Off Topic Politics Thread

It’s just not as black and white as NATO good, Russia evil.

I trust Biden, the EU, the WEF basically any of the globalists & military industrial complex about the same amount as I trust Putin. (Zero).

None of them have the people of their respective country’s at heart. The faceless bureaucrat class just want to create conflict to milk the citizens of the world for all they’re worth.

You can pretend NATO is 100% innocent in all this as much as you like, but it isn’t true. The US & NATO have played a huge part in this conflict ending up as a war.

Putin is an evil criminal, sure. But he isn’t stupid. He hasn’t gone completely insane. He sees strategic benefits in starting this war.

 

Your last paragraph is totally at odds with the rest. You want to criticise the West for some perceived stirring of international wars, while simultaneously praising Putin’s intelligence in starting the war for his own gain. They cannot both be true.

Also there is a simple equation here: would you be better off with Putin’s style of corruption or with what we have now? He is an evil racist, homophobic bigot who abuses the concept of religion to push his corruption around his whole continent. During his time in power, Russia has become nothing but land of the thugs.

 

It's just whataboutism. It's totally possible to criticize Western governments for the myriad things they do wrong, while recognizing that a murderous kleptocracy that has repeatedly invaded its neighbours is still many, many times worse.

 

So, this wasn't happening to me on desktop as of yesterday, but it is now. My Home feed is completely discombobulated: the newest tweet in my timeline from someone I follow is 7 hours old, I'm getting pushed a whole bunch of completely random tweets and the liked posts of people who are followed by people I follow (?). A quick scan: less than 30% of the top 50 posts in my timeline appear to be either tweets/retweets from people I actually follow.

Edit: looks like you can fix it by changing it to only show people you're following, rather than the For You tab, which is now the default, but they seem to be trying everything in their power to make it unreadable.

 

It's grim up Norf.

 

The amount of money wasted on unusable Covid-19 kit is now alleged to have risen to £14.9 billion of taxpayers money.
In another waste of taxpayer money, the legal defence of Johnson’s Partygate case is said to be in the region of £222,000 and could be even more if it drags on, all coming out of your pockets.
Apparently it is normal to pay minister’s legal bills when they are investigated, so are there going to be further bills to cover Zahawi and Raab?
As a reminder, reference poor boy Johnson, he has received £500,000 as an advance for a book, with the rest of the fee set to take it up to £6 million, he recently made £1 million for speeches, he opens or part opens 3 properties and is currently residing in a property owned by Lord Bamford, a well known Tory donor, but won’t reveal how much rent he is paying. Previous comments have suggested it is well below the value for the area.

Edited with a bonus scandal.


THE value of unpaid taxes grew by almost £5billion during Nadhim Zahawi’s brief stint as chancellor.

HMRC data shows that the value of unpaid taxes owed grew to £47bn between July and September 2022.

This is an increase of £4.9bn on the previous quarter and the equivalent of £54million a day.

The sum would be enough to pay for around 150,000 nurses or more than 33,000 extra doctors.

The Liberal Democrats uncovered the figures.

Sarah Olney, party Treasury spokeswoman, said: “Families who work hard and play by the rules will be rightly furious to have billions in taxes poured down the drain.”

 

Has he written the book yet for swhich he received this advance? Or is it ghosted?

 

Absolutely no idea. Not even sure if this refers to a memoir book or the long awaited book he was writing about William Shakespeare, that was due to be completed in 2016.

 

It’s the Shakespeare book I think. Who in God’s name they think will want to read that, heaven only knows…

 

I love him for his sake;
And yet I know him a notorious liar,
Think him a great way fool, solely a coward;
Yet these fix'd evils sit so fit in him
That they take place when virtue's steely bones
Looks bleak i' th' cold wind; withal, full oft we see
Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly.

 

Although anything to do with Johnson makes the sentiment “All’s Well That Ends Well” a bit unlikely to say the least.

 

To lie or not to lie, that is the question.

 

No it isn’t. I didn’t praise putin, where on earth are you getting that idea?

I said he isn’t stupid or crazy. He is working in his own interests and how he feels he can benefit himself and Russia.

That isn’t praising him.

I am saying the West’s leaders are almost on a par with Putin, in terms of their disregard for their own people and humanity as a whole. Don’t be fooled into thinking Western leaders are the good guys. They are every bit as evil and opportunistic as Putin.

