Also when "conspiracy theory" automatically reads as "bullshit" to everyone, actual conspiracies get looked at less.
And to remind everyone "conspiracy" is just a plan by two or more people to commit a crime. A much more mundane term than what it's current connotations would suggest.
I'll let anyone buy a Finnish residency. Just pay me a to-be-agreed-upon sum and then we'll get married and it should be quite a done deal. Perhaps need to keep addresses the same on paper for a few years but that's it.
Unless you're a spy who ran from Russia (and basically not even then, as we have supo), why would that matter?
Unlike the US, Finland has and continues to successfully avoid Russia meddling in it's affairs.
We got labour protection, social security and have among other things, fixed homelessness.
Yes, there's a lot of issues as well, but compared to other countries, I'd say the average person is fairly well off in Finland in terms of financial security. Mental health is a whole other matter, though.
I've heard a few tales of some CEO's (of very small companies) here in the Nordics actually being generous to their employees. Like it's most definitely a rarity, but I believe it is possible.
Like a CEO who values profits but values employees and paying their fair share more and isn't blinded by greed and addicted to money. A socialist, literally. A market socialist, but a socialist nonetheless.
Everyone could have their basic needs met, and we could still have rich people. Just not filthy rich, not "rich-to-the-point-no-one-else-has-anything" rich.
Joining NATO really didn't change the situation in practice at all.
We've had a pretty stable if salty relationship with Russia, since, well... quite a few hundred years since.
The NATO thing has been on the table for 70+ years. I don't mind it went through, the idea of NATO is great (US just has somewhat too much influence over it for it to be truly a politically neutral defence alliance), but even when it went through, it was about 50/50.
The people who were pro-NATO used a lot of fear mongering about Russia. Even when it was rather clear Russia would not have had the resources and troops to open up a second front.
In the last few months, yeah, it was more popular than 50/50, that's why it went through. But even during the first several months of the current Russo--Ukrainian wars, most polls showed it to be pretty even. Until it wasn't.
Joining NATO was a good thing. I just do have certain reservations about it, and we definitely didn't need it against Russia.
You'll notice that September 2022 is several months later than the start of the current Russo-Ukrainian war.
The people who were pro-NATO used a lot of fear mongering
or maybe you are naive
Or maybe I'm an NCO in the Finnish reserves and have a better understanding of Finnish military capabilities than you? I've sat lessons in which most scenarios of Russia attacking were discussed.
And even without NATO, we weren't alone. We're part of NORDEFCO and EU.
So yeah, I'm not naive, but you're definitely I'll-informed. Like a lot of people were, which is why the fear mongering worked so well.
Finland used to be under Russia too, so Finland is very likely on the list.
If you're talking pre Finnish independence, technically, yes, but also, no. We were an autonomous region, the Grand Duchy of Finland.
And yes, of course we're "on the list", but unless Russia attacks straight up with nukes, it's really not a potential threat currently. And hasn't been since Russia's "special military operation".
We had good plans, resources and alliances to deal with a Russian who hadn't put all their resources towards Ukraine, and we could've easily done it without NATO, but after Russia is even weaker and has no resources to send against us, we somehow suddenly require NATO?
Ridiculous. Do you know that the EU also has a mutual defence clause?
Again, I'm not anti-NATO, and don't mind that we joined NATO, at all. It was probably due at some point, and what better point than when Russia is weak and can't even manage their usual threats. My problem is that the rhetoric that was used to gather support for the notion was entirely fearmongering.
Edit adding this direct quote from the article you linked
"Backing for membership in Yle polls has grown from 53 percent in February to 62 percent in March and 76 percent in May. Before the Russian attack on Ukraine,a majority of Finns had long opposed membership."
I do not think you understand the strategic danger Finland would be in without NATO
Well I've sat actual lessons on it in the army, from people who's literal job is defending this country.
Where are you getting your info from?
The point is that a majority of Finns saw no need of NATO even when we had shittier equipment for our military and no military alliances. Now we're in NORDEFCO and the EU. We've the advantage when defending, especially with our utilisation of our geography and the biggest and most accurate artillery in Europe.
With an arsenal of 700 howitzers, 700 heavy mortars and 100 multiple rocket launchers, Finland has the largest artillery capability in western Europe. Homeland defence willingness against a superior enemy is at 83%, one of the highest rates in Europe.
