We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Weakness and lies beget horrors of every kind Anyone who cares about our liberty and security (the two are deeply entwined) needs to work tirelessly to ensure the future does not belong to tyrants, be they tyrants in Russia, China, or much closer to home. Even the smallest of daily acts of defiance can add to a countervailing pressure; every little decision you make, what you say, who you spend your money with, needs to be done thoughtfully and above all bravely.
At a time when it would be nice to have at least a measure of trust in our own institutions, the last two years have made that completely impossible. Putin and his ilk are predators who sense weakness, and culturally we have been greatly weakened by enemies within our own institutions public and private.
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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Si non vis pacem, noli praepare bellum.
The US refused to recognize Russia’s security needs, and that is the whole story. Ultimately, whatever happens in Ukraine is due to American imperialism.
The servile, supine behavior of the Brits in all this deserves especial condemnation.
This is 100% true and very important.
Not even I would go QUITE this far. But in my view there is certainly some truth to the claim that whatever happens in Ukraine is at least partly due to American actions.
This is 100% false and utter bullshit. Wilful blindness at its very worst.
A bit like saying ‘A Serb shot an Austrian in Sarajevo, so Germany had just cause when it invaded Belgium‘.
So our Masters won’t send Americans and Britons to kill and die over what foreign flag flies over Kiev.
That’s a victory, and if it comes from “weakness” that’s fine with me.
“Russia’s security needs”.
Do tell.
I’m so bored by the excuses made for this outrage.
Ultimately this invasion is Putin’s responsibility. I do note that the justifications given for it don’t sound a million miles away from the justifications given by the US to invade Iraq in 2003. I got bored and still get bored by the excuses the warmongers made for that outrage. But American and NATO hypocrisy and their own crimes don’t justify a Russian war on Ukraine.
“Ultimately, whatever happens in Ukraine is due to American imperialism”
Ukraine is an independent nation and the vast majority of its citizens want it to stay that way. It has every right to choose its own alliances and every reason to see Russia as a threat. Whatever happens in Ukraine is due to Russian imperialism.
What a pile of fetid dingo’s kidney’s. The Ukraine is not some Russian possession to be played with or ignored by Putin as he likes. It is a sovereign country with a long and ancient history that can make decisions on the safety, security and welfare of its own citizens.
That it chooses to look to the West rather than the Russian bear-with-a-sore-head is a sovereign matter for the Ukrainians and no concern of either the West NOR Russia. Indeed, if anything, Ukraine has acted with utmost restraint in the face of Russian provocation.
What needs to happen is that the Russians are forced back to their border through a combination of sanctions and military support of the Ukrainians and that Russia is collectively punished for supporting and enabling Putin’s actions. The man is a tyrant waging aggressive war on his neighbours and needs to be removed. If the other denizens of the Kremlin had any sense at all they would do so before this nonsense gets out of hand.
As for “American Imperialism”, it is US Presidential weakness that Putin is exploiting, which will not end until he is removed from the Whitehouse and replaced with someone capable of fulfilling the role of Commander in Chief (i.e. NOT Kamala).
If we’re talking about ‘collective’ punishments, should the American people be punished collectively for invasions and regime changes carried out by the US military and intelligence services in the past? If not, why? Which countries are allowed to evade collective punishment and on what grounds?
As the dog returns to it’s vomit, so the Kremlin shills return to their natural state of “whataboutary”.
Those aren’t American tanks crushing the citizens of the Ukraine. They are Russian.
John Galt,
Actually, pointing out the hypocrisy of holding different countries to different standards in order to oversimplify a complex geopolitical conflict is not ‘whataboutary’. It is, instead, a valid point that demonstrates one of the fallacies of the perspective seeking instinctively to absolve the USA/NATO of any substantial blame.
John Galt – who’s tanks crushed the citizens of Iraq? Who’s aircraft bombed Belgrade? Who backed ‘moderate’ rebels in Syria who turned out to be Islamic fundamentalists?
While I feel for Ukrainians what has happened is an inevitable consequence of the constant westward expansion of NATO and the totalitarian EU. Keep goading a bear and eventually he will bite back.
Oh FFS ragingnick. The only way Ukraine could not ‘goad’ the Russian bear is by not existing. Putin has repeatedly and publicly stated he does not think Ukraine should exist as a separate nation or cultural people, so spare me the Putinist RT bullshit propaganda.
The ones who don’t need to worry about what others will allow. It’s good to be King.
Mr Putin invades the Ukraine – and it is the fault of the United States.
No one despises the “Woke” Western Establishment (government, academic and corporate) more than I do – but the claim that Mr Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine is the fault of the United States is bovine excrement.
‘At a time when it would be nice to have at least a measure of trust in our own institutions, the last two years have made that completely impossible.’
Let me correct that:
At a time when it would be nice to have at least a measure of trust in our own fellow Humans, the last two years have made that completely impossible’
I’m weary of listening to talk of freedom, democracy, etc – a majority just don’t want it. Those that do are just pissing into the wind.
That Putin is attacking at a moment of gross western weakness gives the lie to the imbecile idea that this is the fault of western imperialism. Only bad guys find weakness provocative.
The first comment in the thread (Natalie’s) gets it right. If you would have peace, prepare for war – an idea so sensible that the woke viewpoint has always hated and denied it, which is why Russia invaded Afghanistan during Carter, Crimea during Obama and now Ukraine during Biden, but did not invade anywhere during Trump.
Is it possible that years of military and other foreign policy failures by America (which I guess you could call an imperial foreign policy) is one factor that has contributed to American weakness? Just to illustrate they say the Afghanistan and Iraq wars have cost $6 trillion. I would also suggest that American cultural hegemony now also undermines the country as so much US culture exported abroad is woke rubbish and it makes the US look effeminate and moronic.
I don’t make a strange dog vicious. It’s not my fault he bites. But it is partially my fault – my carelessness – if I leave myself within his reach and he bites me.
I see few blameless parties in this mess.
bobby b – yes indeed, the weakness of the Biden/Harris regime has been obscene.
First the incredibly disorderly flight from Afghanistan – leaving thousands of American citizens behind and tens billions of Dollars of military equipment for the Taliban.
And now promising that sanctions would deter the invasion of Ukraine – and then denying that they ever said that sanctions would deter invasion.
No one will resign over this – not Mr Biden, not the clowns at the State Department, no one.
I’m trying to think of times sanctions have ‘worked’. Outside of probably contributing to South Africa’s white government caving in, I can’t think of any. Thinking of countries that do have sanctions imposed on them at present – Iran, Belarus, Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, Syria, Burma – none of these regimes seem particularly precarious right now. Even the most ramshackle like Maduro’s government in Venezuela or Communist Cuba seem pretty safe from collapse.