Eastern Europe: Olivier's sphere of influence

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Eastern Europe: Olivier's sphere of influence

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

Vagon posted:

As an outsider to the American right, what has Trump's talk/policy on Russia been? Kill them all or respect for another Stronk Man?

Leaning more towards Respect Stronk Man than killemall.

Basically his policy is to carve up the ME equally between Our Dictators and Your Dicators, and brutally murder anyone who steps a toe out of line or towards Islamism. It fits very nicely with Putin's policy

# ¿ Feb 28, 2016 07:08

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 18:02

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

3peat posted:

Hungarians put up posters in Holland

reminds me of turkey's armenian genocide denial PR campaigns

# ¿ Jun 27, 2016 18:57

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

A Pale Horse posted:

We're in the midst of a catastrophic demographic collapse and a pension system that is already so meager as to be laughable, unemployment is 9% nationally and reaching 20% in some regions. Granted, big cities have virtually no unemployment but the average monthly pay is what you probably make in 3-4 days in the UK. Seriously dude, its fine to be angry about Brexit, and I certainly am, but don't cut off your nose to spite your face.

but, Poland is the shining example of what austerity can do when the profligate leftists and lazy ethnics don't get in the way!

# ¿ Jun 27, 2016 20:39

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

blowfish posted:

In most Countries That Matter (tm) like the US, public opinion isn't actually strongly or at all (depending on the opinion poll) against nuclear. Germany is the only major economy where "gently caress nuclear" is the overwhelming public opinion.

# ¿ Jul 5, 2016 09:32

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

What do Polish nationalists think about the Jews, exactly? I understand that's one of the biggest most obvious issues in terms of historical Polish identity. I imagine it's pretty convenient for them that the Nazis were so kind as to get rid of all of them?

icantfindaname fucked around with this message at 09:41 on Jul 5, 2016

# ¿ Jul 5, 2016 09:38

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

Lichtenstein posted:

AFAIK they did the numbers and chilled out a bit about Fukushima.

The Japanese public is rabidly anti-nuclear, the Japanese government and regulators don't give a gently caress about public opinion and do whatever institutional inertia dictates because given Japan's political system they're almost impossible to dislodge. If the Japanese public had its way though make no mistake they'd get rid of the reactors tomorrow

icantfindaname fucked around with this message at 12:36 on Jul 5, 2016

# ¿ Jul 5, 2016 12:31

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

Lucy Heartfilia posted:

death to putin

Lucy I'm disappointed in your choice of support for Korean Asuka instead of the far superior Mei

# ¿ Jul 8, 2016 01:14

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

steinrokkan posted:

Brown Moses being in Turkey during the coup will hardly help the CIA conspiracy theories - even though I feel Russians are in favour of the coup, popularly.

I think a weakened but still in charge Erdogan is a good thing for Russia, actually. Putting the old Kemalists back in charge would be bad for them

# ¿ Jul 16, 2016 06:42

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

mobby_6kl posted:

Had the coup succeeded, they'd claim it was a western homonazi plot and invade Eastern Turkey to "protect the local population".

Well, considering the local population were rounded up and murdered by the ideological forefathers of the coup people that's not an unreasonable argument

# ¿ Jul 16, 2016 13:48

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

Discendo Vox posted:

I don't know enough about Gulen and his allies to know whether him being behind the coup is feasible. The opposition parties backing the Erdogan government is so strange.

It had nothing to do with Gulen in all likelihood. The manifesto put out by the coupers was bog-standard Kemalist Ataturk worship stuff, not a whiff of Gulen in it. As for the opposition the HDP are not fans of the Kemalist military and the CHP has been mostly defanged and cowed into submission by the AKP over the years

# ¿ Jul 17, 2016 02:04

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

Thatim posted:

Was russia always such a dick? To be honest, I only started following the developments in EE since the Krim and MH17. If the country was a person, I would assume it was acting like this due to a lack of attention

The 20 years after The End of History were very meager ones for Russia attention-wise

# ¿ Jul 29, 2016 06:08

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

AceRimmer posted:

Amerikkka bad, anyone opposing it must therefore be good

For the 8 years of the Bush administration, especially after the mainstream liberals who supported Iraq were burned by its mishandling, anti-war appeasement types were invited into the Democratic party and liberal movement, and became one of its core constituencies, directing most of Obama's policy in the first part of his admin

Now, since 2012, the liberal mainstream has done nearly a complete 180 on foreign policy and is in full on redbaiting warhawk mode, but all these pesky fellow-travelers they invited in are still there, so it's a conundrum for them

icantfindaname fucked around with this message at 12:28 on Aug 11, 2016

# ¿ Aug 11, 2016 12:20

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

slavatuvs posted:

What ever happened to no clancy chat?

there is a spectre haunting eastern europe. it is the spectre of a fat white Republican man who wrote lovely novels and died of a heart attack at 65

# ¿ Aug 17, 2016 23:51

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

Libluini posted:

Don't worry, the German Left will never be elected again, they've turned themselves into a bunch of assclowns no-one wants to work with. Even the Greens are considered more reliable as part of a coalition these days.

