zlacker

>>themgt+(OP)
> One CDC scientist told us about her shame and frustration about what happened to American children during the pandemic: “CDC failed to balance the risks of Covid with other risks that come from closing schools,” she said. “Learning loss, mental health exacerbations were obvious early on and those worsened as the guidance insisted on keeping schools virtual. CDC guidance worsened racial equity for generations to come. It failed this generation of children.”

>>theand+q3
The worst part of the pandemic beside policies that would swing back and forth (which is kind of understandable if you're learning as you go) was the inability to have discussions about the pros and cons of shutdowns and other pandemic related policies.

Social media and mainstream media saw it fit to censor dissenting voices --not those of quacks, we can mostly all agree on minimizing the voices of quacks but shutting down medical professionals and medical academics and so on is very concerning.

The only people they allowed to be wrong about the pandemic were govt officials. They could get it wrong and right it as many times as necessary.

>>mc32+wR
At least with the pandemic you can pretend that lives were at stake and dissenters were a public health risk. I disagree with that argument, but I can see it.

Those same social networks are de-ranking and blocking dissenters against the escalation of war against Russia in Ukraine. This is categorically different and a major escalation in censorship that most people are not realizing. It's very scary.

>>Consul+LV
Of course Russian bots should be blocked. Why would anyone else support LESS defence by Ukraine?

What a bizarre idea.

>>markdo+wZ
The US got Ukraine into this war in the first place by intentionally provoking Russia into it. Obama admitted to committing the 2014 coup in Ukraine and then refused to go so far as to provide weapons because he said Russia would likely escalate. Trump gave them weapons and then Russia responded to that escalation by invading.

Even if you're okay with all of that, the US is not trying to help Ukraine win, it's trying to make the war as long and as expensive as possible for Russia. The US is sacrificing Ukrainian lives to harm Russia.

>>Consul+P01
The one commonality I've seen across virtually all these anti-Western narratives on the Ukraine conflict is that they completely ignore the agency of Ukraine as an independent nation state.

It's never that Ukrainians took to the streets in 2014 because their government was corrupt and undemocratic (literally imprisoning the leader of the opposition party), it's that they took to the streets because the US artificially manufactured dissent.

It's never that Ukraine had an independent desire to increase defense spending after it suffered military humiliation and loss of territory in 2014, it's that the West armed Ukraine to agitate against Russia.

Anything that could be interpreted either as an independent action by Ukraine or a Western intervention is automatically labeled as the latter without any explanation as to why.

The irony, of course, is that the only three things in this story that are unambiguously interventionist are Russia's 2014 invasion, the 'proxy' war between 2014 and 2022, and the 2022 invasion. There is simply no other way to slice it - Ukraine didn't invite foreign troops in to come and start shelling things. That is the elephant in the room that is never brought up in these narratives.

>>Calava+q31
I find the bigger problem is people can't understand that often there's just bad guys vs bad guys. Sure, Putin is an evil, murderous dictator who belongs in prison for the rest of his life.

Now, what should happen to Obama for committing the coup in Ukraine? He bragged about negotiating the coup before the previous leaders had to flee and the Assistant Secretary of State and Ukrainian ambassador were caught on tape talking about "midwifing this thing in" and making sure their hand-selected candidate became the leader.

I find there's nothing bad enough I can say about Putin that allows anyone to even consider any nuance.