Europe under extreme duress

[taxi1]

For a person without morals who thinks everyone has a price and therefore economic incentives (diesel!) are the key, they will find this baffling. But for anyone who understands that Putin has all the money he needs and that he grew up as a KGB agent in the USSR and yearns for the greatness lost, they'll understand this is about emotions.

Reply to my own post, since this article about AI I'm reading this morning crosses over in an interesting way...

In his much-misunderstood book “The End of History and the Last Man,” Francis Fukuyama posed a similar question. It seemed unlikely, Fukuyama thought, that any political or economic system would surpass capitalism and liberal democracy at driving forward material prosperity. The question was whether there were human drives that liberal democracy would not only fail to meet, but fundamentally betray.

Fukuyama thought there was: Man did not just want a paycheck and an apartment; he wanted recognition and struggle. He wanted to be seen as not just equal to other men in some spiritual or political sense, but as better than other men. The fight for recognition is a fundamental human drive. And the inability of technocratic, liberal societies to even comprehend that urge might destabilize them.

“We inhabitants of liberal democratic countries are by now so used to accounts of current events that reduce motivation to economic causes, so thoroughly bourgeois in our own perceptions, that we are frequently surprised to discover how totally noneconomic most political life is,” Fukuyama wrote. “Indeed, we do not even have a common vocabulary for talking about the prideful and assertive side of human nature that is responsible for driving most wars and political conflicts.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/18/opinion/ai-bubble-catastrophe-investors-control.html?unlocked_article_code=1.JlE.dOJF.nOTCiKidsTii&smid=url-share

 

[taxi1]

Delicate flowers with thin skin can't take opposing viewpoints.

Too funny, so typical.

Enjoy "The View".

Amen brother!

Gods of AW, please forgive me. I will sacrifice a chicken for penance.

 

[Randy Daytona]

Here is how it goes. The war ends when Putin decides he can’t win. The sooner he decides that, the sooner the war ends. Or the sooner he falls out a window.

For a person without morals who thinks everyone has a price and therefore economic incentives (diesel!) are the key, they will find this baffling. But for anyone who understands that Putin has all the money he needs and that he grew up as a KGB agent in the USSR and yearns for the greatness lost, they'll understand this is about emotions.


I get that that sort of unserious argument tactic flies high in the circles you frequent, but it makes you sound dumb in professional circles.

This is much less due to Putin and much more due to Russia’s perception of their national security concerns. I don’t see anything different that Putin is doing that Catherine the Great or Ivan the Terrible wouldn’t recognize- this is simply a continuation of a millennia of Russian- Ukrainian conflict.

I don't think everyone you disagree with here is in favor of sending troops, though some may be. I think a common argument among the "UKR lovers" in our country is that the money and weapons we've sent is keeping Russia tied down and degrading their ability to wage a regional war (much less WWIII) against NATO, much like what we did with Afghanistan in the 80s. That is a strategic objective that is very much in our interest, and overall comes at the expense of Ukraine, since their population is being bled by it. I think if we really loved Ukraine, we'd have admitted them into NATO, invoked article 5, and sent troops a long time ago.

Question is: Russia’s military is already quite degraded from 4+ years of hard combat. How much more money should we spend there? We have already spent nearly $200 billion. We need carrier battle groups, submarines and munitions for the Pacific - and we can repair/replace/build hospitals, bridges, roads here at home - and we have a retirement / medicare crisis - and a massive national debt (like every other western country). Russia’s military is degraded - and nobody here has a convincing argument on why the Europeans with many multiples of manpower and GDP can’t handle what is left.

 

[taxi1]

This is much less due to Putin and much more due to Russia’s perception of their national security concerns.

Russia has always had an inferiority complex, especially to the West (Europe). It's in their DNA. Always looking for their Sally Fields "You really like me" moment, settling for respect/fear otherwise.

As big a border they have in the Far East, Russia ultimately wants to be a European power.

My family is slavic, immigrants just after WW1. Southwest PA coal miners, spoke various dialects at home. I took Russian in junior high, read a lot of Russian literature, always kind of wanted to travel around and see the area. Still would, if they would unfuck themselves. Might not be possible.

 

[IKE]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/18/opinion/ai-bubble-catastrophe-investors-control.html

Any chance you'd share a free version of this article?

 

[taxi1]

Any chance you'd share a free version of this article?

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/18/opinion/ai-bubble-catastrophe-investors-control.html?unlocked_article_code=1.JlE.dOJF.nOTCiKidsTii&smid=url-share

Also updated the original post.

 

[RHINOWSO]

I don't think everyone you disagree with here is in favor of sending troops, though some may be. I think a common argument among the "UKR lovers" in our country is that the money and weapons we've sent is keeping Russia tied down and degrading their ability to wage a regional war (much less WWIII) against NATO, much like what we did with Afghanistan in the 80s. That is a strategic objective that is very much in our interest, and overall comes at the expense of Ukraine, since their population is being bled by it. I think if we really loved Ukraine, we'd have admitted them into NATO, invoked article 5, and sent troops a long time ago.

Fair enough. I see the value in that but it's pretty obvious Russia is already a shadow of it's former self, not being able to win in Ukraine.

In the end, they have Nukes and will always have to be treated as such.

Ukraine is just as corrupt as Russia and personally I see little value in feeding money to the machine of war. In the end a negotiated deal will come, right now it's just a matter of how much time, money, and lives that will be wasted until that happens.

Kind of like OEF post 2002 was a waste of the same resources.

 

[RHINOWSO]

Amen brother!

Gods of AW, please forgive me. I will sacrifice a chicken for penance.

Proof you are just a leftist hack if you can't listen to what he said and meant.

Unfortunately for some of his public appearances and statements, Musk on the spectrum and does weird stuff / talks in weird ways - but your Ukraine Boy's have Nazi leanings.

And Musk has done far more for humanity as a whole than the entire leftist movement. I'm sure you see the cultural enrichment France is enjoying from their immigrants today. I'm sure that kind of thing is fine with you.

 

[Griz882]

Reply to my own post, since this article about AI I'm reading this morning crosses over in an interesting way...

Total history nerd sidebar here…but I don’t think that Fukuyama is necessarily “misunderstood,” he simply shares his mentor’s blind spot on the power, persistence and perhaps importance of nationalism, and its associated culture. As a public intellectual he is a brilliant thinker and well worth reading, but he’s hardly been proven as on target.