So I've been crafting some super gross hot-takes regarding the war that Russia just instigated. You know the one. Everyone seems to have an opinion on this one. Everyone seems to care. Why is that?
The first Tweet's reception was overwhelmingly negative, so of course I doubled down on the troll and wrote something even worse than the first one.
So much drama in those threads, understandably.
Everyone is on edge over this situation.
But why?
Why does everyone care? Not only that, but also why is Putin even doubling down on this bullshit? Countries all over the world are issuing sanctions against Russia over this, and I'm even hearing reports that they are losing access to the SWIFT banking system even after it was announced that this step wasn't going to be taken.
How on Earth could this war be a profitable one?
It doesn't even make sense to me, therefore there must be a ton of variables in play that I don't know about. People are saying all kinds of stuff like Putin has done all the game-theory on sanctions and whatnot and invading is still worth it for him. Is it really? Or is someone going to have to eventually drive their sword into the back of the Mad King?
BURN THEM ALL!
How could getting sanctioned by everyone and losing access to the banking sector possibly be worth it? It really is a crazy situation. Add to this the fact that everyone is saying the Ukrainian government was installed by the CIA which is why all this bullshit is going down... or at least gives Russia a sad excuse to take such measures into their own hands.
Here's my final offensive hot take:
"Nobody cares."
Nobody cares about what happens to the Uyghurs, okay?
The rest of us don't care.
I'm telling you a very hard ugly truth.
Of all the things that I care about, yes it is below my line.
I'm a big fan of Chamath Palihapitiya
I could not believe that he would say something this politically insensitive, even though it is 100% the truth. I still don't even know anything about Uyghurs. Don't know who they are or what that word even is or how to pronounce it.
At the end of the day he's speaking to the generic theme of indifference that sweeps across the globe 99% of the time about all the fucked up shit that happens every single day. Why should Ukraine be any different? But it clearly is different, and we need to ask ourselves why that is.
And then we have liberals running around doing this:
In June 2019, at the request of the United States Department of State, the Embassy of Ukraine to the United States, and Ukrainian organisations in America, the name Kyiv was officially adopted by the United States Board on Geographic Names as the only correct one, which resulted in the federal government of the United ...
Kiev or Kyiv?
Apparently the pronunciation of the Ukrainian capital that everyone has been using forever is the way that Russians say it. KEY-EV is apparently incorrect and theoretically politically insensitive to people living in a country currently under attack by Russia.
As we can see from this video, the syllables used are ones that Americans don't really even have the ability to pronounce correctly, and many are dumbing it down to KEEV now instead. Is this something that matters? Or is it just something that liberals are pretending matters? Maybe a bit of both. Baby steps I guess.
And now: this.
This is my favorite.
I feel like this post needed some comedic relief.
Mission accomplished.
So like, why does everyone care though?
Why does everyone have an opinion? Behold the power of the news outlets and the propaganda machine. Like it or not, the reason why we are all talking about this conflict is because the powers that be want us to be talking about it.
The super messed up thing is that most people are currently on the correct side of the argument, but they find themselves there for the wrong reasons. This is extremely dangerous. Political momentum like this doesn't just vanish. The mob's energy will obviously be redirected to eventually support American imperialism.
Let me explain.
Right now a narrative is being built.
That narrative is such:
- War is a horrible outcome.
- Putin is a dick.
- Russia bad.
- Freedom good.
Now, all of these things are true.
This is how most propaganda narratives are forged. We begin with a solid platform that no one can argue against. Why can no one argue against these things? Because we focus on complaining about problems. By focusing on obvious problems without trying to pitch ideas to solve the problems, we remain in safe territory that can't be disputed.
The rugpull is coming.
I can 100% guarantee that the solution to these problems is going to be American imperialism. Because what's better than Russian imperialism? American imperialism. Duh! That is how these things work. Right now the mob is on the side of pro-Ukraine / anti-Russia / anti-war and that's great, but soon it's going to pivot to "We have to do something" and "If you want to make an omelet you better be ready to break a few eggs." That's when we will realize that there really is no favorable outcome for Ukraine. Even if they win against Russia, they can't win against America, and vice versa.
