Form each of your hands into a circle. Rotate your wrists, maybe even dislocate your shoulder, so your hands rotate like bike tires continuously. Position your head like it’s the handlebars. Never break eye contact. Smile so wide you have to unhinge your jaw, showing your gaping maw.

This tax was removed in 2014, 9 years ago. It was often called the “iPod tax” by those who wanted to remove it. https://macleans.ca/economy/economicanalysis/the-ipod-tax-is-dead-good-riddance/

Seems like you’d do great on the NonCredibleDefense communities ;)

They really got no vote: no elections, no opposition political parties, no way to leave the country if you want, huge oligarchy, a lot of corruption, huge debt…

Did you ignore the part where I said they voted for a politician who said he would strengthen ties to the West? Then did the opposite? Then the people took to the streets until he fled the country?

I’m clamouring to leave, and many people as well.

To leave your country, or to have your country leave NATO/EU/western alliances/etc? I’m sure you could try and convince people in your country to leave NATO, but NATO support is generally at a long-time high right now.

You talk like Ukraine was unified place, like western and southern Ukraine were the same. Did Crimea choose the West? Did Donbass?

It’s an imagined community for sure. If you think consent can only be granted if it’s by every individual rather than a collective in a democratic vote, then sure. I think most people think democratic votes are the best expression of the people’s will. It’s hardly perfect, but certainly better than a self-appointed vanguard.

Anyone have any opinions on names? Come up with a few:

• Defense
• WarRoom
• WarStudies
• ConflictAnalysis
• UkraineWar (maybe too limtied in scope)
• CredibleDefense (already a reddit community with same name).

Thoughts?

Thanks for taking the time to answer this. As a techy myself, I totally get what you mean about the audiences that have migrated to Reddit and why pro-Ukrainian discussion would focus on continuity.

Seems like the community would be smaller, but worthwhile setting up and seeing if people take to it. Just gotta think of a proper name, always the hardest bit, as I think mirroring reddit’s separation of communities would lead to over-fragmentation here.

The problem with this take, and all braindead takes like this, is it assumes Ukrainians get no vote in how they are governed. The EU, NATO, and basically all western institutions are voluntary. You can join if you meet these conditions. And guess what, people are clamouring to join. No-one held a gun to Finland or Sweden’s head to make them discard historical neutrality to apply to NATO. They simply saw how Russia was trying to use guns in Ukraine.

Similarly, the Ukraine chose the west. Calling the MAIDAN uprising a western coup denies them a voice. Yanukovych was voted in under the promise that he would tighten bonds with the West. Then after he gets voted in, he tears up the pending agreement with the EU. So people protest against this. Yanukovych baited and switched everyone.