kwozyman

Proxy wars are in fact good. Please allow me to explain what I mean.

Of course, the ideal state is full peace, no wars be they proxy or otherwise. For various reasons, that seems to be impossible for the super powers to achieve. Be it greed or the (perceived or real) need to shape the strategical interests of said super powers, it appears sometime wars are the only solution leaders have at their disposal (again, there is an argument against this, but leaders often seem to choose war).

Why are proxy wars "better", then? Because they allow the pretending of not being involved. Because they allow the defeated super power to lose without actually losing a war. Proxy wars allow an easy out. It is far easier to explain to proud super power's citizens that some nation somewhere lost the war, but not us.

Also full war, engages all of said countries assets, including the nuclear weapons. One of the very real issues with the war in Ukraine is that Russia very often threatens with nuclear strikes and, even if they aren't serious about it this still leads to escalation and for the other countries to consider the real possibility of nuclear war. If the war in Ukraine would be waged by a proxy of Russia, let's say Belarus, it would be much more difficult to even have those nuclear threats. Russia would not be able to keep saying they are not involved while threatening with nukes.

In conclusion, proxy wars are the 'sane' (if you can call it that) solution to wars between super powers.

How is GTA5 disappointing? I remember playing it a couple of years after release and it still is one of the best open world games I ever played. Even now, more than 10 years since I played it, I remember the main characters and even some secondary ones and part of the story (even though I only played it once). If anything, I think the GTA5 model is what all "service" games should be -- excellent story and single player campaign and..whatever that online thing is. Frankly, I've never touched the online part in GTA5 but I hear it's quite successful.

Regarding the price, I would personally probably pay a bit more for a really really good game. I don't think the very good games selling for a premium are the problem, but the unfinished, reskinned and shitty games selling for 60-70. Like, how is Elden Ring released at the same price as Skull and Bones or FIFA ? Those should be 10-20 bucks, not the good games (assuming GTA6 will keep the quality bar up).

Just wanted to share that I've found out about the B42 release from this post :)

The question has been eating at you for some time, not since some time.

Thank you, fixed!

That's still 10k bodies to throw in the fight, we shouldn't underestimate or downplay their potential impact. After all, quantity has a quality of it's own. I really really hope Kamala wins the election and the US (and the rest of the world, frankly) go all in helping Ukrainians.

Haha, had no idea, I don't watch the stock market

Unfortunately a lot of people do. So many people care they made him the richest person in the world. I always hated obscenely rich people, but there's something special with Musk, he manages to add insult to injury.

A high level explanation

Be that as it may, it's still an incredibly short sighted decision to use a centralized service that is under 3rd party control for real security sensitive applications.

Can someone please provide context for us noobs?

Both of them?

They don't care at all. What they do care is sowing polarization and distrust between western citizens. Russia benefits most when we (the West) are divided on various social issues, which leads to distrust of authorities, election of extremists in office and eventually weak and corrupt states and governments that are easily controlled or countered by Russia.