I’ve been trying to keep an open mind about the hexbear people even if I disagree with them a heap. One thing I don’t understand is the constant defense of their stances with ‘critical support’ I can buy into some of their arguments but like, shit, I hate the west, too, but I’ll ‘critically support’ them and their non aggression pact over whatever the hell Russia is doing.
Like even at best do these people have anything else going on in their life holy shit.
I support Putin, because there is no practical alternative in the near future.
It’s not like Russia has a well-oiled transition machine where if he were to leave office, everything would smoothly shift to a new regime that brought unicorns and love to all.
We’d be rolling the dice on a rogue’s gallery:
Maybe we’d get someone Yeltsin-ish, who is buddy-buddy with the West by allowing the widescale plundering of Russia’s assets, and further driving their quality-of-life metrics into the dirt, starting the cycle that leads to another strongman.
Maybe we’d get someone even more militant than Putin, especially if the war leaves them spiritually depantsed. Launches nukes or directly engages a NATO member. Putin may have a taste for blood, but he’s not on a suicide mission.
Or maybe we’d just get someone incapable of holding the federation together, creating a new Balkan-style slow-motion crisis. Whee! Squabbling new nuclear states with the GNP of a Carl’s Jr. franchise and unknown leadership… that’s not going to cause proliferation issues.
I still believe there are options to wind down the war, but the West will refuse anything that smacks of a concession for as long as possible. Conversely, I suspect what Putin wanted from day 1 was some form of formal concession-- the fact he got foreign powers to give up something is more important than the specifics delivered, for the sake of displaying his power at home.
Putin is big part of the reason why there is no alternative. It won’t emerge specifically because of him.
Which, in turn, means we have to consciously go through the path of uncertainty (i.e. fight Putin) before it hits us anyway. Waiting is delaying the inevitable, all while people die and economy is crumbling.
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I bet this will drive the hexbear users up the wall.
Luckily, I have their instance blocked in my user settings so I don’t have to listen to their drivel.
Same.
Instance block is the best fucking feature to come to lemmy for years…
Absolutely.
It’s a very messy situation there in Ukraine, and my support goes to whatever will stop it. I have no sides in this game, my close ones are on both sides of the actual conflict and this is terrifying. Stop fighting, and then make talks.
That’s a disclaimer.
Now one correction on the post: what happens is not ethnic cleansing, and we should not call it that way, for it shows incompetence and may hurt us when talking about real ethnic cleansings, like Myanmar and whatnot. No one pushes Ukrainians away from their land or seeks to genocide the population (even though, as in any war, civilians get hurt dramatically). The proper wording would be forceful reintegration, which, I gotta stress, is super bad, but it is not cleansing.
Ukrainans do have an identity of their own, an identity that doesn’t go anywhere, including in those migrated to Russia long ago. Sure, Putin’s plan is to reinstate the idea of a brotherly nation, one we shared our core history with throughout almost entire timeline, but even if you look from the position of “turning Ukrainians into Russians” (which is still not how ethnic cleansing is defined), this is simply not possible. Again, I’m speaking this as Ukrainian AND Russian by bloodline, I know what I’m talking about.
What really happens is an invasion, an occupation of the country in order to reinstate a puppet state which has been there, partially, before 2014. It is more akin to USSR driving tanks through Eastern Europe than anything else. Essentially making “friendly” puppet regimes as a form of political control. Very sad Putin didn’t learn from past mistakes, doomed to repeat them through a never-before-seen massacre - the one my people, on each side, struggle with.
Russians steal Ukrainian children, they’ve multiple times been caught mass executing civilians too… Their side iterates that Ukraine doesn’t exist, like Putin implied.
Putin wants to eradicate the Ukrainian national identity.
The official narrative is that Ukrainian government is illegitimate and ruled by Nazis, abd the country needs to be “liberated” from their rule. It doesn’t strongly assume destruction of Ukraine the state, but clearly indicates that Russia or its puppets should be in charge.
And even then, there are many stateless nations, and I don’t think Ukrainian identity is the one that is easy to erase.
The official narrative is that Ukrainian government is illegitimate and ruled by Nazis, abd the country needs to be “liberated” from their rule.
Okay but we, over here on the good side of the sanity line, know that’s not true, right? It justifies nothing.
Absolutely, it doesn’t justify any actions of Russia in Ukraine, and I never said so.
I just say the Putin’s endgame doesn’t necessarily include Ukraine losing statehood (but it would certainly become a puppet state with all the negative consequences).
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bad use of the meme format