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Unless this is a rhetorical question, the easy answer is: the Western "alt-media" (ie. a certain section of right-wing and left-wing commentators, generally outside the formal media structure) are not particularly interested in Russia as-is, just the idea of Russia as a symbolic actor in their own internal psychodrama related to their disgust with their own society (generally, in case of right-wingers, Russia representing a big manly country in contrast to their own "soyified" nations and in case of left-wingers, Russia represents a potential anti-imperialist ally in their struggle against their own country's imperialism - of course, in some cases, both apply simultaneously).

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I think you're just off target.

The Duran, Escobar and Lira are all smart guys whose countries and/or banking systems have been body slammed by either the EU or the US or both. They may all be willing to let their need for revenge/justice get in the way. I don't really blame them. Trouble is when they think the fucking Chinks are going to save the world with their benign and fuzzy warm global "investment".

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That is exactly the problem that made me reevaluate my opinions that were for a time largely shaped by them: How can someone like Escobar—a smart man, no doubt—at the same day lament the imprisonment of Assange and himself being removed from Twitter or the total digital surveillance in the West, while celebrating the Chinese system in which these are not the nasty special cases, but the everyday norm? I'm thankful though, as it showed me that the binary perception is a thought trap.

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Binary perception, well put. It's worth remembering that not everyone is as well travelled and connected as say, Escobar. He's exceptional. These others pretend to be men of the world but in experience are actually rather limited it seems. I agree about China, it's a crucial lapse but maybe people are so butthurt that any thing seems better?

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People are angry, but they are largely uninformed or disinformed about many things. Therefore, their assessment of the situation is flawed. They do not see the good sides that their political system still offers them; and they are unaware of the negative aspects of the systems they see as "redemption." Even to be able to publicly discuss the disadvantages of one's own system or to gather in places to show protest would be completely impossible in China. When this is pointed out, people usually try to find excuses, relativise the situation or ignore it. For many of the people who "woke up," a conflict that is not just black and white seems unthinkable.

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I wouldn't want to live there, but neither Russia nor China has laid a bloodstain on the planet anywhere close to what 'The West' has during my lifetime.

Add to that: their public policy stances and negotiating positions in conflicts are 100x more reasonable than the neocon demon-led 'west'.

Internally not being a 'liberal, open society', in this historical context, may not be a minus, in my estimation.

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>>I wouldn't want to live there, but neither Russia nor China has laid a bloodstain on the planet anywhere close to what 'The West' has during my lifetime.

Do you take the tragedies and massacres they did in their own territory into consideration? Or is this less bad, because it is only a domestic affair?

I though agree to some extend, although I would want to add that "did not" probably means more "could not" than "wanted not". I guess we will see in future. Both China and Russia have been colonial empires as well, with the difference that they never or only partially decolonized. China's justification is even weirder, because it also claims the whole territory that the nations that conquered China in the past as theirs at present.

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Yes but Chinese economic expansion is rapacious and cold; it will destroy everything it touches. Least we got some comedy, art and Rock n Roll with The West.

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May 7, 2023
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ex-Marxist Rechtenwald is worth following closely.

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Indeed, the worldwide AI-powered corporatized control grid of taxcattle system is the defining feature of both the "Satanic woke liberal unipolar Western" and the "Holy traditional conservative multipolar Eastern" so-called geopolitcal "opponents" supposedly clashing right now in the deadly EUkraine dance-off contest going on right now.

But you'll find people thinking govt-regulated monetary and financial intermediation to create wealth in society is needed, meaning the immensely vast majority of taxcattle, are, at the very least, as hard to deal with as any Christian, Jewish, Islamist or transexual fundamentalist and extremist.

Some will want free and democratic Western central bankster CBDCs, while others free and sovereign BRICS central bankster CBDCs.

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May 6, 2023Edited
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Sputnik V is 99% identical to astrazeneca covid vaccine. It's a viral vector gene therapy with zero benefit and horrific side effects.

Yes they all criticise each other. It's just wrestling.

