• CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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      9 months ago

      I blame the fact they built all these institutions with no clause to expel members, or which require total unanimity to do so. They really bought in to the whole “end of history” thing, I guess.

      • Troy@lemmy.ca
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        9 months ago

        Yeah, this is an interesting element. Historically, allowing all members a veto, while also having no way to expel a member, means that any such institution is liable to outside meddling. The classic example is the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberum_veto – in the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, any noble could veto anything. So all it took was buying a few nobles and it shattered.

        • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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          9 months ago

          Apparently, based on that Wikipedia article, they ended up making a new version with less strict veto rules, called the confederated sejm, which is also where I expect all these Western institutions to go eventually. TIL.

      • sheogorath@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        That is an L take. Having a term limit helps increase the difficulty of making political dynasties. It doesn’t make it impossible, but it sure is gonna make it harder for a certain person or group to solidify their power base.

      • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
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        9 months ago

        Not really, the difference between two people of the same ideology to fulfill your democratic needs whom one can find in a population of a few million can be very small.

          • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
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            9 months ago

            Doesn’t change the fact that banning people from running for election is inherently undemocratic.

            Something being democratic is not the only criterion, because you wouldn’t want your neighbors to vote in favor of collectively owning you as a slave, even if your vote against gets counted.

            It’s just one safety measure - if a politician still would win an election after 8 years (life changes entirely in only 1 year), for example, that’s likely for wrong reasons. Like using administrative resource, pro-government mass media, crooked elites etc.

    • BombOmOm@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Reignited the West’s arms industry as well! We had gotten complacent until Putin started the largest war in Europe since WWII.

        • Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml
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          9 months ago

          You don’t have to agree with the post to see that they hold themselves to a higher standard than most of the federation.

          • someguy3@lemmy.ca
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            9 months ago

            People are leaving the starTrek website communities and instance because of uh certain issues. See you at ten forward.

            • Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml
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              9 months ago

              Oh that sounds like fun with a capital FU. EDIT: Cursory look didn’t bring up anything all that interesting. EDIT2: Evidence has been provided to me via DM, and i’m not impressed by it. Maybe Startrek is as good as it is because they get rid of people like that? Just a thought.

      • zik@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Kaliningrad’s fairly strategically useless to them now that every surrounding country’s NATO though. The Suwałki Gap between Kaliningrad and Belarus used to be pivotal in potentially re-taking control of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. It would have been very difficult for NATO defend them if Russia took the gap. But now those countries are protected by NATO countries all around so Kaliningrad’s a lot less useful strategically. Not to mention that there’s a strong Kaliningrad independence movement so they’re struggling to control it internally as well.

        More here.

  • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    Irasshaimase~ er, welcome! This isn’t really that big of news imo, they were pretty much already a member kinda.

  • Lad@reddthat.com
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    9 months ago

    A new member of the US foreign policy enforcement gang. Who’s next?

      • Lad@reddthat.com
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        9 months ago

        Russia can’t even conquer a quarter of Ukraine. No chance they’re going to invade Sweden, a country they don’t even share a border with. Is Canada afraid of being invaded by Russia? Is France? Is the UK?

        • someguy3@lemmy.ca
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          9 months ago

          Have you learnt nothing from Hitler and WW2? Appeasement doesn’t work.

          • OurToothbrush@lemmy.mlM
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            9 months ago

            I agree, the USSR assumed too much good faith on the part of NATO. Millions of casualties from economic devastation later, nationalist wars are still breaking out between former soviet states, and Nazism is on the rise.

              • OurToothbrush@lemmy.mlM
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                9 months ago

                It literally doesn’t matter who is invading who, it wouldn’t have happened without the western backed coup of soviet democracy.

          • Lad@reddthat.com
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            9 months ago

            Who says anything about appeasement? That’s your words, not mine. Besides, Russia is already being appeased by NATO not letting Ukraine join.

            Why don’t NATO stop being cowards and admit Ukraine immediately? If they’re serious about “defending Europe and democracy”.

          • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
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            9 months ago

            There are other things to learn in history too, such as some countries, like Russia, simply lacking resources to fight wars this big. As the other commenter said, they can’t get past Ukraine.

            Hitler comparison is really out of place here. It’s more similar to some of the wars in Africa and Latin America.

            • wandermind@sopuli.xyz
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              9 months ago

              Also funny how this “appeasement never works” fanaticism never applies to NATO and it’s members

              Yeah, funny how Russia, China and friends haven’t sanctioned the US and other countries. They have the full right to do that instead of continuing to appease them.

        • Bimfred@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Russia’s inability to conquer any of its neighbors is irrelevant. The possibility of them even attempting is unacceptable if you share a border with Russia. Sure, maybe Putin can’t hope to depose your government, but the destruction and deaths before his failure are still a horrifying reality that’ll take years, possibly decades, to recover from.

          As for why Sweden felt the need to join, despite not having a single meter of border with Russia, it’s because Finland felt the need to join. The two countries are tightly bound and do not want to end up on the opposite sides of a war. Now they’re much less likely to.

        • wandermind@sopuli.xyz
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          9 months ago

          Russia can’t conquer even a quarter of Ukraine, and they still invaded Ukraine. Sweden and Finland know that Russia can’t conquer them, and that knowledge has made them stay neutral in the past. But Russia has just shown with Ukraine that they might try anyway just because, and it’s a huge pain in the ass for Ukraine and for everybody else in Europe too. So it’s only natural that Sweden and Finland would like to avoid even being tried to be conquered by Russia.

          And like we can see, the Russian invasion of Ukraine also impacts France, the UK, and Canada. It’s not that these countries have decided to brainlessly follow the US. They want to support other countries who are at more risk of being invaded by Russia because countries being invaded by Russia is a huge pain in the ass for everybody in the region, not just the country being invaded. So their foreign policy goals simply happen to line up with the US goals.

        • kerrigan778@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Lol what a braindead take, I’m sure when this is all over Ukraine will be like “oh, well looks like we didn’t need to be part of NATO after all, we did just fine on our own”