AIBU to not want to go to war

[TemporaryPosition]

It's expensive and it hurts and it helps nothing, it just puts innocent sons, brothers, fathers, uncles and friends through the meat grinder. The only people who benefit are those who make a fortune from selling weapons and are granted contracts for reconstruction.

Haven't we learnt anything? What happened to "never again".

AIBU to really really really not want to be involved in any war?

But it needs to be better than "someone who identifies as Welsh".

Why? Who but the individual themselves is better qualified to define their own cultural identity?

Well, I never said ‘someone who identifies as Welsh’ so there’s that. I talked about cultural identity. I referred to the arts, food, sense of humour. There’s also politics and a history which is different from England’s.
I’m not the only poster who has tried to explain these things to you.
You haven’t said where you live yet.

Well, quite. I identify as Dutch. I am a Dutch national, but beyond that there's the food - chips with mayonnaise (or peanut satay sauce), bitterballen, brined herring with chopped onions, stroopwafels - the list is endless. Culturally there's social liberalism and pragmatism - the Netherlands was the first country in the world to legislate for same sex marriage. Sports wise there are the specific things we're good at - hockey (field), equestrianism, korfbal. There's a national sense of humour that sits somewhere between the very dry and the somewhat absurd, and a language that is actually quite hard to pun in.

That pretty much sums up cultural identity, though it's by no means complete. None of this should be at all difficult to understand.

Why does it matter where I live, you know its either Scotland or NI

And I responded to those points, you said attitudes and humour, I asked you, or anyone to expand on what attitudes were different to the English

If you live in either Scotland or NI then you will have a very clear idea. The thing is you don’t want to admit it because it destroys your ‘argument’ about ‘culturally’ and ‘ethnically’ Russian Ukrainians.

How dare you try t9 tell me (or them) that our cultural identity doesn’t exist?

Ukraine was the number 1 country in the whole world for corruption

Citation needed.

Looking at past Corruption Perceptions Indices Ukraine was 144th (out of 180) back when a Russian puppet was in power before the Maidan Uprising in 2014. Following the revolution it improved drastically, 130th from 2015 to 2017, 120th from 2018 and since the election of Volodymyr Zelenskyy the country has really cleaned up and improved its ranking to 105th.

Russia meanwhile? Spent many years hanging around 137th and has now plummeted to 154th.

So go on, provide a source for your claim that "Ukraine was the number 1 country in the whole world for corruption".

Replace the word "cultural identity" with "gender identity" and you'll understand why I am completely immune to the attempts to "how dare you" me.

Thing is, the 4 nations of the UK are far more similar than distinct. Not least because English people outnumber me where I live 5 to 1. We have all gone into the global blender. We have international values. People have vague romantic notions about Irish or Welsh or Scottish values, but they turn to vapour the second you try and pin them down. They don't really exist. We have UK British values and are made up of very diverse groups and very diverse interests. Which is not so strange because we are all neighbours. And I get that we have different histories but the problem is nobody really knows what that is.

Edited to add: my comments re Welsh language are based on my how I see those who speak the native language, not English, as those who have retained remnants of something more distinct.

Cultural identity and gender identity aren’t as similar as their names suggest. It’s possible to have some shared values with nearby countries while having a distinct identity - witness all the countries of Europe.
Nobody knows what the different history is? I’d have thought that was the most documented aspect of cultural identity.

edit to address your edit: remnant? How very rude.

You’re a young dude. It’s completely obvious. We can see quite clearly.

Why are you on mumsnet pretending to be from ‘NI or Scotland’ 😂

How can it be that an OP who started the thread on they simply ‘really really really don’t want to go to war’ is actually a democracy-sceptic with strong views on ethnic Russians in the Donbas region

Ahh, thanks for keeping us entertained OP 😆 Maybe time to name change and try again

You're not from NI,so you must be a Scot. A Scot who has no awareness of cultural differences between the nations of the UK?

Pull the other one.😂😂😂

How can it be that an OP who started the thread on they simply ‘really really really don’t want to go to war’ is actually a democracy-sceptic with strong views on ethnic Russians in the Donbas region

You think I'm male? You've made my evening :) I'm enormously flattered.

The cultural differences of any significance are minimal. Nothing but window dressing remains. They're geographic locations. Economic zones. Like when Trudeau proudly declared Canada to be the first post-national country. No longer held back by the unwieldy anchors of tradition and culture.

Doing nothing will bring war to our doorstep. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland are very worried (in Putin's paranoid world he needs to shorten the vulnerable bits of his border. That means advancing towards the gap between the Carpathian mountains and the Baltic. That gap is better known as "Poland".

The Russian advance is faltering, the Russian economy is overheating. GDP growth might look good but it's entirely based on military spending (which will go up in smoke). Inflation is high and interest rates are 21%. Both the war itself and the flight of educated Russians abroad have resulted in a labour shortage. Sooner or later it will collapse, it's just a question of keeping economic pressure on with tariffs and stopping them from overrunning Kyiv in the meantime. Blowing up Russian oil refineries helps of course.

Alternatively if someone were to assassinate Putin then this could be over within 24hrs.

Well, Trudeau (and you, @TemporaryPosition ) can consider tradition and culture unwieldy anchors. I’m rather proud of mine. I think it adds something to the place. Pretty sure most Canadians think they have a culture too, though. And everyone has traditions.

The cultural differences of any significance are minimal.

Said no Scot ever.😂😂😂

How can it be that an OP who started the thread on they simply ‘really really really don’t want to go to war’ is actually a democracy-sceptic with strong views on ethnic Russians in the Donbas region

Yes what a surprising coincidence.

And not one bit of engagement with the many patient posts explaining the unavoidable all out war that will be triggered if a NATO country is invaded.

Can't work out if they've drunk the kool aid or if they are the kool aid.

The cultural differences of any significance are minimal.

Let's face it, that's only an opinion. And you know what they say about opinions.

No woman was ever flattered to be thought of as a man. The same as no Scot ever thought the difference between the Scottish and English was only 'window dressing' 😂

Serious lack of local knowledge in your 'UK culture fact pack'.

They appear minimal to foreigners, but are significant and noticeable if you are from the country.

@TemporaryPosition celtic or rangers?
I've never heard of an irishman happy to be called English, in fact I recall definite differences of opinion about it within Northern Ireland.

The OP definitely isn't from NI.

She's a Scot in Scotland who is outnumbered by English people where she lives. She has been to England, but not to Wales. She knows more than one Welsh speaker.

Have you been conscripted OP?

Yeah, if anyone said to me that I was barely different from someone Belgian or German I would not be best pleased and I'd make sure they knew it.

i bet this sounded great in Russian, google translate did it no favours though. .