Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...

Does Cox still implement data caps?

Cool, you're welcome, and no problem!

I also just recently saw the light regarding audiobooks a few months ago. It helps me actually finish more books and faster than reading the text versions. I'm guessing it's probably related to ADHD. I've only done non-fiction so far though. As much as I try to boycott Amazon, I've kept paying for an Audible subscription.

I personally like the Buddhist version, the 5 precepts. There's quite a bit of overlap, but one interesting difference is that as far as I know they're not framed as commandments, but rather as guidelines to be voluntarily undertaken if you wish to reduce suffering in the world.

And I would do anything glass or carbon fiber infused if it’s going be touching and dragging on skin.

Did you perhaps mean to have a "not" somewhere in there?

Thanks for clarifying. I think there may be a misunderstanding about my argument. I'm not saying that distance necessarily makes us safer from my own perspective. I could agree with you that mutually assured destruction is probably the end result regardless of distance. The point I'm making is that for military and national security experts, distance (and consequently time before being hit) is assuredly considered a factor, despite what you or I may think. This article may provide some useful background on these concepts. There may be better articles out there but I happened to run across this one when I searched for when ICBMs became viable.

I've mentioned this before, but the US nearly completely lost it when they found out that there were Russian nukes in Cuba in 1962. The same exact scenario would be just as alarming to the US today. Trying to wave away Russia's concerns with this type of scenario is unrealistic. Have you ever watched Dr. Mearsheimer speak? If you haven't, it's worth looking on Youtube for his name and Russia or Ukraine. He is a renowned scholar in international relations who has a realistic perspective of West-Russia relations and who speaks very clearly about it.

You're just not willing to accept that I may even possibly have valid points and are now laughing and accusing me of dishonesty. That's enough. Like I said in my last post, I no longer wish to discuss this with you.

Unfortunately I don't know for sure. I have not used Funkwhale myself. I did look around at some of the pods listed on that site. I suppose you would need to visit each pod to see if you can tell if what they're about matches what you want to share.

You can probably post your music and follow musicians from any fediverse platform, but there is a specialized audio/music one:

Funkwhale.

I haven't mentioned a submarine in any of my posts. You're the one who brought them up. I'm not concerned about the scenario that I described because the country I live in doesn't have nuclear weapons from a distant foe nearby. We were discussing why Russia would legitimately feel that these things were a serious national security threat, but I see you're intent on sealioning. I've had enough of it, so I will not be responding further.

Edit: on second thought, I've blocked you since you're not willing to have an honest discussion.

Edit 2: unblocked you because I decided my threshold for blocking someone is higher than this. I just won't discuss politics with you in the future.

Or kick Canonical to the curb and use Incus instead: https://discuss.linuxcontainers.org/t/how-similar-is-incus-to-lxd/21430

I think I've seen people using this on Lemmy, but I'm not sure if it works: https://fedi.tips/is-there-a-reminder-bot-for-mastodon-and-the-fediverse/

The first and primary reason for NATO existing: "deterring Soviet expansionism". Distance makes a lot of difference. 30 minutes for a missile from the US to reach Russia. 2-3 minutes for one from Europe to reach them. That's enough of a difference for people to get into bunkers or not. You are being disingenuous in not admitting that bringing nuclear weapons across an ocean and placing them next door will be perceived as very threatening, regardless of whatever explanations are given. Think about how asymmetric that power is too. The US reaches Russia in 2-3 minutes with their nuclear weapons, while it would take Russia 30 minutes to do the same. It means Russia would effectively be largely wiped out before they would have a chance to return fire to the US.

Since you're just not willing to admit that such "defensive" moves can feel very threatening to another country despite evidence and logic, there's no point in discussing further.

Who knows? I figure wars often lead to unexpected results.

I'm not on any other platform except Lemmy and Mastodon. Well, I'm on Facebook but only to find events nearby and have been considering deleting it for a while.

Mastodon and Lemmy are better off not being "mainstream". There's a huge amount of crap that comes with being that.

Yes, I've mentioned multiple times in this thread including in the discussion with you that the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. NATO should've rightfully been dissolved a short time after that.

You keep moving around and not addressing my questions. Let me simplify it: would you feel threatened by an adversarial nation from a different continent across an ocean placing a bunch of nuclear weapons in a country neighboring yours? Yes or no?

From NATO's own mouth:

In fact, the Alliance’s creation was part of a broader effort to serve three purposes: deterring Soviet expansionism, forbidding the revival of nationalist militarism in Europe through a strong North American presence on the continent, and encouraging European political integration.

Despite their claims that NATO had/has any purposes other than as a Soviet deterrent, that was its main purpose and as such it should have been dissolved or fundamentally restructured after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. But no, it continued on and now its main role continues to be as an anti-Russia alliance.

Fact Sheet: U.S. Nuclear Weapons in Europe - maybe the nuclear missiles aren't pointed at Russia and ready to be launched at the press of a button, but do you think that the US keeps over 100 nuclear weapons (by 2021) in 5 European countries for anything other than to use it against Russia at short notice?

It seems that you just can't see things from Russia's perspective. I ask again, how would the US react if Mexico had Russian-controlled nuclear weapons based there and Canada started moving to join the same "defensive" alliance? This is not whataboutism, but to illustrate that NATO is understandably seen by Russia as a major threat to their national security. Does their perspective not matter?

You're trying to twist my words into something they're not. That part of the conversation was relating to your assertion that Russia was so threatening that it justified NATO expansion. I see that you also didn't address the second part of my last post, about why Russia would feel existentially threatened by that same NATO expansion.

Chechnya. Georgia. Ukraine. They are also using coercive tactics against several others in order to cause chaos and disruptions to their societies. Of course those countries are going to look to someone for help. If Russia really wanted to prevent more countries from going NATO…all they need to do is drop the aggression. People feel safer when they aren’t being threatened with political extortion or the possibility of invasion.

Again, can you demonstrate that Russia has used more coercive tactics, chaos, disruptions, and corruption for geo-strategic advantage than the West has used since 1991? If you want to go back further than that, let's include the much more sordid record of the US overthrowing governments left, right, and center around the world. The military dictatorships, the death squads, etc. The point I'm making is that the West, particularly the US since the end of WWII, is in no position to claim cleaner hands than Russia, and least of all use that claim to justify their actions as being more well-intentioned than Russia's.

And I would love to hear your rationale for why NATO even poses an “existential threat” to Russia. There have been no plans to invade. No moves to take their territory. Most NATO countries were active trade partners with Russia up until they invaded Ukraine. So, what “threat” is Russia even responding to?

If countries next door to yours which are allied to a major historical foe (known for using underhanded tactics to manipulate and overthrow governments and for starting major wars) having missiles, including nuclear ones, pointed at you is not a threat, I'm not sure what you would consider a threat. For comparison, the US nearly completely lost its shit when tiny Cuba had a handful of Russian nukes located there. If you can't see why Russia would be extremely concerned about a powerful, armed anti-Russia coalition immediately next door to them, I don't think there's much point in continuing the discussion.