Jiggathebauce

"Children nowadays are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food and tyrannise their teachers."
-Socrates
“They think they know everything, and are always quite sure about it.”
- Aristotle
I was a High School Teacher for 40 years and my colleagues would occasionally come up with comments about how standards of behaviour/study/anything at all had changed dramatically for the worse ... nope. Not in my experience. And, as you can see, this sort of complaint has, shall we say, a long grey beard and should be put down with extreme prejudice.
YMMV

druggier?  Umm I'm throwing the challenge flag on that one.  😛  I think the mid/late 70s have this generation beat on the druggie thing ESPECIALLY in regards to the military.
Funny thing, having integrated army units was once the "woke" thing.  Other than a few NAZI types running around I doubt anyone gives a second thought to integrated units anymore.
 
I'll admit to being confused sometimes by this generations challenges to orthodoxy but given what I've seen in my lifetime I take it for granted that my not understanding stuff has zero value on its importance to someone else so I mostly keep my trap shut and nod benignly as my neighbors kid goes on a rant and I understand only maybe half of it.  Just so long as their friends stay off my lawn.

26,000 dead and counting, dozens of hospitals and safe zones bombed, but go off about one fake. 

26,000 dead and counting, dozens of hospitals and safe zones bombed, but go off about one fake. 

26,000 dead and counting, dozens of hospitals and safe zones bombed, but go off about one fake. 

Completely agree, this is unacceptable. I'm not buying a single CM product until this is resolved, why pay for a non legacy product that doesn't work on modern drivers for 6-8 months at a time? Armored brigade 2 might be the better option if this doesn't change by the time that releases. 

While I don't doubt that Russian conditions are appalling as described, I do want to point out that anything from Radio Free Europe(or Radio Free Asia, for that matter) should be taken with a grain of salt and independently corroborated. It's literally government media, CIA if I'm not mistaken.

While I don't doubt that Russian conditions are appalling as described, I do want to point out that anything from Radio Free Europe(or Radio Free Asia, for that matter) should be taken with a grain of salt and independently corroborated. It's literally government media, CIA if I'm not mistaken.

While I don't doubt that Russian conditions are appalling as described, I do want to point out that anything from Radio Free Europe(or Radio Free Asia, for that matter) should be taken with a grain of salt and independently corroborated. It's literally government media, CIA if I'm not mistaken.

The basic tenet of democracy is that the masses ARE that bright!
In recent human European history - since the Beaker People 5000 years ago - we have lived with the tyranny of the monarchs.  The masses had little to say.  There has been progress but it has been cruel, and painful, and inefficient.
More recently we discovered diversity.
The most successful organisations today enjoy consolidating diverse opinions - sex, ethnicity, achievement.  The autocracy paradigm is bankrupt!  We are developing ways of working together with the best insights and challengers.  The "russian" way is a threat to humanity similar to the way an asteroid destroyed the dinosaurs.
The masses ARE that bright.  We are learning that russian autocratic ideas. like the asteroid, are a threat to humanity.  Survival means learning not only to iive together but learning together.  Diversity is the key!
Like most wars in the past few thousand years we are in a conflict of values.  Do we narrow our focus to a Putinesque prison cell of hetrosexuals, or do we embrace freedoms?
I know where I stand, do you?

