nationalism" is probably peak nationalism :D

Even before the war there was no nationalist gov in Poland, it was way more lefty. I just mean, In every country it's different. Groups from right wing before WW2 in Poland were considered more progressive, more educated, more cultural.

We are using same terms, but it's oversimplification, left-right wing term doesn't describe the reality well and "nationalism" term is overused

I feel we have more nazis here in Poland (hi pacman)

You are simply delusional.
Calling me a nazi is like calling Kaczynski GIGACHAD.
It's either lie or delusion.
Last nazis I've heard about in Poland were in some punk bands 100 years ago when I was a kid and in TVN eating cakes in forest.
If you think there are nazis in Poland you are brainwashed.
Year 2019 was year of Bandera in Ukraine.
They have non-ironic nazis in military paid by a jew oligarch.
Ignorance is a bliss.
No hate though <3
UgU

There are plenty of videos and photos of ukrainian soldiers with the swastika flag near the ukrainian one.

There are plenty of videos of russian neo-nazis but I don't see anyone bombing their cities, what gives? it's cool if russia does it to a smaller state but not when it has to deal with the problems inside its borders?

"But retarded first world nerds that spend their lifes playing videogames and watching movies and series where the baddies are always Russians can't understand any of that."

Kinda' funny you say that on Quake site where most of its users have idolised Cooller for the last 20 years and given a lot of respect to Russian Quakers.

Chess players
https://www.chess.com/news/view/grand-chess-t...ederations

Sports
https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/badm...022-03-01/

Fifa
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-60592658

It's not surprising at all

Note that the organizers might be doing this because of difficulties with payments and other issues. I don't know if that's the case or not.

I saw Cypher was tweeting against the war, respect. I haven't checked others.

haven't heard the word "vaccine" in over a week and ESR is suddenly alive again

thank you putin!

End of the day the world can either sit back and do nothing.
Get involved in fighting and risk having their countries attacked.

OR AT THIS STAGE.

put economic and social pressure on Russians in response to what Putin is doing in a bid to make the motive of his business in Ukraine less appealing.

Even if Russia takes Ukraine, its not going to be a well celebrated victory.

It didn't work well for the Americans and British in the middle east.
The Americans in Vietnam, or the argentines in the Falkland's, Taking peoples land is always hard because one side is fighting a war their hearts are not in and the other is fighting for everything they know and love. Russia didn't need Ukraine and most of the soldiers do not want it. Putin does. yes I know Falklands was once upon a time not British and same in Ukraine, but times change and Russia has more than enough land.

That's a big difference.

There is no good ending for Russia in this, even if they take Ukraine, Putin has taken them back to the dark ages because they'll be ostracised from the rest of the world.

Either Russians will hate him, or just be forced to side with him.

Either way, Russia will lose far more than its gained from this and Putin needs to realise, nearly every western country is filled with all kinds of people, races, culture, you drop a bomb in London or any other european country, you kill russians, muslims, blacks, whites, Chinese, Russians and everything in between and relations of very powerful people, pretty soon, your world will become very small.

I would rather be cypher and cooller being banned from a quake league than their equiv from Ukraine whose forced to pickup a gun and defend his country because his qualifications are he's a male aged 18-60.

Murrica exporting "democracy and freedom" to middle east and stealing Oil only caused hatred vs USA and grow of the Islamic State. In some countries it was better under dictatorship than now having Sharia law on the streets...

America had certain advantages.

They are more influential popular than Russia.
They had 911.
They had dictators actually using these weapons.
The Middle East countries they invaded were relatively low influence and mobile internet and cameras were not as rife.

This is 100 percent not an anti Russian post a lot of countries have leaders who do shit things but times need to move on and this barbaric stuff is not acceptable any more without very good reason.

Ukraine is very rich in natural resources.

I agree!

Not to mention that this could escalate even more and even start a ww3.

This is the last thing humanity needs right now and there is nothing worse than a war. I mean we already lived the last few years an economic crisis and a pandemic, but these are probably nothing in front of a war.

Even as it is right now, it already has consequences for most and not just the Russians. The prices of gas, oil and even food have gone really high and every family’s income has essentially decreased because of that.

The only good thing that I can see is that ESR became a little more alive.

POOR RUSSIAN PLAYERS CAN'T PLAY QUAKE, DO SOMETHING!



Have you brainless dick gnats thought about Ukrainians who are trying to play quake? Why are you fighting for the privilege to play video games while at the same time denying an entire nation to do so?

I'm sure there are plenty of people who would rather wind down playing video games right now but guess what - they can't. They can't because they had to either run or risk getting killed.