CBDCs can't be compared until they actually exist. But from what we've seen on this blog, I doubt there'll be much difference between the western and Russian ones.

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May 12, 2023
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It'll definitely go multipolar at the poltical level, which gives us more freedom to choose and more chance to slip through the cracks.

But that's government vs government. I'm terms of government vs people, nothing really changes.

If you care about personal freedom, don't move to Russia. Instead, consider one of the surrounding small countries where the government is too weak to do much to you. Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Macedonia, and Kosovo are all good for this. My friend told me how during the lockdown in Pristina, the police would come in to the bar at 11pm and demand it closed. Everyone ignored them and kept drinking until they left. The routine continued every hour until the bar naturally emptied by itself some time in the early morning.

Why not move to the balkans? Your own life might be so much fun you stop caring what happens in Washington or Moscow ☺

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May 6, 2023
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Amen to that

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People who live in / come from Third World are different, sure, wasn't really thinking of them here.

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They suffer from Little Toy Soldier Geopolitics Syndrome.

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Wow. Right on the money

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Nail hit squarely on the head. EXACTLY!!

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May 6, 2023Edited
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You wrote:

"What exactly is the assumption that the Alt-Press is honest/full of honest players based on? And how the hell does real power own all the high-paying mainstream, but not much of the Alt-Press in its pocket?"

I've been pondering this lately and I can't help but return to what Lenin once famously stated: "the best way to control the opposition is to lead it ourselves".

That doesn't mean everyone and every site is controlled by "them" but perhaps a couple of the bigger actors are. Who knows? Then there is the binary thinking that's so incredibly destructive to any real, genuine insight. Just because the "West" is shit, doesn't mean the "East" is all wonderful. The grass ain't always greener on the other side. If anything the staged pandemic should've showed that the situation is a lot more complex than that to everyone but unfortunately this retarded war suddenly appeared out of nowhere and most just jumped back into their former camps forgetting everything we saw during "covid". Humans are very easy to control; there's plenty of "herd thinking" on "our side" as well.

And don't get me started on the "multipolar" nonsense...

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May 20, 2023Edited
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May 7, 2023
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Funnily enough, Western state-conglomerate media is still "free" enough to publish hit pieces like:

'Capable of anything': How the '99 apartment bombings explain Putin's rise and regime

Alexander Nazaryan

Alexander Nazaryan·Senior White House Correspondent

March 6, 2022·12 min read

https://news.yahoo.com/putin-1999-apartment-bombings-ukraine-175001959.html

But since 2012, reporting about 9/11 truth, which like a lot of what the Russian govt. tells Russians to believe, has nothing to do with what the US govt. said happaned that day, is absolutely verboten in Russian state-corporate media.

The "multipolar" syndrome is now bipolarity x AI magnification.

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May 8, 2023
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We know who was filming and dancing. We know who didn't go to work that day.

We probably will never know the identities of the parties doing the insider trading, or what was on the drives Covar Infosys recovered.

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The Duran is just another fan boy of politics.

He thinks he's educated. He thinks he's aware of things.

He's not. He may be not intelligent.

Or he may be intelligent, but stuck in his own bullshit.

"And then there is the psychological effect of the Big Lie which is axiomatic in gaslighting. The paradox here is that the bigger the lie, the harder it is for the mind to bridge the gulf between perceived reality and the lie that authority figures are painting as truth. I believe that the prospect of being deceived evinces a primitive emotional response on a par with staring death in the face. We are hard-wired to fear deception because we have evolved to interpret it as an existential threat. That’s why deception can elicit the same emotional response as the miscalculation of a serious physical threat. Lies told to us don’t always bear the same cost as a misjudged red light, but the primitive part of the brain can’t make this distinction and we rely on cerebral mediation for a more appropriate but delayed response. And in the long run, the lie is often just as dangerous as the physical threat. Many government whoppers – ‘safe and effective’ – do cost lives.

To avoid the death-like experience of being deceived, a mental defence is erected to deny that the lie is happening."