Nordefco is definitely not a defense pact
What on Earth are you smoking, my man? That's literally all it is.
Just the combined power of the Nordic countries would be pretty significant against Russia. Swedes rule the Baltic Sea, we hold the border with Russia, and Norway holds the North, with tons of cooperation that's been practiced for decades (Official Finnish Defence Forces channel) .
And if Russia attacked an EU country, every member nation is required to assist?
The Treaty of Lisbon strengthens the solidarity between European Union (EU) Member States in dealing with external threats by introducing a mutual defence clause (Article 42(7) of the Treaty on European Union). This clause provides that if a Member State is the victim of armed aggression on its territory, the other Member States have an obligation to aid and assist it by all the means in their power, in accordance with Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations.
"... by all means in their power. "
That means military aid, troops, for those who can. France, Germany, UK, Poland, everyone.
This is why we can't send troops to Ukraine, because that could be seen as an aggressive move by the EU against Russia. But if Russia attacked Finland, or any other member of the EU, Russia would be practically declaring war with them all.
Ukraine is a big country, yes, but compared to the entire EU, it's something Russia dares to challenge.
It wouldn't dare to challenge the European fucking Union.
It's amazing you feel you need to mention you are not anti NATO, being anti NATO as an NCO in the Finnish reserves, would be insane now IMO.
How so? A majority of Finnish males are in the reserves, and I remind you that as we saw from the Yle article you linked, before 2022, most Finns were opposed to NATO.
We're not so authoritarian that we demand people can't have their own opinions.
~75% of Finnish males go through the service and thus are in the reserves up until they're 55-65 (NCO's and officers remain in the reserves 10 years longer.)
It's alway fun talking to some American who thinks their military equals NATO (one of the reasons NATO wasn't so popular here) and think they're some knight in shining armor saving a damsel in distress.
Sorry bruv, but American troops wouldn't manage shit in Finland.
A group of conscripts from a supply group (ie a group of cooks, basically, who get six months of training) defeated a USMC group in an exercise here in Finland.
It's not a binding agreement. It's based on voluntary cooperation, as is with quite clear letters in the name. But is is most definitely purely for defence cooperation. To challenge that would be silly.
Why'd you skip over 95% of the comment?
Where did you sit your lessons on Finnish military capability, especially in regards to a war with Russia?
Mine were in the Pori Brigade, and Häme Regiment for my special training.
Please, do respond to the other points. I'm interested.
Did you also skip the part where I was completely right about the support numbers? Probably because I actually live here, and you had to quickly just Google something?
Please show me where I make just a hint about that, I have not written ANYTHING about the Finish defense capabilities.
Ok:
Finland could be overrun before a decision was made in EU to even do anything.
"Our lacking ability to supply Ukraine without USA". It's not about the lack of ability. It's about Ukraine not being in EU, so direct military aid, and especially troops is harder to send. Our militaries aren't designed to be overflowing with equipment we can just donate away, so it takes a bit of time to see what can be taken and from where. EU is now, afaik, making seized Russian assets available to Ukraine, and getting money to buy armament with is quite as important as getting armament. Even more so, because with money you can also buy non-armament supplies, which are also needed.
Finland has never trusted Russia. Sweden tried to, a bit, by generously demilitarising Gotland, up until it had to rearm it a few years back because after there was no military there, suddenly Russian tourists of military serving age started "touring" it. Now there's a permanent base again.
might have a chance to divide both Europe and NATO, and Finland could be such an area to poke.
What are you on about? Do you know how the Winter War and the Continuation War played out? How would Russia attacking Finland "divide" Europe, unless you're implying that Russia is a part of Europe, because we were more discussing in the context of the European Union, not Europe in general. European Union is very strong and there's articles that have been agreed to. International politics don't really work with the "no I'm not gonna, because I don't wonna" attitude.
You're severely underestimating Finland's defenses pre joining NATO. And that (usually American) cockiness is exactly why a lot of people still oppose NATO.
Again, skipping 95% of the reply, but still you feel the need to answer.
That's rather weird.
How would Russia attacking Finland "divide Europe"?