This doesn't bother you?
It only bothers you when RUSSIAN PLAYERS can't play?

Bruh

I will admit I'm keeping my reading of ESR posts extremely superficial these days, and barely skimming thru certain "I'm intellectual, honestly guys" walls of text, "I-quote-you-quote-me-I-win" matches, and the semantics battles, but even so I can't quite figure out why there is so much hostility, polarization and intentional generalization around this topic, like your comment just now. Some pretty low hanging fruit is being picked even for ESR standards.

I don't think anyone is calling into question the fact that, yes, Putin is invading Ukraine and this is a <<bad thing>> (no shit) and people are <<fucking dying>> (another bad thing! no shit), aside from maybe the mandatory singular pro-war retard inevitably lurking on ESR, I'm not sure, I haven't done a thorough check.

But why is it that if someone is not 110% rallied into a fervorous frenzy of (Washington-media-fueled) anti-Russian sentiment and not devoting the entirety of their online presence into suddenly calling for only the harshest, strictest and severest (Washington-pushed) sanctions for everyone and everything that happens to have the misfortune of calling Russia their home, why are they suddenly classified as brainless dick gnats or Putin cocksuckers or whatever? Why is it that nobody is allowed to have an objective opinion that maybe, just maybe, there is not just one singular "antichrist / new Hitler" in this crisis, but multiple, and why should someone be harassed for suggesting that maybe, just maybe, punishing an entire population's quality of life and tainting them as not even being worthy of sympathy just because of the actions of an elite few politicians, warmongers and bankers that they didn't even elect, maybe isn't really something worthy of cheering on.

People often enjoy sneering at the complete apparent ignorance of the populaces of the 1920s and 30s who, oh bless them, what simpletons, got caught up with and carried away by propaganda-fueled passion which then led to the worst atrocities of the 20th century. But here we are, 100 years later, and people are still generally incapable of, perhaps more than ever, recognizing propaganda when it manifests itself, or at least detracting themselves from the polarized view of the world that all propaganda tries to enforce. Granted, it's not easy, and propaganda will always be the most powerful weapon, but we have such easy access to learning about history that there is less and less room for excuse.

Just like the millions of people zealously calling for mandatory vaccinations and not tolerating any question about whether this is the right thing to do (not even getting into the topic whether it will actually solve the problem or not), now we have millions of people zealously cheering on sanctions that indiscriminately make every Russian citizen suffer, and likewise, not tolerating anyone or anything that so much as questions whether this is actually the right thing to do (or, likewise, will actually solve the problem). I'm curious if these people even know what "the problem" is, in both scenarios. From what I've seen, the most adamant followers of the current simplistic narratives seem to have the historical and geopolitical awareness of a high school freshman.

Back on topic. This was about players kicked from QPL due to sanctions. So why does anyone who dares point out the injustice behind this need to be met with a barrage of "WHAT ABOUT UKRAINIANS, BIGOT" hostility? What the fuck has that even got to do with it? A little sanctimonious don't you think? Isn't that an even more extreme form of the same "whataboutism" that is called out whenever anyone dares to put the Ukraine crisis within the context of NATO-led atrocities?

I've also seen some "well if Russians don't like being sanctioned maybe they should go out and protest their government, bigot???" floating around, as if that justifies the whole thing in a neat little package. Like b.r.u.h

Anyway, nice to see you hanging around here again, not that there's much left to do here, but I remember you had a lot thicker skin in earlier times.

And you are from Moldova or something? so your country can be next and claimed in few hours by Russia? And people will start to just disappear?

Everyone is talking about NATO or Russia influence but what about what people in those smaller countries want?

Also the Western world is usually making the mistake to trust Russia too much, I don't see it much as anti Russian. The sanctions should be introduced long time ago, when Crimea was overtaken. Or even in 2008, Georgia times. But usually Western world was usually talking instead of doing.

Also every company or organization is banning now anything related to Russia, because of this war. People in sports will not be able to travel to other countries anyway. Russian products are not sold in Europe anymore etc. Football teams a re not going to play vs Russian team etc.

So it's hard to say it's a explicit bans on those Quake players, more like it's politics implications and no other choice.

I don't think anyone is calling into question the fact that, yes, Putin is invading Ukraine

stpbozin: "So, Russian military operation is not invasion". Note he even fucking avoids calling it a war.

Why is it that nobody is allowed to have an objective opinion that maybe, just maybe, there is not just one singular "antichrist / new Hitler" in this crisis, but multiple, and why should someone be harassed for suggesting that maybe, just maybe, punishing an entire population's quality of life and tainting them as not even being worthy of sympathy just because of the actions of an elite few politicians, warmongers and bankers that they didn't even elect, maybe isn't really something worthy of cheering on.

