It would be great to live in a world without nukes. But as it stands, quite a few countries have nukes. If the UK gave up its nukes then Russia or China could come along and take over the UK. “Surrender or we’ll nuke you.”

Why are you so upset about my posts?

I dunno what that means. Anyway what’s the point of your insults? I mean I could call you a fucking idiot but is that actually productive? Maybe every time I see a post from Hexbear I should just reply “you’re a moron”

I think the UK is a democracy but it’s a bit flawed (like every democracy I guess). I often think the UK would be more democratic if we had proportional representation.

Anyway the subject is just being changed, this is a tangent. My original point was that nukes could help the UK to defend itself. Perhaps Europe as a whole can have a shared nuclear capability, starting with British/French nukes.

they’re all gonna need to either be put in prison until they can be taught to value human life, or else be killed

Cleaners and bus drivers who work in the City of London? Even if you just mean bankers, are they as bad as rapists and murderers? I don’t love bankers but I don’t think that working for a bank means you need to be imprisoned or killed.

I hope you have the same level of outrage about the real civilians in Gaza that the RAF has provided over 50% of the reconnaissance overflights for

Well I think Israel should stop its bombings of Gaza. You’re changing the subject though. It’s completely possible for me to disagree with Israel’s actions in Gaza, while also disagreeing with the idea of nuking the City of London.

I can’t see this reply because it was removed by a mod.

I can’t see your post because it was removed by a mod.

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Yes they’re civilians. Not just bankers (although I don’t think bankers deserve death just because someone on the internet doesn’t like them). There will be cleaners, bus drivers, shop workers, etc, and you want to murder them all with a nuclear bomb.

That link isn’t working for me. But in any case I can’t really change what the UK government does. I can vote but that doesn’t really make a huge difference.

Yeah, you’re definitely on the moral side of the argument when you fantasise about murdering civilians with a nuclear bomb.

Why do tankies always leap to the defence of Russia and China? Really odd.

If the UK got rid of its nukes then we’d just be defenceless against Russia, China, and even the US if the US decides they don’t value their old allies (which seems to be the case these days).

Ok cool so you side with Hamas

No I don’t side with Hamas. Hamas went into Israel and murdered over 1,000 people. I don’t think Israelis or Palestinians should be killed.

settler colonial project

What’s your solution for Israel/Palestine? Should Jews never have moved to Mandatory Palestine? Should Jews have been prevented from moving to Mandatory Palestine? Should they now be expelled from Israel/Palestine?

What I suggested in my previous post is “maybe there should be a single state in the land of Israel/Palestine with citizenship given to everybody who currently lives there”. But would it be wrong in your view to give Jews citizenship in this hypothetical state, if the Jews are indeed colonial settlers?

It’s funny that you think Russia is justified in their invasion of Ukraine because a western-aligned Ukraine is apparently an “existential” threat to Russia. Ukraine is a much smaller country than Russia. Russia has some of the most powerful military capabilities in the world. If Ukraine, a relatively weak country, joined NATO, it wouldn’t make a massive difference to the capabilities of NATO. Russia would still have great military resources that they could use to defend Russia.

The reason some Ukrainians want to join NATO is because of the very real existential threat that Russia has posed to the state of Ukraine. But that existential threat just doesn’t matter, right Dmitri?

It’s absolutely possible for the UK to increase its defence spending while also not harming civilians, in the Middle East or anywhere else.

By your logic, no country should have a military, because a military creates a risk of harming civilians. I’m sure that would be great if we lived in a world with no militaries. But then one tyrant could decide he’s going to build a military and then he could go and massacre lots of people who wouldn’t be able to defend themselves, because they wouldn’t have a military.

It shouldn’t exist to begin with

You could say it’s wrong that Israel was established by, as far as I’m aware, taking land by force. But probably most countries were established that way.

I’ve been thinking that maybe there should be a single state in the land of Israel/Palestine with citizenship given to everybody who currently lives there. But from what I’ve read, Israelis and Palestinians prefer a two-state solution, so maybe that should be pursued instead.

genocide is not self defense

I’m not saying that Israeli attacks on Gaza are self-defence. Attacks on civilians are definitely not self-defence. I specifically mentioned Iron Dome as a form of self-defence, a system which tries to take out missiles that are fired into Israel.

The only defenders in this situation are the Palestinian people

It’s possible to acknowledge that Israel’s current behaviour towards Gaza is very wrong, while also acknowledging that Israel has had rockets and missiles fired at them, from Hamas and Iran if I remember right.

Obviously the people who are suffering the most at the moment are Gazans, because Israel has stopped food from getting into Gaza, and Israel keeps bombing Gaza, which is killing civilians. This is obviously the most pressing issue. I just think that ideally no civilians would be harmed or killed, whether it’s those suffering in Gaza at the moment, or whether it’s Palestinians in the West Bank, or whether it’s Israeli civilians.

I think they’re two separate issues, because it is perfectly possible for the UK to increase its defence capabilities, while also refraining from attacks upon the Middle East, and refraining from giving support to attacks on the Middle East.

I don’t know why you think Russia should be trusted to launch no more invasions of Europe. When they were building up forces on the borders of Ukraine in 2021/2022, they said they weren’t about to launch a new invasion of Ukraine. But they did just that.

Next time it might be another former-USSR country, like one of the Baltics. The UK is of course obliged by its NATO membership to help the Baltics if they are invaded.

The idea that we should just trust Putin’s government to stay away from Europe seems pretty crazy, given their actual behaviour.

Also you mention “the encroachment of western military infrastructure into easily penetrable borders” as if that’s a legitimate excuse for Russia’s invasions of Ukraine and Georgia. I don’t think it is. Ukraine and Georgia shouldn’t have been invaded.

You keep talking about the Middle East. I hope Israel stops its war against Palestine. The UK shouldn’t assist Israel’s attacks on Palestine. I think Israel has a right to defend itself (and so does Palestine), e.g. with the Iron Dome system, but I don’t think Israel should be harming any civilians in Palestine.

I think that’s a separate issue from the UK and its allies spending more on defence in order to protect themselves from Russia, though.