Ukraine had no defense cooperation with any country, yet people still think Finland is in a similar situation, and like you, always willfully ignore NORDEFCO and the EU.
It seems as childish as toddlers having broken something by throwing it forcefully on the floor and then pretending that they don't understand why the thing broke.
Just plain carbonated water is my go to, but if I drink something sweet, usually those new caffeine free cokes. But best taste / sensation is Pommac or Moomin, definitely.
No, it isn't, since the screenplay the book was based on existed before, and that's what George used for the movie; his own screenplay, not a book written based on his screenplay.
Finland's results in the European election bucked a continent-wide trend of rising support for parties on the outer fringe of right-wing politics, with the Left Alliance and the National Coalition winning big at the expense of the nationalist Finns Party....
We still have a massive problem with rising nationalism and general right-wing rhetoric, don't kid yourselves. It's just that those morons don't think EU elections matter.
considering the current state of the world and things like the resurgence of fascism and other authoritarian ideologies, do you think there is still a chance to avoid a new world war or now is unavoidable?
Honestly it seems like a no-brainer to me to put a solar panel on the roof of electric cars to increase their action radius, so I figured there's probably one or more good reasons why they don't....
Btw a USSR-style planned economy falls outside the term market economy, even thoughthey had money, right?
Uhm, yes. That's the polar opposite of market economy; a planned economy.
One of the definitions of socialism is "the means of production are owned or regulated by the state".
I know a lot of people vehemently disagree, but we Nordics are technically socialist countries. Social democracies which utilise market socialism, insofar that the markets are heavily regulated and products taxed, but taxes (and fines) are progressive, and the tax money gets spent on society. (Well, in the ideal case, obviously, we're faaaaar from fucking perfect.)
Capitalism is essentially just to market economies what cancer is to cell growth. It's not to wrong to call the former the latter, but the latter is a category. The former is usually also malignant.
Capitalism always strives for monopolies. That's why even the US has socialist policies. That's not to be taken as me saying they're socialist in any way, just the nature of the policies are. It's the state regulating the market to prevent monopolies from fucking it up. Antitrust laws.
So to answer your question of "what other options", have a peek at market socialism.
I think we have the resources to give everyone a shitton more if the crazy wealth hoarders stop. That's it. Get some control on the crazy addiction for money, we can still have market economies, private property, a faster developing economy, but also less crime, less inequality and less suffering overall.
Literally just take the ultra rich out of the picture. We will still have rich people and people can strive for wealth. Just as long as we meet people's basic needs, have good labour laws and manage to take care of the planet.
And because that will jump start even more space exploration since we could actually fund NASA instead of having Elon play with his dildockets, we could actually get somewhere, and once there's proper infra for some commerce up there, hey, go at it capitalists, the space is literally infinite. Just don't mess up our solar system.
The weight of the trees was so great that the ones on the bottom got squished and became coal. That’s where coal is from. Bonus fact: the whole time this was happening, sharks were hunting in the oceans. Sharks are older than trees and fungus!
Fungi in general are about twice as old as sharks. Roughly a billion years vs ~450 million years.
The point is there just weren't any which had bacteria to decompose trees, as no bacteria had evolved the ability yet. Until there were. Took millions of years though.
Fun fact, now we have mushrooms which can deal with plastic.
Pestalotiopsis microspora is a type of endophytic fungus discovered in the Amazon rainforest in 2011 which contains bacteria that can biodegrade and break down synthetic plastic polymers.
But the technology is feasibly, now just have to optimise satellite builds, and I'm sure institutions like NASA are better at making "the bullet", and this company is rather just the gun-smiths, metaphorically.
But the technology is sound, and pretty impressive to boot.
I've lived under a rock for 10 years. I did Metro ages ago while most were still on contracts. Surely we've reached true capitalist open market freedom by now. Is it still total closed market, noncompetitive, privateering corruption?
Finn here. For us, receiving SMS has never cost anything. Downloading MMS, that used to cost, but no-one uses those.
Sending an SMS could be as expensive as 20c when I was a kid. And an SMS is 160 characters. So if you wrote a long one it'd send it as three.
Then when I was about 12-13 there started being unlimited texting packages, which advertised as unlimited but after giving kids access to the service for a few months, limits were soon imposed to like a 1000 sms a month.