Gents, IMHO this whole democracies vs autocracies discussion is driven more by faith/ideology/wishful thinking than actual facts.
I think the fallacy most here are making is to equate democracy to economical strength/success. Democracy, however, is a political system, not an economical one. Sure, when we are talking about "the West" we mean democracies + capitalism/free market. Of course economical success can and probably is also influenced by the political system but you can't just go and say: "look, that country has a strong economy and it is a democracy, ergo democracy is the cause of economical strength". This is just correlation and is very open to lots of different interpretations, e.g. that economical success makes people more likely to want political participation (as opposed to the other way round).
To look into this on a scientifically sound basis you'd have to compare democracy + capitalism, democracy + socialism (or any other economical approach very different from capitalism), autocracy + capitalism and autocracy + socialism.
Democracy + socialism wasn't really tried except the one or two attempts where the CIA intervened, so that already makes a real study impossible.
Autocracy + socialism (Soviet style) didn't really work that well, no arguing that. To be fair, we don't know how things would have looked if that had existed in isolation instead of in competition to democracy + capitalism (which may be the stronger system but for whatever reason the countries in question had also been historically stronger, so that comparison is still mildly flawed).
The best example for autocracy + capitalism is, of course, China. Sure we can argue all day long how sustainable that system really is but so far it works, and most (Han-)Chinese appear to be supporting it. (Though of course we might not get to talk to those who don't very often).
There are obviously lots of autocratic countries that don't look that good. Due to corruption and all that but also due to historically worse starting positions (let's say that the effects of colonialism still hampering Africa is at least a matter of debate).
On the other hand there a quite a few examples of democracy + capitalism that face similar issues. (Greece to name just one that comes to mind).
I'm not arguing pro autocracies here, personally I'd much rather live in a democracy than an autocracy. Just saying that the evidence really isn't as clear as some here make it look.
Even going by won conflicts, the picture isn't all that clear. Sure, democracies won WW2. But did they because they were democracies? France was a democracy. Reminder: it had the largest army at that time. It got steamrolled by Nazi Germany partly because the political elite was incapable of looking beyond their suspicion of the military and thus prevented a modernized army. UK, did they win because they were a democracy or because they really were still that world spanning empire (and actually a constitutional monarchy...) that could draw on enormous resources from their colonies and Commonwealth? Did the US win because of democracy or capitalism? And what about the USSR? Had it been a democracy would they have been able to wage that war in the way the did? Probably not, though we will never know if that would have made for better or worse strategies and equipment.
Again, not suggesting I know the answers, just saying that things aren't as simple as they appear on first sight.

Just going to pull on this one because frankly this is becoming a waste of time - we sent one dooms day cultist on vaycay and we get another right behind him.
But let’s unpack your expertise on reconstruction business for just as second.  Hmm, now I wonder just how scared US and western businesses were in Iraq and Afghanistan.  We poured hundreds of billions into those two countries and western companies lined up to get in on it…saw em with my own eyes.
But for “reasons” cruise missiles are somehow scarier than getting one’s head sliced off by insurgents or IED’d.  
Let me as blunt as I can be - you do not know what you are talking about.  Nothing in what the US just said points to abandonment of Ukraine.  Nor would a shift toward self-sustainment somehow chase off all support.  Why?  Because money talks. It actually makes a lot of sense and has been the long term playbook for partners globally since the 90’s.
But clearly you are in the Zeleban camp where everything is falling apart and the end is inevitable.  I strongly support what we are doing in this war.  I support a free independent and secure Ukraine.  Ukrainian resistance and then defence will go down in history as one of the great military actions.  
But every time someone from your end of things comes in here and plays this same old song - I do not want to call my MP and demand greater support for Ukraine.  I want to call them and say we should “cut and run” because if this is what Ukrainian steadfast resolve looks like we are likely backing another bad partner.
Now, I know that you, nor Zeleban represent your people.  For some reason we are collecting these types but I see Ukraine fighting and defending itself under extreme duress everyday.  I see people make sacrifices and staring into that abyss with resolve and determination.  Pull yourself together and honour what they are doing.  You do them no service coming here and pushing this sort of outright disinformation.  
I honestly miss kraze at this point.

Hopefully we'll get another person of reason and sound judgement who also thinks earth is 6000 years, amongst the many wise beliefs of mike johnston.  But maybe we'll get an improvement as the current speaker is somewhat flawed as he thinks the earth is round and goes around the sun.  
American taliban.  

Hi, just bombing the thread with YouTube links and no explanation puts you on my troll list.
So care to explain your POV?

As someone who DOES basically think the border not being open is close to fascist, you're patently and categorically mischaracterizing the Dems and the state of the border. As someone who has regularly traveled back and forth across it, I haven't the slightest idea what you mean. There's so much law enforcement and much of Republican policy from trump and every previous deportation  happy administration is intact. Biden could put HIMARS and land mines on the border and Republicans would ask why he won't start a special military operation in Juarez.