If Putin is rational he should have chosen not to attack Ukraine and incur these sanctions, but then he did while announcing imperialist and sort of fascist motives, so perhaps he isn't merely doing what he is forced to by the west as people say. Some people conclude from this that sanctions are pointless if he won't react to them. But here's the good thing about the sanctions even in this case: at least they're not a war, and they limit his ability to fund his next war.

There might be something to be said about threatening to cut off the gas and oil flow to prevent him from continuing this. There's not enough will for that in the west, so this is more so a criticism for the EU.

I gotta say, it's also kinda weird you went from the west is fucked economically and Russia will be fine, to saying these sanctions are pointless cruelty on the Russians to spending time passionately admonishing the harshness towards Russia as a state among westerners while plussing or linking people arguing that Russia isn't really the main bad guy here. Not hard to get people polarized reading all that.

There is a difference between Russia as an institution / geopolitical power (often summarized as "Putin"), and Russia as a people. Surely it is clear which is being referred to in each context. This is the semantics battles I referred to...

My rant was about the wave of propaganda that is currently fueling completely artificially generated hatred against the latter, portraying both Putin and the people as the same entity, and the masses that are happily lapping it up in their virtue-hungry hysteria, celebrating any and all countermeasures proposed by their courageous, honest, brave and stunning freedom-loving leaders and absorbing everything their beloved truth-seeking fact-checking press has to offer, while completely oblivious to the fact that history started a little further back than last week and that there are no good guys in geopolitics. There is no singular main bad guy here. That's the whole point. I will happily plus and link people who are not afraid to point this out.

Here's the good thing about sanctions? Here's the good thing about mandates. Here's the good thing about dead Palestinian kids. I'd leave that kind of rhetoric to the likes of CNN & Washington Post. But do you know what else "at least isn't a war"? USA not orchestrating a coup to oust Yanukovych in the first place. What could possibly go wrong...

And now look at it. Top 10 anime betrayals.

"gentlemen, our intelligence reports russia is going to invade ukraine"

"yes, we know"

Textbook Foreign Policy

You keep talking like Ukrainians had no part in wanting Yanukovich out, but more importantly, you keep implying it's others' fault for forcing Russia into a situation where it had no choice. If it's a bad call for Russia to invade, and now it sure as hell call looks like that, then how can it be forced? Somebody can have their options worsened, they can't be forced to choose a bad option out of those in existence.


At which point they openly repeat their imperialist motives and wishes for ethnicity based destiny and invade. How can you fault someone else for this, when even pretending that it's the optimal strategy left doesn't work? How are they not the main bad guy here?

I pointed out good reasons for the sanctions. I pointed out the issues in the economic assumptions you said. You oppose them on different grounds each time after various pro-russia points you make are shown to be invalid or even factually inaccurate: now they're what, a part of a series of escalations that inevitably lead to more bad things? That's left unexplained. I'll remain with my option at least of less funding for the guy who invades and bombs countries even when it's against his strategic interests.

"gentlemen, our intelligence reports russia is going to invade ukraine"

"yes, we know"

Not the guy you linked though. "At least he understands there's no good guys" isn't a reason to double down on it.

Yes, I keep X and you keep Y. That's how ESR works I guess.

I'm not gonna say my rhetoric was perfectly polite or something, but I engaged on details when you didn't seem to, and now you're dropping the topic. It's hard to see it as me being stubborn from my perspective.

I will admit I'm keeping my reading of ESR posts extremely superficial these days

ESR is about as alive as QL TDM these days :( I started posting again recently because I got a job that allows me to slack and read interweb forums again.

I can't quite figure out why there is so much hostility, polarization and intentional generalization around this topic

Because it's basically an extension of "war in ukraine" thread.

I don't think anyone is calling into question the fact that, yes, Putin is invading Ukraine

Again I would like you to check that thread. Although you might be right on the amount of nerds disputing the claim that there's a war going on.

So why does anyone who dares point out the injustice behind this need[..]

Because I think there is no injustice.

well if Russians don't like being sanctioned maybe they should go out and protest their government, bigot???

I don't think Putin will back down. I know NATO/WEST won't make the first move, I know <insert country> will get sacrificed and used like a fleshlight for both WEST/RUS. The only way to stop this madness is for the Russian people to become more vocal and make a change. Russia has to crumble from within, not by an outside force IMO. That's why I think sanctions make sense.

