Hans-Christoph Steiner @eighthave@librem.one

@nanoelquant @Lazycog@mastodon.online yes exactly, Austria was forced by military invasion and occupation to become neutral. That occupation was mostly Russians and directed from Moscow. Now, neutrality is immensely popular with Austrians, and all but one minor political party fully support it. It can work very well, much better than any military alliance, so #Ukraine really should keep it in consideration, especially because its clear they won't be allowed into #NATO any time soon.

@vitali64sur Could you try installing version 1.17.0? I believe that's fixed now

Europe has a long history of destroying river ecosystems throughout the continent by building dams.This contributes a lot to #ClimateChange. The #EU is exporting this, by paying for new dams in pristine ecosystems, for example, in the #Balkans, where the locals have long history of keeping nature intact and wild. Places like #Bosnia and #Albania should export their knowledge to the EU, what is happening is vice versa and now we watch more "dams destroy rivers completely"

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/08/10/world/neretva-river-save-the-blue-heart-of-europe-c2e-spc-intl/index.html

@nanoelquant @Lazycog@mastodon.online Austria's neutrality was also forced by a deal between the Soviet Union, France, UK, and USA. But it has worked, and is immensely popular in Austria now. Finland's situation now is quite different than both Ukraine and Austria. Finland was already spending more on than NATO's 2% requirement, and it has a long border with Russia. It will be interesting to see how the Finns feel about NATO when they have to join in some pointless yet devastating invasion like Afghanistan.

Hey @cpu good to see you here! Welcome!

@Lazycog@mastodon.online @nanoelquant Finland became neutral after the Soviet Union's invasion. That is what I'm referring to. Allying with Sweden and Germany means Finland was not neutral then.

@nanoelquant And Austria and Finland provide possible examples of how neutrality could work for Ukraine. Austria was neutral while Soviet tanks rolled into our neighbors Hungary and Czechoslovakia. They did not invade Austria, even though militarily, it would have been simple for the Soviets to take over Austria. They had done it before. I know at lot less about it, but #Finland's situation during World War Two looks quite similar to Ukraine's now. Finland was neutral yet not invaded again.

@nanoelquant Joining military alliances also means getting dragged into the wars of other countries. You can see that over the history of #NATO. Right now, it is plain to see how Putin is leaning on Belarus to join in the war of Ukraine, and tried with Kazakhstan too.

Consider #Trump does not seem to like NATO and could be the next US President https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/04/john-bolton-trump-nato-2024

NATO won't let Ukraine join until the war is settled. After that, its not clear Ukraine benefits. Neutrality might work better

@nanoelquant Switzerland and Sweden have been neutral for centuries, they were not taken over by the Nazis or Soviets, unlike all of their neighbors. So saying military alliances will save a country from invasions is overlooking actual history. It is not that simple.

@nanoelquant And also consider that #NATO and #US directly supported terrorist militants in Kosovo, where they remain problematic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo_Liberation_Army

@nanoelquant I think this leaves out the part where #NATO started a 20 year #bullshit war in #Afghanistan, disasterous involvement in #Libya, and key NATO members invaded #Iraq because they wanted its oil. Sure, joining NATO could stop #Russia from invading, but then you're contributing to invading other countries.

@FeralRobots @librarianshipwreck that's a great analogy. Your SAT analogy struck a chord, I was always good at standardized tests, even in subjects I was not good in. I got 790/800 in the math SAT, and I barely could make it through calculus. That always left me the impression that standardized tests don't really measure capability or knowledge, but more the window dressing around capability and knowledge.

wow, the @EU_Commission 's grants website includes a #Panic button!

So many English-language media outlets report on coups simply as an attack on democracy without actually talking about why people are supporting the coup. Too often "democracy" in post-colonial states means choosing between leaders handpicked by old colonial powers who represent those interests (Afghanistan is a clear example).

One #NigerCoup supporter said: "There’s a small number of people profiting from the riches of Niger, Nigeriens cannot live like that."
https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-08-02/some-of-nigers-neighbors-defend-the-coup-there-even-hinting-at-war-its-a-warning-for-africa.html

Neither #ElonMusk nor #Tesla is helping with #ClimateChange. They are giving us an easy out that won't actually work. Even so-called #green energy has an environmental impact, including water use, mining, use of oil for plastics, etc. At this point, electric cars should be taxed the same as any other, except maybe cheap ones. It is absurd at this point to subsidize building environmentally damaging luxury cars like Teslas. Get more people walking, biking, taking transit

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/23/07/31/0128257/elon-musk-predicts-electricity-shortage-in-two-years