From someone who used to do a lot of this sort of thing around the time of this blog post (even in my fifties now,I still do):
I often thought I was taking photos of buildings and spaces that would soon not exist. In hindsight, I was correct. To have this blog documenting something from so long ago (relatively speaking) is a true gem.
Urbex, in general, is an absolutely harmless illegal pursuit,or hobby if you will. The people who go to the places few will ever see, are documenting spaces that will generally be soon lost to the world.
Soviets, not russians. The Soviet forces consisted of people from fifteen present day countries, only one of which was russia. More non-russians were lost than russians
Considering how many millions of people the Soviet Union murdered in its own nation (before and after WWII), and the nation's of other non-Soviet European nations being invaded anexed.."to save Europe from Europe" would be a statement that many, many Europeans may not agree with.
And yet, Germany leads the Europe now. I believe there is no need to recount the horrors they were responsible for, in their own country and other European countries. I don't think what USSR did to their own people is far worse than what Germany did to 6 million jewish people, enough to treat Germany better than the Russians, who in fact suffered at the hands of the Bolsheviks.
There's nothing lovely about it. Whenever I go to kafana, I get smoked so bad. That's why I usually go there only during the summer. Being outside makes the smoking situation somewhat bearable.
Authorities have said they're finally going to crack down on smoking in bars this year, but I don't believe it -- 15 years of being illegal hasn't made a dent and 1/3 of men and 1/4 women are smokers.
Regular russians are being forced to accept the consequences of their fellow compatriots raping, murdering, killing civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure, and all-round generic war-criming, multiple times on a daily basis for almost two years now.
We've banned this account for using HN primarily for political battle. That's not allowed, because it destroys the curious conversation this site is supposed to be for.
I realize it can be frustrating to hold minority/contrarian views, but it's not ok to vent that frustration in flamewars on Hacker News. We can't allow that, or this place will soon burn itself to a crisp.
We've banned this account for using HN primarily for political battle, and for posting flamewar comments and ignoring our request to stop.
Regardless of how right you are or feel you are, or how bad others are or you feel they are, it's not ok to abuse HN like this. It does no good for anyone.
Even if George Bush went around US punching everyone in their face and telling them that all the wars were war crimes, Americans would accuse him of being a Kremlin apologist.
Those wars were wrong, but the question is will you ever say that the Russians are wrong to be committing genocide in Ukraine, and torturing its civilians?.
I'm surrounded by left wing friends and acquaintances in Italy who truly believe that Russia is liberating their oppressed country-people in east Ukraine and that Ukrainians deserve what's happening to them because they voted Zelenski.
I'm a little depressed by how easy it seems for people to spin all this on its head.
It's not about the wing. You have to be brain-dead to believe in liberation when 6M+ refugees (out of 40M total population), good deal if not majority Russian-speaking, fled to Europe instead of just going where Russia wanted them to or staying in occupied areas.
The brain is often used to rationalize whateverideology wants.
Right leaning people I know naturally sympathize for Putin because they like his ability to decide what he wants; the allure of the strong man.
Left leaning people in Italy sympathize for Putin because they are so used at hating American imperialism that by definition whatever is challenging it (better if its natural old enemy) must be good!
It's often easy to conveniently select the facts that support whatever your bias is, and when you can't just throw some whataboutism and you're back safely in your worldview. On top of that you add your social media bubble that reinforces your position, feeding you with arguments that you can cherry pick.
I don't know but I find it very hard ti effectively counter that when discussing with people who hold such positions. (Insulting their intelligence doesn't accomplish much)
Across the border: Ukraine completely stopped alcohol sales for the first couple of months (approx) of the war. Bars* and restaurants were closed, markets would not sell alcohol to anyone.
* there was a single bar open in Kyiv - where the foreign journalists hung out.
Yeah, the first week's they were giving arms to everyone, I guess in desperation and anticipation of partizan war.
Then they found out that alcohol, guns and high stress situation are pretty bad deadly mix. Removing alcohol was easiest (as removing stress would require Russia to stop trying to destroy them).
I have literally called for the death of a well known politician on Facebook and Twitter. My posts still stand.
I'm against censorship - fortunately I'm calling for the death of a right wing politician, hence that's ok - as the internet is not so accommodating to those who lean right.
Or possibly, your post was overlooked. No-one is claiming that "100% of posts that fail to meet the rules are removed". How do you know that you weren't just "lucky"?
I often thought I was taking photos of buildings and spaces that would soon not exist. In hindsight, I was correct. To have this blog documenting something from so long ago (relatively speaking) is a true gem.
Urbex, in general, is an absolutely harmless illegal pursuit,or hobby if you will. The people who go to the places few will ever see, are documenting spaces that will generally be soon lost to the world.
It's a really great thing IMHO.
Just my 2c.