The energy crisis and Europe’s astonishing luck

Re:The energy crisis and Europe’s astonishing luck by raspberry1337 on Thursday January 12, 2023 @10:02AM (#34354471)

America has the exact same policy not only in the entire North and South America, but also in the Middle east and elsewhere. I agree that what Russia is doing is morally disastrous but rationally, they are doing exactly what the US and everyone else is doing.

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Re:The energy crisis and Europe’s astonishing luck by Eisenstein on Thursday January 12, 2023 @10:53AM (#34355367)

'But your honor, I should allowed to do this thing because I saw someone else do it!'

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Re:The energy crisis and Europe’s astonishing luck by raspberry1337 on Friday January 13, 2023 @07:27AM (#34366820)

'Sir, you're accusing your neighbour of painting his house red. Your house is red."

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Re:The energy crisis and Europe’s astonishing luck by Eisenstein on Friday January 13, 2023 @09:38AM (#34368277)

Your honor, the fact that my house is red does not make his house not red. My house being red is irrelevant.

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Re:The energy crisis and Europe’s astonishing luck by raspberry1337 on Tuesday January 17, 2023 @06:53AM (#34411442)

'Sir, have you heard of the word hipocrisy? If you want your neighbourhood to keep their houses white, maybe you should not have painted your house red. You also refused any consequences of painting your house red, but now you demand it for your neighbour?'

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Re:The energy crisis and Europe’s astonishing luck by zoklet-enjoyer on Thursday January 19, 2023 @08:34AM (#34440068)

You speak like a child

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Re:The energy crisis and Europe’s astonishing luck by alexvoda on Friday January 13, 2023 @07:03AM (#34366651)

The USA has everything it needs to back up that claim to being a superpower among which we can count:

- being a top tier tech power

- being a top tier culture exporter

- being the reserve currency for the world (the USA is THE monetary superpower)

- having good relationships with other major powers which amplify it's own

- having the best military force projection and having alliances which further magnify that force projection

Like it or not, the USA has what it takes to back it up. And I agree, the USA has been and is behaving morally disastrous in several ways. One does not excuse the other. No ones military imperialism is excusable.

But in addition to that, I am saying, the Russian leadership is braindead because they failed to accurately appraise their chances and continue to do so. They thought they could take Ukraine in a few weeks and when that proved wrong they did not recalibrate their expectations. At any time until the point they officially declared annexation, they could have declared mission accomplished and the internal propaganda machine would have done it's job. Now they are stuck, unable to make progress and unable to backtrack. Such stupidity is far more disastrous than the villainy of imperialism. This is Cipolla's 5'th law of stupidity and its corollary applied: "A stupid person is the most dangerous person in existence." and "A stupid person is thus more dangerous than a bandit.". Also, a relevant quote by the same author: "The ability to hurt of a stupid person depends on the […] position of power or authority he occupies in the society."

China, compared to Russia, does in fact have some actual capability to support its ambitions. Will they be stupid in the future and overestimate themselves? So far they are somewhat cautious but we will see.

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