Change your flag to Ukraine to show solidarity!

I personally have demonstrated against my own government and got beaten up and injured by the cops for speaking out. Jailed, framed with false charges, the lot. The trauma lives on with me. You know who were my biggest critics? some of my close friends saying "the world dosen't care about your protest, the only way to really help is [this / that]..." This logic of "the more you get involved the more you are helping to divide and actively strengthen the evil you are trying to stop" is just people's way to wash their hands clean and legitimize why they themselves don't want to do anything. Why it's OK to NOT do, to ignore, because "what can I really do to affect it"... Yes, some of my close friends are also "anti everything", and if there is a protest movement, they can not stand that some people are coming together and believing in something, they just have to hate on this "coming together and believing", because they are used to being outsiders and critisizing groups of people. It's very egocentric and childish, the need to be unique and different by calling someone else "naive" or a hippie or something...  and all this classic "whatabousim"... "what about Iraq? What about Georgia, what about Chechnia, what about............. Why didn't you cry back then?...". Would that work in a court of law? "Well, what about that other murderer?... Where was your pure conscious then?....." ... Hah... Give me a break. 

and all the sophisticated elaborated ways they are trying to point out your "hypocrisy" to make you feel like you have no values and are a puppet in the game fought between forces that benefit from this division within peoples... So their conclusion is always "do nothing"... or "just ignore it"... Which is precisely what the evil people want, and they basically use the same "whataboutism" in their speeches (Putin).  So before you go out criticizing people trying to create a conversation on the subject, consider for a seconds that yes, you have been affected by Propaganda, in a sub conscious way, by the very people you believe yourself to be "free" from, those who want you and me alike to shut up and be a defeatist, and just accept that you have no way to help. "everybody mind their own buisness".  this urge to tell those who actively oppose evil that they are just wasting their time - I understand it, it's very realist, but it's in no way objective. I get it, someone who cries out "this is evil! I am good" is automatically antagonistic, but you gotta try to see beyond that. 

There is not one way to help. If everyone will do something small, yes, even put up a Ukranian flag on your balcony, send donations, think outside the box, invest in green energy to make gas and oil worthless and destroy Putin's source of economic power... find creative ways to help, create conversation, everybody can do a small thing and it will add up and it will help.

My argument is that doing nothing would have been more helpful to the Ukrainian people. NOT having a President who hands out 20,000 machine guns to the civilian population and effectively makes them a legitimate target. It's a reasonable criticism to say that he's using them and even hiding behind them.


I won't comment more because I don't want to be the cause of your thread being locked. I understand that you're being sincere. All the best to you and to Ukrainian people..

Well, a legitimate target in the eyes of a terroristic regime invading a foreign country to conquer it - is not really a truely legitimate target, not in the eyes of god, the international court in Hague, or any sane person, really. You can't ignore the macro. 

There are many complicated conflicts in the world, with truths in both sides way of seeing things...  in those cases I'd agree that escalation isn't the answer... This one is not complicated though... It's just one man being a murderous psychopath invading a foreign country.

Unfortunately, it is very complicated but whatever seems right, at this moment, to a people empowered by the feeling of the times, is certainly not a historical and long-term perspective. Why allow your own country to be wrecked and thousands killed, because of a wishful mirage, when personal survival is so much more important? Ukraine is eight years old. It wouldn't have hurt too much, to go under the Russian yoke once more and to be free when Russia breaks up, which it inevitably will. Only one person would have lost out ... the one who wants to be a hero.

Do you personally know any diplomats, or influential politicians?

No.

Putin does not care about who is a 'legitimate target' or not. Have you seen videos of Russian soldier opening fire on protesting civilians ? Putin fires missiles and drops bombs on Ukrainian apartments and memorials. If Ukraine want to defend their country, they must take up arms and protect their local towns and areas. UN is already investigating Russia for war crimes (vacuum bombs and cluster bombs). Putin cares nothing about his people, Ukrainian people, he only cares about power and country.

Stop lying mate

My attempted post to this thread was deleted with a message that it "seems not to fit community guidelines" 

I assume it was judged to be political . There was no foul language or anything untrue.

In school, about sixty years ago, I was taught that politics and political had no clear boundaries. Almost all human discourse and interactions involve political concepts.  Since then, many years & experiences have verified this.

Narrowly Britannica defines political as pertaining to a government. Even this has broad implications. My church has a governing committee. The issues, discussions and disagreements are certainly political. Chess has organizations from FIDE down to my local club. These have governing bodies or at least a president. The deliberations and actions certainly have political overtones. All organizations, from apartment complexes to private businesses have ongoing human interactions with political machinations.

chess.com's TOS state no political discussions. Apparently they define political like Humpty Dumpty "it means just what I choose it to mean -"

Well they can lock the thread if they wish, I didn't mean for it to be an argumentative thing... It's just a gesture, like posting the all black picture on Insta to show support for BLM... The effectiveness or meaning of these gestures is obviously to be debated... Some people get "annoyed" from it... I honestly get exactly what is annoying about it, this perception of some people of themselves as morally superior like an earlier commenter said... OK, be annoyed then. It's still the way things roll in the 21st century. Most important football matches begin with athletes kneeling as an anti - racism gesture. Is this political? Nope. It's just pro - sane - life - loving - people... And those who get annoyed should ask themselves why they gotta be so darn special. Mommy didn't hug them enough between ages 4-7? IDK that's out of my field. 

Yes, why?

Quite honestly, this is about brains vs emotion. In the First World War, when they all marched off to be slaughtered at Passchendael, they told each other they'd be home by Christmas. As usual, it was due to the failure of politicians that millions of ordinary people lost everything. This is just the same. People on both sides getting all worked up to kill each other and nobody's trying to use their heads. Do Ukrainians want a country worth living in at the end of all this? If yes, offer Russia the Eastern, predominantly Russian speaking states and cut your losses. If no, then fight. I'd rather trust politicians who try to make intelligent decisions than those who don't have the equipment to do so.

I'll rapidly condense my deleted post. Certain words obfuscated so they don't trigger a "Delete" flag in the bowels of this creature. 

< It wouldn't have hurt too much, to go under the Russian yoke>

Boy, are you out of touch with the real world. The slaughter, r_pe & t_rture will be beyond civilized comprehension. P_tin was KG_. They cruelly killed their opponents with ricin. He plans public executions. I'm ashamed that the supposed leader of the free world is so weak.

They say war is too important to be left to the chess players. When they said that, 50 years ago, they might have been right. But today, war is too important to be left to politicians. They have neither the time, the training, nor the inclination for strategic thought. I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

Political posts are not for the general forums, please discuss in a private club or somewhere that allows you to discuss this topic, 

Thanks