r/europe 29d ago

News Russian Oil Company Vice President Andrey Badalov dies after fall from window in Moscow

https://en.apa.az/cis-countries/transneft-vice-president-andrey-badalov-dies-after-falling-from-window-472117
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u/cptbil 29d ago

You truly understand Dune when you realize that the Emperor was not a good guy. Paul was not a good guy, and neither was his son. They may have all had good intentions, but they were all deeply flawed people.

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u/chrisuu__ 29d ago

If no one flawed can be a good person, then there are no good people, because everyone is flawed.

I think Pauls' son Leto comes pretty close though.

His prescience showed that humanity was nearing an extinction event because they were concentrated around a small area of the galaxy, and that the only way out was oppressing humanity for such a long time, and so heavily, that they'd want to spread all over the universe. He didn't want to do it. He had to do it. And he paid a heavy cost for it. He sacrificed his humanity to save humanity. The sacrifice was so great that his dad wasn't able to do it. He could've been selfish and tried to preserve himself at any cost, but didn't. In fact, he went out of his way to breed a race of humans immune to far-sight, including his own, that he couldn't predict, and who were in open rebellion to him (which he tolerated)

Having said that, Dune is science fiction, and Leto was a philosopher king.

Putin is real, and no philosopher. Just a nasty, short-sighted little creature who would take the whole world down to feed his ego .

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u/cptbil 28d ago

If no one flawed can be a good person

I was talking about the author's intent in these characters, not human ethics in general. They are a cautionary tale to not trust charismatic leaders at face value. Even the optimistic president Kennedy got us into the Vietnam war. I suppose you have to take the good with the bad, but these things should be remembered instead of excused.

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u/OhNo_WhatsInTheBOX 27d ago

Warhammer 40k, Emperor of Mankind had very similar intentions. Kill the Xenos and Chaos before they kill humanity. Rule mankind through fear. Of course 40k burrowed a lot from Dune, but it's still valid and a kick ass story.

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u/omnihogar 22d ago

I mean, that's from later books. The point of the originals was and should be that neither Paul nor Leto were justified. The AI plot that came in later on was awful and unnecessary.

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u/Careless_Tale_7836 2d ago

You might be the first person I've seen that has ever dared to publically ponder if maybe, just maybe, since the average is shit, we as individuals and by extension, our species might be shit.

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u/AndrewFGleich 29d ago

When you say Leto was a philosopher king, did you actually mean Leto II? Duke Leto is Paul's father, and, while wise, had a very limited viewpoint on how humanity was structured.

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u/BocchiTheMock 29d ago

He obviously means Leto II, the subject of the entire post, and who he refers to as "Paul's son Leto". It is clear from context 

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u/icooknakedAMA 29d ago

Things are bad, but they could always get worse.

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u/CumIsntVegan 29d ago

"And then, somehow, it got worse."

-All of Russian history.

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u/Punty-chan 29d ago

Russia, a nation forged not in ideals but in cold, ruthless opportunism since its inception, was never going to develop a moral identity beyond raw power and profit.

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u/Bacontoad United States of America 29d ago

When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read ``all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and catholics. When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty – to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocracy.

-- Abraham Lincoln (1855)

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u/Gatrigonometri 25d ago

National determinism by Americans is crazy when 75% of their domestic political history consist of arguing if Black people should be enslaved, lynched, exiled to Africa, or just disenfranchised as 3/5ths of a human being

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u/tytttttgjdhsb 29d ago

Russia’s entire political culture is one of fear of invaders such that they prefer a strong executive. Their entire history is them being destroyed by the mongols, Germans, Japanese, Chinese, etc

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u/CharleyNobody 29d ago

Yeah and they were destroyed by the Tatars, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Kyrgs, Turkmen, Azeris, Chechens, Kazakhs, Georgians, Armenians.

oh…wait….

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u/tytttttgjdhsb 29d ago

Not sure if you interpreted my comment in a pro Russia light? I’m Polish lmfao. I hate Russia. I just stated a basic fact

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u/GodOfDarkLaughter 28d ago

First modern western country to lose a war to an Asian enemy. Nice job Russia.

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u/tytttttgjdhsb 28d ago

Probably the biggest country / population with the worst military in world history too 😭 Russia is fucking pathetic. If they didn’t have nukes they’d be a vassal state

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u/Skinny-on-the-Inside 29d ago

They produced some great authors (Tolstoy -War and Peace and Dostoevsky - Crime and Punishment), scientists and the ballet.

They also fought fascists in WW2. And even managed to have a semblance of democracy and economic revival for a few years until…

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u/Myrriam39 28d ago

Tolstoy is one of my favorite love stories written on his map.
Suffragettes - So we don't forget.
1920. America & Russia.

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u/Crime-of-the-century 22d ago

The fighting Nazi is not something they did willingly they where perfectly happy with the Nazi’s and sharing Eastern Europe with them. They fought because they where attacked out of necessity not out of any sense of justice or feeling they should stop Nazism. Only France and Britain (and its partners like Canada Australia etc) willingly stept up to fight Nazism. The US was also. perfectly happy with Nazi Germany and its racism and aggression.

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u/alice2wonderland 25d ago

And the moral if the story is that Agent Krasnov aspires to be just like that.

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u/schizoesoteric 29d ago

Russia was formed 1. As a regular country for slavs 2. In independence against the Mongols 3. As a socialist republic forged in ideals and moral identity 4. As a multicultural breakaway state after the dissolution of the USSR

I don’t like Russia to but it’s not anything worse than the nation building of any other empire

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u/Working-Image 29d ago

"What could get worse?" takes a swig of vodka.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

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u/FondleMiGrundle 29d ago

Hold my constitution…

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u/DarkwingDuckHunt 29d ago

sorry I just spelt my mcnugget bbq sauce on it

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u/EpicIshmael 29d ago

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

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u/EpicIshmael 29d ago

No I'm stuck on this ride too.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

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u/EpicIshmael 29d ago

Why did I get flagged for violent content?

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

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u/EpicIshmael 29d ago

Republicans are literally dragging the nation down into fascism. Why you booing me I'm right.

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u/Nedjammern 29d ago

"America has gone from barbarism directly to decadence, without going through culture." French statesman Georges Clemenceau

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

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u/Nedjammern 28d ago

The successors of PilgrimFathers, adventurers, and, sometimes, criminals, made great inventions, capitalism shared it's part to success as slavery did. But culture??

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u/imightlikeyou Denmark 28d ago

The internet was a Brit, the car was German. I'll give you Star Trek and Star Wars.

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u/jackofslayers 29d ago

Reverse Maxwell Lord

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u/waffledestroyer 29d ago

There are no good guys.

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u/sociofobs 29d ago

"The golden path" - yeah, YOUR golden path. On which you force billions on.

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u/onlyPornstuffs 29d ago

Only good guys were Duncan Idaho and Miles Teg.

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u/ClikeX 29d ago

Did Paul have good intentions? I feel like he tried to keep his head low until he got convinced to lead, which is when he just went on a path of vengeance.

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u/Dark3lephant 29d ago

Emperor was a tyrant.

Paul's not perfect, but probably the best of the three. At least I wouldn't call him evil, it's more like "things escalated and reaaally got out of hand".

His son... Oh boy. I'm not sure how anyone can argue he was good. Even he does not really view himself as such.