I don't have a dog in this fight, I'm not some zelenskyy fanboi, I'm not PRO Ukraine, I can't say I really cared about them or their country and I'm not doing it for internet points either (on a forum being read by 20 people daily). I missed the Crimea train, I haven't done my research regarding every war that happened in the last 20 years.


The media "sensationalizing" this war is terrible and I see how the American "you're either with us or against us" binary mentality works here. I just think human lives are worth more. No matter what race/religion/nationality.

Offtopic:

Nice to see you still around, my skin is indeed getting thinner but then again, so is my hairline. We've been shitposting for nearly 15 years bruv.

Is sonic still around?

Yeah, for me it's just all the hypocrisy, double standards and propaganda floating around, rustles my jimmies. We barely done with 2 years of non-stop virus porn and now we're gonna do the whole thing again with nuke porn.

tdmpickup is alive last time I checked, it's all in HoQ discord now. I grind there a bit every year around xmas.

sonic is alive and well m8, if we're lucky he may bless us with an [img1] yet

Have you brainless dick gnats thought about Ukrainians who are trying to play quake? Why are you fighting for the privilege to play video games while at the same time denying an entire nation to do so?

Why do you think someone cant simpatize with both of these people? Why is it either or?

Sure, Ukrainians are 100 times more fucked by this situation than Russians. But some Russian making a living from competing internationaly, or working for a foreign company is fucked 100 times more than you or me.

Why is it controversial to think both war and blanket bans are wrong? Putin dickriders in this thread are not the only ones who find this unfair.

Also, how is it ok that countries which played the biggest role in enacting these sanctions reglulary do the same kind of shit all over the globe? If we have 2 bullies and you routinely ally yourself with one of em and never stand up him, how does that make you anything other than that bullies henchman?

Im sure that when this war ends (hopefully soon) and when some west country again inevitably launches an unsanctioned invasion on a sovereign country, Russians will call for sanctions and all the bastions of morality that are now sanctioning Russians will find an excuse not to do it.

I doubt you are not smart enough to recognize that this is just geopolitics and nothing more. And while it might seem that even if its done for the wrong reasons, its still helping Ukraine, in the long run it just serves to preserve the US position as the sole superpower.

Most people who are opposed to this are not in love with Russia, they are just sick of cowardice and hypocrisy of US allies, EU being the worst

Why do you think someone cant simpatize with both of these people? Why is it either or?

I don't feel like "the other side" is sympathizing. Check the other thread - some users are glad there's a war going on. My, albeit angry teenage reply was directed mostly at those users.

Why is it controversial to think both war and blanket bans are wrong

Because I believe that currently, Russian citizens have the power to change things. If they do not wish for the things to change, then they support someone who is killing innocents. Do I want people that support war to suffer? Yes - and still they only suffer financially. No one is killing them.

Also, how is it ok that countries which played the biggest role in enacting these sanctions reglulary do the same kind of shit all over the globe?

It is not and I condemn EVER country that does that - I have been openly anti-USA and their "support OUR TROOPS" bullshit. I agree with you that IF we decide to take action against Russia - USA needs to be sanctioned as well.

Im sure that when this war ends (hopefully soon) and when some west country again inevitably launches an unsanctioned invasion on a sovereign country, Russians will call for sanctions and all the bastions of morality that are now sanctioning Russians will find an excuse not to do it.

Let's hope this sets a precedent. USA has to pay for the blood on their hands. The war crimes and atrocities committed by their military is far worse than whatever is happening in UA currently. USA literally carpet bombed entire towns but under the pretense of "fighting the good fight".

Most people who are opposed to this are not in love with Russia, they are just sick of cowardice and hypocrisy of US allies, EU being the worst

Maybe staring at the screen for hours and reading all the media (both PRO/ANTI RU) clouded my judgement. It's so easy to become part of a group nowadays. So far I've seen is (probably the vocal minority) - Russians endorsing the war.

Although as of today, I've also noticed that the protest keep getting bigger in Moscow.

I would like to point out that police brutality is rampart in Moscow right now, people aren't allowed to voice their opinion and are getting thrown in jail for protesting but....

..considering we got water cannon + beating from our government for refusing to get vaccinated... I will abstain from further comments :D

I like the idea of this setting the precedent and countries taking a hard stance against imperialism, but wont hold my breath.

I can see where youre coming from with what you wrote and I agree for the most part.

I just wanna add that sanctions hurt the people and the most vulnerable people during the war are those who are for whatever reason seen as disloyal (wrong ethnicity, antiwar stance, wrong political affiliation). We've both seen it happen during the 90s. We had our "Belgrade agents", "fifth-column", "dalmatian separstists" and so on, Slovenians killed some JNA conscrips waving a white flag, also "izbrisani"... what im saying is you can be sure that Russians who are gonna suffer the most from all of this are those who are opposed to war.

