> The mere act of asking for help isn’t disrespectful.
I agree but that’s not what happened. Watch the whole event, if you haven’t. Because snippets don’t do justice. And I’m not going to rewatch it just to reply to you. But you’re really misrepresenting what went down. It’s fine if we disagree over what is disrespectful. But I think you can at least admit, if you watch the whole thing, how his behavior can be interpreted that way even if you personally don’t think it merited the response it got.
I want to circle back to the beginning of this conversation, in which you claimed that HNers are all of one mind and that we'll downvote a contrary opinion because we're all just reflexively anti-Trump.
This sort of reply is why you're getting downvoted: Making an argument based on emotion and characterization of others without evidence.
Persuasion is the burden of the claimant. If you believe Zelensky was being disrespectful and merited the President's and VP's response, that is your case to make, clearly, logically, and with reference to the source material. That's Debate 101. It's not your opponents' duty to prove a negative.
I believe that you and folks like you don't want war, and that's in good faith. I don't think anyone really wants war. I think the question comes down to what we're willing to sacrifice to avoid it. This is a totally reasonable argument to have, but we don't have to publicly demean and dress down other heads of state, especially those who are our guests, in the process.
I agree but that’s not what happened. Watch the whole event, if you haven’t. Because snippets don’t do justice. And I’m not going to rewatch it just to reply to you. But you’re really misrepresenting what went down. It’s fine if we disagree over what is disrespectful. But I think you can at least admit, if you watch the whole thing, how his behavior can be interpreted that way even if you personally don’t think it merited the response it got.