As to why he is being downvoted, my experience in lemmy has shown me that people here are incredibly sensitive to rudeness (maybe this applies to other social networks, I wouldn’t know). It’s very common to see interactions like this, a person says something awful but they say it in a polite way. Then, someone who understands the awfulness replies with something like “wtf, this shit is awful because …” and they get downvoted even though they are right because they weren’t polite. And the most people just follow the number, like lemmings hahaha. Social networks are just awful to have meaningful conversations I guess.

As to the topic at hand, a part of me kind of misses the pandemic. Of course, the rational part of me understand that this is irrational and another pandemic would be awful. Specially because I lucked out in the last one and me and my family were all ok, but who knows what will happen in the next one. It would be incredibly dumb for me, or anyone, to wish for another one.

But it’s hard not to miss some aspects of the pandemic, specially now that people in charge are forcing all of us to return to the status quo by force and coercion. For example, for me (an autistic person, though luckily I can mask very well) the silence during the pandemic was just life changing. Before then, I didn’t realize just how noisy cars are and how much stress this adds to my life. It’s hard for me to express just how much enjoyable my day to day was just because of that.

And here we are today, as a type this from my home I only hear car after car after car and it’s incredibly annoying and incredibly exhausting. For me, it literally takes order of magnitude more energy and will power to get through my day now. And this is from my home, when I’m forced to go to an office or any other place is just so much worse. And I just have to suck it up and deal with it, society will just not accomodate for me because for most people this is not an issue.

And that’s why you get a lot of people kind of wishing for another pandemic. For a lot of us, it was literally the first time that we saw a society that accomodated us like it accomodates normal people and it was just life changing. Of course, I don’t wish for another pandemic. The amount of suffering it brought is not worth it of course, and the negative impacts were huge too (the social isolation for example).

But I kind of get it, at this point is very clear that society will just go back to the old status quo and we just have to suck it up. In fact, it seems to be getting worse and worse every day with bullshit RTO mandates, and bullshit laws, and people becoming increasingly intolerant to people who are different. And it’s clear that nothing short of another pandemic will force society to acommodate us again. Quite the opposite, everywere it seems like goverments and corporations are just doubling down and quashing dissent. And when you put it all together, it’s hard for a part of me to not miss the possitive changes I experienced during the pandemic. Of course, I also remember what it costed to some of my friends and neighboors and understand that this wish is not rational. But still, a part of me does miss it a bit.

I think my reply to your other comment applies here (https://lemmy.world/comment/14037207). And in fact the situation is not as bad as I thought, so Ibstand corrected.

Yeah. My point was that without US support their resistance radically changes from the stalemate they have now to an occupation and resistance from the Ukranians. And in case of an occupation the resistance groups don’t get a seat at the table so to speak.

But some other commenter has also shown me that the europeans are actually masively ramping up their aid to Ukraine which will more than cover the missing aid from the US. So, assuming they deliver (which I assume they will), the situation is not as bad as I thought. So I stand corrected.

https://www.ifw-kiel.de/topics/war-against-ukraine/ukraine-support-tracker/. As of today the split is around 40% US. But the europeans are indeed promising a large increase of aid which can more than cover what the US will stop contributing, I wasn’t aware of that. I really hope they deliver, then Ukraine may maintain the stalemate without US support. So the situation is not as bad as I thought jajajaja, nice.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1303432/total-bilateral-aid-to-ukraine/ my man, US alone is more than 50% of total aid. You are just arguing from vibes lol.

Yeah, I hope they can ramp their support to replace what the US will stop contributing. But I don’t see this happening sadly. They have had years to ramp up their support, and as you said, every incentive to do so. So I assume they are already giving close to what they can/want. But I’m a random dude jajajaja, I hope I’m wrong.

Again, in practice yes. The choice Ukranians will get is accept whatever the US negotiates or continue their resistance without US support. In the second case there is simply no. way they don’t get steam rolled, and then there is just no negotiation, just occupation.

No, I get that. And I really wish they make the Russian invaders suffer. The point I’m trying to make is that without the material support they have been receiving from the USA I don’t see a way for Ukraine to keep fighting toe to toe with Russia for long (I hope I’m proven wrong, I really do. But I don’t see how).

Of course this doesn’t mean that Ukranians are going to roll over and accept this without fighting. But if they decide to continue the resistance, the nature of the conflict will change dramatically. I just don’t see how Ukraine can maintain the current stalemate without the huge material support they are receiving today. But if they decide to keep fighting (which I hope they do), this will become an asymetrical conflict like Afghanistan or Vietnam.

Obviously I may be wrong, I hope I’m wrong. But it seems naive to assume nothing is going to change without USA support.

EDIT: Turns out that the Europeans are dramatically ramping their aid to Ukraine (https://www.ifw-kiel.de/topics/war-against-ukraine/ukraine-support-tracker/). So the situation is not as bad as I thought, they may be ok without the US. Keeping the original comment below anyway.

Unfortunately yes in practice. Ukraine can’t sutain their defense from Russia without all the external support they are getting, in particular from the USA (and NATO in general). So in practice, the USA can absolutely negotiate with Russia and then force Ukraine to accept whatever they negotiate. And given that the Americans picked Trump as president this has a good chance of happening.

Not saying this is right or anything like that. It sucks for the Ukranians and of course I would like for this to be different, this should be up to the Ukranians. But this is the reality of the situation, turns out that puting a traitor in charge of the biggest super power in the world has world reaching consequences even if americans didn’t think about that when voting.