Currently between olives

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 1st, 2023

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  • I figure you’re right, it really doesn’t seem all that likely but it was just a thought that popped into my head.

    But yeah, it’s interesting to see what this current “turbulence” will lead to. Requiring consensus only has a chance to work if everyone is acting in good faith, so when a member state is well on its way to becoming essentially a dictatorship with aims that are directly at odds with the EU’s goals, there’s simply no way consensus will work.

    It’s interesting that the EU really doesn’t have too many good mechanisms to do anything about bad-faith actors in the first place. Eg. using Hungary’s funding as a lever has been tried, but because of the consensus requirement, Orbán can essentially hold decisions hostage until he gets what he wants.

    Too many systems have been built with the implicit assumption that all participating actors are acting in good faith, and a single bad-faith actor can actually cause remarkable amounts of trouble because there’s no mechanisms for stopping them













  • You might want to read this blog post on this subject. What I’m quoting here is the central message, but do yourself a favor and actually read the rest and don’t just respond based on this quote

    Tolerance is not a moral absolute; it is a peace treaty. Tolerance is a social norm because it allows different people to live side-by-side without being at each other’s throats. It means that we accept that people may be different from us, in their customs, in their behavior, in their dress, in their sex lives, and that if this doesn’t directly affect our lives, it is none of our business. But the model of a peace treaty differs from the model of a moral precept in one simple way: the protection of a peace treaty only extends to those willing to abide by its terms. It is an agreement to live in peace, not an agreement to be peaceful no matter the conduct of others. A peace treaty is not a suicide pact.

    When viewed through this lens, the problems above have clear answers. The antisocial member of the group, who harms other people in the group on a regular basis, need not be accepted; the purpose of your group’s acceptance is to let people feel that they have a home, and someone who actively tries to thwart this is incompatible with the broader purpose of that acceptance. Prejudice against Nazis is not the same as prejudice against Blacks, because one is based on people’s stated opposition to their neighbors’ lives and safety, the other on a characteristic that has nothing to do with whether they’ll live in peace with you or not. Freedom of religion means that people have the right to have their own beliefs, but you have that same right; you are under no duty to tolerate an attempt to impose someone else’s religious laws on you.

    […]

    If we interpreted tolerance as a moral absolute, or if our rules of conduct were entirely blind to the situation and to previous actions, then we would regard any measures taken against an aggressor as just as bad as the original aggression. But through the lens of a peace treaty, these measures have a different moral standing: they are tools which can restore the peace.







  • aavistuksen mielenkiintoisemmaksi jutusta tekee sen että Kreml on nähnyt tarpeelliseksi julkaista asiasta tiedotteen

    Tavallaan, mut toisaalta se SVR:n ulostulo levisi todella laajalle roskalehdistön Intiaa myöten tartuttua siihen; kaipa se oli ihan järkevää julistaa kaikille, että hei Putinilla on vielä pulssi – tosin Kreml jos tiedottaisi että taivas on sininen, niin kävisin ihan erikseen tarkistamassa, eli tiedä sitten mikä ton tiedotteen informaatioarvo nyt oikein on 🤷. Mutta en välttis nää mitään ihan silleen älyttömän herkullista ite tiedotteessa tai siinä ettei meillä oo mitään luotettavaa tietoa Putlerin statuksesta, ei juuri poikkea siitä status quosta mitä tässä nyt on saatu kattella jo jonkun aikaa - vähän perspektiivistä riippuen vuosia tai vuosisatoja.

    Venäjä on aika lailla aina ollu enemmän tai vähemmän musta aukko: sieltä ylipäänsä pakenee tosi vähän informaatiota, ja niiden kullonenkin apparatin vastike on jo ihan rehti singulariteetti. Eli niin ko sanoit, niin ei se mikään mahdoton ajatus ole että Putler on tosiaan tippunut ikkunasta tmv mahdollisesti jo aikoja sitten, ja siellä on vaan ollu sellanen kansallisvaltiotason Weekend at Bernie’s (Weekend at Vladimir’s?) -setti käynnissä. Toistaiseksi Putler on kuitenkin onnistunu aika hyvin välttelemään kaikki nää perivenäläiset tapaturmat ja sydänkohtausuutisen luotettavuus on suurin piirtein samaa luokkaa ku Kremlin tiedotteiden, niin mä pitäsin silti todennäkösimpänä sitä että se on business as usual.

    Kävisin tosin kyllä shampan ostamassa jos Putinin seuraava julkinen esiintyminen olis Punaisen torin mausoleumissa Leninin vieressä.