Adherents to extreme ideologies hold worldviews which they believe they know the righteousness of their positions already, which allows them to reject facts or double down on bad beliefs that don't line up with their worldviews. This also makes them the easiest to manipulate with Russian disinformation.
Not every bad or ignorant opinion is Russian disinformation. Some on the left have simply positioned themselves (long before this conflict), that anything that goes against the US and its interests is inherently anti-imperialist, and their position on this conflict is derived from that. Of course they fail to recognize that Russia's actions are clearly imperialism as well, so they should really be against this invasion too.
That said, there are lots of people on the left who don't support Putin but are are still critical of the West's response to the conflict and think our countries' approaches to this and other conflicts are extremely hypocritical. And I think that's a rational position (even if I mostly disagree with it in this specific instance). And I don't think it's out of line to question the long-term wisdom of pouring massive amounts of weapons into a country with essentially no oversight about where they go. The benefit is still probably worth the risk, but it's not hard to envision scenarios where some of the more portable weapons end up in the wrong hands and/or are used against civilians or US-allied forces down the road.
We are not immune to this even in Canada... Freedumb protests, etc (despite widely reported Russian disinformation campaign targeting Canada). Heck I had a convo yesterday with a self professed "conservative" about the ban on Russian players in the IIHF/CHL being racist, and I had to point out there needed to be consequences for Russian "support" for Putin's invasion and that ethnicity/nationality are completely different things... and the guy is just like "semantics".
Why should someone be barred from a sport because of their nationality? If you're punishing the country by preventing their officially sanctioned teams from participating, that's one thing. But you think Russians should just lose their jobs because of the country they're from?
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But do individual tennis players play for Team Russia or Team USA? I thought they were all independent contractors.
I don't watch a ton of tennis, but I believe the player's nationality is always indicated, which to me says they're playing for their country.
I don't necessarily want to ban Russian athletes from competing, but I do want to ban Russia from participating in international events and if that means their athletes can't participate in events where they compete for Russia, tough cookies.
Edit - World Tennis Rankings clearly indicate the athlete's nation, so to me that says the athlete is representing their country, and in the case of Russia & Russian athletes, like I said, tough cookies.
I googled Scholz after the post ITSE put up, an god damn it's a bad look for him.
Seems like he'd rather play politics than do what's right to help the Ukraine.
hope it bites him on the ass sooner, rather than later.
If the articles I read are correct, it seems a majority of Germans still have a neutral or favorable view of Russia. (especially the area where the pipeline comes into the country.)
So you think a tennis player from Russia should be banned from a tournament. Why? Because they are from Russia. You are banning them because of where they were born. Mighty racist of you.
You think an employee of Russian decent should be fired based off his/hers views about Russia?
Why stop there? If you don’t believe in religion you are fired. If you don’t believe in my religion you are fired.
You do realize there are laws out there for a good reason correct? To prevent stuff like this from happening.
By the way it is Ukraine not “The Ukraine”. I should of multi quoted that.
That is a silly argument. There are many sanctions against Russia that affect Russians. Should we buy from Gazprom because they are not the government? No. There are sanctions and other repercussions great and small as a result of the Russian governments' actions. Those tennis players don't have a right to play at Wimbledon. It is a privilege (and as far as I know, a private entity. They can do what they want).
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From HFBoard oiler fan, in analyzing MacT's management:
O.K. there has been a lot of talk on whether or not MacTavish has actually done a good job for us, most fans on this board are very basic in their analysis and I feel would change their opinion entirely if the team was successful.
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Buying from Gazprom directly helps the Russian economy, which it is the goal of sanctions to cripple. Letting Andrey Rublev play tennis in the UK does nothing of the sort. These people have nothing really to do with Russia or what is happening in Ukraine - they're no more responsible or culpable than Gael Monfils is. The closer analogy would be to fire all of your employees to the extent their last name ends in "ov" or "ova".
If there's a situation like with Ovechkin where someone has directly supported the people responsible and has refused to condemn the invasion, such that they're effectively a tool of the regime to maintain their standing locally, there's an argument for banning that person. If Rublev or Medvedev or Pavlyuchenkova have in fact carried water for the regime, I'm okay if Wimbledon wants to make a statement in individual cases like that. But if it's legitimately just banning people based on place of birth, that's... ridiculous.
And your last paragraph is just silly. No one is saying that Wimbledon can't do this, or that someone has a right to play tennis at a private club. They CAN do this, clearly - they just did. What people are debating is whether they SHOULD.
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
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Not every bad or ignorant opinion is Russian disinformation. Some on the left have simply positioned themselves (long before this conflict), that anything that goes against the US and its interests is inherently anti-imperialist, and their position on this conflict is derived from that. Of course they fail to recognize that Russia's actions are clearly imperialism as well, so they should really be against this invasion too.
That said, there are lots of people on the left who don't support Putin but are are still critical of the West's response to the conflict and think our countries' approaches to this and other conflicts are extremely hypocritical. And I think that's a rational position (even if I mostly disagree with it in this specific instance). And I don't think it's out of line to question the long-term wisdom of pouring massive amounts of weapons into a country with essentially no oversight about where they go. The benefit is still probably worth the risk, but it's not hard to envision scenarios where some of the more portable weapons end up in the wrong hands and/or are used against civilians or US-allied forces down the road.
Why should someone be barred from a sport because of their nationality? If you're punishing the country by preventing their officially sanctioned teams from participating, that's one thing. But you think Russians should just lose their jobs because of the country they're from?
There very well may be risk of proliferation for those weapons systems yes, but what would he appropriate action to prevent the spread of ear crimes against civilians then? And you are pointing to legitimate concerns that the vast majority far right/left adherents are not considering.
