Again - there is and must be a distinction between the blame, responsibility and guilt of an 18 year old uneducated soldier, nurse etc and a political leader. But this does not automatically absolve the former from all responsibility and guilt. You should and hopefully do focus on the latter’s guilt and responsibility, as it is much larger than the others’. Focussing on the people who follow orders is not what I would advertise for and this isn’t the intent, it is actually the exact opposite. By differentiating different aspects and kinds of guilt you have tools and language at hand to talk about it without putting everyone in the same boat.

It is not a black and white issue. Everyone got blood on their hands - you and me included - just in different amounts, in different ways.

Very honestly - I’ve still not read the book entirely and I have started because I felt some feeling of guilt myself for being a Russian living outside Russia. I think that’s actually exactly what Jaspers, along with his students (the book is basically a dialectic lecture written down with results of work of his class from one semester), was trying to figure out. So I am not the best person to lecture you about that.

From as far as I have read these distinctions are exactly what allow people to talk about guilt, responsibility, trauma, the past, etc, without judging everyone by the same standards. Like, a criminal is judged by the court who defines for a crime they committed. A politician who took part in ordering crimes will be judged by the victor of a war. A soldier (just like a secretary) will be judged in dialogue with others and by his conscience for their individual actions, even if they were following orders. And a normal person who looked away or didn’t actively do their best to stop the atrocities that happen in the world, well, this person’s metaphysical guilt can basically only be judged by a metaphysical instance itself, be it God or another undefined transcendence. Basically all of us bear the latter.

They are very distinct and do not have the same repercussions. It is without doubt that political leaders have a much different, much more facetted responsibility for crimes committed. And we should focus on that. But this does not clean the people who followed their orders from all guilt, and their responsibility and crimes (against humanity) will be judged, just in a different way.

Edit: I’ve added a better phrased summary in my original comment above, since I have realized that translating German political philosophy isn’t my strength exactly.

In the aftermath of World War II, Carl Jaspers formulated in Die Schuldfrage that there are four types of guilt (/responsibility). Criminal guilt, political guilt, moral guilt, and metaphysical guilt. It is a great distinction in general. Yes, political leaders bear a different kind of guilt for the actions than the soldiers, but acting on clearly morally wrong commands do not obliterate guilt from the soldiers. Just like everyone who basically didn’t give their life in pursuit of the good and the right bears some metaphysical guilt for what is happening in the world.

Edit: I realized that, since I am neither an English native, nor very articulate in philosophy or politics, I would rather ask perplexity for a summary. So here it is: Karl Jaspers, in his work The Question of German Guilt, distinguishes four categories of guilt and assigns specific instances to each:

1. Criminal Guilt:

   Definition: Violations of objectively provable laws that are legally considered crimes.

   Instance: The court, which determines the facts and applies the laws in formal proceedings.

2. Political Guilt:

   Definition: Arises from the actions of statesmen and the shared responsibility of every citizen for the government of their state.

   Instance: The power and will of the victor, especially after a lost war, as in the case of Germany after World War II.

3. Moral Guilt:

   Definition: Refers to individual actions for which every person is morally responsible, even if carried out under orders.

   Instance: One’s own conscience and dialogue with others.

4. Metaphysical Guilt:

   Definition: A shared responsibility for all injustice in the world, based on human solidarity. It arises when one does not do everything possible to prevent injustice.

   Instance: God or transcendence.

Jaspers emphasizes that this differentiation is meant to avoid simplistic or generalized accusations of guilt. He rejects the idea of collective criminal or moral guilt for an entire people, arguing that guilt is always individual.

First it was hanging, now it’s shooting. Make up your mind. It might help to first get your head out of your ass though.

I’m a parent too, and here are my thoughts on this. I would rather knowingly live next to a pedophile - someone who outs themselves and goes to therapy - than not knowing about whether or not my neighbor has ever had such tendencies. I wouldn’t forbid them from having contact with my child, if they are sure it is not too hard for them, and obviously, keep them supervised. (I have barely ever left my child with another adult outside of the kindergarten setting though.) As was commented above, pedophilia is a valid and incredibly unfortunate, isolating and lonely sexual orientation and a disorder that can be treated, if not “cured”. I wholeheartedly agree with what you said about society’s hostile mentality driving people into the shadows and keeping them from seeking help.

I also want to point out that the majority of minor sex offenders (sorry I can’t remember the correct term, English isn’t my first language) has no pedophilic tendencies. A lot of sexual assault happens not because of attraction but because of power, dominance, violence, control. It’s something so important to keep in mind. Your local pedo might be the nicest and most harmless guy, while some other, heterosexual and “normal” oriented person in your neighborhood might have actually assaulted a child. Not having pedophilic tendencies does not mean a person won’t commit pedophilic acts.