(From https://leftlockdownsceptics.com/alleged-cia-involvement-in-jfk-assassination-goes-mainstream-so-now-what/ )

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"The evolutionary psychologist William von Hippel found that humans use large parts of thinking power to navigate social world rather than perform independent analysis and decision making. For most people it is the mechanism that, in case of doubt, will prevent one from thinking what is right if, in return, it endangers one’s social status. This phenomenon occurs more strongly the higher a person’s social status. Another factor is that the more educated and more theoretically intelligent a person is, the more their brain is adept at selling them the biggest nonsense as a reasonable idea, as long as it elevates their social status. The upper educated class tends to be more inclined than ordinary people to chase some intellectual boondoggle. "

-Sasha Latypova

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The Duran guys are in the know. They are psy-ops.

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Perhaps, or just afraid to upset one side, they only report how the west is bad.

In that case they're still compromised, even if they aren't working for any group in particular.

I call them 5d fan boys.

BTW Gonzalo Lira's big thing where he was captive smelled funny. It ended up giving him credit and attention. Do we know if he was really captured or it was just an act? Hard to tell and anyway, all he does is repeat what other journalists say lol

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How can you criticise Mercouris? He's correctly called the imminent fall of Bakhmut for five straight months, and will no doubt continue to make this correct call well into the future. Peons like you and I are not of his mettle.

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Can you explain?

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That is my opinion after watching them for few months. Id say they are from intelligence community. Spreading misinformation and projection while subverting the truth. To help usher in multipolar Eurasian rule.

Same as that Gonzalo guy.

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So everything we’re hearing in the US msm is correct? They are telling the truth for the first time EVER? We have been lied to over and over it’s hard to believe anything the msm says. If Russia is so inept, then why is their defeat taking so long (because let’s be honest, they’re fighting all of NATO), and how is it the losing side has gained more ground? These are the points of contention I always come to and what the Duran, Ritter, Lira all have to say seems to be more in tuned to the realities of these 2 points. This has obviously been a shit show for both sides, but it seems that the ideological stance of “we’re going to fight to the last Ukrainian “ the west seemed to adopt from the very beginning, is playing out in real time.

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That last paragraph sums it up. Seems I'm stupid and poor. Two out of two. Wait...

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Stupid according to the system could be called not stupid.

The stupid ones have advanced degrees yet cannot admit that convid was a flu at most.

The stupid ones still think these jabs are helpful.

And so on...

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Yes he thinks a great deal about his own abilities. But the rest seems very complicated. I think he's just desperate.

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I just read this entire thing and I still have no idea wtf any of you are talking! The pipelines through Ukraine prove ALL of this is just a BS war! It's for the peasantry! It's nothing but a way to create fractures through the mindless goy! The pipelines are everything! Everything else is nothing but character driven acting!!! If Russia and Ukraine have no problem signing contracts and protecting pipelines during this entire conflict, then surely that proves they can work together, and all the hot headed posturing is nothing but a ruse

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May 6, 2023
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Wtf are you talking about? You sound like a Qanon nut! The Trumps and the Pelosis spent Christmas together at Mar a lago! And this war in Russia is about as real as a 3 dollar bill! There is no "on another level" BS! Kiev literally collects money from Moscow for pipelines that run through the exact fucking territory that goyim peasants are being blown up! So all that fkn BS you hear about "Nazi Ukraine" and "Dictator Putin" is fkn BS! They're all working together you fkn morons!

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May 6, 2023
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O ya there is a war!!! For mindless peasants! Meanwhile Putin and Zelensky attend vaccine passport negotiations at the WHO! This war proves one thing to me! That there is nothing easiest to manipulate than undeveloped thoughts of the mindless goy

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May 6, 2023
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Omg STFU you Q-anon lunatic! Trump is literally a Chabad troll and Putin is literally a WEF global leader! See everyone ⏫️ it's mindless peasants like this who are constantly, easily manipulated into supporting these armed conflicts! They're mindless goyim!!! Meanwhile the Pelosis and Trumps spend Christmas together and Putin and Zelensky sign oil and gas contracts!

