MoonlightFox

I completely agree, the only thing a woman needs to be complete is a husband, four children, and a clean house.

/s

Given the choice between living in a authoritarian oligarchy without freedom vs a imperfect european liberal democracy, is not a tough choice for most.

Without knowing a lot about the older historical context here, I would imagine that the people of Russia and Ukraine have been fairly close throughout modern history. They are neighbouring countries with a language that is very similar, and was both a part of the USSR.

To me this attack on Ukraine seems like betraying family and/or friends. Ukraine did nothing besides existing peacefully. Russia decided to take land and citizens from Ukraine by annexing Crimea violently. They have continued killing and destroying Ukraine for years to seize land as their own. I have a tough time imagining Ukrainians in Crimea supporting the killing of their fellow countrymen by their violent neighbour for no good reason.

Since Crimea now is annexed by Russia we can't trust any polls from there either.

I guess Russia should just give it back to Ukraine, and then they can do a legitimate vote. Russia obviously won't do that, because they know how that will end.

What is the saying? If you love something, then set it free. If it was meant to be, it will come back to you. Russia should use that tactic with all regions of Ukraine that it is currently occupying. I am suuuure it will work out for Russia 😂

I am not so sure. Trump couldn't even hold his moronic tariffs for more than a few days, before having to cave.

USA does not produce much besides services. China have a big surplus of production.

China also owns a huge amount of US debt. They can start dumping it which will increase the interest rate on the huge US debt. This would quickly put the US in a difficult position. Any solution besides just paying down the debt would weaken trust in the US, so they either have to take it or make everyone in the world lose faith in the current financial system with the US as it's guardian.

Thanks for clearing up the facts around this. I updated my comment above.

This seems like an attempt to undermine NATO. The only time article 5 has been used was after 9/11.

~~By saying Europe had a choice and should have resisted, he lays the foundation for the US to not follow through on their NATO commitments.~~

Edit: The commenter below is right, the article 5 was used for Afghanistan, not Iraq. My whole argument is thus invalid

I think I kinda get what you mean. It's so backwards that it is still necessary and that it is still a fight that has to be "won". Personally I am not bothered or in any way opposed to gay rights, trans rights etc. so I personally do not need "convincing". But I am not everyone. There are many parts of society that have little to no respect for LGBTQIA+.

In Norway a pretty liberal place, most of the population support gay rights, but there are especially a large portion amongst certain religious and minority groups that do not approve.

The fight is not over. It is not equally acceptable to be gay as hetero, or trans as cis. The fight is not over in most of the world.

Even in one of the most liberal countries in the world it is not actually equal.

The US has in a couple of months launched numerous attacks on the LGBTQIA+ community, and by protesting / marching we support those that need it. We show that they are not alone, and that those outside the community also protect them and wish them well.

I am personally a cishet man, but I also march with my wife. It takes maybe a couple of hours of my life every year, and it means a lot to the community to have all the support it can get.

I encourage you to participate as well. If not, consider staying neutral or verbally supportive. Your comment makes it seem like you disregard their continued struggle, but I think you are just trying to convey that it's absurd that its still necessary, which I agree that it is 😊

This is not financial advice, I am a regular guy, not a professional or someone working with finance. Not licensed etc. If you lose everything by following anything I mention, it's your responsibility.

I only buy passive and not actively managed funds. This is to keep the costs low. A passive fund costs anywhere from 0.1 to 0.3% each year. This is important, because that cost has to be paid every year of the total sum no matter the performance of the fund (in most cases). So low costs is important.

I usually buy a cheap index that tracks MSCI ACWI which is All Countries World Index.

By tracking it means that it buys and sells stocks to keep the holdings the same as that referance index.

MSCI ACWI is very popular as it tracks the entire world more or less. Including emerging markets.

As a Norwegian there is "Storebrand Alle Markeder" which I buy. For MSCI ACWI

But for Europe there is MSCI Europe Index, where I buy DNB Europe Indeks which tracks that.

So first check your current banks offerings, search for Europe and see what reference index they follow. Check other banks as well and see if they have lower costs for the same reference index.

I just want to mention an additional point just in case you are not aware. You should never time the market or try to be smart. There are exceptionally talented and intelligent people with the best tools in the world that you are trying to beat. You will lose sooner or later, but you might be lucky a few times. I recommend that you read about "The efficient market hypothesis". I base all my investments on that principle.

Make sure you use tax efficient accounts if there is something like that in your country. So that you can sell and buy stocks without triggering taxes. So that the only time you have to pay taxes is when you take it out of the account.

Also, diversification is important. So make sure to diversify properly. That's why I buy ACWI most of the time. Also make sure you have a long term view on your investments. You should be able to let the money stay in the market for an absolute minimum of 5 years

I am just a regular guy, and not an expert and not a trader or licensed or anything. I just put my savings in the stock market every month. So take everything with a large scoop of salt. This is not financial advice.

Not buying US for a while. 60% exposure is already too much.

Buying European until my portfolio is 30% European. Then I will buy global index funds again, preferably a mix that excludes the US. Don't want more than 20-30% in US stocks. The political risk is too high in my opinion

I subscribe to a lot of full time "content creators" that are ad supported and supported via donations.

I curate my feed meticulously to avoid slop, and I get a lot of value, learning and entertainment from those I follow.

I believe they deserve to be paid for the tremendous amount of work they put in.

Some sort of ability to generate a livable wage from creating high quality content seems reasonable, no?

There is one thing that is vital that is missing from peertube. Effective monetization.

By watching on peertube I am a drain on resources. A net negative. I'd happily pay to offset those costs and more, but I want it to be shared amongst multiple creators and hosters.

I don't want to just support one, I want to support most of the network for the hosting and bandwidth, and a certain amount divided amongst the creators I watch.

If PeerTube introduces some sort of payment / monetization solution, it might get more creators as well. Without it I can't see it growing fast enough to compete with YouTube in the near future.

Well.. Sooner or later the costs of Full HD compressed video will be negligible for hosting and bandwidth, so that might be when YouTube gets a real challenge. So I guess we'll see

We need some sort of "immune system" to handle these extremes, deplatforming is kinda like moving the disease to another part of the body where there is no "immune system". Defederating might create the same effect.

I don't know how to handle it, but we might need more "normal" average people participating in a compassionate understanding way, with those that have lost their way. Because right now there are plenty of Russian bots that encourage the wildest conspiracies and world views, but also plenty of people with idle time on their hands encouraging it also.

We will meet this challenge more and more as the fediverse grows. At this moment it's not worth the investment to spread misinformation probably.