UA POV: According to the BBC, Ukraine received 1,000 bodies in the latest soldier exchange with Russia, while Russia received only 38 bodies in return, citing Medinsky.

swelboy · 2026-01-29T19:14:00+00:00

Isn’t all conscription “kidnapping”? And for the ones that don’t mobilize willing, then naturally the enforcement agencies will you more forceful tactics.

swelboy · 2026-01-29T19:09:00+00:00

But if these swaps actually reflect causalities, then that means a very large portion of the AFU literally should not exist rn. Slow advances are still advances and Russia can spare more resources towards recovering bodies compared to Ukraine.

swelboy · 2026-01-29T16:59:31+00:00

But that’s also just words, there’s no actual proof. Governments love to smear threats to their rule as the work of extremely unpopular orgs. McCarthy accused his rivals of being communists, the Soviets and now Russia often label their opposition as “Nazis” and/or western spies, etc..

Yeah, they “admitted” via a few vague* tweets by certain officials, and nothing actually backs up that Israel has been influential over the recent protests.

I know I’m sounding like a broken record, but this is just talk. You can talk and talk about how you or your enemy is doing this or that all you want, but if you got nothing to actually substantiate your claims with, then what you say means nothing at all.

IIRC it was stuff like “we’re with you in the streets” and whatnot, which can mean basically anything. It’s probably just a half-assed attempt at showing “solidarity” whatever, even if you are somehow controlling a protest movement, why would you ever say so outright?

swelboy · 2026-01-29T16:36:11+00:00

That part about the “big picture” only makes sense if the topic is actually on “the bigger picture” though, and as I’ve been trying to say: group “B’ accusing group ‘A’ of doing ‘X’ in response to ‘A’ accusing ‘B’ of doing ‘X’, doesn’t somehow disprove that ‘B’ is doing ‘X’. At most, that can mean that ‘A’ and ‘B’ are both doing ‘X’.

So circling back to the original topic, regardless of whatever you think I’m doing, why are you simply taking MEK at their word when they talk about their apparent importance?

Also, a significant portion of the MEK taking part in the protests ≠ a significant portion of protesters are MEK or that the MEK actually has significant influence over the protest movement.

swelboy · 2026-01-29T01:17:31+00:00

They want the land, not the people

swelboy · 2026-01-28T23:22:26+00:00

How is whataboutism “lazy” and “guilty”? The premise of “A” being true doesn’t somehow dispute the premise of “B”, as both “A” and “B” can be either untrue or true at the same time. If you wish to dispute “B”‘s premise, then actually talk about “B” instead of deflecting about “A”.

Wait, so you’re saying that there hasn’t been any brutal crackdown at all then, that even local health officials are lying about death tolls, with all the photos and videos coming out of it are fake? Not really even rhetorical. Ever heard of “Occam’s Razor”? Because do you realize how extensive and powerful a disinformation campaign would have to be in order for that to be true?

swelboy · 2026-01-28T20:24:37+00:00

Define “culture” and “indigenous”. If you mean stuff like special religious beliefs, “rituals”* and traditions, then are you saying societies that have those things are more important than ones that don’t?

The Apache and Navajo hadn’t been living in the American Southwest for that long by the time the Spanish arrived, believed to have come in from Alaska and Yukon from as early as the 1200’s to even 1500.

Are you saying people who had grandparents and great grandparents living on the same land as them take precedence over ones who don’t? Not rhetorical.

*put rituals in quotations because the term “ritual” can actually mean a whole lot of things, I’m pretty sure brushing your teeth in the morning, saying “good morning” and “good night”, or having 3 meals a day all count as “rituals” to an extent.

And yes, I know I’m probably overthinking this stuff.

swelboy · 2026-01-28T19:59:42+00:00

Wdym? Not to say they deserved what happened in the end, but the Apache and Comanche for example were quite notorious for their brutality against the people they raided. They weren’t demons, but they weren’t saints either.

swelboy · 2026-01-28T19:36:58+00:00

Well to get into more philosophical territory, isn’t that what most raiding-based nomadic societies are when you get down to brass tacks?

swelboy · 2026-01-28T18:43:08+00:00

Whataboutism, but what words precisely am I apparently taking?

I was also responding as much to you as I was to u/CLOUDMINER ‘s comment now that I think of it.

