I don't think we as a species have it in us to not be pieces of shit. Individuals absolutely do, but I'm not very conviced we'll manage to unfuck our plains ape selves before things go really sideways due to climate change and resource scarcity, and we revert back to a more "natural" state
no knowledge of the face of the earth, no account of time, no arts, no letters, no society, and which is worst of all, continual fear and danger of violent death, and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
Any bets on whether this will change anything? I mean yeah, it doesn't seem likely and the prevailing opinion seems to be "fuck no", but I have no idea how informed that opinion is.
Russian population growth isn't 0, though. Yes, the war's going to make a demographic dent, but they've turned their schools into military indoctrination machines
But the thing is that Ukraine is getting worn down as well, and the longer this drags out the more emboldened Russia will become, not to mention the fact that right now Ukraine doesn't have the capacity for retaking territory – if the war ends with Russia making territorial gains, you can bet your ass this won't be the last Russian invasion in Europe in the near future.
Oh it absolutely will hurt them plenty even if they "win" this war, but the problem is that the more of their strategic aims they accomplish the more emboldened they'll be. Sure, it'll take them a while to regenerate their forces (and their demographics being what they are it won't be easy), but I don't think that they're nearly as screwed as commonly assumed.
Russians are no strangers to misery, and the masses are generally more than happy to live with a boot on their necks as long as they believe they have their boots on somebody else's neck as well. Casualties (wounded or dead) really don't factor into it, especially considering that it's the non-ethnic minorities who are dispropotionately getting the short end of the stick in the war – which is how it's always been with Russia starting from imperial times. It's a colonial empire but with contiguous borders, and they have no compunctions about throwing minorities in the meat grinder.
Hasn't moved yet. I did a quick search and turns out he's moving to Bristol so it's not as bad as it could be, I had a vague memory it was more up north
People often say that seems to be the rationale, but I don't quite buy it. Artificially prolonging the war has much bigger risks involved as it lets Russia not only learn from their mistakes (which they have been doing, regardless of what people often seem to think. Not that they've suddenly unfucked themselves but still), and it also gives them time to regenerate their forces and move their country more and more towards a war economy.
If the assumption is that EU and US leaders are just cold and calculating but still want Russia to lose, it's hard to imagine they'd choose this drip feeding tactic
Seriously, it feels like many "western" leaders want Russia to win. The aid we've collectively given Ukraine is comparatively pitiful, compared to what the risks are if we fucking let Russia win. Unsurprisingly the countries that are doing the most to help Ukraine are the ones that have had to live under Russian occupation.
Yes, it's great that Ukraine fucking finally got some F-16s, but the total amount pledged is absolutely pitiful and a lot of them won't even be arriving until a few years from now
I am deeply saddened by the news that I won't be seeing this in any classical music concerts.
Might as well sell those tickets I bought, then ☹️