EyesWideOpen comments

It's been a while since I last commented on this site. Seems that it's still the same two camps arguing back n forth.

It's interesting that the UN chief seems to have learned something from Japanese politicians and that is to "urge".

But instead of "urging" Russia to revive the grain deal, why not "urging" the other side to fulfill their end of the deal? A deal can't be forever extended if it's only one side is it?

By the way, there's never a grain deal between Russia and Ukraine. Those two parties never signed any grain deal.

It's amazing that a "coup" involving tens of thousands of fighters ended in a day in such a anticlimactic fashion, without a single fatality at that. (I'm sure there are lots in the MSM that are disappointed at this development.)

Or perhaps it wasn't a coup at all. From what I've read, Yevgeny Prigozhin doesn't seem to have any beef with Putin. He seems to have something of an unresolved business with the MOD though.

Hard to tell what really went down.

I am all for "managing competition in the most responsible way possible" just so long as Blinken and co shut up on democracy, human rights and the so-called rules-based order. The USA is currently in no moral high ground to to lecture anyone else on any of the above.

Ok, maybe they could lecture others on their rules-based order. Would anyone outside of the "western minority" care to listen? I highly doubt it. When the rules are ONLY for others, countries will wise up quickly.

This is what's passing as journalism nowadays. How pathetic!

I used to read the NYT back in the day. Now can't stand the sorry state of journalism.

What evidence beyond a few words?

"The evidence clearly suggests..."

Never ceases to amaze me how blind to the truth the anti-Russia, i.e. the Russia-the-bad-guys-Ukraine-and-West-good-guys, crowd is.

Complaining about Russia not keeping their promises on the Black Sea grain deal? Is that's just the blackest pot calling the kettle black?

I am not even pro-Russia. I simply can't stand the thick hypocrisy.

Ukraine was winning... winning... and winning, right up to the point it was suddenly not winning. That's the message one would get if one were to watch only the western MSN.

It's interesting to see the Ukrainian President being so vague about his country's counteroffensive. Wouldn't he have tried to sound a little more confident if Ukraine were really making progress with the counteroffensive?

Anyway, I think I'm done trying to convince the eyes-wide-shut crowd to open their eyes and ears. I think they're blind to the truth, whether they realize it or not. It's pointless to engage when the other party simply won't listen to anything that contradicts their world views.

Peace out!

Almost an hour after my earlier post about "innocent until proven guilty" being purposely forgotten by the MSN and its eyes-wide-shut followers, still no downvotes.

That's a nice surprise!

@Downvoters - Cat got your tongues?

5mil seems a bit too little? (Not that I am really complaining about Japan giving help to Ukraine.)

Anyway, just passing through the site and I still see some posters being so quick to blame Russia for all that has gone wrong in Ukraine and some that may not have happened yet. All this without any credible evidence other than Ukraine or the WH says so it'd seem.

Are we as a human species have *evolved" to the point where we have lost the ability to use evidence, facts and logic before coming to a conclusion? Or has the (Western) MSN been so successful at pushing the narratives that people have lost the ability for independent thoughts, as in why think for myself if all the thinking is already given to me by the MSN?

Whatever happened to "innocent until proven guilty"? How's blaming someone, or a whole country at that, without a shred of evidence any different from the authoritarian regimes that the western MSN (and its eyes-wide-shut followers) are so quick to remind us all of?

To those who's so quick to point the finger of blame at the Russians or Putin without a shred of evidence, how about opening your eyes and ears just a little and read or listen to a different viewpoint for a change? Who knows, you might find that it's a refreshing change from all the narratives fed to you by the MSN.

Remember Tucker Carlson? He's got a new series on Twitter with the first episode being about the attack on the dam:

https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1666203439146172419?refsrc=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1666203439146172419%7Ctwgr%5Ebce78e651db066a0823b5f367d9cc8e3c9dfe025%7Ctwcon%5Es1&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rt.com%2Fnews%2F577602-tucker-carlson-twitter-show%2F

It shouldn't be about how to smile, since even infants know how to do that.

Instead, it should be about learning to smile.

Wow I couldn't believe it. Almost an hour after I posted earlier about people pushing for MSN narratives instead of keeping their eyes and ears open and having independent thoughts, I got 4 updates and only 2 downvotes.

Whatever is behind this unexpected development, I must say I am both surprised and glad. The less people adopt the black-n-white or good-vs-evil mindset, the better the world will be. After all, good-vs-evil is something that kindergarteners are taught simply because they have no capacity to handle reality in the real world. Good guys are sometimes bad and bad guys are not always bad. In other words, the world is full of colors and shades, never just black and white.

I call on the JT community to keep your eyes and ears open and refuse to subscribe to the notion that if you're not with us you're against us.

I haven't been on this site in a while. Today passing through I notice again that the "Russia is bad. West is good" narrative is still being pushed strongly by a lot of commenters. Some are even calling for all regular Russian citizens to be permanently sanctioned / prevented from entering Japan.

I am not defending anybody here, but such a black-n-white mindset is not how the world is supposed to work. People need to open up their mind and not be so strongly influenced by the mainstream media pushing for common narratives that they've lost the ability for independent thoughts.

I am sure those that are pushing for the MSN narratives will downvote me. Go ahead. I'm off keeping my eyes and ears open.

Skimming the comments and their upvotes/downvotes, it's struck me that some users on here may not care for facts at all.

For instance, MiuraAnjin's post has 9 downvotes. The question that I'd ask the 9 commenters that gave the downvotes is this: Did you disagree with the facts or did you simply not like to hear somebody mention the facts?

I'm off keeping my eyes and ears open.

So I got 7 downvotes and 3 upvotes for my earlier post, my very first on here by the way.

I take it that there are at least three commenters that keep their eyes and ears open and refuse to subscribe to the notion that such and such a country (Russia in this thread) is always bad regardless of what they do. My faith in humanity and sanity has been restored :-)

I am just a casual observer on here so won't be posting anymore. Peace out.

I wonder what the point of this article is. (It's written by an AP writer based in Estonia and that fact tells me a lot about what to expect.)

I am just an observer, reading some articles and some of the comments from time to time. What's struck me is that a lot of commenters are of the black-n-white mindset when it comes to Russia vs. the West, as in "Russia must always be the bad guy and the West the good guy."

I'd argue that such a narrow view of the world must've come from a background where people are told exactly what to believe and what not. The world is never just black and white, but is instead full of shades in between. Keep your eyes and ears open is all I'd say.