The Best of Reason: Inside the Russian Occupation of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

Harvard historian Serhii Plokhy's book tells the stories of soldiers, stalkers, and squatters in Chernobyl during Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

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The Best of Reason: Inside the Russian Occupation of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

This week's featured article is "Inside the Russian Occupation of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone," by Matthew Petti. This article originally appeared in print under the headline "The Occupation of Chernobyl."

This audio was generated using AI trained on the voice of Katherine Mangu-Ward.

Music credits: "Deep in Thought," by CTRL S, and "Sunsettling," by Man With Roses

Comments

[5.56]

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/04/09/age-generational-cohorts-and-party-identification/pp_2024-4-9_partisan-coalitions_4-01-png/

Even if currently slightly shifted, what are the mid to near term biological and thus political implications of this graph? How are your health benefits coming along?

Knock, knock, whos there?
The Republicans? Uuhhh....

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Yep, that’s why Trump keeps getting more popular.

[5.56]

Try, for once in your life, to see the big picture, instead of some isolated fact to soothe your distressed, obsolete right-wing concerns. WHAT is the most impactful, overriding factor here, that will leave the current observations an inconsequential blip?

Hint: three letters, starts with a.
Hint 2: related to biological realities that cause the obsolete to shudder.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Are you Kamala Harris?
Why are you speaking in Gypsy curses?

[5.56]

I understand that facts are terrifying to you though, reject.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Which incompetent reason writer are you?

[5.56]

Think of the last friend or loved one you lost WHAT IS YOUR AGE CLINGER? WHAT WAS THEIR AGE?WHAT IS YOUR AGE? IT IS HAPPENING. AND THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Never take the brown acid

[5.56]

I honestly dont know what that is. But you seem to. Maybe an education would have been better for you.

[5.56]

Obsolete, uneducated culture war casualties continue to surprise me with their low processing power.

Those scary, demonic gypsy symbols are called numbers and data.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Is 5.56 the size of your dick?
Or your IQ?

[5.56]

No, like i said before its the number of sigmas im right shifted lol. Try a google search to understand what that means. Come back in three years once you think you get it. By that time you may also get the joke.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

I think you confused your left and your right.

[Amal]

Jesus man, we finally got rid of the "bitter clinger, culture-war casualties" shit poster. Then you show up. Spouting nearly the same drivel. Christ, you're an asshole.

[Rick James]

Hint 2: related to biological realities that cause the obsolete to shudder.

To what biological realities are you referring?

[5.56]

Age, death and inevitable demographic and political shift that will now be amplified as we now have a white house administration that is fully unconcerned with the needs of their young constituents and wont be able to forever play the victim of the deep state and that annoying constitution once their administrative failures become apparent.

[Rick James]

Well, hopefully these young people will start voting!

[5.56]

Oh well, maybe its over. I had shepherds pie for dinner.

[Rev Arthur L kuckland (5-30-24 banana republic day)]

Are x any y chromosomes part of that?

[5.56]

Furthermore, trump opened the pandoras box of getting younger people to vote at all. Who thinks this will end well for the republicans?

[5.56]

I dont think its still true that people age into becoming more repblican. And the death-per-person-probabilities across these age brackets arent in favor of red voters. Again, with this administration now finally having a chance to prove to the younger generations that their only objective is wealth and power redistribution in favor of their government-corporate-billionaire connections and that they have nothing but contempt for everyone else, though especially those younger generation, the republicans will likely be uninstalled if democracy stays intact.

[5.56]

They seem to bet on somehow monopolizing AI to stay in charge.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Crack is wack!

[5.56]

Barely verbal right wing degenerate say what?

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Aren’t there some children you need to be molesting?

[5.56]

"Need to" on behalf of your impotent, fully degenerate right-wing chode? Did you have children at one point and DID they in fact get a little too involved with the suicide hotline? That wouldn't surprise me at all.

[5.56]

Hint 3: it is related to an event that has a probability of 7% to occur in those 80+ and about 1.1% in those 60+.

What are the implications of this, given that the current administration is helllbent on redistributing wealth to those mentioned above and further disaffecting those that are young? WHAT are the trends your fully dysfunctional right-wing skull could identify?

[VULGAR MADMAN]

What are the probabilities you’re smoking crack?

[5.56]

Explaining that to you would require an education on your end, clinger.

[5.56]

Additionally, using probabilities in plural form is a tell of an uneducated, out of shape, uncompetitive right wing bigot.

[5.56]

[VULGAR MADMAN]

This is the most sensible post you’ve made.

[5.56]

True, as it is fully unengaged with impotent, obsolete right wing human residue. However, I can't help it sometimes.

[Rick James]

Not sure if this is old-ish news, but Jay Bhattacharya confirmed as NIH director.

This is the biggest fuck-you to Anthony Fauci and the whole COVID misfit cabal.

Trump on Mt. Rushmore... who's with me?

[Rick James]

Aww crap, I misread it... his hearings are starting soon. Damnit.

[Rick James]

Good video on Jay's track record.

[Rick James]

I swear I'm getting a chub over the vision of Bhattacharya walking into the NIH in DC and shouting "The guy who was the recipient of a 'swift and devastating takedown' now has your fucking job, get out of my goddamned office!"

[But SkyNet is a Private Company]

“the Best of Reason” - harder to come up with anything every year

[Rick James]

West of the 405, south of the 210 Journolisming awards!

[chemjeff radical individualist]

So is this where we discuss Trump's blabfest?

He now seriously thinks that he's better than George Washington. What an ass.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Yup Trump finally admitted in public what we all knew to be true: he is so antagonistic against migrants from the southern border because he fundamentally believes these migrants are bad people.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Does Trump really think that the US should be able to manufacture and make everything domestically?

[VULGAR MADMAN]

Isn’t that crazy!

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Yes it is, actually.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autarky

This economic system works about as well as communism.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

That’s true commie-think

[chemjeff radical individualist]

So should I put you down as pro-autarky?

[chemjeff radical individualist]

The "Great Liberation of America" is kicking out the migrants. Huh.

[VULGAR MADMAN]

If only we could kick you out too.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Okay, the DJ moment was really touching.

[chemjeff radical individualist]

Huh so Zelensky sends (supposedly) a letter to Trump saying he's ready to sign the agreement now. I wonder if this is because Trump recently revoked Ukraine's military aid. So good job, Trump, for extorting the victim of aggression into signing away its "raw earth"!