As for the nationality being barred, I am not arguing the quality of the policy to bar all players of Russian nationality, I was arguing that it didn't amount to racism with the guy. It by definition doesn't. But if a Russian player trying out for a western league outright supports Russia in the war in Ukraine after being shown the atrocities happening, should that athlete still enjoy the benefits and salaries of playing in the West? I think there is a case against that.
There is also huge financial risk too with VISA approvals, logistics, and what not that would defacto bar them on paper anyways in the current environment.
There very well may be risk of proliferation for those weapons systems yes, but what would he appropriate action to prevent the spread of ear crimes against civilians then? And you are pointing to legitimate concerns that the vast majority far right/left adherents are not considering.
As for the nationality being barred, I am not arguing the quality of the policy to bar all players of Russian nationality, I was arguing that it didn't amount to racism with the guy. It by definition doesn't. But if a Russian player trying out for a western league outright supports Russia in the war in Ukraine after being shown the atrocities happening, should that athlete still enjoy the benefits and salaries of playing in the West? I think there is a case against that.
There is also huge financial risk too with VISA approvals, logistics, and what not that would defacto bar them on paper anyways in the current environment.
It's not racism, but is the same moral measuring stick going to be used for everyone, or just for Russians?
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"If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?"
Buying from Gazprom directly helps the Russian economy, which it is the goal of sanctions to cripple. Letting Andrey Rublev play tennis in the UK does nothing of the sort. These people have nothing really to do with Russia or what is happening in Ukraine - they're no more responsible or culpable than Gael Monfils is. The closer analogy would be to fire all of your employees to the extent their last name ends in "ov" or "ova".
If there's a situation like with Ovechkin where someone has directly supported the people responsible and has refused to condemn the invasion, such that they're effectively a tool of the regime to maintain their standing locally, there's an argument for banning that person. If Rublev or Medvedev or Pavlyuchenkova have in fact carried water for the regime, I'm okay if Wimbledon wants to make a statement in individual cases like that. But if it's legitimately just banning people based on place of birth, that's... ridiculous.
And your last paragraph is just silly. No one is saying that Wimbledon can't do this, or that someone has a right to play tennis at a private club. They CAN do this, clearly - they just did. What people are debating is whether they SHOULD.
What about when russian athletes get banned or are disallowed from competing under their flag en masse during the doping scandal? Couldn't you make the same argument that they shouldn't punish ALL the athletes, only the guilty ones?
What about when russian athletes get banned or are disallowed from competing under their flag en masse during the doping scandal? Couldn't you make the same argument that they shouldn't punish ALL the athletes, only the guilty ones?
No, because the athletes aren't banned other than the ones who directly participated. The entity that is responsible - the Russian sporting body - is banned. The athletes can still participate.
If they said "look, Medvedev, you can still play but we're not going to let you put the Russian flag next to your name", that's fine.
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
Technically, the players are being barred because of their nationality.
They also play as a representative of Russia. If you stop doing business with a company, you stop dealing with anyone that represents that company; same thing with Russian athletes playing for Russia.
Russian-born hockey players in the NHL = Good
Russian-born hockey players playing internationally and representing Russia = Bad.
Not sure where this is confusing for you.
How do you feel about Russian-born NHL players who do both and take their north american millions back to mother Russia in the off season?
Alex Ovechkin calls his buddy Putin "my president"
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Banning Russian athletes is about taking away a source of national pride and creating a situation that Russian media can't ignore.
They've done a really good job for 2 years of being banned from the Olympics, Paralympics and World Championships and not caring.
After appeal, athletes of Russian nationality that wanted to participate had to be labeled as neutral athlete and have no flags or the name Russia on their uniforms.
I think the Russian people wouldn't care. Their propaganda has already instilled a sense of "we stand strong alone" among the people. Generations born before the 90s are also already used to this and grew up with this feeling of exclusion/participation.
Am I allowed or should I hire a Russian contractor right now, I mean a Russian National operating say a web based business from his office in Moscow?
We had to hire some devs and I actually asked my team and many were hard no, and the rest said something like “are there no other options?” So that was easy for us.
However after that Upwork came out and said they will no longer support Russian and Belarusian workers or companies.
I’m not sure if hiring directly would make it hard to pay them, can you still send a wire to Russia? I don’t think so, though many have Cyprus banks so maybe that wouldn’t be an issue.
MOD updates and map updates for the day. Russians appear to have taken control of the towns of Rubinzhne and Popasna near Kramatorks in the last 24hrs. No other changes in areas of control.
ISW and intelligence sources reports Russians and Donetsk Republic will be holding May 9th "Victory" day parades and the latest offensives are likely related to these dates. This was the likely motivation to push for the resumption of the Donbas offense so quickly again. Typically an offensive operation like this would a couple of months of logistics network rebuilding and planning, Russians are trying to do this after a two week logistic shift after their northern withdraw, so their organization will be haphazard at best. Compounding the Russians logistics problems, will be bad weather with the rain in eastern Ukraine. Given the competence and motivation Ukrainian forces have shown so far and the haphazard pushes by Russians, if the Ukrainians can keep their personnel and equipment attrition down, and can get western provided artillery, tanks, and fighters into service, this won't go well for the Russians.
We had to hire some devs and I actually asked my team and many were hard no, and the rest said something like “are there no other options?” So that was easy for us.
However after that Upwork came out and said they will no longer support Russian and Belarusian workers or companies.
I’m not sure if hiring directly would make it hard to pay them, can you still send a wire to Russia? I don’t think so, though many have Cyprus banks so maybe that wouldn’t be an issue.
OT, but I've hired devs off of Upwork that have worked outside the system and used paypal & payoneer to pay them... Not sure if those platforms still work with Russian banks, but you certainly don't need to wire directly to a Russian account.
