I guess I shouldn’t have been so sure that I don’t need to explain moral reasons for humanitarian aid.

Prices spiked then stabilised but remained at much higher levels than before. Russian gas was really cheap because of multiple factors and couldn’t be replaced without cost.

I’m not starving. You?

It is so funny in Poland, let me tell you.

First of all, pretty much every single government formed in Poland since the fall of communism was primarily looking to US because we idolised free market capitalism. It doesn’t matter which side, pretty much the entire political mainstream is at mercy of US owned media (WB/Discovery). Our „left” sent army to illegal war in Iraq and was allowing CIA to run black sites near where I live. Our liberals reset relations with Russia because Obama told them to. Then there’s conservatives from PiS who have been very loudly reminding everyone about this. The thing is, Republicans / Trump want a new reset now too.

It would be hilarious if not for one thing. Cognitive dissonance made many people pick one party that didn’t change their beliefs - the fascists simping for Russia. It still makes zero sense but I guess they’re still in shock.

There is both moral and legal grounds for humanitarian aid. I’m sure I don’t need to explain moral ones but UN recognises responsibility to protect as a part of international law. EU should be upholding international rule based order. It’ll also piss US off, but we no longer need to walk on eggshells.

This was a year ago. As long people are starving there then we’re not delivering enough aid. Make USA and Israel uncomfortable because what are they going to do about it? Shoot at it? They could shoot at some nameless organisation, reporters or at toothless UN but can they shoot at foreign military delivering humanitarian aid in accord with international law which compels us to prevent genocide?

I want EU to grow balls and provide aid to Gaza from the sea.

So you’re saying historically it was the moderates or centrists that enabled fascism? Fully agreed but that’s just one more case in point that we should be changing course.

That’s very reductive and convenient for the wealthy. It will be convenient until we reach wealth inequality that US just reached. What they have now is about same as 30s Germany and 90s Rwanda. This alarms me but it doesn’t alarm you so I must assume you’re fine with the outcome.

When was the last time wealthy stopped getting wealthier faster than the rest of society? 70s? That’s about how long wealthy have been systemically preferred over everyone else.

You might say GDP grows but this is what’s underneath:

This might sound off topic but some time ago I stopped isolating myself in a bubble because I couldn’t reconcile feeling any accomplishment with constant preaching to the choir or trying convince someone entirely opposite of my worldview. I still want to discuss productively and I think it’s worth trying here. People could still recognise that we’re not in that much of a risk of Russian invasion because EU is still pretty strong but there’s a strong possibility that defense efforts will be engineered in a way where wealthy get even wealthier again and that’s bringing us to our own Trumps closer again. That’s all assuming that France doesn’t turn to Le Pen or UK to Farage in the next election cycle and hoping for anything else might be wishful thinking. Still worth an effort.

It’s not „might”. The alternative is to burden our children with horrifying cost. Yeah, we can be selfish - it’s more convenient. I don’t think regular people should bear this cost but everywhere I see people are against rising taxes for the rich so this is what they get.

I’m not sure what the proposition is here though. We can’t discuss with Russia using reason, ethics or morals, there’s only strength. If someone proposes ceasefire then Russia will agree to it only if they intend to exploit that even further because that’s the only dimension they consider. The only hope you have to win by deescalating is that they die out of laughter.

Wars are won by not playing by the rules and there’s strong evidence that due to technological proliferation it’s much harder for a large state to overpower a smaller one (I think Trump recognises that and that’s why US is retreating in general). This is the time to stand up against every empire, not just Russia or US but the irony is that Europe might become an empire again in the process.

I don’t think anyone said reducing climate change would come free. It’s still more ethical and cheaper than killing all the people who will try to escape uninhabitable regions of the Earth.

It’s that I don’t believe scare tactics lead to peace.

It takes just one state actor that doesn’t play by the rules and it all falls apart. Let’s not be naive because being exploited for this will be extremely unpleasant. I live in Poland which spent over 100 years under Russian occupation. Now we live under American one which is slightly less exploitative but not great either. The cognitive dissonance is strong in our nation after Obama forced us to reset relations with Russia after they invaded Ukraine for the first time lol.

All of us want peace but appeasement has been tried and failed time and time again. Lay down the arms and get steamrolled and then get exploited for another 100 years until another empire inevitably falls? Nah.

Yeah, energy source can be replaced but it’s boring reality that bites you in the butt. Chemical plants need natural gas and aren’t really able to switch as they’d have to engineer loads of things from scratch. Then things like tires and o-rings get really expensive and so on and so on.

That’s my hope but that’s assuming there will be demand and Germany can become competitive again. Right now those industries are failing because of expensive energy and that’s not about to change. In fact, it might get worse because Europe is getting LNG from the US now, and they’re not exactly friendly.

The only way to deescalate is to arm ourselves to the teeth. The only language Putin understands is the language of strength and ignoring that can only lead to more war. Economically this is going to be a major stimulus which Europe really needs at the moment, especially Germany with their failing industries. My main worry on long term peace would be what happens to military output capacity once it’s no longer needed but we’re mostly concerned about survival. There should be also more discussion on profit redistribution so that we don’t increase wealth inequality even more with this stimulus.

That doesn’t really address what I’ve said but ok. You do you.

You know what’s funny? You’re repeating all the mistakes from countries that went through their own Trumps. What you’re doing will lead to things getting worse. Good luck, you’re screwed and you’re as guilty of this as trumpists are.