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Ya it's so complicated everyone!!!! It's just so oooo complicated!!!! Every oil and gas pipeline is strategically left alone while Kiev and Moscow sign Oil and gas Contracts! But then talk up big talk about nazis and stuff! And every bomb that would hit a pipeline is instead steered towards a condo building! But it's all just soo complicated!!! Like FKN GOYIM RIGHT HERE!!! ⏫️⏫️⏫️

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May 6, 2023
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Omfg you Q anon rtards are fkn disease on the intellectual! Putin is a GLOBALIST YOU FKN MORONS! HE SIGNS VACCINE PASSPORT TREATIES AND SIGN OIL AND GAS CONTRACTS WITH "NAZIS" LIKE WTF ARE YOU IDIOTS TALKING ABOUT?

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May 6, 2023
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Same as astrazeneca. Similar body count too, I believe.

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May 6, 2023
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Putin literally allowed Lockdowns andnvaccine passports all over Russia! The WEF acknowledges putin as a young global leader! You Q anonymous lunatics are fkn retards! You are the most gullible mindless fkn idiots this society has! Putin has no problem paying NAzI Ukraine in contracts over its oil and gas!!! But suddenly has a big problem with them and sends in kids to die in a war! Meanwhile Q anon retards like you follow your unble news and think you're smart! You're fkn imbeciles! RUSSIA LITERALLY DOES EVERYTHING THE WHO WANTS!!

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Putin was literally a young Global Leader at the WEF! Like what does it take to wake up a stupid mindless GOY!

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May 6, 2023
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Putin now half god. Will bring freedom to the people.

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May 7, 2023
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:D lol

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Jo-joing tactic we see being acted by mass media and USA, Ukraine and Russia is done deliberately on all sides! To prolong the war as much as possible. To launder money and to have as many casualties as possible. Drugs, weapons and human-trafficking as well. Billions are made on this destruction of life and property. Such a devilish situation!

If Russia is having no issues selling oil to Ukraine via proxy, why not sell them weapons as well? Do you think higher ups care for Slavs that are getting massacred? Do you think they got the vaccine themselves?

Military higher ups must all be honorable people right?

Probably you haven't heard of Ted Gunderson and Kay Griggs.

What they say about US and Israeli military goes for Russian military as well.

And maybe Prygozhin is poised to take over in the official military, hence his act.

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Kay Griggs; most interesting. She was very convincing.

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Kay is a genuine whistleblower. And she has more balls than half the US military combined.

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May 6, 2023
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I never said he is not genuine.

And in my case, I would bet a hefty sum on Kay being legit.

Of course, you have the right to think what you like, same as I do.

And I do not indulge in hopium ;)

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May 7, 2023
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Sry, I didn't quite understand your point or question!

I said many times that I think this war is orchestrated by the same people who orchestrated the plandemic. And my initial comment connects the forced vaccine with it. Of course it is ALL part of the resetting idiocy! And I was surprised to see how most people are still being naive, even after guys like Aleksei Mozgovoi get killed for naming the responsible people - Kolomoisky and Abramovich being poster boys for the resetters. Zelensky and Putin being their errand boys.

Riley is reporting what mainstream is avoiding, not offering his opinion of who what where as much. It is his project and he is a journalist.. Not me! I write without regard for people's feelings and am concerned only with the truth and how I see it. Am I naive sometimes? Of course. But I am not dumb!

"Name the tree after the actual fruit it bears, not what propaganda says the tree should bear."

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I love both you and mr Edward Slavsquat. He is certainly not a 6D bot.

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May 6, 2023
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Who me? Nah. I think Snowden is co op. Assange too. And Ive said that The Duran guys are a psy-op. Which would mean they are spooks/military.

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Salut Riley!

"I just don’t understand why there’s almost zero overlap between what Western “alt media” says, and what Russian “alt media” says. They are two separate worlds."

This may by why you exist Man, trying to bridge a gap, humbly trying to bring the cornerstone to build an arch... Vainly?... it doesn't matter, since it is essential that it be done.

