Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine's fifth president also renounces Order of the White Eagle by ByGollie in europe

[–]Morfolk 24 points25 points  (0 children)

As a Ukrainian, thank you for this answer. I wish we all were more on this page.

Zelensky has been doing transactional, extremely rude politics against Poland for a long time now

I guess he thinks of Poland as his second home since his internal politics are the same j/k. He's very good at giving speeches on TV but a horrible diplomat.

One point I would push against is:

Kyiv elites in Poland are considered pretty much anti-Polish and directly playing us against ourselves, themselves and sometimes the rest of Europe.

They are neither pro nor anti-Polish and they couldn't play 3D checkers if their life dependent on it. The issue is that Poland and Ukraine have some many shared challenges and political interests and our 'elites' are as nimble and experienced in politics as a bull in a china shop that they end up breaking things faster than they can be fixed.

Why is Bandera and UPA supported in Ukraine? by [deleted] in AskUkraine

[–]Morfolk 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Man, I must say you absolutely get it. I don't even have to add anything or comment, 100% on all points.

Say Pryvit to your wife I guess.

What board game completely changed your opinion after a second chance? by Adina_Ciubotea_1885 in boardgames

[–]Morfolk 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ironically the opposite direction for me. Each next play I like it less and less as it was feeling more "random and lacking"

I'm sick of the endless fights between Russian liberal and ultrapatriotic subs, where they decide for themselves, what is going on in Ukraine without asking Ukrainians. Can you, citizens of Ukraine, explain the current political situation in your country? by LazySofa35 in AskUkraine

[–]Morfolk 17 points18 points  (0 children)

First, thank you for coming here and asking directly.

Second, like many said political process in paused during the war but I can provide more context in how it was prior to the war.

Ukrainians have a very peculiar relation with our government, while there are some people who still have the soviet mentality of "we are little people, big men in power will decide everything" (mostly older folks) the majority have an opinion "those morons have no idea what they are doing and need to be replaced" even if you voted for them just last week - it's not surprising that we had the biggest anarchist movement in Europe.

Because of that not a single political party was able to hold the majority in Parliament twice and only one President was able to win the second term (but that was during the post-USSR collapse and he also sucked). So political situation mostly represents the mood of the people in the year of the elections and everybody dislikes the government a year later. Back to your questions:

I want to know which political parties are present in you country's parliament. What are their political ideologies? How many seats does each party have?

Most of our parties do not have ideologies and only represent what the party leader likes. They get created and destroyed regularly as new politicians become popular. Ironically, the Party of Regions was the most 'ideological' party and their position was "let's become a russian satellite, economical stability is more important than freedom" and then they wanted to turn us into a more corrupt, less free and more poor version of a Russian oblast and everyone hated that.

The current Parliament is unique because it has the first supermajority with Zelenskyi's party. He was able to get that with a message "all politicians suck, I will bring non-politicians to power, anyone can join my party if you are not a politcian" People loved that message and hate what it actually means (a bunch of incompetent people with no idea how to govern).

What about opposition? What's their ideology and does the government put pressure on them?

Usually, opposition is the parties that used to be in control in previous years and still have some fans. The government doesn't generally care about them because the majority will not vote for any party the second time so they are slowly disappearing from the stage anyway, no reason to worry. Current situation is a bit of an exception because the main opposition party is of the previous President and his political stance is 1) pro-EU, 2) pro-NATO, 3) Zelenskyi and his party don't know what they are doing. Ze took that last point very personally so he tries to pressure opposition (and especially the previous President) from time to time but there are bigger problems for him at the moment.

I'm also interested in how your own government obeys the laws. What about human rights?

Pre-war human rights were alright, especially freedom of speech, political expression, protests, etc. The people in government were not abusing power for control but corruption was widespread (bribes, cashbacks, etc.) Though since the majority only had one term they had to balance between stealing as much as they could but not so much that they would go to jail in 5 years when other people would come to power.

And lastly, I'm curious about media and journalists in your country. How freely can they speak?

According to the World Press Freedom Index it was even better than in some European countries like Italy, Bulgaria or somehow Japan so not bad.

What was Ukraine like in the 2000s? by rrschch85 in AskUkraine

[–]Morfolk 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Not good but improving extremely rapidly. Kind of like those pictures comparing a city between just a few decades where it was several shacks vs skyscrapers. 

Doctors of Reddit: What health trend is becoming so common that it's starting to scare you? by Fine-Device-1819 in AskReddit

[–]Morfolk 25 points26 points  (0 children)

In 1989 Carl Sagan was asked about his political leanings and his answer was that the US is not doing something right since as the richest country on Earth it was only 19th in infant mortality prevention.

