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Comment by DiabloD3 | Hacker News Reader

I am not in Europe, but American, and this war does affect me, since we are the largest member of NATO, but also the first target of Russian aggression in this weird neo-Soviet era if Russia decides to deploy nukes (a low, but non-zero, chance).

I give the news 15 minutes of my time every day. Even when events like this happen, 15 minutes.

I, nor you, can meaningfully change the course of events; even if we could, neither of us can tell if we would improve things or make them worse. The only people who can change this now are the Russians starting a civil war in their own country to overthrow their leader to save their brothers and sisters in Ukraine, and I wish them all luck.

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> also the first target of Russian aggression in this weird neo-Soviet era if Russia decides to deploy nukes

On the contrary, you'll be the last target.

Ukraine is obviously the first, the countries bordering Ukraine in the South, especially Poland are at risk, then the rest of Europe and finally the US.

It's much easier to avoid thinking about the war in the US. Here it's just another tragedy in a faraway country, and you only hear about it in the news. It probably doesn't affect your daily life.

The situation seems very different in Europe. The war is pretty much the only thing people are talking about on the channels I use to stay in touch with people in Finland. If I want to avoid thinking about the war, it's not enough to avoid the news. I must also avoid friends and family.

I am of the generation that saw people being sent overseas just to die because, as many put it, "Bush lied".

The world is an international community, we sink or swim together. A tragedy in a faraway country is no different than one in my backyard.

You are talking about things that happen in the news rather than in the everyday world around you.

A lot of people in Finland may lose their jobs soon, because ~10% of foreign trade used to be with Russia. There is a feeling that the world has changed permanently, but nobody knows what will emerge. Ukraine is resisting the invasion, and ordinary people are sending money directly to its military. Even many activists on the left think that donating to traditional charities is insufficient. Meanwhile Russia seems to be only a shadow of its former self, which has awakened old fears of its collapse. And of refugee masses that could overwhelm Finland.

And here in the US, you can easily ignore all that, because you don't see the consequences in your daily life.

Thats a rather ignorant statement, as if Americans somehow universally lack empathy.

How does empathy have anything to do with this discussion? We were talking about how it can be more difficult to ignore the war and focus on something else in Europe, because you may feel the consequences in your daily life. Giving the news only 15 minutes of your time every day is not a very effective strategy, if you keep encountering the thing you are trying to avoid outside news.

If there is a war anywhere, it effects everyone, globally.

I don't get why this is such a hard concept for people to understand.

There is always a war somewhere, but it doesn't affect everyone equally. For the average Finnish citizen, this is probably the first time since WW2 that a war is raging in the "real world" instead of just in the news. For the average American citizen, it doesn't look like the war has spilled from the news to the real world yet. Polish and Russian citizens see a bigger impact than Finnish citizens, and the impact on the average Ukrainian citizen is obviously far greater.

>It's much easier to avoid thinking about the war in the US. Here it's just another tragedy in a faraway country, and you only hear about it in the news. It probably doesn't affect your daily life.

That was true until Putin decided to saber rattle his nukes. If things go boom, I'll see the flash, and be roasted somewhere between 10 and 50 seconds later, depending on which industrial site they take out first.

Is always amusing how North Americans call themselves 'Americans' like it is a nationality and call their country the name of the whole continent.

Romania and Poland would be the first hits. You're last.

> I give the news 15 minutes of my time every day. Even when events like this happen, 15 minutes.

I'll try that. Do you use pure self control for that? A timer?

Mostly self control. It only takes me about 15 minutes to go through all the actual news sources I follow. HN doesn't come out of the 15 minute budget, since its all technical focused not-exactly-news; it has its own budget of sorts.

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