These are the same people that would drop bombs in a heartbeat on a different nation if it suited their agenda, the same as Putin.

 

I thought the same myself

 

Every bit as evil? This is a man who has systematically sucked all the wealth from his own people so that nothing in Russia works, their military is falling apart, their social services are a joke, and they are reliant on selling gas to keep the country going. He encourages homophobia and racism as they stir up the kind of nationalism that keeps him in power. He invaded Ukraine because ‘it is not a real country’ and belonged to Russia.

You can insult the west in all ways you like. But there are two kinds of evil. The evil that will damage others for the benefit of their friends and the kind that will hurt everyone for the benefit of themselves. Putin is in the latter camp.
To be honest, I find it funny that people on the right have fallen into this trap of loving Russia. It is such a massive irony I cannot even comprehend how it happened.
Always choose the lesser of two evils - and if you think Putin is the same as them I suggest going to russia and attempting to have this same conversation…

 

I have seen at least one link to a triggernometry video on here. One of the hosts is Russian and recently spoke on how he is looking to turn away from the “anti-woke” stance (despite it being a big part of their brand). This is because he has seen lots of people who have this view fall into the habit of simply being contrarian for the sake of being contrarian. Assuming that because “person/entity x” (someone you disagree with - usually the government) likes / supports “issue y” then you simply have to disagree with “issue y”. This childish view that you can’t have differing views across a spectrum. (How serious said host is about moving away from “anti-woke” positions and primarily platforming people more on the right in a similar way to Joe Rogan remains to be seen but that isn’t the point here)

It is shown rather visibly on the left with some of the more vocal types aggressively turning against JK Rowling over her not marching in lock step on every issue. She disagreed with one and she is suddenly evil and one of the worst people in the world and is actively causing harm. And this vitriol gets extended to people who like a single tweet from her who suddenly get forced into defending themselves

But his point was more on Russia. People out there dislike and distrust western governments due to the covid response and vaccines. There is a big cross over between the anti-lockdown/anti vaccine mandate crowd and those who are either pro Putin or at least trying not to criticise him

This seems to be that because western governments support Ukraine and oppose putin and Russia there are now people who will suddenly bend over backwards to be apologists for Russia and Putin when it is absolute nonsense. Their behaviour is an outrage and there is no rationalising it that isn’t just Russian propaganda.

And yet on this very forum we have someone who calls nearly everything he disagrees with propaganda equating Putin to western leaders as if they are in any way comparable. I mean WTF. Talk about completely and utterly falling for the propaganda that Putin wants you to.

And sure, there are similar incidents involving either other western countries or their close allies/trading partners (Saudi Arabia and Yemen for example) that makes the western governments seem hypocritical. But that doesn’t excuse Russia and Putin. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

 

More on Richard Sharp at the BBC

 

I’m guessing this is satire.

 

Rosie Holt is a well-known comedian and satirist, and her Twitter parodies always catch a few out.

 

I would say lying to the public, locking people up, closing businesses down and trying to forcibly inject people with a barely tested and dangerous vaccine is evil. When you have seen first hand the side effects it’s very difficult to conclude anything else. Especially when combined with the rhetoric that came out demonising anyone who mentioned side effects.

I would say that the Tory government is every bit as corrupt and kleptocratic as Putin’s government as they criminally starve the NHS and public services of funding whilst simultaneously handing out money to themselves and their families as if it grows on trees.

The same government that will indiscriminately bomb any country it likes and make up whatever lies it needs to in order to justify it. The government that will brief the media to pump out streams of pro-Ukraine propaganda now that it suits the agenda, after a decade or more of negative Nazi propaganda about the very same country.

I haven’t fallen for any Russian propaganda at all, I’m perfectly aware of how evil Putin is. But I am surprised at the blind trust people put into western governments.
I trust western governments almost as little as I trust Putin. How could I not, when they have shown they are willing to freeze bank accounts and arrest anyone that disagrees with them? Why are Edward Snowden an Julien Assange rotting somewhere when they should be rewarded as hero’s for trying to bring justice and accountability back into western democracy?

I certainly won’t be following the psychos into world war 3, which they seem to be set on escalating.

Mostly I just wish the world wasn’t run by corrupt psychopaths who spare no thought for the value of human lives.