Of course there was the obligatory shitstorm when the new Weissbuch for the Bundeswehr hinted at maybe we need to defend ourselves against Russia a little bit more? But apparently everyone immediately forgot about that, since I haven't seen it mentioned in the news again. So I guess all signs point to Germany rearming, I guess.

For them to be elected again would require them to have been elected once before

# ¿ Aug 17, 2016 23:57

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

Volkerball posted:

Rip slavatuvs, got his spirit broken in the gulag.

The Slav Mind comes pre-broken, actually

# ¿ Aug 27, 2017 01:05

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

HUGE PUBES A PLUS posted:

Think piece on Russia's long game for Crimea and eastern Ukraine.

https://apostrophe.ua/article/politics/2017-09-28/otstali-navsegda-putin-pridumal-dolgiy-plan-dlya-kryima-i-donbassa/14687

Ukrainian nationalists must be pretty desperate if they're hanging their hopes on Russia starving because it can't get German electronics for its tractors

# ¿ Sep 29, 2017 13:51

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

Kopijeger posted:

And why Czech instead of Slovak?

slovak is a fake nationality invented by George Soros in the Treaty of Trianon to cripple Glorious Hungary

# ¿ Oct 8, 2017 09:20

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

jonnypeh posted:

In 2018 Estonia will be taking a step towards Americanization of the tax system, where everyone needs to hire an accountant.

It goes something like this. Those who get less than 14,400� in a year get the highest rate of non-taxable income, so if they remain below that they will get 500� of non-taxable income per month. That amount goes down as yearly income goes up from 14,400 to 25,200�. Above that there is no non-taxable income.

So I would need to estimate how much I make per year, which can be slightly difficult if there are sources of unexpected income, other than one's own monthly salary. Which can lead to having to pay more later because one received too much non-taxable income. I wonder if I will be selling any of my stocks in 2018? Maybe they have a time traveling machine that I could use....

I guess I'll notify my employer that I want to have my salary taxed fully every month and then file a tax return in spring 2019 and the system will tell me how much the state owes me in total.

Estonia in general seems like it didn't get the memo that shock therapy neoliberalism is actually a hellish nightmare, not good

# ¿ Nov 2, 2017 12:52

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

Merry Christmas

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-christmas-encounter-with-the-russian-soul-1513983153

quote:

A Christmas Encounter With the �Russian Soul�
The man who found my wallet demanded an �honorarium.� He learned a lesson when I stood firm.
By
David Satter
Dec. 22, 2017 5:52 p.m. ET

As tension with Russia deepens, it may seem as if Americans have little in common with those living under Vladimir Putin�s dictatorship. But I have witnessed the triumph of good over evil in Russia many times, including on one striking occasion 25 years ago this month, when an expression of the �Russian soul� defused a dangerous situation and gave me hope for the country�s future.

Christmas Eve 1992 was bitter cold in Moscow, and the mood of the city was marked by depression and despair. I was there to complete my first book, �Age of Delirium,� about the fall of the Soviet Union.

History was moving rapidly all around me. On the streets, there were rows upon rows of stalls. The capital had turned into a giant bazaar as people sold anything�kitchen utensils, chewing gum, cigarettes, books, icons, heirlooms�to survive.

Yet there were still a few signs of progress, including new public telephones that used prepaid cards. I had a card in my wallet, along with cash and identification, but I had trouble using it in the subzero Russian winter. Once, while making a call, I put the card in my wallet and the wallet on a ledge in the booth. After hanging up, I left the booth having forgotten my wallet. When I returned less than five minutes later, my wallet had disappeared.
Three Russian telephone booths.
Three Russian telephone booths. Photo: Alamy Stock Photo

Forty-eight hours later, I received a call from �Yuri,� who told me that he had my wallet. He claimed it didn�t contain any cash when he found it. But he gave me his address and suggested I come see him so the �problem� of my wallet could be �discussed.�

Yuri lived in the Moscow suburb of Lyubertsy, a concrete jungle also famous for being the headquarters of the Luberetskaya criminal organization, which had terrorized Moscow since the early 1980s.

One year after the fall of communism, the criminal was king in Russia. Gangs collected extortion money from anyone operating a business on their �territory.� In the case of a dispute between rival gangs, there was a strelka, or meeting, at which the conflict was discussed. Usually the rivals tried to resolve the matter peacefully, but Russia was now awash in guns and both sides arrived at a strelka fully armed.

I took the metro to a station on the outskirts of Moscow and then flagged down a private car which took me to the address. I went to an apartment on the 14th floor and rang the bell. A man who looked about 30�nearly bald, with an athletic build�greeted me. He let me into his apartment, which consisted of a single room. There was a kitchen alcove in front of the window at the far end, where we sat down on two stools at a table.

�Thank you for keeping my wallet,� I said.