Time will tell... Meanwhile, keep on the good work.

Merci

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I don't get how Duran came to be so respected and cited among alt-media. They're so obviously grifters, particularly Mercouris, formerly a barrister, now disgraced and disbarred. I mean, he even looks and talks like Delboy from "Only Fools and Horses", if anyone remembers. With Christoforou rambling off like an idiot and Mercouris flapping his hands and weaseling his way through subjects, I can't take them seriously even when they get things right. And that's increasingly rare. And in this episode they so brazenly and openly tried to twist the facts and spin them their way, it was embarrassing to watch.

The icing on the cake was when Mercouris, who never fails to remind us that he himself is "no military person", said, with a straight face, that Prigozhin is "a civilian who has no understanding of how military works (!)". Comedy gold! This show needs a laughing track so no one confuses them with serious analysis.

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Look at the feelings of the Czech volunteer who returned from Ukraine very surprised... This meat grinder and tool to drive countries into bankruptcy must end. But they will prolong it with deliberate incompetence until they introduce CBDC globally. We must unite. We have all been lied to. They lied to us again. https://youtu.be/fceS3veihnE

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May 6, 2023
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...no? I have never heard anything about something like cucumbers with sugar in my whole life, lol...

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May 6, 2023
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If there is no good and evil, then why are you pursuing your path of inquiry and beliefs, which I assume you think is good, over other paths of inquiry or belief, such as the one where there is good and evil, which I assume you think are wrong?

Also, if nothing is real, then where does the bit of reality come from to inform you about that?

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May 6, 2023
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But you are pursuing something. You are pursuing understanding. You can't deny this. And so my question was, why this, which I assume you think is good, and not the other, which I assume you think is bad.

It's a contradiction of your statement that there is no good and evil.

Also you say that you don't know what reality is and then say that it's clear that our lives aren't what we think they are. On the one hand, you are saying that you don't know what's real and on the other you're saying what's real.

This looks like another contradiction.

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May 6, 2023
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I will respond as I did to Gary, including all the parts that are not relevant to you

"Bit harsh.

I mean, I wasn't even trying to be mean, but was only trying to help you understand that your eastern religious beliefs are wrong, contradictory, despite having the appearance of wisdom.

They teach non-existence or non-being or absolute, eternal and undifferentiated oneness is the ultimate reality as compared to the world we're in where there's multiplicity and change.

However,

1. If everything in this world of multiplicity and change is false, then everything we learn here is also false, partly because it would have to involve changing from not knowing something to knowing it. Therefore, to one minute not know this world was a simulation and the next minute to know it, this would represent change, which according to your view can't be real.

2. If ultimate reality was perfect oneness and stability, then that world would have no relationship whatsoever with this world of multiplicity and instability, and yet the Buddhists and Hindus etc would tell us that knowledge of this world of perfect oneness and stability somehow reached us anyway, without describing the bridge (that can't exist) between these two incompatible worlds.

I'm therefore not a reptile cunt. Just logical.

But don't get me wrong, it's not like I think the world we live in is great. Of course there's lots of terrible stuff happening, along with lies and what have you, but that's not to say that we have to be so extreme as to try and drop all hope of hope, goodness, reality etc"

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May 6, 2023
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Bit harsh.

I mean, I wasn't even trying to be mean, but was only trying to help you understand that your eastern religious beliefs are wrong, contradictory, despite having the appearance of wisdom.

They teach non-existence or non-being or absolute, eternal and undifferentiated oneness is the ultimate reality as compared to the world we're in where there's multiplicity and change.

However,

1. If everything in this world of multiplicity and change is false, then everything we learn here is also false, partly because it would have to involve changing from not knowing something to knowing it. Therefore, to one minute not know this world was a simulation and the next minute to know it, this would represent change, which according to your view can't be real.

2. If ultimate reality was perfect oneness and stability, then that world would have no relationship whatsoever with this world of multiplicity and instability, and yet the Buddhists and Hindus etc would tell us that knowledge of this world of perfect oneness and stability somehow reached us anyway, without describing the bridge (that can't exist) between these two incompatible worlds.