At the end of the day no one actually wants Ukraine to be free. No one in a power position anyway. This is clearly a political conflict involving two empires fighting over a country like it's a piece of meat. They don't actually care if the meat gets torn apart in the process, even if they pretend to. Welcome to politics.
It's situations like this that make it obvious that we need to work on decentralizing the very nature of production/governance itself. If Ukraine was decentralized, it would not matter if they lost a war. There would be no way for Russia/USA to impose a centralized power structure that controlled the country if the country itself was a decentralized entity. Of course this theory is so far fetched and out of the realm of reality at the moment that perhaps it's a waste of breath considering the dire circumstances Ukraine finds itself in now... today.
However, I have a lot of faith that situations like these are going to exponentially accelerate the power of decentralization. People say crypto can't succeed because they'll just turn off the Internet. I think that would just accelerate the adoption and development of mesh networks and a decentralized internet.
The same is true for installing puppet governments. Perhaps situations like this will accelerate the development of solutions that can free the people from the boot of imperialism.
Are we in the "Hard times create strong men" phase?
It does seem to hold truth that suffering leads to evolution. How many artists have created their best work while suffering from near-crippling depression and cynicism? Then when they make it they sell out and become "has-beens" who never create content that was even close to as good as their old work. We see this happen time and time again. It's all cyclical and weirdly frustrating. This is why we can't have nice things.
Forever war incoming?
So what happens next? Russia wins the war... takes Ukraine... and tries to incorporate them into the Russian empire? I just... can't imagine that this plan would ever succeed. It's giving me extreme Vietnam/Middle-East vibes. It just doesn't seem like a plan that can work, especially considering the resistance/backlash that would result in combination with all the support that resistance would get from sources outside the country. Again, I must be missing something. The entire situation is just so ridiculous.
WW3?
Lots of people seem to be worried about World War 3 starting. Not me. Who's going to fight it? Gen-Z? I think we can all admit that this seems... unlikely... and borderline laughable. Imagine the generational gap between The Greatest generation / Baby Boomers vs Gen Z. I can't really imagine that a draft would even work.
It's simply a completely different time, and for the most part the recipe for profitable warfare has largely been solved. Big country bully little country. That's how it works. There's very little to gain from the superpowers declaring outright war on one another, and they know it. I expect the shadow-wars to continue and the low hanging fruit to be picked first, as always. Besides, comparing Putin to Hitler is a pretty tough sell. I don't expect anyone is going to buy it... not to mention such a war would likely require a false flag bigger than any we've seen in our entire lifetimes by exponential margins.
Conclusion
I must admit that the propaganda machine has really got us all by the balls on this one, whether we like it or not. We are now forced to pay attention to this situation, regardless of what 'facts' we choose to believe. The political machine demands that we take this atrocity seriously, out of the countless others that we do not. And it seems that we will all be obeying that command, even if we come to different conclusions than what the MSM tries to gingerly spoon-feed us (under the threat of being a bad person should we disagree).
This is such a ridiculous situation on so many fronts that the variables become exceedingly difficult to parse. I not going to pretend to know what's going on, but I am pretty damn skeptical, and you should be too. Nothing is as it seems in a digital world were the most profitable activity is the blatant manipulation of information. Trust science; remain skeptical.
I think I can speak for everyone when I say that it pains us greatly to see the citizens of Ukraine being caught up in the crossfire of two of the biggest superpowers in the world. Surely, we all hope that the needless collateral damage imposed by the greed and fear of those in power will be mitigated by whatever moral compass they have left to offer.
Of course that is just a safe, political, and pandering thing to say that could never get me into any trouble. Am I being genuine? Or am I just virtue signaling for my own benefit? Maybe tragedies like this would be avoided if people could tell the difference. Or maybe that's just my Millennial cynicism taking over during the worst possible moment.