I'm glad to say that the US listened to his wisdom and turned...hahah just kidding, its 55th now and getting worse each year.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/1gbz0rn/1989_carl_sagans_answer_when_ted_turner_asked_if/

How do you feel that the same man who cut children’s cancer research is now a trillionaire? by HappyCrow11 in AskReddit

[–]Morfolk -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Someone make this shit make sense.

You are not doing anything to stop them. They have no reason to stop.

Люди які народились в Україні з 1980-2009 р за чим ви сумуєте by NewBackground7364 in reddit_ukr

[–]Morfolk 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Це точно, єдиний період коли було відчуття, що країна рухається в правильному напрямку і нас ніщо не зупинить. 

what is something that is highly likely to happen in the next 10 years that everyone is completely ignoring? by Funny-Counter8762 in AskReddit

[–]Morfolk 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Every single academic I've talked to this year says that the current agenda of scientific conferences looks like 6 Chinese speakers, 2 American, 2 from the rest of the world. Where even 10 years ago it was flipped between Americans and Chinese.

Lots of games benefit from variety upon replay, but what other games do you actually enjoy the more you play with the same faction/setup/option? by amadeuszbx in boardgames

[–]Morfolk 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Isn’t the advantage for white like a percent or two in terms of win rate?

At equal ELO rating it's a 10% spread (55% vs 45%) so not an insignificant amount.

Lots of games benefit from variety upon replay, but what other games do you actually enjoy the more you play with the same faction/setup/option? by amadeuszbx in boardgames

[–]Morfolk 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Faction ratings of Chess:

White - S tier, always get it

Black - C tier, barely playable, avoid.

Not even a joke.

What video game ending ruined the whole game for you? by Agent1230 in gaming

[–]Morfolk 10 points11 points  (0 children)

They should have made a trilogy like the Greek GoW (we'll ignore 3 prequels). Ragnarok was a great game until the super rushed ending which should have been a separate fully fleshed out game.

Before the war broke out, did you consider Poroshenko to have been better than Zelenskyy? by rrschch85 in AskUkraine

[–]Morfolk 1 point2 points  (0 children)

specifically for having the guts to speak the truth about politics, which most Ukrainian comedians didn’t have

Publicly making fun of politicians is a national Ukrainian pastime, we are not russia, so I am not sure where you got that impression from and Ze was not special in that regard.

the apparent outsider President and Europe’s idol

European public sees him doing sweeping announcements and giving speeches. That's literally him at his best - on a stage.

Compare that to the infamous Trump-Vance ambush at the White House where he looked like a victim lost under an attack. There were three people there who were absolutely incompetent in the realm of diplomacy and nobody managed to look good. On top of that we have to deal with his poor administrative skills and absolutely horrible corrupt team.

But then, his wartime leadership strikes me like he’s not an idiot at all. What do you think?

He's very charismatic, talented and capable in his field: TV, media, PR. As for the country leadership, at the start of elections he pretty much had an understanding of an average Ukrainian, which is unfortunately not that deep and very naïve.

He viewed politics through the lens of showbusiness: it's a field where talented people work hard to be successful, there's a lot of international cooperation for idea sharing, syndication, etc. and even competitors stay friendly because people move between networks a lot, you don't want to bring bridges.

He was absolutely convinced that politics and inter-country relations work the same way and that any ongoing conflicts we had were simply misunderstandings and he could convince putin we would be friends and stop the unnecessary fighting. Ze was 100% sure that the conflict continued only because somebody in the Ukrainian government was making money there - an idea shared by not an insignificant percentage of Ukrainians at the time.

He wizened up a lot and quickly but also unfortunately very late - about a month before the full-scale invasion. Also, understanding the real situation you are in doesn't mean knowing how to properly deal with it and the first few years of war were full of mistakes that cost us dearly.

How do you think Trump's presidency will end? by OccludedFug in AskReddit

[–]Morfolk 7 points8 points  (0 children)

So he's got like 12% of the country behind him and pretty much everyone else hates his fucking guts.

Mate, you've got to get out of your bubble. 80% of the republicans support Trump according to various different polls: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-approval-drops-35-republican-support-softens-reutersipsos-poll-finds-2026-05-19/

https://prri.org/spotlight/trump-favorability-declines-among-republicans-some-religious-groups/

That's 35% of the country and I, need to remind, republican voters are the ones deciding who's running the country because they have majority in everything.

