Maybe. But I think it’s worrying if young people are now feeling more emboldened about being racist.

Good answer. Many posts are people saying “my approach is the right one, other people are irredeemable morons who should burn in hell”, but you’re right, it depends on your perspective.

For me it’s the top one. In a web browser, when using CSS and JavaScript, x is the horizontal axis, y is the vertical axis, and z is for depth. Hence the z-index CSS property which determines depth.

I would say the bottom one only makes sense if the stick figure were to hover in the air and look downwards. Then the z axis would be depth for him.

Yeah I think Ireland’s system is pretty good. They have the Taoiseach, the equivalent of our prime minister. Then they have a president who is mostly ceremonial.

Ah yes, British democracy. The bringer of Brexit, Boris Johnson.

Arguably though, if the UK was even more democratic, then those two phenomena may have turned out differently. E.g. Boris only won 43.6% of the votes in the 2019 election, which of course is a minority. If the UK had proportional representation then I guess we’d be more likely to see consensus-building leaders ruling the country. Germany has some degree of proportional representation and they have been led by coalitions between the two main blocs (centre-right Union and centre-left SPD) for much of the last 20 years.

With Brexit, maybe there should have been a second referendum to determine what sort of Brexit would be implemented, since that question was not asked in the first referendum. The UK could have taken a path similar to Norway or Iceland, being outside the EU, but still taking part in the single market.

I haven’t checked my account on here for a while but now I’ve seen your replies.

Maybe we will just have different views on the monarchy. If you like the monarchy then fair enough. I think I would prefer an elected official having command over the armed forces and police (which is surely already de facto the case) instead of a monarch. The elected official would probably be somewhat competent because they have had to win the backing of the British people in an election.

Reform UK is only supported by about a third of the electorate at the moment. More than any other single party, but if there was an election for a British head of state, and that election ended up being a choice between Farage and one other person, Farage could very well lose.

Also you said in another post that “President Farage could remove elections”. I think that if we have an elected head of state then they should only have similar powers to what the King has now. Parliament should still be sovereign.

I think one of the best aspects of the UK is political freedom. Perhaps I am a subject of the King (I don’t know if that’s legally true but it might be), but in any case, I can still say that I hope the UK will get rid of the monarchy and replace it with a democratically elected head of state.

Fair enough, but according to a couple of sites that Wikipedia refers to, Churchill originally didn’t know that the outward facing gesture was rude until he was told about it. If true then I guess his gesture was intended to mean “here is a V for victory” instead of “fuck off you lot” or “fuck the Germans”.

It depends on the context doesn’t it. Lots of people will fly the England flag or wear an England shirt during a football tournament, and all they mean by that is “I support the England team” without a further political meaning. But the meaning of the current flag-flying from lamp posts seems to essentially be “we don’t want immigrants in the UK” which can make the flags intimidating (which is probably the exact intention).

Here’s another example of context changing meaning. Churchill used to give a two-fingered salute (see picture below), and his intended meaning of that salute was that it was a “V” for “victory” in WW2. But of course these days, that same outwards two-fingered salute means “fuck off”. Context changes the meaning.

Absolutely true. I didn’t mean to imply that you said that. I was just thinking about people on the left (not necessarily yourself) who didn’t vote for Kamala because she wasn’t critical enough of Israel. In America’s political system, especially in swing states, not voting for the Democrat candidate makes it more likely that the Republican candidate will win.

I did in fact address your drivel repeatedly

Where? You implied that Ukrainian “officials” have been “proudly posing in front of nazi symbols while in office”. In reality you just showed that some Ukrainian fighters have displayed far-right symbols, but as I showed, there have been fighters on the Russian side who have displayed far-right symbols too. Neither case means that the Ukrainian or Russian governments themselves are necessarily fascist (but I think the Russian government is closer to fascism, given their worse record regarding democracy and liberalism).

they openly say that they follow Bandera ideology

No they don’t. In 2022, after Russia’s launched their renewed invasion of Ukraine, Zelenskyy fired Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, because the ambassador had made controversial comments about Bandera in an interview (he had said “Bandera was not a mass murderer of Jews and Poles”). Ukraine’s foreign ministry stated that they did not agree with the ambassador’s remarks: “the opinion that the ambassador… expressed in an interview with a German journalist is of his own and does not reflect the position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine”.