As someone who DOES basically think the border not being open is close to fascist, you're patently and categorically mischaracterizing the Dems and the state of the border. As someone who has regularly traveled back and forth across it, I haven't the slightest idea what you mean. There's so much law enforcement and much of Republican policy from trump and every previous deportation  happy administration is intact. Biden could put HIMARS and land mines on the border and Republicans would ask why he won't start a special military operation in Juarez.

As someone who DOES basically think the border not being open is close to fascist, you're patently and categorically mischaracterizing the Dems and the state of the border. As someone who has regularly traveled back and forth across it, I haven't the slightest idea what you mean. There's so much law enforcement and much of Republican policy from trump and every previous deportation  happy administration is intact. Biden could put HIMARS and land mines on the border and Republicans would ask why he won't start a special military operation in Juarez.

As someone who DOES basically think the border not being open is close to fascist, you're patently and categorically mischaracterizing the Dems and the state of the border. As someone who has regularly traveled back and forth across it, I haven't the slightest idea what you mean. There's so much law enforcement and much of Republican policy from trump and every previous deportation  happy administration is intact. Biden could put HIMARS and land mines on the border and Republicans would ask why he won't start a special military operation in Juarez.

As someone who DOES basically think the border not being open is close to fascist, you're patently and categorically mischaracterizing the Dems and the state of the border. As someone who has regularly traveled back and forth across it, I haven't the slightest idea what you mean. There's so much law enforcement and much of Republican policy from trump and every previous deportation  happy administration is intact. Biden could put HIMARS and land mines on the border and Republicans would ask why he won't start a special military operation in Juarez.

As someone who DOES basically think the border not being open is close to fascist, you're patently and categorically mischaracterizing the Dems and the state of the border. As someone who has regularly traveled back and forth across it, I haven't the slightest idea what you mean. There's so much law enforcement and much of Republican policy from trump and every previous deportation  happy administration is intact. Biden could put HIMARS and land mines on the border and Republicans would ask why he won't start a special military operation in Juarez.

As someone who DOES basically think the border not being open is close to fascist, you're patently and categorically mischaracterizing the Dems and the state of the border. As someone who has regularly traveled back and forth across it, I haven't the slightest idea what you mean. There's so much law enforcement and much of Republican policy from trump and every previous deportation  happy administration is intact. Biden could put HIMARS and land mines on the border and Republicans would ask why he won't start a special military operation in Juarez.

As someone who DOES basically think the border not being open is close to fascist, you're patently and categorically mischaracterizing the Dems and the state of the border. As someone who has regularly traveled back and forth across it, I haven't the slightest idea what you mean. There's so much law enforcement and much of Republican policy from trump and every previous deportation  happy administration is intact. Biden could put HIMARS and land mines on the border and Republicans would ask why he won't start a special military operation in Juarez.

As someone who DOES basically think the border not being open is close to fascist, you're patently and categorically mischaracterizing the Dems and the state of the border. As someone who has regularly traveled back and forth across it, I haven't the slightest idea what you mean. There's so much law enforcement and much of Republican policy from trump and every previous deportation  happy administration is intact. Biden could put HIMARS and land mines on the border and Republicans would ask why he won't start a special military operation in Juarez.

As someone who DOES basically think the border not being open is close to fascist, you're patently and categorically mischaracterizing the Dems and the state of the border. As someone who has regularly traveled back and forth across it, I haven't the slightest idea what you mean. There's so much law enforcement and much of Republican policy from trump and every previous deportation  happy administration is intact. Biden could put HIMARS and land mines on the border and Republicans would ask why he won't start a special military operation in Juarez.

As someone who DOES basically think the border not being open is close to fascist, you're patently and categorically mischaracterizing the Dems and the state of the border. As someone who has regularly traveled back and forth across it, I haven't the slightest idea what you mean. There's so much law enforcement and much of Republican policy from trump and every previous deportation  happy administration is intact. Biden could put HIMARS and land mines on the border and Republicans would ask why he won't start a special military operation in Juarez.