Pro-Ukraine as a luxury belief

That was interesting, I read some of the articles and it wasn’t a waste of my time by any means. I already knew almost all of what I read so while not a waste of time it still wasn’t eye-opening informative to me but I’m not like most people on this topic. I’ll get to this idea of “Luxury beliefs” and my perspective on it shortly.

My observation is that things are becoming way, way too polarized and idealized. If you don’t agree with someone on your own side about something then they just blow a gasket and start calling names. There’s an idiot like that doing his feeble-minded best to crush me right now. Won’t work but the trend is disturbing.

There are people who don’t look for common ground and intelligent discussion, they look for any perceived chink in ideology as an excuse to pounce and vent their spleens. Those people are trying to show everyone what “good conservatives” they are, it’s a form of virtue signalling. I see this a lot. For example — When someone thinks any constructive criticism of Donald Trump at all makes the critic an “Anti-Trumper” and then the just go off like a shotgun with all the primed, chambered vitriol they have for real “Anti-Trumpers”. Saying anything at all negative about Donald Trump isn’t an invitation to discuss his mistakes or shortcomings for purposes of edification, it’s simply a “close enough” target to let fly with their pent up rage and irrationality. Those people are stupid and the worst part of it is they don’t know it. But then that kind of person is always like that so the best you can do is mock them, or ignore them, or both as it amuses.

As an example — I’m not really all that pro-Ukrainian and not nearly so much that as vehemently anti-Russian. Russia has been a threat nexus to the West for over a century and that is a fact that needs to be recognized and dealt with. This is an existential threat, Russia is armed with +/- 6,000 thermonuclear warheads. This is a real belief in a real threat. Putin could KILL us all if he decides to.

There are people who hate Ukraine because there are connections to George Soros, the Davos thing, the Great Reset, the Clintons, the Bidens and a whole parade of other boogeymen some real, some more ethereal. Those people will believe anything that they see that supports their ideological perspective. Their world view pivots and orbits around their ideology and like the old saying goes, they can’t see the forest for the trees.

All of those things are or may be significant but they are not immediate existential threats in the short term. Siding with Russia against Ukraine because of some misguided sense of priorities could well end up to be a lethal mistake. The dividing line here is ideology and I’m the first one to grant that ideology can be impactful and dangerous but … Ukraine and all the dots connected to it are not going to launch nuclear missiles at us today or tomorrow if we make a mistake.

Volodymyr Zelensky is not capable of killing millions of Americans in minutes without prior significant warning. Vladimir Putin is. It is an order of several magnitudes of difference.

If we make a mistake with Russia and Vladimir Putin we could all be flash fried to a crispy crunch. An example of such a mistake is allowing Putin to believe we’re too scared of a nuclear war to use our own nuclear weapons. That kind of thing can lead Putin down a path to where he leaves us no choice but to resort to nukes all the while Putin is thinking that we would never dare to do so.

I have first hand experience and familiarity with Russian power that meshes with the guy whose web page you cited. He lived under that oppression, I fought that oppression as a Cold War Warrior. A real one, not some civilian who thinks he was a part of the Cold War. There were logistical, strategic, tactical and other various supporting roles that people played but they were not on the front lines of the Cold War.

So my view of things is perhaps a bit different than someone who wasn’t actually doing the fighting and a lot different than anyone who has no visceral, first person experience in these things. In this light my view of things are a lot more in line with people who lived under and escaped from Soviet (or other) Communism than they are aligned with a majority of my own countrymen. Even those on the side of Conservatism.

I see the stark reality of the situation unfiltered through ideological lenses. I cannot afford a “luxury belief” like many of my own fellow Conservatives wallow in.

Siding with Russia against Ukraine is sheer folly. If Ukrainian boys want to kill Russian invaders — and they are invaders if you just ignore all the propaganda because they are the aggressor and they left their own political boundaries, crossed a border and started firing kinetic weapons — We need to do anything we can to support their efforts. We need to make sure they have every possible tool and every possible advantage we can give those Ukrainian boys because they’re doing the dirty work so we don’t have to risk greater escalation.

That Russian Bear needs to be put back in his cage ASAP and that is a priority way higher than any ideology at all. We’ve seen that ideology is fluid, Russia was Communist and now it’s not. But other than the name and the ideological justification it’s still the same Russia. Evil craves power and the Devil does not care one tiny little bit what name you call him by.

Taking the side of Russia in any manner at all in this conflict is a bit like taking the side of a bankrobber because you like his choice in getaway cars.

This conflict and its outcome are vital to Western Interests. If I have to choose between ideological problems and corruption in Ukraine or the Russian Bear armed with nuclear weapons getting stronger it’s really a no-brainer choice. We can deal with Soros, WEF, Schwab et. al. after that threat is overcome. The pen might be mightier than the sword though I’ve never been convinced that’s universally true but … Nukes are mightier than ideological challenges every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

In a wealthy nation like the United States it’s very easy for people to blur the lines between luxury and necessity. We have so many luxuries we take them for granted. During harder times that line becomes sharp and clear. You pay your rent before you pay your internet bill because if you don’t, you won’t have a nice cozy room to surf the internet from. A roof over your head and food to eat are higher priorities than a new TV. You have to recognize the differences between a necessity and a luxury. That’s not as simple, obvious or as easy as it sounds if all you’ve ever known is easy access to luxuries. That’s the way too many Americans are viewing the war in Ukraine too. In fact that’s a mistake that is overwhelming sensible foreign policy too.

We can deal with Ukraine, “Azov Battalion” and anything else going on in that country after the evil Russian genie is put back in its bottle and the cork sealed firmly. Ukraine is way, way easier to influence than Russia is. Dealing correctly and decisively with Russia is not a luxury belief, problems that people think make Russia the preferred victor in this war are luxury beliefs.