In a way, my heart goes out to pedophiles. I can’t imagine how incredibly lonely it must be to have a desire for intimacy only with people who you will never, under any circumstances, be allowed to touch. You will never be able to act on your desires. You will never be allowed to live like yourself, be yourself fully. This must be hell. Even without the witch hunt. The least we can do as a society is to offer all the help and support we can get.

(It goes without saying - fuck all sexual offenders.)

Oh then try falafels. Jesus I can’t bring myself to make falafels or something similar at home because you literally fry it in oil and you need to do that in order for the raw legumes to be not toxic.

Legumes like beans, lentils, peas, hummus, chickpeas,

Oats, quinoa, amaranth, buckwheat, whole wheat products,

Tofu in its various forms, including silk tofu as egg replacement in pancakes,

Other “meat substitutes” like seitan or sunflower seed mince,

Nuts, nut butters, nut flour,

Dairy products such as cottage cheese, joghurt,

Soy milk

I mean for real, eggs are super unnecessary for a protein rich or healthy diet. I would argue that unless you literally want to treat yourself with a sunny side up or an omelette you shouldn’t be using eggs at all. I like eggs, but a dozen lasts us (family of 3) a month easily.

I gotta say the cybertruck one is so hilarious and desperate I’d spare it my rage

Yeah now try being absolutely unknowledgeable when it comes to tech and very much into makeup, skincare, 90 day fiance and parenting content. Lemmy, it’s been nice, but after one and a half years I started lurking to Reddit every once in a while again.

I would honestly be interested in meeting him.

That purple apartment was rent controlled because officially Monica’s Nana was still living in it and the janitor knew and used this as leverage to make Joey dance with him so that he could impress a girl. Iirc…

I mean that’s not the point but I just wanted to add this. You’re of course correct that times have changed dramatically.

Most people are trying to be somewhat proud of their country of origin. And basically every country in the world does have some cool stuff in their history to be proud of. Be it Russia, Germany, the USA - every country’s history has dark sides as well as achievements (non political) to be proud of. At the end of the day, it is a longing for community and identification with one’s community. If you are Russian, as a part of Russia, then it is also your people, your homies, who built sputnik or sent Jury Gagarin into space.

At the same time, overidentification with a national identity is odd in itself. You may be proud that your country invented something 100 years ago or pioneered into space, has cool traditional clothing or dances, but this has little to do with you specifically, or with the state of the country today.

People who say they are ashamed to be Russian (or any other nationality) usually say this in reference to either the negatives in their country’s history (e.g. slavery in the US, WWII in Germany, Stalinism in Soviet Russia), or in reference to their current government. But a government is not the same as the people, history and culture.

But most importantly, these things don’t exclude each other. You can both be proud to be a Russian as in not hating your genes, your heritage, your identity and ancestry, cherrypicking achievements and parts of culture, as well as condemn the current government and state of the country, while simultaneously seeing your nationality as an abstract part of your identity. Your passport or your MyHeritage results do not make you who you are. What you believe in, what you care about and how you act do.

For me it’s the other way around. That pizza is looking at me replacing the finished pea package yet again for months and months on end.

I’m afraid you won’t have time. It will take minutes. And I’m not even sure it would be announced.

Absolutely agree with you, but, unpopular opinion probably, I also don’t want a lazy ass who can’t or doesn’t want to get a job to be homeless. Like, I don’t care how much of an asshole you are and how many drugs you take and that you don’t care to hold a job, I still want you to have shelter, food, and basic necessities. Let alone kids of these people.

So, in the best case scenario, the US as we know it is done and, after a hard fall and hitting rock bottom, will emerge as a country that is less of a capitalist hellhole. Ideally, in the process, other countries will find more independence from the USA, be it trade wise or security wise.

The more realistic scenario is that everything will stay the same/similar and just get slightly worse all the time but every other country will still suck up to the USA and everything gets a little worse. Oh yeah and climate change will fuck everyone up the ass.

The worst case scenario, I would argue, is that this ends in the destruction of the world via nuclear war within less than an hour. This is what I am scared of the most.

Everyone here fixing stuff with 3D printers while I am here struggling how to sew up wool silk leggings in a way that keeps them elastic and fighting for my life with darning

I’ve always heard promises promises give an end to those promises in the bridge of Lady Gaga’s Pokerface

I wouldn’t eat soap simply because it’s amphiphilic, which is why, well, it makes good soap. The molecules have a hydrophilic and a lipophilic side and this will much rather soap off and severely damage the lining of your digestive route, potentially and probably also resulting in dangerous foaming.

If you take the most simple soap that’s just like potassium ions and negatively charged fatty acid residues, I’m not 100% sure but I doubt that the fatty acids want to accept a proton because they are rather stable when negatively charged, hence they won’t work well to buffer the stomach acid. And again, by the time that the fatty acid thinks about accepting a proton or not it will most likely be soaping up your cells’ membranes.

For someone with family ties in Ukraine, being on the outside is still incredibly terrifying. Let alone that Muskfuck is now promoting AFD