So clearly it’s not true that the Ukrainian government “openly say[s] that they follow Bandera ideology”. In fact they are not tolerating comments that could be seen as supportive of Bandera.

literal nazi battalions like Azov

Let’s look at a different view of Azov:

Michael Colborne, who wrote a book about the Azov movement and leads Bellingcat’s work on the global far right, said the unit’s focus appears to have shifted over time from ideology to military effectiveness.

He said that any remaining far-right elements within Azov probably would continue to be “diluted” as the unit grows and that the issue had become less important as Ukraine confronts an existential threat.

I think Bellingcat are a reliable source for things like this. They’re the same people who identified the two Russian military intelligence officers who carried out the 2018 poisoning in Salisbury, England.

None of this is happening in Russia

I looked up a bit more about the neo-Nazi, pro-Russia Rusich Group which I previously mentioned. Apparently they are “a Wagner Group contingent” (that source is yet another to describe Rusich as “neo-Nazi”). Let’s remember that Wagner were funded by the Russian state. So the Russian state has been funding neo-Nazis to fight for Russia.

In fact, Russia has been the country that has put out UN resolutions on combating fascism, and the countries that voted against it were the US and Ukraine

You should probably try to understand a bit better how propaganda works. Then you will realise why Russia does things like this.

you’re just really dedicated to making a clown of yourself

Not at all. I am showing you real facts and reliable assessments. So now the question is, can you refute any of what I’ve said? If you want to stop here, like you said, then that’s fine. What it means is that you have failed to demonstrate that the Ukrainian government is fascist. As I said before, I think Russia’s government is closer to fascism than Ukraine’s government is, due to Russia’s less democratic political system, and Russia’s less liberal laws (e.g. LGBT laws).

You’re saying Ukraine is run by fascists but you didn’t address the points I previously raised which, I think, demonstrate that Ukraine’s government is not fascist. If anything, Russia’s government is closer to fascism than Ukraine’s is. I’ll quote what I said before to see if you can actually refute it this time:

Here’s what Encyclopaedia Britannica says about fascism:

Although fascist parties and movements differed significantly from one another, they had many characteristics in common, including extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the rule of elites, and the desire to create a Volksgemeinschaft (German: “people’s community”), in which individual interests would be subordinated to the good of the nation.

Both Ukraine and Russia are quite militaristic at the moment due to the war (which was started by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine). But when it comes to democracy and liberalism, I would say Ukraine embraces those ideas more than Russia currently does. Shortly after Russia’s renewed 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Zelenskyy applied for Ukraine to join the EU. The EU is an institution which supports democracy and liberalism, and while it might not always perfectly pursue those ideals, I would say it is definitely more democratic and liberal than Putin’s Russia is. Russia throws protestors in prison with long sentences. Russia has poisoned dissidents such as Alexander Litvinenko, Alexei Navalny, and likely Vladimir Kara-Murza. Russia has been anti-liberal in recent years, demonstrated by their anti-LGBT laws.

Can you actually demonstrate that Ukraine’s current government is a fascist government, and crucially, can you demonstrate that it is closer to fascism than Russia’s government is? If you say “oh look here are some Ukrainian soldiers with far-right symbols”, then guess what, I already showed you some Russian soldiers with far-right symbols. So that argument would not show that Ukraine’s government is closer to fascism than Russia’s is.

Let’s say there are some far-right Ukrainian fighters. That doesn’t mean all Ukrainian soldiers are far-right or fascists; nor does it mean that the Ukrainian government is fascist. On the Russian side, there appear to be some neo-Nazi fighters, but that doesn’t mean that Putin is automatically a Nazi.

