Bobr

Removed by mod

Well, you raise a valid point, it’s also bad of course.
It’s just that “forcing you to do a thing (a physical labor) you do not want to do” and “forcing you to give up a part of your salary” are different things.

Or is it just being forced to directly do morally abhorrent things?

Not just “morally abhorrent things”, any forced labor is wrong.

I don’t think I am “arguing semantics” (whatever that means), and you evaded the question :(

In the event of a real defensive war, where your nation is invaded with the intent of conquest or subjugation, you will not have a lack of volunteers. You will have a lack of trained people.

Hey, I have a (purely theoretical!) question if you don’t mind.

So, if there was (theoretically of course) a war out there, where the government openly admits that they lack volunteers, people are trying to escape the country en masse by illegally crossing the border, and also there were thousands of videos online about that government kidnapping people off the streets (so that they have at least someone to send into the war), would it mean by your definition that such a war is not “with the intent of conquest or subjugation”?

It is abuse and violation of person’s freedom and dignity. It (and people supporting it) should be fought by any means necessary.

I’m way too familiar with liberals labeling everything they don’t like as “fascist propaganda” :)

So, still no.

No. And I would continue helping people evade whatever censorship a government tries to impose on them.

No, why would they? Haven’t you heard that Russia is literally Mordor filled with orcs, while Ukraine (especially under Zelensky’s rule) is a bastion of democracy? I don’t think that western governments/media and especially Zelensky (who doesn’t benefit at all from this war and is the main victim here) would lie to anyone about that!

Now that we got sarcasm out of the way…

If you want to form an informed opinion about it you can start by looking at the map of 2010 elections, where there was basically two candidates, a pro-EU one and pro-Russian one. Take a look at the distribution and percentage of people voting for a particular candidate in particular regions. Then look into the coup that happened in 2014, which powers participated in it (you can listen to their leaked conversations as well), then remember the electoral map you just looked at, and maybe make some conclusions.

That’s “before the invasion” the part.

“After the invasion” part is of course less clear, but again if you want to start making an informed opinion you can start by looking, for example, at the level of freedom people located on Ukraine controlled territories have and that of people on annexed by Russia territories (or just “Russia proper” territories). Who is free to leave at any moment and go anywhere, and who is forbidden to leave the country because the government needs cannon fodder? Who is encouraged to volunteer to join the army with monetary incentives, and who is kidnapped from the street, beaten, held in basements for days and forcefully sent to the meat grinder? Again, you can try to make some conclusions from that, and maybe speculate whether it’s possible that people from one of those groups may want to join the other one.

As a finishing touch - I am Ukrainian, I was born there, and lived most of my life there. Thankfully, I left the country before the war started. If I visit Ukraine - I will most likely be dead in a matter of months (after being kidnapped and beaten by the brave TCC guys). If I visit Russia - I will at most face more scrutiny at the border due to the war. I’m not from an eastern region of Ukraine and I never wanted it to become a part of Russia. You can try to guess which options are preferrable for me currently.

Why do others have to die for what you believe in?

Why not?
I mean the only answer here is “because empathy”, but Ukrainians are not part of their " tribe", so no empathy for us… Murder as many of us as they can, and then write in the history books that it was Russia so that they can continue claiming they are the good ones :(

I’m starting to think those people are just sadists wishing to see as many Ukrainians and Russians dead as possible…

They don’t even refute anything, if you say anything remotely critical of Ukraine/Zelensky, you are just declared Russian bot/propagandist and your opinion doesn’t matter. Wow.

genocide. Which the Russians also attempt to commit against Ukrainians denying them their right for self–determination, my dear Russian friend.

Thank god Zelensky is not trying to commit genocide on Ukrainians denying them their right for self-determination by forbidding people to leave the country and kidnapping them off the streets 1 by 1 in front of their mothers/wives and sending them to the meatgrinder, am I right, my dear Western friend holding the moral high ground?

I don’t hate blockchain, but I can see why other people might.

Blockchain’s more or less only use is in cryptocurrencies (yes there are theoretically other usages, but let’s be honest it’s a drop in the ocean). The #1 cryptocurrency can do about 10TPS (please don’t even mention all the broken L2s), the #2 is “just about to revolutionize the world with smart contracts” for almost ten years already (so far the most revolutionary thing is monkey jpegs), then there are a few stable coins which aren’t even really a cryptocurrency at all, and thousands of literally memecoins.

Real cryptocurrency (XMR and maybe BCH) can and is used as currency (I pay for lots of legal stuff like VPN/VPSs/domains with XMR), but not many people are interested in that I guess.

Well, as a Ukrainian, I also hope so, but unironically.
Because if my hometown will get conquered by “hostile force” people will finally be able to leave, and I will be able to visit it and leave it afterwards.

Nah probably not, but he’ll be stopped at Kursk just like the last time :)

protecting Ukraine

So, turning Ukraine into a mass prison that people are desperatly trying to escape, where people are kidnapped on the streets and sent to die on the frontlines? Can they somehow opt-out of this protection? Yeah, didn’t think so, obviously you know what’s better for other people.

No rational person could think he intends to do anything but hand over Ukraine to Russia.

Obviously it wouldn’t happen, just the current front lines would become the new borders.

But even your bogeyman “hand over Ukraine to Russia” is still orders of magnitudes better for Ukrainians than the current situation.