I am recalling that just a few months ago most Americans couldn't give a shit about Ukraine or what the US had done there since 2014.

Everyone's rightfully and justifiably horrified by the outcome and onset of this war, but it seems that it's given to an irrational zealous degree akin to the initial bloodlust of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, where there is little serious investigation of the context and facts, and politics broke down the conflict to a very Manichaean view of the world and West vs its adversaries in the East.

Russia (especially under Putin) ,considered "guilty until proven innocent", appears to confirm liberal fears with this war confirms all the prejudices about the Russian state - whose qualities are now directed at its people - and now liberals appear to be yearning for Russia to collapse as a state through economic annihilation or a nuclear holocaust.

It's just baffling, because at least with Iraq, there was a context of 9/11 being recent in people's minds and collusion with media propaganda to convincingly brainwash Americans into choosing a scapegoat for a collective bloodlust. With this the political context of this conflict, which Americans have little to no personal stake in , the bloodlust comes off as incredibly selective.

My principal complaint is that this is a dangerous scenario to be courting with global planetary extinction with.

  • mafiaprefect [none/use name]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Trump.

    People already couldn't understand why he got the nomination. It was baffling. When he actually won the election over Light Of Our Life Hillary, they were shocked beyond belief. The worst possible thing had happened: they were wrong. When the post-mortems came out, it was unbearable. You mean we really did fuck over the working class? Ouch ouch ouch massive psychic damage (otherwise known as cognitive dissonance).

    Now, they just want to be right about something. Anything! This will fit the bill. Covid was good, but now that the studies are finally coming out, it seems that they were in the wrong again. Cover it up and never talk about it again. With this Putin thing, they finally have a Snowball, an Emmanuel Goldstein, someone that they can get really performatively angry about in public. Someone to be the target of the Two Minutes Hate.

    But even in the dystopia of Airstrip One, the Two Minutes Hate only lasted two minutes a day. On Twitter, it never ends. They can stay in that blessed state indefinitely. It's bliss.