On Ukraine

 I have thoughts about Agravaine after reading Kingdom of Summer by Gillian Bradshaw, but I don’t know how to turn that into a full Note, other than what I already said in the Book Diary.

Also I have some thoughts on Saruman? Except that I feel as if there’s a Tumblr post that describes a lot of the things I’d talk about anyway, but I’m not on Tumblr for Lent

Am I allowed to do Saturday Notes on not fiction? I don’t know but I’m doing it anyway.

—

On Ukraine

The past year or so, it feels like the world has gone insane. I mean, crazy stuff has been happening for a while, and I’ve seen people being more polarized about different topics for years. But the pandemic has made it worse. I thought I found a good crowd on Tumblr only for a large chunk of them to go absolutely rabid on the idea of vaccines and I’m just so infuriated that things like basic public health measures have become hot button topics and saying you took a vaccine for a virus that’s the cause of a worldwide pandemic is apparently a controversial statement. People are dividing over really stupid stuff, mostly without even bothering to understand or define the terms of what they’re arguing about.

So it’s a bit weird, but also amazing and relieving, to see people of all types agreeing that Vladimir Putin can shove it.

I remember thinking about a year ago that maybe, just maybe we’d all see what was happening in China, with President Winnie the Poop being a dictator and enforcing actual genocide through concentration camps in his country that people Left and Right would sort of unite against that. And to be fair, I have seen condemnation for it on the Left and Right, but it was hardly the uniting enmity that I was hoping for. 

But this? This is! Both Democrats and Republicans have made public proclamations calling for measures against Russia and to help Ukraine and its people. Our senator even tweeted that someone should assassinate Putin–which is a terrible idea, no matter how you slice it, you would think people would know we’re trying not to start a nuclear war here–but gosh someone cares. There are collections at Mass, I see people all across the Internet sharing links for places to donate, organizations both religious and secular are making displays of support, it’s dominating the news on both the Left and Right. This is…I don’t know, unheard of.

And I’m not going to be stupid and suggest that support for Ukraine is universal in the US. There are noticeable persons (on the Right I’ve noticed) who, for reasons completely beyond my comprehension, think Russia is doing the right thing. The argument I saw from someone on social media, which was quite stunning in its absolute idiocy, was that Russia had to invade Ukraine to prevent World War III, because NATO is corrupt and outdated and somehow the answer to this is assaulting foreign citizens, shelling cities, setting fire to nuclear power plants and firing on firefighters, and hiring assassins to kill high-profile targets, and arresting citizens at home who protest unjust invasion of neighbors. Any take on world events that is built on the notion that Putin is a reasonable man is doomed from the start. That there is a former president of our country who declared, on air, that Putin was brilliant to initiate a war should, in a remotely good timeline, be the last straw and I think that I’m going to lose it if I see another Trumpville tent while driving down a rural road.

I have also someone argue that it’s not our business and only going to cause trouble  in the long-run for US citizens, which is still monumentally dumb. But like, less so. Which is a low bar, I’ll admit.

And I think there’s definitely an argument to be made that yes, the reason that Western media is so zeroed in on this and not other wars that have been happening around the world for decades is because it’s happening to white people. Which isn’t actually entirely true, there are people of color in Ukraine, and they’re not having a great time right now because of racist BS in acceptance of refugees, apparently. But there is also a difference between civil war in Syria and the president of a nuclear superpower declaring that it’s time to invade his neighbor and threatening war on the rest of the world if they interfere.

I suspect that this won’t last. I suspect that we as a country are going to fall into squabbling again, and to be honest I think it will probably be because of the Right. We already have Republicans deciding that the real person at fault in all this is Biden, and though there have been a large number of prominent Republicans who have condemned Trump’s praise of Putin they’ll probably fall back in line and beg forgiveness, like they did after the insurrection attempt on January 6, just like they always do when faced with him being angry at them.

And let’s face it there are stupid people in our country who think Putin’s the Man because…I don’t know why. I just know that’s something we’re going to have to deal with sooner or later.

But for a short while in history, just about everyone I knew had basically the same opinion about a world event and a world figure. And that… that was kind of beautiful.

—