#Russia began active preparations for disconnection from the global Internet

No later than March 11, all servers and domains must be transferred to the #Russian zone. In addition, detailed data on the network infrastructure of the sites is being collected.

https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1500553480548892679

yhm, yeah, blame the West.

Nothing new: that's called "collective responsibility", known practice since WW2, "welcome" to WW3

I am sure they are just afraid of cypher/cooller skills

"The only way to stop this madness is for the Russian people to become more vocal and make a change. Russia has to crumble from within, not by an outside force IMO. That's why I think sanctions make sense. "

the vast majority of the russian people I know don't support the invasion although a couple have said their opinion is changing because "I saw stuff on tv about we've found evidence that ukraine were making illegal chemical weapons and the soldiers there have been sending photos of dead russian soldiers to people on telegram"

change from within is possible but not easy

At a global sporting level, personally I would have preferred if competitors were allowed to participate with a white flag, no mentions of their home country, and prize money donated towards Ukraine relief. It would really give It would give Russian and Belarusian athletes the ability to show where they stand without having for them to say it clearly and face consequences from their respective govs but i dont make the rules

Regardless tho, seems like russia is closing itself.

if they didn't have double standards they wouldn't have any standards at all

https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1502036658979495940

15 days in and all masks are off

100% talmudic.

I guess it's a good thing ESR has been on life support for so long. We're not worth their time so they don't send any pro trolls our way

North Korea 2.0 in the making: https://youtube.com/watch?v=kW3W_lYO4DY

criminal regime can't even face their own people's opinions.

It's almost the same in germany with the corona protests ...
news tell that the protest marches are full of nazi's and they need to denazify the marches, just like Putin does in the Ukraine, so they do not even let the protests take place, OMEGALUL

what a irredeemable disingenuous person you must be to even entertain this comparison (nevermind the pointless act of whataboutism in itself).
enjoy your great leader's tablescraps while you can. "OMEGALUL"

How is it not a valid comparison? you said "criminal regime can't even face their own people's opinions" and he's just agreeing with you and pointing out another recent example of opinion controlling authoritarianism of exactly the same magnitude.

Or are we not allowed to reference covid-related authoritarianism anymore? Is that no longer "current thing"? Are we supposed to memory-hole the fact that the entire western hemisphere has just been subject to an unprecedented and coordinated totalitarian level of state-sponsored censorship for the last 2 years? Is that old news? Or perhaps did it not even happen, it was all in our imagination?

Ukraine is "current thing"! Behead those who talk about "previous thing"!

more deflecting with rotten analogies that are pointless to argue about.
I don't know where your loyalties lie, but I sure hope it's not with the nuclear midget that is afraid of:
- woman in Nizhny Novgorod displaying blank sign (and arrested)
- children arrested in Sankt Petersburg for NO WAR signs

maybe our loyalties lie with the free world or whatever is left of it, and not the 1984/brave new world (order) so many leaders around the globe are consciously trying to drag us deeper into (including putin)

more deflection towards an overarching evil "both sides are bad", "they're all the same..". no shit bro?
but only Putin is doing a savage war of invasion in Europe right now.. shelling civilians in their homes, on the street

there's no good ending to this bullshit, no matter how you try to spin it. even if Putin's 4D chess on bathsalts achieves an already costly military victory today, the bloodbath with continue with insurgency and cross-generational hatred.

who is deflecting? if anything, everyone agrees with you, but you just seem to focus on one aspect of a bigger problem. where was this outcry when china invaded hong-kong, while sending muslims to concentration camps? why was the western media being silent about it with the likes of biden more or less supporting china and trudeau even going on record saying how much he admires china's dictatorship? where's this concern for the middle east where civilians are being bombed 24/7 for 15+ years now by everyone involved?

it's not deflection or whataboutism, it's simply that you can't tell good from bad anymore, because yeah, unfortunately as cliché as it sounds, the last thing all these people care about is the well being of the population or ideology they claim to represent. authoritarianism is on the rise everywhere, not just russia. some are ahead, others are behind, but we're all heading the same direction. this isn't me 'spinning' it, it's an honest observation or generalization at best. and yeah, 'there is no good ending to this bullshit'. in fact, i'll just quote something from a previous post of mine on how bad it's going to get in the near future, unless we see the big picture.

