this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2023
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[–] Jaysyn@kbin.social 42 points 1 year ago (2 children)

One of the best uses of my tax dollars in my entire lifetime.

[–] zephyrvs@lemmy.ml 28 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Who doesn't like their tax dollars being spent on killing people instead of socialist stuff like healthcare, education, social workers and government services that actually serve citizens.

[–] UFODivebomb@programming.dev 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The USA could afford what's being provided to Ukraine and socialized benefits. But chooses not to because of some dumb reason or another.

[–] sparkl_motion 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is the answer. It isn’t a zero sum game.

[–] ZombieTheZombieCat@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

It's more the hypocrisy of some people. The ones who cheer for a huge defense/foreign aid budget year after year no matter who it's for, and then leave bitchy comments on FB about student loan forgiveness being "unfair" because it uses their tax dollars.

[–] zephyrvs@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I mean, yeah, they have the biggest money printer on the planet, so they could've socialized almost everything for their citizens if it didn't go all into their black budgets, military, bribery and foreign meddling instead, but here they are, 32T in debt, double the debt from 10 years ago, ~100k of debt per person. If that's not a failed state, I don't know what is.

[–] UFODivebomb@programming.dev 7 points 1 year ago

You don't know what is.

[–] Rinox@feddit.it 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If that's not a failed state, I don't know what is.

You probably don't know what is it. I mean, look at South Africa for a recent example of a failed state.

[–] zephyrvs@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

perhaps do some research on the colonial history of South Africa and Western exploitation and read up on the definition of the term failed state and then look at some news reports regarding the US. I don't know how some of you people keep on coming up with these cheap rebuttals that you obviously haven't spent more than a minute of thinking on.

[–] krzschlss@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

They have no need for healthcare, education and stuff. They are afraid of their own shadows, they just need guns to defend themselves. In the end, they can just eat those bullets to survive. ...or shoot some skool.

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The US is already spending as much federal tax dollars per capita on healthcare as the UK spends on the NHS. Figures that bailing out hospitals when patients invariably default on their debt is expensive: In the US they have tons of people ending up in ER requiring expensive treatment that would've been way cheaper and easier to treat preventively -- but to do prevention you need to be able to afford a doctor's visit. Sure you can stop spending that money but then you either let hospitals go bankrupt, or you have to allow them to reject patients and have them dying on the streets. Even for Americans that's a bit too much.

I don't really have the numbers for education but one big point there is that in the US, education is largely funded by local taxes, that is, schools in low-income areas are severely underfunded, while those in high-income areas are overfunded. If anything it should be the exact opposite, the worst areas need the best schools to lift them up.

But fixing either would cut into corporate profits and/or severely alleviate income equality (and, in the US, thereby, race inequality) so, yeah, don't hold your breath.

[–] krzschlss@kbin.social 14 points 1 year ago (3 children)

And one of the worst uses of the 2 brain cells you have left. Your tax dollars are the driving force for war and misery across the globe for decades now, the only difference is that your government isn't hiding it anymore, because they know now that you zombies will give all your money for some entertainment on the news after shooting up a school.

[–] fiah@discuss.tchncs.de 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

if you want to call attention to the fucked up shit that the USA and NATO has done in the last couple of decades, comparing it with supplying weapons to a democracy to defend itself against an invading bunch of fascist war criminals is definitely NOT helping your case

edit: I have been informed that Ukraine isn't perfect, and that therefor the invasion and the long list of war crimes perpetrated by the invaders are justified

[–] zephyrvs@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

A democracy that recently announced that it postponed elections, a year after declaring the opposition parties as illegal.

[–] DaDaDrood@feddit.nl 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You know that postponing elections during a war is : a, fucking logical, because how to fuck are you going to get a representative vote if half of the country has fled or is on the frontline and b, their constitution says there can’t be elections during martial law. source Every fucking pro Russian troll arguments in this thread need to be ousted here before this place gets to be a Russian troll pit as well.

[–] zephyrvs@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Just the reply I was expecting, thanks for walking right into the trap where you conveniently failed to even mention the opposition part.

And I'm the troll.

Edit:

Even Foreign Policy isn't as one-sided as you are in their portrayal of the situation:

Concern over the decision to postpone Ukraine’s elections has come from both Ukraine’s friends and foes. [...] On the other hand, PACE President Tiny Kox said that while he recognizes the enormity of the struggle Ukraine faces, the country must uphold its obligations under international agreements to hold elections. “It is up to [Ukraine] how to solve this challenge,” he told a Council of Europe summit in May, adding that “there will be no complaints against Ukraine if the elections are not ideal. But if you do not hold elections, then everyone will have questions about you … without elections, democracy is impossible.”

Unless PACE is also just a Russian troll. 🤡

But indeed, elections during war/state of emergency are unconstitutional and highly impractible. Still funny you dodged the opposition point I made.

[–] DaDaDrood@feddit.nl 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Untill you give me a source that states that the opposition isn’t able to function, I’m going to treat that part of your argument as blatant misinformation.

[–] zephyrvs@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

At least you're open about your complete lack of awareness of this war. It's shocking you're even participating in this discussion though. The arrogance of offloading basic research of topics from a year ago to someone else to prove that I'm not spreading misinformation is quite something though.

Ukraine has had to take extraordinary measures to fight Russia's invasion. Among them, the government has consolidated the country's television outlets and dissolved rival political parties.

Source is NPR: https://www.npr.org/2022/07/08/1110577439/zelenskyy-has-consolidated-ukraines-tv-outlets-and-dissolved-rival-political-par

[–] DaDaDrood@feddit.nl 2 points 1 year ago

Blocking opposition parties is not pretty. Not all opposition parties were blocked tough, only the ones with strong ties to Russia. source

[–] krzschlss@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago

Democracy? The US and NATO aren't fighting for democracy. They are losing a cheap sex tourist destination in Eastern Europe because of this war. That's worth all those Billions! Don't give me the "defending democracy" excuse!

[–] EnderWi99in@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] krzschlss@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

Jawohl Herr Obersturmbannführer! Für das Vaterland!

[–] Jaysyn@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] gary_host_laptop@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

It is all reflection.

[–] PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml 26 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Meanwhile we are giving Almost 4billion/yr to Israel.

[–] zephyrvs@lemmy.ml 27 points 1 year ago

I mean, it's an apartheid state killing and looting brown people, so that's typical US foreign policy.

[–] agarorn@feddit.de 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What is your point? Is the Ukraine aid too low, Israel too high?

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] agarorn@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 1 points 1 year ago

Why not both?

[–] djsaskdja@reddthat.com 23 points 1 year ago

But you still have to pay back your student loans and pay a small fortune for healthcare because fuck you.

[–] red@sopuli.xyz 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
[–] realcaseyrollins@kbin.projectsegfau.lt 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You think that's enough? Or do we still need to give them more money?

(Let's take note that the citizens are still poor, and Ukraine is still losing, reportedly still being outgunned as well)

[–] Version@feddit.de 12 points 1 year ago

Idk where you got this from, but Ukraine won in Kyiv, Kherson and Kharkiv. Currently the front moves very slowly towards Russia. No, the offensive isn‘t a huge success and I would even consider it a failure, but the fact that Ukraine can even start an offensive is proving that the weapon deliveries are working.

[–] PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Can we just give nukes to Ukraine now and stop the war?