This study has identified the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) as a key area in the brain responsible for sensory hypersensitivity in autism spectrum disorders. Utilizing a mouse model with a Grin2b gene mutation, heightened neural activity and connectivity in the ACC was observed. Suppressing this hyperactivity normalized the...
Almost as if a few hundred years of selective breeding for blood sports to an animal that is exceedingly fast at adapting might make it predisposed to... uhm... kicking off.
A similar thing that's bothering me with the syntax of that sentence. It's just... off a bit.
See how I used italics instead of quotations marks? I feel like he (and the picture) used them sort of as emphasis for tone of voice. I get the need, but disagree using quotations to achieve it.
What secret conspiracy would you like to actually start letting other people know?
Time to move ( lemmy.world )
Elon Musk Begs Advertisers to Return as Twitter's Revenue Plunges ( futurism.com )
EU chat control law proposes scanning your messages — even encrypted ones ( www.theverge.com )
Russia has moved almost all ground forces from Finland's vicinity to Ukraine, media report ( kyivindependent.com )
Prominent Palestinian doctor, Iyad Rantisi, dies during interrogation in Israel ( www.palestinechronicle.com )
I swear it was real! ( lemmy.world )
Folks, what is your favorite kind of soda?
Dyslexia's long shadow: Early reading abilities linked to adult literacy, study finds ( www.psypost.org )
TIL the first Star Wars movie (A New Hope) was actually made after a book adaptation, which means Star Wars hype is technically literary-based in nature ( starwars.fandom.com )
No right wing wave in Finland as Left Alliance take record result in EU elections ( yle.fi )
Finland's results in the European election bucked a continent-wide trend of rising support for parties on the outer fringe of right-wing politics, with the Left Alliance and the National Coalition winning big at the expense of the nationalist Finns Party....
do you think that a third world war will take place?
considering the current state of the world and things like the resurgence of fascism and other authoritarian ideologies, do you think there is still a chance to avoid a new world war or now is unavoidable?
Why don't electric car manufacurers put solar panels on the car roofs?
Honestly it seems like a no-brainer to me to put a solar panel on the roof of electric cars to increase their action radius, so I figured there's probably one or more good reasons why they don't....
Have you got any weird questions FROM the opposite gender?
Misread the title of the other post which made me think of this question....
Have you got any weird questions for the opposite gender?
That's it
YSK: lemmy.ml is managed by tankies, and lead lemmy developer is a tankie
Lead Lemmy Developer, Dessalines, denying the Tiananmen Square Massacre and praising the Uyghur Genocide...
Capitalism Can Not Solve The Climate Crisis: Here’s Why ( youtube.com )
cross-posted from: https://lazysoci.al/post/14253829...
TIL in the Carboniferous Period, no fungus existed to decompose trees. They just grew on top of each other up and up.
The weight of the trees was so great that the ones on the bottom got squished and became coal. That’s where coal is from. Bonus fact: the whole time this was happening, sharks were hunting in the oceans. Sharks are older than trees and fungus!
Given the resources to accomplish it, what wildly impractical project would you finally pursue?
Does the USA have any open market cellular options that are legitimate pay-as-you-go and only for what you use options like Europe yet?
I've lived under a rock for 10 years. I did Metro ages ago while most were still on contracts. Surely we've reached true capitalist open market freedom by now. Is it still total closed market, noncompetitive, privateering corruption?
Scientists Pinpoint Main Cause of Sensory Hypersensitivity in Autism ( scitechdaily.com )
This study has identified the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) as a key area in the brain responsible for sensory hypersensitivity in autism spectrum disorders. Utilizing a mouse model with a Grin2b gene mutation, heightened neural activity and connectivity in the ACC was observed. Suppressing this hyperactivity normalized the...
Google Search Is Now a Giant Hallucination ( gizmodo.com )
Google rolled out AI overviews across the United States this month, exposing its flagship product to the hallucinations of large language models.
Pentagon says none of the aid unloaded from US pier off coast of Gaza has been delivered to broader Palestinian population ( edition.cnn.com )
Woman killed by her two XL bully dogs at home in east London ( www.theguardian.com )
What is the weirdest flavoured thing you've had?
Was it good?
Why did you choose your username? ( lemmy.world )