...who knows, in 8 years you may find out that you'll own nothing, you'll have no privacy and you will be forced to be happy, after we're forced to kill each other in another world war.

where was this outcry when china invaded hong-kong, while sending muslims to concentration camps? why was the western media being silent about it

what the fuck is this lol where did you read that western media was silent about these?

Not a single hong kongian wants to belong to china ... but because its written in constitution hong kong is given to China it is all okay and great ... its funny how some weird contract the whole population does not agree on justifies the annexion and nothing happens :-)

I didn't 'read' that it was silent. I simply don't see much evidence that it got nearly the coverage or bias that the russia/ukraine debacle has been receiving. Let alone the difference between the sanctions imposed on Russia compared to the treatment of China by the rest of the world, is practically night and day.

So " why was the western media being silent about it" was a lie. Okay

If you can't identify hyperboles such as the one in question as a figure of speech, then you have a tad of a problem. What's next? You're gonna argue over the definition of 'night and day'?

The epstein/maxwell saga for example, received media attention, but the attention, investigation and coverage it should have received, was miniscule and/or silent in comparison to what it should have been. Same goes for the examples you cherrypicked in your half-assed post. It's 2 mins of fame vs round the clock spotlight.

I looked up Uyghur on the guardian. "About 8,310 results (0.21 seconds)".

It was reported on massively and received a lot of attention from western governments. It's just poor use of language to say it's "hyperbole" to say they were silent, especially as you're repeatedly implying they're comparable with a government that can produce something close actual silence on their media and punish people that don't comply.

And? What of it? How did China suffer from this 'massive attention' aside from a pretend slap on the wrist and the indifference from both eastern and western leaders? Biden said 'it's a matter of culture', trudeau outright said he admires jinping, un and nato said/did nothing of real significance. Did people around the world actually talk about that with nearly the same fanaticism and interest as they do about ru/ua (or any of the other topics I've mentioned)? How did the media and the talk make any difference with regards to the final outcome? China succeeded with virtually 0 repercussions.

You know, this conversation could be a lot more interesting if you actually offered some insights instead of nitpicking at the most mundane part of my posts arguing over (linguistic) semantics. The only thing of substance that you've said in the entire thread so far is: 'any freedom you stand to gain or lose depends on knowing what freedom you have', but the interest for me to reply had waned. Almost everything else is binary pop culture regurgitation without any attempt to look beyond the veil.

Try switching gears for a second. Say something that's actually thought provoking, instead of superficialities like 'i looked up search engine results on source x and here's the number'. Give the low hanging fruits a rest with things like 'y's freedom is lesser than x's', especially when I've tried to make it clear that unless you take a step back and start looking at the world holistically, you're gonna end up in a just as bad (and eventually worse) of a position as me due to reasons that I've outlined as concisely as I could throughout this thread, particularly when i cited the dystopian (post-war/crisis) garbage and global transhumanist communism that WEF is promoting (a supranational organization, both of which putin and zelenskyy were/are part of). Do you have any thoughts on that? Or are you just gonna gloss over it because you have no idea what I'm talking about and throw another one-dimensional tantrum about how hypocritical I supposedly am?

I agree with all your posts on this topic :)

I am just saying every society has its own gods that you are not allowed to criticize ... you are not that much better than them ...
also this is a critical war situation, if your country is in a critical situation, they will probably handle their citizen in the same way to not further destabilize the country ... what do you think will happen to an Ukrainian going around Kiev holding up some sign, with the words "please surrender and stop the senseless killing of ukrainians in war against a super power you cannot win" ... u think they will let you run around like that? Thing is Zelensky and Klitschko will get all the fame while the young ukrainians and the people in the country get killed and will not be remembered at all, what you think if russians should get into Kiev, I assure you these "political leaders" will flee at first sight ... also Crimea wants to belong to russia, these two other regions inhabitated by mostly russians declared independence themselves, and russia wants Ukraine to be neutral ... what are they fighting for? They are not fighting for the survival of their country, they are fighting for the right to reign over territories inhabitated by mainly russians left over after soviet union, that also do not seem to want to be part of Ukraine (all three of them declared independence) ...

y so mad?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEALIrG8O1E&t=960s

dog bless this man

expecting him to get nuked by youtube any day now ;_;

dog bless him

https://youtu.be/rWgV0gtUIv0

What a brave Russian woman, if only the rest of Moscow's 10+ million population came to support her.

2 million refugees? for what? No country is perfect but people need to realise the deep rooted corruption caused by immense wealth for &#128169;tin regime.

https://youtu.be/SFe-108zQSI

It's in all our interests to try and be peaceful, children don't deserve this https://youtu.be/I94A7lLiFiY

also Apex Legends bans these countries now too....

https://twitter.com/PlayApexEsports/status/15...WWQhIqvFfQ

That's crazy.

