this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2025
559 points (98.6% liked)
Microblog Memes
7569 readers
1334 users here now
A place to share screenshots of Microblog posts, whether from Mastodon, tumblr, ~~Twitter~~ X, KBin, Threads or elsewhere.
Created as an evolution of White People Twitter and other tweet-capture subreddits.
Rules:
- Please put at least one word relevant to the post in the post title.
- Be nice.
- No advertising, brand promotion or guerilla marketing.
- Posters are encouraged to link to the toot or tweet etc in the description of posts.
Related communities:
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Russia is either the 11th largest economy or the 8th largest economy. It depends on which reputable source you use. In no world is it the fourth largest economy. It's not even larger than California's economy.
What conversation??? And who the heck you think you're writing, anyway? You provided no source, not even for your "alternative facts".
This what you think a conversation is? No wonder you have no success. ๐
That guy feels like such a bot.
Unfortunately you're probably just training it.
That would explain the completely weird "quote" in the reply. You're probably right.
GDP is a funny thing. So because Russia's currency has cratered like a Boeing aircraft, the PPP-adjusted value of its GDP has skyrocketed. That doesn't mean it's doing well.
Russian inflation is at 10% and its government is spending almost half its federal budget on the war, and still not winning. 11% of the world is Russia, by far the largest country on Earth, and yet the total amount of revenue its government has to spend half of on that war is just above Spain's, which might explain why it is failing to defeat an enemy which it outweighs, outnumbers, and is outspending all by at least 10 to 1. Its standard of living for ordinary people is 50th in the world, roughly even with famously pleasant places like Kuwait and Romania (And no hate to people who live in those places, just saying your government is badly representing your interests. Give me another year here in the US and I might well be in that part of the list alongside you, or lower.)
I have no room to be giving criticism to any government, living in the US as mentioned, but if you are holding up Russia as an example of competent government you are reading the chart upside down.
Cousin, it is fighting an enemy smaller than some of its individual US-state-equivalents, also mobilizing its entire economy behind the effort, for more than twice as long now as the US was in World War 2, and has still managed to lose some of its own territory. It is not surprising to me that Ukraine is suffering and its victory is not assured. It is surprising to me that Russia is still struggling so much to penetrate further than 100 km beyond the border.
I have no idea what the most likely outcome is. If I had to guess, I would say it would be a partition of the country and a peace agreement, however much the Ukrainian leadership doesn't want that. But, I also would have guessed that Zelensky would be dead and the country defeated within a month of the 2022 offensive.
I am not. That's why I said 10 to 1 instead of much more. That said, I actually had it a little bit wrong, I just now looked up the real numbers.
The US plus all partners has sent about $150 billion in total, it looks like, up until the middle of last year: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1303432/total-bilateral-aid-to-ukraine/
As of the beginning of last year, Russia had spent about $211 billion: https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2024/02/16/ukraine-war-has-cost-russia-up-to-211-billion-pentagon-says/
We can add to that a little, maybe 25% to say that the war went on for six more months before it's an apples-to-apples comparison more or less, but the point is, by that metric, Russia outspent Ukraine-plus-allies by just under 2-to-1. Without counting PPP.
I actually couldn't find exact PPP numbers for Russia, and it's been going wild during the war. All I could find was that in 2022 it was 29 to 1. I'm not going to try to claim that's the number, that was right during the currency crash. That does explain why their PPP-adjusted GDP is so high. They're doing great!
So, the punchline (I've been digging up numbers as writing this): This is, more or less, what I was looking at that made me say Russia was outspending Ukraine+allies by 10 to 1: https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/02/12/russias-2024-military-spending-surpassed-eu-uk-combined-in-ppp-terms-study-a87974
Russia's PPP-adjusted defense spending is just under half a trillion per year. That's what I understood it to be. So, they've been fighting for three years now, means a trillion and a half dollars on their side, versus $150 billion on the other side from allies plus whatever minuscule amount of money Ukraine was able to add to that. Plus rivers of Ukrainian blood. Means Russia is fielding 10 times more military kit than Ukraine is, and still not winning, and they've been at it for three years.