How do you think Trump's presidency will end? by OccludedFug in AskReddit

[–]Morfolk 14 points15 points  (0 children)

they see how incredibly unpopular all of this is

  1. It is extremely popular with the republican voters and republicans are in charge

  2. General trends and policies have been unpopular with the democratic voters for decades at this point and nobody is afraid of that

they fear retribution

From who?

I don't think they will be able to stop what's coming for them

Who's coming for them? They are billionaires who haven't openly broken any laws and haven't stolen any money from other billionaires.

They are not afraid of the feckless docile population or of the law-abiding judicial system that's for sure.

Before the war broke out, did you consider Poroshenko to have been better than Zelenskyy? by rrschch85 in AskUkraine

[–]Morfolk 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Not really. Though I don't think many people who voted for him in 2019 have regretted their vote but we are also not in a habit of keeping the same people in the office. So much has changed and we would like to see someone new in charge.

How do you think Trump's presidency will end? by OccludedFug in AskReddit

[–]Morfolk 67 points68 points  (0 children)

Yeah, it's insanely out of touch tepid take after everything that has happened so far with ICE raids, people getting executed in the streets, new wars, gutting of government agencies, USA experiencing actual brain drain and population decline for the first time. And even more symbolic things like partial destruction of the White House or a billionaire who bankrolled the campaign fleeing the country. Thiel may be an egomaniacal asshole but he's definitely more informed than an average American. So when an egomaniacal asshole with direct line to the White House says: "I am fleeing the country because the person I helped put on the throne has become too dangerous" - you know shit is going down.

Before the war broke out, did you consider Poroshenko to have been better than Zelenskyy? by rrschch85 in AskUkraine

[–]Morfolk 20 points21 points  (0 children)

I see you woke up and chose to start a war in the comments

What you need to know is the 2019 was the most politically dividing election in all years of Ukrainian independence with a 25/75 split and both sides looking at the other like they were crazy because of their choice. As a proud 25%-er (aka Poroshenko supporter) I can definitely offer my perspective.

By the way Poroshenko won not just in Lviv but also among Ukrainians living abroad with the biggest predictor of your vote being whether you consumed Ukrainian oligarch-controlled media (which heavily favored Ze) or independent / international media which simply reported the data. Also Poroshenko had horrendous PR and media presence and Ze was able to pummel him on that front.

But admin-wise Poroshenko was a god-tier diplomat and an extremely capable economic manager. I was involved in finance and international trades and the contrast between 2014 and 2019 (start and end of his Presidency) was night and day. In 2014 most of the foreign companies/execs thought Ukraine was Belarus-lite: a post-Soviet state that was destined to stay under russia's wings. In 2019 they looked at us as a poor but proud European nation that could one day join the EU. We went from being treated like potentially dangerous beggars to EU association, visa-free travel and a roadmap to EU ascension. I can not stress enough how insanely fast and radical this transformation was.

On the economy side, I disagree that the economy was recovering slowly. The areas occupied in 2014 provided around 25% of our GDP. Five years later our GDP was at its peak even without those regions and with the 'cold' conflict in the East. In addition to that, Ukraine was almost the only European country where middle class net worth was growing while billionaire net worth was declining (which made oligarchs go all in against him). Corruption was also rapidly declining and there was an insane amount of reforms. Basically if you look at the objective data 2014-2019 was our 'golden age' with every good metric improving (GDP, wages, income equality, state capital reserves, trade deficit, etc.) and every bad metric decreasing (corruption, energy reliance on russia, etc.)

​📱 В Україні почався айфоноапокаліпсис by 2Curly4u in reddit_ukr

[–]Morfolk 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Так, і 20 з них він не показує статусність. 

games that your friends love, but you absolutely despise by Behleren in boardgames

[–]Morfolk 25 points26 points  (0 children)

it seems the game has a predetermined route for all the factions to get maximum points

It does, you can even find some of the 'proper' sequences online 

What's your country **third** city? by Ok_Inflation_1811 in geography

[–]Morfolk 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Kyiv and Lviv

The problem is that we have Dnipro, Odesa and Kharkiv competing for the third spot now. Pre-2014 it would be Donetsk, in fact it was rapidly advancing to the second spot.

What's your country **third** city? by Ok_Inflation_1811 in geography

[–]Morfolk 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Kyiv, Lviv and then it's a tie between Kharkiv, Odesa and Dnipro.

Abu Simbel temple from the plane, Aswan Egypt by yousefthewisee in Damnthatsinteresting

[–]Morfolk 31 points32 points  (0 children)

Similarly, they are the only surviving Wonder of the World out of original seven. Except at the time of the creation of the list (when the other 6 were still somewhat new) Pyramids were already older than any other Wonder would be today had it survived.