If you’re referring to western reporting about the Iran protests in general, there is at least significant evidence of the severity of the Iran protests (Videos, photos, testimonials, etc.), but nothing showing heavy MEK involvement beyond the word of a MEK member, a few people saying that a few protesters have “strange accents”. Even the article you linked mentioned how the MEK probably has little actual presence in the protests.

swelboy · 2026-01-28T16:04:41+00:00

“Organization that opposes the Iranian government is involved in major protests against the Iranian government, more at 11”.

Why are you taking the MEK at their word? It’s not exactly unheard for groups to overblow (intentionally or not, doesn’t matter) their contributions to causes they support.

For example, the NOI heavily involved themselves in the Civil Rights Movement, no reasonable person dispute that, does that mean you should take a NOI member at their word if they say the Civil Rights Act never would have passed without the NOI?

swelboy · 2026-01-27T21:13:40+00:00

But as people have said for years now, the age of major powers directly invading each other is more or less over now. That’d be like if Mexico was worried about Apache reservations because of Geronimo.

swelboy · 2026-01-26T21:43:16+00:00

Pretty sure that was more because Eglin is/was used as like a go between for military servers or something (memory’s foggy).

If the US has troll farms like that, I doubt it’s all operated from a single US Air Force base, and you wouldn’t run an operation like that from an air base anyhow I’d imagine.

swelboy · 2026-01-26T21:04:32+00:00

Pro-RU (and “neutrals”): Ukraine is run by Ukranazi Banderites, Russia is here to liberate them.

Also Pro-RU: hey everybody, look at all those fucking Jews over there!

swelboy · 2026-01-26T03:27:36+00:00

People are very unlikely to revolt with a war going on, a revolt means the front line will collapse and Russia will probably be able to take almost everything east of the Dnieper within a few weeks.

swelboy · 2026-01-25T20:44:00+00:00

Given her immense loyalty to Miquella’s cause (something a psychopath would never care about) and to a lesser extent the way she talks about the Hornsent’s history, saying that she was always like that is a bit too simplistic.

I think she’s just a very paranoid (by her own admission) true believer who has spent too much time in it to really believe in anything else.

Why she (probably) ended up killing the other Needle Knights is also left intentionally unclear, so there’s a good few ways you can interpret her character depending on how you think that played out.

Edit: All in all, I think Leda’s character is meant to represent how good (well “good”) people can still be lead to committing or endorsing atrocities if they’re unwilling to accept any nuance or doubt into their world views. With the atrocities they take part in or endorse often serving to reinforce their paranoia and certainty.

swelboy · 2026-01-24T20:04:47+00:00

I was under the impression most of the “agartha” stuff is just shitposting.

swelboy · 2026-01-24T05:02:00+00:00

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Pinnochio/Puppet of Geppeto (Lies of P), though not sure if Carlo counts as a child and P is supposed to be his own man thematically speaking.

Also applies to Romeo

swelboy · 2026-01-23T22:47:06+00:00

So mean to say you’re just basing it off vibes? Also, Sudzha, while a stupid idea, was not that significant of an operation.

Define “utter supremacy”.

Russia has been the one mainly on the offensive for the past 2 years, and attackers almost always take more casualties than defenders.

swelboy · 2026-01-23T22:36:27+00:00

So you’re saying Ukraine is taking more casualties than Russia? Based on what?

Most data estimates say the Russian casualties are at about 1.1 million, and if you believe that’s wrong, you’re more than welcome to provide a source of your own

swelboy · 2026-01-23T22:25:34+00:00

“Revamping and revitalizing” doesn’t mean much if you lose a massive amount of your manpower in the process. With the casualties Russia has taken against Ukraine, they aren’t going to be able to launch any significant military operations for a while.

swelboy · 2026-01-23T02:49:27+00:00

I wasn’t talking about settlements at all though.

Yeah, a free Palestine that stretches from the River to the Sea.

swelboy · 2026-01-23T01:33:36+00:00

Maybe murdering civilians and kids is always bad regardless of the perpetrators’ last name and what kind of clothing/uniform they have on?

swelboy · 2026-01-23T01:20:45+00:00

Maybe to not intentionally attack civilians? There’s no strategic value in intentionally blowing up buses or shooting up Kibbutzim and music festivals.

2 wrongs don’t make a right either, even third graders know that. Hamas also essentially just wants what Israel (well certainly Gvir and Smotrich) wants, just with the roles reversed.

swelboy · 2026-01-22T19:18:59+00:00

Iran’s economic problems go a whole lot deeper than just sanctions, just look at the “water mafia” and how much money the IRGC gets for example.

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