They may be making progress (they're inching forward month by month, yes), and Ukraine may collapse because of any number of reasons. It's still not a good advertisement for Russia's military or economic prowess. They have been mobilizing their entire formidably-sized country to try to win this thing.
Yeah, the arrogance. Imagine the gall for us to be sending rockets and drones into their apartment buildings and power stations, and then giving them haughty lectures about peace and our urgent need for "security." I wish the US weren't doing that. It sure is a war crime, and something we should stop doing.
My guy you sound like Skeletor
Wh๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ at I bel๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ieve is lif๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ted from specific sou๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ rces. I mad๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ e sure to ci๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ te them and made wh๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ at I thought was a rele๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ vant point ab๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ out where the arro๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ gance and vio๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ lence in the equa๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ tion is coming from. No๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ t that you'๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ re wrong (and espe๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ cially if you wan๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ted to talk abo๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ut how the We๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ st doesn't really ca๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ re about Uk๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ raine all that mu๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ch or their suff๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ering), but you'๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ re missing a more imp๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ortant poi๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ nt.๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ฎ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ฎ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓
Oh damn, what a sick alternate timeline. Too bad I am not able to see this for myself
It's not the 4th largest economy in the world, but it does contain 11% of the Earth's habitable land. It would be sad if they couldn't create a large economy with all that land.
Oh yes, our European allies. Since both of us are Europeans, and "we" like to lambast Russia. Obviously. But you, as a fellow ally of Europe, you're wisely pointing me to a thing that you and I may need to consider about Russia, that you and I may have missed.
I wasn๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ 't tr๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ying to say th๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ at you wo๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ re a fl๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ag. I am cer๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ tainly American, I just was res๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ponding to the "w๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ e." ๓ ๓ ง๓ ฎ๓ ฏ๓ ฒ๓ ฅ๓ ๓ ก๓ ฌ๓ ฌ๓ ๓ ฐ๓ ฒ๓ ฅ๓ ถ๓ ฉ๓ ฏ๓ ต๓ ณ๓ ๓ ฉ๓ ฎ๓ ณ๓ ด๓ ฒ๓ ต๓ ฃ๓ ด๓ ฉ๓ ฏ๓ ฎ๓ ณ๓ ฌ๓ ๓ ง๓ ฉ๓ ถ๓ ฅ๓ ๓ ญ๓ ฅ๓ ๓ ก๓ ๓ ณ๓ ด๓ ฒ๓ ก๓ ท๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ฒ๓ ฒ๓ น๓ ๓ ฐ๓ ฉ๓ ฅ๓ ๓ ฒ๓ ฅ๓ ฃ๓ ฉ๓ ฐ๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ๓ ๓ ฉ๓ ค๓ ฅ๓ ฎ๓ ๓ ฉ๓ ณ๓ ๓ ด๓ จ๓ ฅ๓ ๓ ข๓ ฅ๓ ณ๓ ด๓ ฎ๓ ๓ ๓ ๓ ด๓ จ๓ ฉ๓ ฎ๓ ซ๓ ๓ ๓ ก๓ ด๓ ถ๓ ฉ๓ ก๓ ๓ ฉ๓ ณ๓ ๓ ด๓ จ๓ ฅ๓ ๓ ซ๓ ฅ๓ น๓ ๓ ด๓ ฏ๓ ๓ ด๓ จ๓ ฉ๓ ณ๓ ๓ ท๓ จ๓ ฏ๓ ฌ๓ ฅ๓ ๓ ด๓ จ๓ ฉ๓ ฎ๓ ง๓ ฎ
You never answered me the other day when I asked you how many human rights organizations you were a member of. Why is that?
What on Earth are you talking about? Basically none of that was correct.
Also, that's a pretty weird dodge around the fact that you are not a member of any human rights campaigns. You would have looked less silly if you had just lied and said Amnesty International or something.