I'm therefore not a reptile cunt. Just logical.

But don't get me wrong, it's not like I think the world we live in is great. Of course there's lots of terrible stuff happening, along with lies and what have you, but that's not to say that we have to be so extreme as to try and drop all hope of hope, goodness, reality etc

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Yes, Mercouris is a smug self satisfied insular narrow minded fool. It is being all the former that makes him the latter.

I find you can learn interesting tiny things from him here and there about politics and politicians, he has some knowledge of the area, the arena, the participants or something.

But this conflict: he knows nothing.

The (almost absent) thrust to bring it to a quick conclusion: he does nothing, has no interest.

He is a red herring. Best ignored.

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The English-speaking pro-Russian State alt media pundits are so high on clout and their own mental masturbation they get for considering themselves "expert geopolitical analysts" that they neglect to consider anything that can cast a shadow of doubt onto the ultimate omnipotent savior role they assign to Russia/Putin/Lavrov/RAF. They act exactly like mainstream media in most substantive ways; except rather than giving the US a savior role it's the BRICS they cheerlead for.

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"Wagner will be forced to withdraw from Bakhmut on May 10"

My suspicion is Wagner are aware of the coming Ukrainian counter-offense on May 15th, and don't wish to be anywhere near the frontlines when the cannon fodder start to pour in.

Whether or not the ammunition concerns are real or not is anyone's guess, but I can't help but feel he has a pertinent sense of timing as to when to leave.

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Why can’t both be right?

He is right that there is a shortage of shells (almost everywhere) AND he is also overwhelmed as a civilian in a war zone who cares about his fighters losing their lives in a way he deems unnecessary.

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How dare you belittle Alexander Mercouris? He's trying very hard to become an expert in international law after being disbarred in England.

Personally I really enjoy his weird cadences/yelling intonations and mouth breathing exertions. It's like landing a Gunard on deck and listening to it cough while it slaps around.

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Copium is a hell of a drug.

Most western "alt-media" would belong in the science fiction department of any respectable bookstore.

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If Prigozhin is telling the truth, young Russian men pay in blood. If he is lying, young Ukrainians pay in blood. Either way it’s a tragedy, yet most commentary has an inhuman detachedness. Props to Mr Waggaman for never losing sight of what is really important.

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I think this goes for either side: the more one claims to know, the less he knows! At various times during the SMO, I felt "in the know" - just to totally feel the opposite a few days on.

Why is that?

If the things Prigozhin says are even slightly close to the truth, then Russia is in way over it´s head. If it´s a 5d response to the 5d leak on Ukraine´s unpreparedness, then it´s everyone´s guess what the hell is going on. All I know is that wars are never fought for the reason stated. Is this one different?

It´s probably time to fasten our seatbelts because there´s a rough ride ahead for all of us.

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Good points. All I know for sure about the war these days is that the Scott Ritter, Col. MacGregor et al. were telling us back in March 2020 that it Russia had this in the bag; and yet, here we are more than a year later with no end in sight ...

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Excellent, Edward. The fact is, this is an existential, real war of survival for Russia. The hegemon has made this perfectly clear for decades. Its goal has always been to balkanize and rape and pillage all of Russia's resources and assets, including the elimination of President Putin. All this other talk is pure bullshit.

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Oh come on, the same Khazarian Mafia runs Ukraine, Russia, the US, EU and Nato. That's a fact. This is a stage-managed war designed to bring Western civilisation further under the Khazarian Mafia's boot. Russia is just another player in a bloodthirsty play.

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If so, then isn't it high-time to put Russia on a 'war footing' as Strelkov and others have suggested? Let me repeat what Waggoman said above: "However, by early April, Russian-language perspectives on the 'special operation' began to come to terms with the reality that there would be no swift, decisive resolution. In Russia, fervent supporters of the conflict recognize their country is ill-prepared to fight a protracted war against the collective West. Some are now calling for Russia to transition into a wartime footing. 'Everything for the front.'"

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