Hell, when the war started, I thought it would lead to a nuclear apocalypse, because I thought Kyiv would fall and the Russians wouldn't stop there; they'd march up to the Polish border and the Poles, not wanting Vatniks on their border, would counter-attack, triggering NATO's Article 5 and causing a nuclear war. That was before we all found out that Russia was weaker than we all thought.
I am only barely familiar with Lex Fridman, but this interview was so bizarre. Lex did challenge Tucker on several points and was even incisive (for example, getting Tucker to admit to going too far trying to be unlike other journalists), and at times the interview was almost a conversation as each gave perspectives. But then Lex would let Tucker tell blatant falsehoods with no pushback or response at all. For example, Tucker casually claimed that people in Ukraine weren't allowed to speak Russian, and that's a valid reason Russia was mad ("attacking language"). This is completely preposterous—even Kyiv was largely Russian speaking up to 2022—but Lex just lets it slide without comment. (And it's not like Lex is unfamiliar with the politics of language; Tucker's comment was in response to Lex correctly noting that Zelenskyy chooses to publicly speak in Ukrainian rather than his native Russian.)
Man, they never fail to come up with the most retarded takes imaginable.
Not only is this a lie, it stems from the efforts of Ukrainian government to keep Ukrainian language and culture alive after constant attempts of Russification throughout the centuries of mutual history. It's a defiance of Russia's imposed dominance.
They invaded because they bought their own hype of Ukraine and its western allies being weak and then they were too bullheaded to pull back after the momentum died down.
"Maybe ram it?" - ah, there's the famous Slavic spiritWell, that's it fam; I just filled my bingo card for this war!
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In all seriousness though, I've been waiting for all the drone surveillance & imaging in that place to come through with something really weird; this one certainly counts. I figure since so much of it is being recorded & watched by regular guys in trenches, chances would be good that some footage would scrape by the glownigger censors.
My theory is that these people want the money and fame associated with "interviewing" these powerful people. Obviously it's easy to notice that the Putin interview broke the web and there were hundreds if not thousands of articles and media created about its contents.
Russia has repeatedly said they viewed the Orange Revolution as a coup and all that, so given the invasion I think it's worth just accepting this is how they view history. It helps explain a lot of Russia's behavior like wanting to negotiate with countries other than Ukraine to end the war, as they're not viewing it as Ukraine having any sovereignty over itself.
Tucker confuses the hell out of me. He was nice when talking about domestic issues regarding corruption in politics, immigration, infrastructure and so on, then gradually started to decide he was an expert on Eastern Europe while seeming to have zero interest in ever speaking to anyone that might be on the other side of the issues regarding the region. He's ended up shoving himself into a weird echo chamber where he's often repeating what you could read on RussiaToday.
He is still generally OK on those subjects.
I think I saw an old talk by Milton Friedman of all people in that illegal immigrants come in and have to work making them a boon for the economy. Now this is obsolete as the administrative state and the church charities they fund try push unearned benefits on them, but still an illegal can be beneficial in a narrow way to governments and business. No direct costs for welfare (indirect costs via Federal or state funded charities don't matter to the cynical politician) and lower wages and costs for the business compared to a legal worker. Also migration to infinity boosts GDP in an apparently real, but ultimately fake way. The Israelite landlord is not too unhappy either.
It's like the alleged persecution of the Ukrainian branch of the Russian Orthodox Church, where for every arrest of RO priest engaged in weapons dealing or spying, there are multiple murders of priests and attacks on churches of both Orthodox jurisdictions. There are so many Russian speaking Ukrainians fighting the Muscovite invader so they can be free. Countries are allowed to declare certain languages official and others secondary with official status, like with Ireland in respect of Gaelic and English or Mexico which gives all its languages equal status. 'Persecution of Russians' just one of the many, many bold face lies they tell so that those opposing them become flustered and just give up.
There's not much of a safety culture there.
Among the priests tortured and murdered by Russia was Stepan Podolchak a couple of weeks ago:
Article on Bloomberg (archive)
US psyops aren't actually that great, at least not lately. They also are in the process of massive cuts, ironically around the same time that Russian/Chinese hybrid operations are expanding.
Vlad Vexler said in a video that Putin never gives any direct order to kill people. He always formulates such requests in a very encrypted and lawyer speak way. So instead of saying "You need to kill Navalny by date X", he'd have a room with multiple people and he'd say "You know Oppositzki is a problem. And we can't allow him to remain a problem so it'd be beneficial for us if you did something about it". The people in the room are then left to think and guess for themselves what he meant and they're supposed to do.
