noyb

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

Open Letter
To the President of the Russian Federation
From the President of Ukraine

When you came to power in Russia more than 26 years ago, many people in Ukraine viewed you positively. That is how it was. But that is now in the past.
Now, the overwhelming majority of Ukrainians view it positively that our long-range drones paid a visit to the opening of your forum in St. Petersburg, covering a distance of more than 1,000 kilometers. As you know very well, that distance is not the limit of our capabilities.

[Henrik Dahl @SociologenHD]

As a Danish and European politician, I am not accustomed to deliberate public falsehood as a political method. But it is probably something we will have to get used to.

Take, for example, Jeff Landry’s blatant falsehood that Donald Trump was the first major politician to truly place Greenland on the world map.

If we confine ourselves to this century alone, Colin Powell was co-signatory of the Igaliku Agreement in 2004 while serving as Secretary of State. John Negroponte, then Deputy Secretary of State, represented the United States when the Ilulissat Declaration was signed in 2008. John Kerry visited Greenland in 2016 while serving as Secretary of State. And Antony Blinken visited the island in 2021.

Greenland was also visited by Angela Merkel in 2007, when the purpose was to study climate change.

And the island has continuously received visits from American politicians who genuinely take an interest in Arctic affairs. The foremost among them is undoubtedly Lisa Murkowski.

So Greenland has long been on the world map - partly because of climate change, and partly because of the question of Arctic security. And Greenland has continuously been integrated into Arctic cooperation, not least as a consequence of the Igaliku Agreement.

There was a time when I read a great deal of Jürgen Habermas and believed that the norm of truth was an unbreakable norm among civilized people. I believed that, as Habermas put it, the better argument exercised a kind of “forceless force.”

What we lack today is a new Habermas for the twenty-first century - someone capable of describing the performative role of the lie.

Because the reality is this: to someone who knows nothing about Greenland, Jeff Landry’s statements sound perfectly plausible. But they are simply a fabrication. A good story. Something designed to generate support without any ambition toward truth. Harry Frankfurt argued that this is the very essence of what he called “bullshit.”

We no longer merely disagree about values. Increasingly, we disagree about reality itself.

Jeff Landry is part of the post-truth culture that permeates American politics. But it is also something we in Europe will increasingly have to adapt to, simply because of the influence the United States possesses.

It is difficult to say where this post-truth strategy will lead the Western world. But I will be honest: I have reached an age where I preferred the world shaped by the ideals of the Enlightenment - by truth as a moral norm and obligation.

That world is gone. Perhaps permanently. I understand that. But I cannot pretend to admire the replacement.

[noyb @notatarn]

@OliusThe @Tomthescribe @ClarkeMicah It's not just Hitchens, the regressive and reductive worldview of competing "spheres" is common and insidious. Proponents will forever ignore why russia ACTUALLY does what it does to Ukraine, or why so many seek to escape russian orbit, because these details aren't compatible.

[Kate from Kharkiv @BohuslavskaKate]

How time changes people, especially politicians. Rubio in 2014 was an entirely different person, a true republican.

Watch 👇

[noyb @notatarn]

@jean_fantome @Tomthescribe I don't disagree, but exploiting the weakness of western democracy and promoting the energy spent on inward focus is part of the calculus and something they are particularly good at. There will always be something to slide a wedge in.

[noyb @notatarn]

@Royal640 @DPJHodges Ironically, this account acts and writes like a bot - poor grasp of images was sus.

Dave 🤜 English Bloke 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 loves strangely PG 13 political chat 📢 for 1 year which *shock* promotes reform + policies, and does the rounds negging the rest.

Should be a fucking crime honestly

[noyb @notatarn]

@ZoeJardiniere Idiots arguing with AI is one of the funniest things on this hellhole app

Pure, distilled cognitive dissonance. So wrong the ai helper isn't even going to tolerate their shit

[Mikhail Khodorkovsky @khodorkovsky_en]

How do you attack a NATO country without firing a shot?

For the last two years, Russia has been giving a masterclass in the Baltic Sea. The Kremlin utilized ghost ships, anchor-dragging, spy drones.

🧵Here is how the West is starting to fight back.

[TomMadge @TomMadge_Hi]

This is under shared. When we talk about civilian casualties in russia’s war we must remember that the vast majority of Ukrainians fighting are civilians who have signed up or conscripted to fight.

russia’s war made them into soldiers but they are still civilians.

[David Kirichenko @DVKirichenko]

🧵1/ How well does the West really understand Ukraine?

For centuries, Ukraine has been viewed as a subcategory of Russia. That misunderstanding helped pave the way for war - and continues to shape how the West deals with both Kyiv and Moscow today.

Let’s break it down.👇

[Ljubomir Josifovski @ljupc0]

@GLandsbergis Europe can "just do stuff". Europe has the industrial capacity, the idle resources etc to do it all on their own. Ukraine is supplying the army man power already. Begging Trump for anything is the wrong strategy. US/Trump respect strength, and despise weakness. Beef up more.

[Shaun Walker @shaunwalker7]

Together with several Guardian colleagues, as part of a large journalistic consortium, we investigated the torture and death of Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna in Russian captivity.

https://t.co/gSJn2TCi7H

[Ross Ritchie @RossRitchie12]

‼️We're up to 1645 signatures‼️

Please keep sharing it! We're making really good progress, and that's all because of you guys! Please make sure to share it directly with friends and family as well as online.

Lets get Ukraine the kit they need! 🇬🇧🇺🇦
#WarriorsForWarriors

[noyb @notatarn]

@terrornerds Precedent firmly established. War crimes are cool now. In the multipolar world it's all about who can do the shittiest ones. Bonus points if the cover up is just ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[noyb @notatarn]

@grok @MutedIrish @Lavrovskyi @JDVance lol 🦗🦗

[Hanna Perekhoda @hannaperekhoda.bsky.social @HannPerekh]

One of the most common reactions to my articles has, to my surprise, been the following: "A Russian invasion of the EU isn’t remotely realistic. Attack NATO? Absurd. The Baltic states are NATO members, and striking them would plunge Russia into war with half the planet. 1/9

[noyb @notatarn]

@owenjonesjourno No it's not subtle. Thankfully it's not meant to be subtle.

Russia has been doing this to Ukrainians for years now. Civilians are never the target they want peace wink wink

They never gave a fuck about civilians. They don't want peace. It must be spotlit.

Gaza is unrelated.

[Jim Sciutto @jimsciutto]

I visited a polling station in the east in 2014 after one referendum - when pro-Russian separatists didn’t like the results, they burned the ballots.

[noyb @notatarn]

@rasmusdotse @0xjck @campbellclaret It's a paradox. Some of the strategy very much works (better than many realise) and yet they suffer from incredible blind spots, even to first order effects. If they had remotely competent understanding of Ukraine before 2022, things would not have happened the way they did.

[noyb @notatarn]

@0xjck @campbellclaret I don't think it's really an argument against it given russia has made many mistakes

Whether or not they consider an outcome possible... A mix of hubris, failure to correctly assess reality on the ground and underestimating opponents resolve have been characteristic traits