As the conflict in Ukraine enters it’s 4th week with no sign of relenting, the Western media continues to fawn over the heroism of Zelenskyy and decry the murderous war crimes of Putin. To recap, Putin is a authoritarian dictator who arrests protesters, controls the media, and spins a narrative on COVID the reason for the war in Ukraine. Zelenskyy is a democracy loving comedian who visits hospitals and rejects rides in favor of more ammo. Got it? That's the approved narrative. Thou shalt not ask questions as to provocation, strategy, end game or anything else. Put yellow and blue in your banner on Instagram right beside your pronouns and shut up.
As an observer, the human suffering of the 3 million Ukrainians who have fled and the 41 million others who are watching their cities and factories destroyed, it is tragic. Yet somehow, I can’t help but think when “we” say “We stand with you” it means “….at your borders, waiting for you to lose.”
Equally tragic to me is the destruction of the Russian economy for the 141 million citizens that live there and quietly go about their lives trying to pay their mortgage. They just watched the ruble collapse along with their purchasing power while American companies like Apple, McDonald’s and Starbucks abandoned them. I can’t even imagine their confusion as they watch the U.S. administration continue to work with Russia to broker a deal in Iran to lower oil prices while concurrently imposing massive financial sanctions that crush their economy and with it, their savings and opportunity.
And yet for all the human suffering, the thing that concerns me most is the continuation of the collapse of the tenets of democracy ushered in by so called “Democratic governments.”
Cornerstones of democracy include freedom of assembly, association and speech, inclusiveness and equality, citizenship, consent of the governed, voting rights, freedom from unwarranted governmental deprivation of the right to life and liberty, and minority rights.
Perhaps it is why I found this tweet so disconcerting.
In the context of myself being labeled “a terror threat for mis and disinformation”, I struggle to see how the Emergency Measures martial law declaration should suspend political activities without so much as a trial or evidence. Perhaps I’m just not keeping up with the times.
Not one to accept the approved narrative, I’ll admit I don’t know how I feel about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. I know that my thoughts are strategic rather than emotional which is why to date, I have been struck by 4 key themes.
The U.S. doesn’t have a treaty with Ukraine. Any action against Russia directly is an act of war against them in which we are the aggressor.
Providing weapons feels like it is prolonging the conflict, while half measure sanctions are doing more to push Russia into the arms of China and Saudi. “When goods don’t cross borders, soldiers do.”- Unknown
Seizing assets of “oligarchs” without due process or trials with evidence feels like it violates the single most important thing that differentiates “us” from “them”: The Rule of Law.
I would not send my sons over to fight or die in war in Ukraine. Without that conviction, I don’t know how the U.S. plays any role in the resolution.
The unintended consequences of aggressive NATO expansion, Secretary of State Blinken’s speech November 10, 2021 and now, massive half-sanctions and arbitrary seizing of oligarchs assets will be stark. Which brings me to the disconcerting news of the weekend.
Lia Thomas, the former 554th ranked male swimmer in the 200 freestyle did, in fact, win an NCAA individual championship as a woman. Common Sense with Bari Weiss had a wonderful article on this last month so I will instead just show the Babylon Bee’s response.
I don’t care whether you support Lia’s “right” to compete as a woman or not, that headline is pure comedy. You know, comedy? The thing that pokes fun at differences in order to raise an uncomfortable topic for discussion. That’s what comedy is. So when Rachel Levine, the man who became a trans-woman and is the current U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health, was named a Time “Woman of the Year” the Babylon Bee responded with naming Rachel Levine “the Man of the Year”, too. Satire, pass it on.
For Twitter, this was a bridge too far.
I don’t know about you, but I think Twitter may need to reconsider what it means to “hate.” This from Sviatoslav Yurash, a Ukrainian MP.
Discussion and debate is the cornerstone of democracy. So is free media, freedom to dissent and freedom to assemble in political parties. We yell at Putin and say “you are a bad, bad man…” all the while, supporting unnecessary vaccine mandates used to justify firing people, jailing protesters with bouncy castles in Canada without bail, freezing bank accounts without a trial and bullying people into believing that biological men can AND should be women’s NCAA champions and “the Woman of the Year.”
I’ll stand with Ukraine, right after women can compete against biological women and we stop taking ourselves so bloody seriously while virtue signaling support while not taking real steps to do so. It’s easy to support Lia when you aren’t a female swimmer and you have no consequences, just like ‘standing’ with Ukraine while doing nothing is fine because you aren’t a refugee. How about this? If you stand with Ukraine, get on a plane and go help them…or STFU. And any man (gay or straight) that supports Lia should perhaps defer to women on the topic because it was they who fought for women’s leagues and no man should get to opine on their autonomy. Even Caitlyn Jenner knows that…
One of the victims of the cancel culture is 'Lampoon-ery'. If you've never run across it. It is the purposeful shaming, deriding, belittling, badgering, or poking fun at, someone or a large group with a common trait that the lampooner finds objectionable and worthy of derision. There used to be a magazine called the National Lampoon. I sure its defunct now. Lampooners didn't care if feelings were hurt, or people were shamed. It's was the whole point, in addition to having a belly-laugh at someone else's expense. It was often hysterically funny to the reader. We are poorer imo for the loss of this centuries old form of humor. Shaming is a way of modifying the behavior of society's outliers. I think the advent of hate speech is a sign of our slow slide into a banal state of autocracy and mediocrity.
"Put yellow and blue in your banner on Instagram right beside your pronouns and shut up." Mencken, Royko...now DRW....getting to the CRUXUHTHINGS