Here are some articles which talk about far-right and apparently neo-Nazi Russian fighters:

• What we know about neo-Nazis in the Russian army (BBC News)
• German intelligence showed “Russian neo-Nazis” who are fighting in Ukraine (BBC News)
• Numerous neo-Nazis are fighting for Russia in Ukraine (Der Spiegel)

In fact, that first article features a photo, shown below. You can see a patch on the soldier’s arm, which features a Kolovrat, a symbol that is popular with far-right Slavic movements. The patch resembles what the article describes as the symbol of the Rusich Group (“a twisting wheel - the pagan sign of the sun, one of the other symbols of the DSRG ‘Rusich’”), and the article describes this group as containing “neo-Nazis”. Wikipedia also describes the Rusich Group as a “neo-Nazi” group.

Here is a different source which says the Rusich Group “holds extreme right-wing, neo-Nazi beliefs”.

TLDR: It’s weird that you seem outraged by far-right Ukrainians, but not outraged by far-right Russians.

I hope the US doesn’t invade other countries. But I would say I can be wary of both the US and China at the same time.

You can throw around insults like a baby can throw their toys out of a pram, but you’re not really saying anything substantive.

It’s Ukraine and not Russia where open fascists are in charge of the government

Is Zelenskyy a fascist? Here’s what Encyclopaedia Britannica says about fascism:

Although fascist parties and movements differed significantly from one another, they had many characteristics in common, including extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the rule of elites, and the desire to create a Volksgemeinschaft (German: “people’s community”), in which individual interests would be subordinated to the good of the nation.

Both Ukraine and Russia are quite militaristic at the moment due to the war (which was started by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine). But when it comes to democracy and liberalism, I would say Ukraine embraces those ideas more than Russia currently does. Shortly after Russia’s renewed 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Zelenskyy applied for Ukraine to join the EU. The EU is an institution which supports democracy and liberalism, and while it might not always perfectly pursue those ideals, I would say it is definitely more democratic and liberal than Putin’s Russia is. Russia throws protestors in prison with long sentences. Russia has poisoned dissidents such as Alexander Litvinenko, Alexei Navalny, and likely Vladimir Kara-Murza. Russia has been anti-liberal in recent years, demonstrated by their anti-LGBT laws.

they’re literally posing in front of nazi symbols

I think I said in a previous post that there are far-right people in many countries, including in Russia. See here and here. Here is an instance of Nazi symbols in France, but that doesn’t mean France is ruled by a “fascist regime”. It likely just indicates that there are some far-right people in France.

I think you misspelled Russia because Russia is the country that doesn’t have free and fair elections and which is waging an imperialist war, supported by far-right figures like Dugin. Ukraine is currently not having elections due to the invasion of their country, but the last few elections they did have seem to have been much more democratic than Russia’s “elections”.

Politicians can change their mind though if there is enough political pressure on them. I just think it’s weird logic to think “I don’t like what is happening in Gaza so I would rather see Trump elected to the White House than Kamala Harris”. Since Trump has a history of being strongly pro-Israel and he doesn’t seem to have a lot of sympathy for civilians who are suffering.

Almost immediately after coming to power in 2014, the Ukrainian government started banning opposition parties

There were still big pro-Russia parties so Ukrainians who liked the idea of stronger ties with Russia had parties they could vote for.

The whole situation is a tragedy and a mess.

That’s very true.

Russia and China don’t set the time that I go to bed…

Anyway, I think Russia should withdraw their invasion of Ukraine and allow Ukrainians to make their own democratic decisions. If Ukrainians want more integration with Russia then okay, or if they want to join NATO and the EU then okay.

they were shut out of the political process by having their parties banned

The banning of pro-Russia parties apparently happened after Russia launched its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, so the banning can’t be a justification for the invasion.

we’re talking about grabbing people off the streets, giving them a rifle, and forcing them to the front

I hope that doesn’t happen and I hope Ukrainian people can choose whether they want to fight or not. I also think though that Russia shouldn’t be taking land and lives by force, and they also shouldn’t be trying to install their own puppet regime in Kyiv.