I dont want to live on this planet anymore...

:C

This is pure xenophobia by its definition. Everyone who agrees with "progamers sanctions" is a latent xenophob. Progamers cant influence on this situaiton anyhow so you punished them for no reason

Yes, but no.

Yes, sanctions have a problem of always hitting the common person and the regime not caring (because they can always take everything from the common person). And they hit broadly, they hit people not in any way supporting the regime.

So let's talk whether they've hit innocent people. Unfortunately, we don't know if Cooller, base or Cypher support this war. I'm still waiting for this information, which this thread does not provide :( I met Cooller in person and the guy is an absolute asshole, so I'm definitely truly biased and let's not talk about him, but base is the essence of awesomeness and I hope he's not supporting this war... But how would I know?

Then let's explain what the overall idea is. So the sanctions are meant to reduce invader's ability to fund the war effort, but also, in the long term, to make their constituents know what is actually good or bad for their country. I think both goals are slowly getting there.

So the last question is: do sanctions actually work? And no, probably not. Russia still has USSR embedded like a retrovirus. Ruling class still uses Soviet methods of ruling. Normal people still expect those methods, making them compliant.

This means in the worst case we can be looking at the next North Korea or Iran. Yes, there's a population of Russians exposed to world culture and actually embracing it. But they're getting arrested on sight, meaning they'll soon be back to informing on their parrots just to stay out of a work camp.

The West assumes there's enough of freedom-loving Russians to overwhelm the regime. They may be right, but they may also be wrong.

Either way, so far the sanctions work, reportedly today, and I quote: "Russia's defence ministry said on Friday that the first phase of its military operation in Ukraine was mostly complete and that it would focus on completely "liberating" eastern Ukraine's Donbass region". I would hope this means they're fucking off, with the main goal now being basically preserving the 2014-2022 status quo.

Which of course means they will fire nuclear weapons to start negotiations. Now I feel dirty for even thinking "I hope they fire at Ukraine and not Poland". I'm fine with getting vaporized, but dying in pain for weeks from fallout is my worst nightmare. And I do have those nightmares. And you fucks think about the big injustice to the poor Cooller. Sigh.

Polish problem is not only in active involvment intro holocoust that they denying. This denying is only part of policy. Tragedy of Polish fate is result of Polish arrogance, hatred toward Russia, and giant ambitions. Let's call thing by names. September 1st year 39 Polish tragedy is not that they recive attack from Germany, but the greatets national humiliation. Just a few month before Poland was sure that in a future they have victory run with Hitler's army, shoulder by shoulder, toward east. Just like year before, with Germany army they rush on Czech and cut for themselfs part of Czech land.
But German invasion showed to Polaks that new world doesn't takes Poland seriously and not count as equal. And only used Poland as a pawn in geopolitical game. Understanding of it's second quality nation still affects Poland.
Today Poland once again, like in 20-30 years of past century find for themself strong ally and first of all start biting Russia. The only historical enemy.
Probably it's weird to expect appreciation from Poland for the fact that during liberation of Poland from nazi occupation Soviet Union lost 600k solders.
After short war, part of the Poland were anexed and became the part of 3rd reich and were ruled by Germans. But in a year 45, Polish lands were giving back to Poland. By that greatest enemy of Poland, against whom Poland planed to fight 6 years before and territory of which Poland planed to capture. So Soviets acted honourable, showed to Poland that not holding the grudge. Poland were forgived. Our honor and generosity, that why Polaks hate us, not the dictatorship of socialism.
Moraly it's easy for them to fake history. And talk about change from Nazi occupation to Soviet occupation. But it's a lie, there was no Soviet occupation. Poland were ruled by Polaks, not by Russians. Poland just cut big chunk of it's memory. It's more comfortable to not remember mass murders of jews, to not remember ally with hitler to attack on Czech, and forget bloody fight for liberation of Poland between Nazi Germany and Red Army, and to not remember recreation of old Polish borders with active participation of Stalin himself and Soviet Union.

A lot of pseudo psychoanalysis, but completely wrong about facts. Opinions based on false facts cannot be argued, so let's focus on facts.

