Apparently, in Stalin’s final days, he confided to his personal Secretary that he realised that history would not be kind to him.
I wonder if Putin and his little minions will have the same realisation?
I'd say it's far more social media and online sources, reddit, twitter and the like, with some of our so called journalists adding to it. An American writes about "SJWs" or "Toxic masculinity" and sure as night follows day some half wit in Ireland will repeat it in short order depending on their exising position.
I think she is their Press Secretary equivalent.
Its bizarre the way they include her in the tweets with that photo. Like it's supposed to add credibility.
I'm not sure what the thinking behind it is.
OK, but to listen to this forum and only this forum, you would possibly conclude that the people you mention must have literally rigged their elections. The fact is that people out there are voting these individuals in. Richard Boyd Barrett gets an absolute hammering on this site, but if you head over to r/Ireland on Reddit, the reception is better. Possibly the demographic over there skews a bit younger, but that's just a hunch.
Anyway, to try and tie this back into the subject at hand - if said politicians (and indeed all our politicians) will denounce Russia and apologise for any past support of Putin, I think that would be good.
I am not longer convinced that there is an appetite for fighting other people’s wars. America couldn’t agree on whether or not it is raining in the current political climate? Britain talks a good game, but its actions are not always reflective.
And even if they did defend us, is it really ethical just to expect other people to foot the bill while we act the cute hoor?
We need a serious debate around the matter
That’s definitely not the late late show
More likely to trust a hot blonde than an old balding drunk.
Maybe, but like Stalin they won't care. All men like this seem to care about is that history remembers them and sadly we tend to remember tyrants more than good leaders.
Yeah you're right. Twitter etc having a big influence. So many Irish people follow American journalists and platforms.
The new thing is accusing someone of being a Russian agent or being Pro Putin. It's cringey.
It isn't about fighting anyone else's wars for them. Ireland is a massive geographic weakness for the UK. It would be in a terrible situation if a large potentially hostile army was stationed here. Similarly a force could be deployed in Ireland to largely cut off US forces from Europe. They would defend us to defend their own interests as opposed to actually being nice to us. Similar to why the UK entered WW1. They had a defense pact with Belgium because Belgium falling to enemy forces would lead to a military vulnerability for the UK.
Honestly they are more likely to defend us than the vast majority of actual NATO members (though I think they probably defend NATO allies). I am in favour in principal of joining NATO out of simply doing our part but everything I have seen has had the defense budget as a % of GDP which is not a good measure for Ireland since it is inflated by multi nationals.
Maria Zakharova - she's the PR face of the ministry for disinformation otherwise known as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She reputedly had an affair with a certain Mr. Lavrov which saw her appointed to the position.
Reading that, I am starting to question myself, maybe we are the baddies?
Irelahd has never fought an international war in its history. Why should we start now when neutrality and demilitarization is a touchstone of the state?
ireland has an unarmed police force. Our officers do viral videos of themselves dancing. This is who we are and to change that now because Russia has invaded ukraine is dumb in my opinion. If we had being in nato this century Irish people would have died in pointless wars in Afghanistan and Irish people would have paid an extra 2% or so in tax for that “honour” to cover the defence budget
That's an interesting one now.
FF/FG/FG represent and are supported by most people in ireland who can vote. People choose the salesperson candidate that they identify with the most. We consistently elect people of questionable integrity into powerfull positions. They may not be shouting extreme stuff like Wallace but they hide in the shadows of ambiguity (and apathy from electorate) and it doesn’t really matter what party you support.
I know some people who were really supportive of the anti vaxx stuff and even went out in those parades early doors about the lockdown. “Idiots” is what I thought, but I think some discourse in democracy is healthy, even if I don’t agree with it.
A lot of people , particularly in boards, are so entrenched and self absorbed in their views, they can’t actually see above “you are with me or against me” kind of language/understanding. They don’t discuss the topic they attack and abuse the poster, they don’t want to understand, they want to shut down discussion.
I try to follow politics less then I did when I was younger and naive and believed in change for the better at the top. But nothing changes because people always think other people are the problem and don’t look or acknowledge their own flaws.
If everybody swept their side of the street, you’d have a clean street. Instead everybody throws their rubbish and prejudices across the street because it’s somebody else’s fault/problem.
Ireland was invaded numerous times by numerous groups throughout its history. Remember when we waited for the French and Spanish to help us fight against the British?
I don’t know the answer to NATO. But I certainly think that it merits a comprehensive discussion +/- referendum
Agreed that it is tactless…
But we must continue to make the difference between the Gremlin and the ordinary Russian person. Joe Public in Russia is a victim of the ruling class of Russia
McGregors taller than him 😂
It would certainly be a starting point! It should be the bare minimum people expect of elected representatives in this case.
Seems to be a believe from many non military commentators on TV etc that NATO is somehow the world police. Unfortunately if they intervene directly in Ukraine and serious escalation occurs those who asked for it will be nowhere to be found.
I do believe the Russian “forces” were significantly overestimated for years but, the big nuclear “but”, must be in the back of all our minds and thankfully I’d trust the NATO/western leaders to know what they can and can’t do.
Fair analogy but to tie it back into the thread rather than going too far off topic, the reason I have such an issue with Boyd Barrett, Murphy, Wallace, Daly, Ming etc is because they are using the textbook whataboutery you see on this site all the time when it comes to Russia.
*Yeah, Russia are bad BUT NATO*
*Yeah Russia shouldn't invade Ukraine BUT Palestine/Yemen/Iraq etc*
I don't agree with any of those invasions or the carry on of any country involved in any of them.
It does not mean that I want to see it used as a reason to excuse Putin committing daily war crimes in Ukraine.
That's my problem with this stance by the champagne socialists we have sadly elected.
youre talking about Ireland shouldn’t expect to have other people fight their wars for them. If you join NATO there is a much higher likelihood of fighting wars for other countries (see post 9/11) than if we stay in the current arrangement where we won’t fight other peoples wars and there is almost no chance anyone will have to fight a war for us.
this propaganda is being spewed by QAnon, Tucker Carlson et Al.
Dangerous as f*ck!
The hate hate show
Hup ya boya Sergei
Legitimate points. But both sides need to be debated and put to the people.
It is an important question: should we join NATO
Looks like Putin supported terrorists groups and neo nazis in Germany to destabilise Europe when he was stationed there as a KGB officer in East Germany.
And now he uses it as excuse to invade its neigbour,charming man
Everything he does is taken out of KGBs playbook
unbridled narcissism in full flow.
I heard the prick also forced Cadburys to change the recipe for their Creme Eggs as well. Evil bastard.
We are assuming they would. We're not part of NATO so they could very well take their time and think about it
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