Full disclosure, being married to a Russian woman does somewhat push me towards bias, but at the same time, I don't think I'm not being balanced here.

We need to be able to make a distinction. There is a Russian Government, one who Putin controls to his whim, that has an agenda, and there are the common folk, the Sergei's, Pavel's, the Irina's, the one's who work a day job, have a small store, sell pirozhkis for a living. They are not in any way shape or form on the same team.

Trained Tribalism

I'm trying to come up with a reasonable explanation as to why Americans seem unable to make the distinction. The only thing I can conclude is that we've been trained, and that word is more than adequate here, to hate the opposite team.

It has to be this same dynamic, this way of living, that pushes us towards the need to always find "the bad guys" and punish them.

The truth of the matter is that today's world is over politicized, and nothing, and I do mean nothing, is excluded from the political spectacle. It's somewhat depressing in my honest opinion, but there is no way to turn around the boat as far as I can tell.

Humans

Nothing we can do about the idiots. They are out there, they think they are "Patriots" or "Fighting for Social Justice" or some distorted version of righteousness.

But we, the "normals" should do our little share to not participate of the stupidity. It does not help to boycott a Russian owned business, just because Putin invaded Ukraine. It only hurts our neighbors, who, and this might be shocking to the idiots, did not decide nor participated of the invasion of Ukraine.

I'm afraid that if this continue to escalate, it could become our generation's version of the Japanese camps. If you don't know what I'm talking about, maybe it's something worth a read for you.

Sad days ahead... I guess.

MenO