Genesis of soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 - pact with 3rd Reich:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov%E2%80%9...t_protocol

Generous treatment of Polish population after 1939 invasion:

The campaign of mass persecution in the newly acquired areas began immediately. In November 1939 the Soviet government annexed the entire Polish territory under its control. Some 13.5 million Polish citizens who fell under the military occupation were made into new Soviet subjects following show elections conducted by the NKVD secret police in an atmosphere of terror,[12][13][14] the results of which were used to legitimize the use of force. A Soviet campaign of political murders and other forms of repression, targeting Polish figures of authority such as military officers, police and priests, began with a wave of arrests and summary executions.[Note 5][15][16] The Soviet NKVD sent hundreds of thousands of people from eastern Poland to Siberia and other remote parts of the Soviet Union in four major waves of deportation between 1939 and 1941.

Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_invasion_of_Poland

On the other side I know that Russian people and other nations under USSR at that time were mostly treated no better, so if you accept this then no wonder you see no harm in how Polish people were treated.

Another important piece of how Poland was treated by Soviet occupants in 1939.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre

and finally post-war generosity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1947_Polish_legislative_election

Not to mention massive persecutions by NKVD after the war, especially members of anti-nazi resistance movements.

Again it probably matches living under Stalin terror everywhere else.

I think before you get to formulate opinions about Poland you should learn some history of your own country and understand how your own people and relatives were treated under USSR. If you find no fault in that then you will never understand why free nations that fell under its rule hold a grudge against it.
I don't hold "hatred" against most Russian people from back then (not to mention modern Russians born long past these events) because from my point of view, they were treated as badly as Polish and other USSR subjects - enslaved nation.

Exactly what i am talking about, completely denying everything bad that you did, but pointing finger at others and acting arrogant.

Number of denials in my post: 0
Number of facts/references in yours: 0
Easy to confirm to anyone who can read.

Anyway I made a mistake replying. Obviously your post is just a version of argumentum ad personam and the real highlight is that "poland arrogant" and "poland hate russia". Just like you wrote before that "ukraine annoying" and "ukraine can't behave". That's kindergarden level of argumentation and understanding, not gonna go this low.

C O O L L E R
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It is a matter between Russia and Ukraine. Or so the US, across the Atlantic, who pretend not to be involved in the war, say. Ukraine is not in NATO nor the EU. So why do you care?

https://futurism.com/space-conference-censors-yuri-gagarin

Even concerts are being canceled because they had Russian music on the programme. Music written centuries ago. This shit is getting out of hand.

We have always been at war with Eurasia.

https://taibbi.substack.com/p/orwell-was-right

the left...
hates nazis
hates nationalism
wants open borders
wants multicultural society


the left now supports....
nazis
ultra nationalism
closed borders
a racially homogeneous people



wtf happened?

not much, globohomo simply dropped new software update

To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which canceled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them… To forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again… that was the ultimate subtlety.

support fascism, communism, democratic division and chaos thru proxies whenever it suits you
blame the enemy for your own atrocities
lie thru your teeth, admit nothing, plead ignorance, make counter-accusations, play the victim card and shut down the opposition when exposed

*rubs hands vigorously for 2000+ years*

I got a theory for you bro, globalists own the political parties. They wanted melting pot culture, melting pot genders, melting pot nationality, open borders, depopulation\abortion, mass-vaxx (bill gates eugenicist family history), anti-patriotism... all in support of basically making countries less isolationist and work more under UN and NATO. Then you had the million genders theory and pronouns, which just so happens to support this metaverse idea.

Then you have the right wing, who was utilized to support the globalization of American troops and got them to support the destabilization of the middle east and removal of dictatorships abroad. The rise of ISIS, Al-Qaeda (CIA?), Bin Laden (CIA?), 911 (Kabbala?). Psyops, pretty much all of it.

I mean I could go thick into it all, but for the sake of people's sanity I will stop there. Why are we in the midst of 3 world wars in just a little more than 100 years? If not for America pretty much sitting out of the Napoleonic Wars, we would have already had 4 world wars. We're marching ourselves into the 4th one now. Why have we already had 2 Virus Pandemics, when I don't believe any other pandemic in history was viral before the 1900's? The plagues that ravaged Europe, Asia etc were not viruses, they were bacterial or parasitic. The rise of two extreme sects of socialism, Nazism and Communism all at once which lead to two different world wars (one being brutal and the other being cold). Just saying, it does at least seem like some kind of long term attempt at globalism.

Modern day politics, people blame bad ideas of liberalism, I blame it not on liberals but on globalists who are indoctrinating people to parrot their ideas. And then you see them all change on a dime, now it is all about exactly what you just mentioned. Now they've turned conservative out of nowhere. After calling conservatives for the last 10 or more years, a plague on the world. I might have just seen it all, next thing to happen: the second coming and 2pac's return.

I'm detecting some blatantly anti-semitic tropes and canards in this post.