FailForward @FailForward@social.cleverlibre.org

@pony Is this really published?

@piggo Come on, why do you wonder? The poor guy/lady had their ways around stuff in that space for years and suddenly a bloody unexpected traffic sign pops up.

## Avi Kaplan: Aberdeen

[Avi Kaplan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avi_Kaplan) of [Pentatonix](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentatonix) fame with his solo project(s).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWYt_jFcaEc


@piggo I gave a thought to your GPL of languages. In the Netherlands, it's English what is the GPL of languages. Whenever people speak and there appears somebody who either speaks English, or crappy Dutch interleaved with 2-3 English expressions , everybody immediately switches to English. Even if that new individual tries to insist on speaking Dutch, after 5 minutes everybody slides back to English anyway. And they don't even feel uncomfortable about it. English is really poisonous and viral GPL-esque creature especially in the Randstadt (west of NLD).

@piggo Man, reading this is such a trip. People arguing citing segments of an authority's speech, or newspaper articles. It seems as if those guys are discussing there things without any regard for 1) their own opinions and use of their brains; and 2) observation of basic facts on the ground (whatever they are from the pov).

Interesting rabbit hole there...

@piggo

> you pick up words and phrases and grammar quirks from coworkers etc and then mix the languages

Which becomes hilarious when you mix a e.g., grammar of a Slavic language with vocabulary from a Germanic language, of course declinated according to that Slavic grammar! We speak a lot that way in my family 😄 .

Even more, my children would write one language with orthography from another language, which makes for a very cryptic stuff.

Yes, mixing languages is fun.

@piggo re GPL of languages: maybe english is more like that rather?

@piggo

> slovaks living in cz never learn czech,

Not entirely true, just "somewhat". You apparently don't know enough of those who do, because they hide in plain sight.

> czechs learn slovak to understand them

So far I met only 1 Czech who learned Slovak lang "just because".

The important thing there is "why if this already works for me?".

But indeed, this is an interesting topic to dissect. What I find interesting is how the two societies think the languages are very close, but outsiders (e.g., Polish, or Croats) would mightily disagree (typically understanding one easily (typically SVK), but not the other (typically CZE)).

I just had this discussion yesterday: listening to Ukrainian, I get most of what they say without translation, but it just doesn't work the other way round (recent anecdotal experiences from conversations with Ukr refugees).

@piggo It looks like the guy has scissors in the vest right under his left arm. Is that a normal part of military equipment? He does not look like a medic.

... or maybe those goggles are not night vision, but some military surgeons's medical "scope" 🤔

@pony Somewhat spooky, right? (what will a villain tell a small child before entering a dark tunnel?)

The pun reminds me of this place near where I live. Called "NEBO". Ironically, it's an nursing home (Altersheim) for eldery.

@apilsetas There is no button for that. Clicking like/favourite feels obscene in this context.

@pony Tschechen vs. Tschetschen vs. Tschetschenen <-- very confusing 😄

@piggo well, those are all "potentials" indeed. I am also curious to see who will start the scavenging raids now when, as you say, Russians are distracted, but also when their military weaknesses were also revealed. Not that I wish for it, because it would only wreak more havoc in the world anyhow, but I guess there are astute opportunists watching and thinking how to seize the opportunity indeed.

@piggo I guess you refer to the Azerbaijan story...

@piggo Well, it's worth checking the full speech. Very well done. That last statement was clearly an emotional off-the-cuff ending. Perhaps will need some backpedaling. Still, this speech will go down in history well.

@piggo did you spot something specific?

@pony Unfortunately that is so. I find myself still somewhat conflicted about it, I guess a pacifist by "desire", I find myself actively working to harm others - perhaps not physically, but still. Anyway, for a conflict you need just one party. So we've got it. It wasn't our choice, but I feel our own world is at stake, so "desires" of pacifism go aside.

@pony Sorry for a long-ish rant. I am easily triggered these days, sometimes even burst in tears seeing or reading some things I cannot unsee or unthink anymore.

@pony

> I'd like to clarify that hating on people because they are ethnically Russian or have a Russian passport is very bad and you should really not do it.

What you call for is not to conflate actions of the government with the attitudes of individuals under that government's rules.

Sure. That's just basic human decency as I (and clearly you and I hope many too) understand it.

And yet, it's more complicated than that when we think about it. Because it's not only about government vs. individuals, but also about government vs. the society vs. the individuals that comprise that society. And shall we blame the society here? Or at least ascribe responsibility to it?

My personal take is, yes, we can. even though I feel "dirty" about it because I never expected myself to make such swiping generalizations. But here I am, I do make them - as clearly do 70+% of Ukrainians today and I happen to agree with them (begrudgingly). Why?

1. I just read some stats, it seems 70+% of Russian society agrees with the policies and actions of their government. I don't care whether they are brainwashed or not (from our perspective, which is biased!), I effectively see human beings agreeing to inhuman actions. It tells me they don't share values with me. Now if you find yourself trying to tell me that 70+% is not all, my counter would be that in the countries you or me live/lived/know elections are won by a thin margin, so 70+% is HUGE.
2. over the last 3 decades Eastern European societies spent vast amounts of energy and resources and experienced a lot of pain and went through huge struggles to bootstrap themselves out of the quagmire left after communism fall in '89. We all worked f**ing hard to get somewhere, to build civic societies and as a side effect also some level of economic prosperity. The price for that was vast uncertainties about our ways of life, never-ending barrage of corrupt cronies trying to usurp the rule n our countries and our societies struggles against them so as to make something better out of our societies. This costs energy and requires mobilisation of large swaths of the society. And what did Russian society did during all this time? Figure yourself. Even the lights of hope they produced were weak and dim without much support. In the end their society's non-actions produced this horror in Ukraine. And you know what? I do blame them for it. All of them. Including my friends, members of Russian society who now regret and try to separate themselves from these horrors their society produces. Exactly as I am blamed and take responsibility for wrong-doing of my own society in present and in the past, even though individually I don't support those policies either.

Is this a coherent and "clean" philosophical stance? No it isn't. But I will go and argue there's something about it. As a member of a society you cannot escape some level of collective responsibility.

BTW, the last 3 decades we saw this struggle in Easterm European nations including Ukraine. But it's nothing new. Western-EU, or even US societies went through exactly such struggles in the past too. And my great hope is that one day, Russian society will also liberate themselves from that backwards-staring mindset and will one day start to constructively and positively look onto the world around them. Honestly, I am not sure it will happen in my lifetime. It's a tough multi-decade and multi-generational process.