�Yes, I went to a lot of trouble,� Yuri replied. He explained that he worked at a supermarket as a security guard. �You can�t imagine how much time I spent trying to find you. I lost two days of work and almost a day�s worth of overtime.�

�I don�t want you to suffer,� I said, desperate to recover my wallet, and especially the identification I needed for traveling. �How much money do you think you lost?�

�At least 50,000 rubles.� At the official rate of exchange that was $120, an astronomical sum for an ordinary Russian at that time. But I took out five crisp 10,000-ruble notes and gave them to him.

�And my wallet?� I asked.

�I also need an honorarium.�

�I was happy to pay you for your expenses,� I said, �but I can�t pay you an honorarium. You are obliged to give me my wallet.�

�Why is that?� Yuri said, looking at me incredulously.

�Because,� I said, �it does not belong to you.�

Yuri hesitated for an odd moment, as if trying to assimilate what I had just said. He then stood up, reached over and opened a cabinet behind where I was sitting. A car backfired somewhere in the distance, and I suddenly became convinced he was reaching for his service pistol.

Yuri turned, and I saw that in one hand he was holding a bottle of vodka and in the other, two glasses. He put them on the table and poured out two drinks. �You know, you taught me something today.� He then said �bottoms up� and downed his vodka in one gulp. I reluctantly followed suit.

Then Yuri reached into his back pocket. �Here is your wallet,� he said. �You don�t have to pay me an honorarium.�

It was now well past midnight, and I shook hands with Yuri before taking an elevator to the ground floor. Outside, a full moon lit a cloudy sky. I never heard from Yuri again, and as Russia descended into criminality and chaos in the 1990s, I often wondered if our brief encounter had a lasting effect on him.

In subsequent years, as the Putin dictatorship tightened its grip, Westerners wondered how to answer Russian propaganda. Speeches were made and learned conferences were organized without getting us any closer to penetrating Moscow�s false worldview.

But as the encounter with Yuri that night in Lyubertsy showed, Russians can be reached if basic moral principles are made clear to them. Russians do not share the ethical heritage of the West, but moral intuition exists everywhere, and is able to be inspired. What matters is the message.

# ¿ Dec 27, 2017 06:29

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

Pierogi posted:

lol, nice white knighting of russians there.

You mean me, or the article?

# ¿ Dec 27, 2017 10:00

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

anilEhilated posted:

Yeah, that's a rare mix of condescension and optimism.

Eh, if you read enough NYT/WaPo/WSJ/Guardian opinion writing you pretty much get completely desensitized to that. Part of my reason for posting it here was to see people's reactions because it genuinely seemed to me not that remarkable by those places op-ed standards. Tom Friedman could beat this guy in his sleep

# ¿ Dec 29, 2017 01:15

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-04-26/why-orthodox-christian-nations-remain-stuck

quote:

Their religious roots, not their Communist experience, support authoritarianism and risk aversion.

It�s sort of amazing to see how quickly the conventional wisdom has degenerated to 1950s, High Cold War vintage �Slav Brains Work Different� orientalism

# ¿ May 4, 2018 18:54

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

Grape posted:

ahaha oh god that's some mountainous bullshit.

I especially loved:

Just alter this to exclude Catholicism and you had (and sometimes still have) the sort of poo poo people were talking 50-60 years ago about why those gosh darned Southern Europeans and Latin Americans are so rife with the dictators and whatnots (and why those Irish chumps are so poor and blowing things up). Unlike the fine upstanding ubermensch of Protestantism.
Also lol at citing Poland as having successfully transitioned away the authoritarian past.

Do these types ever have an explanation for anyone bringing up the US South in regards to their first-world making Protestant magicks? Because I feel like they want us to keep thinking of the Dutch and Norwegians, and never Alabama and Arkansas.

It's even better/worse because Bershidsky has been one of the last holdouts against the new cold war stuff in the liberal commentariat. If even he has given into the oriental despotism stuff, that's pretty much it in terms of it becoming the standard narrative

# ¿ May 5, 2018 00:59

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

steinrokkan posted:

I mean like two days ago I listened to a podcast by bunch of supposedly progressive west coast liberals about rasputin, and they basically kept talking about how the russian soul had been formed by siberia and how rasputin is the model for current russian politics because russians are too dumb to move past medieval mysticism

the cold war racism brain rot is here, and it is widespread

link?

# ¿ May 5, 2018 02:48

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

https://mobile.twitter.com/LouiseMensch/status/1000210126551306240

Case closed folks. Masha Gessen, Putinist traitor

icantfindaname fucked around with this message at 08:19 on May 28, 2018

# ¿ May 28, 2018 08:12

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 18:02

icantfindaname: Jul 1, 2008

Rinkles posted:

This'll potentially be of interest to no one, but today I learned that the Polish bread spread paste thing known as paprykarz was developed in the 1960s (after a fishing company wanted to find a use for fish scraps) inspired by a West African dish (chop-chop, which the company fishermen were introduced to in native ports). I always assumed it was it was some sort of traditional polish cheap meal.

Polish people are so poor they don't even get real bread, but "bread paste" invented by a 1960s era Communist factory manager as an innovative way to process fish scraps

# ¿ Aug 30, 2018 12:35

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