A response to a Facebook PM chiding me for not being more sympathetic to Ukraine:
"The only reason your timeline is filled with Ukraine commentary, 100% supportive of Ukraine and 100% antagonistic to Russia, is because you're being gaslit into being focused on that, and your opinion is being molded, like that of a child.
For the record, I have deep sympathy for the people of Ukraine, and zero for the government of Ukraine, which is a western puppet inserted via coup by the US in 2014 - which isn't contentious. It is an agent provocateur being used to punish Russia for daring to block US aggression in Syria, and for successfully completing Nord Stream 2 and competing with US corporations selling natural gas to Europe.
I note you haven't been commenting on the shelling of the Donbas region for years by Ukraine, nor the thousands of civilians killed due to that shelling. I can only presume that's because if Ukraine kills a bunch of former citizens in Donetsk and Luhansk, you're 100% fine with that. To be clear, Ukraine killing former citizens who seceded is good, but Russia killing current citizens is...bad? Or is it that you know nothing about that because you weren't fed it by your favorite propaganda channel?
I also missed any commentary on the hundreds of thousands killed in Syria by the US-led "coalition" in what is euphemistically referred to as the civil war there - hundreds of thousands murdered, many of whom are defending their country against an illegal invasion by the US based on lies. So to be clear, you're okay to fine with the US illegally invading Syria and butchering its citizens, presumably because they aren't blonde or blue-eyed?
Didn't see anything negative or positive about the US bombing the crap out of Christian Serbia for over two months based on the falsehoods of the day, killing plenty of blonde, blue-eyed citizens. I am guessing that murder was cool with you, too, because it wasn't Russia?
Ditto for nothing on the illegal invasion of Iraq based on the WMD lie. Hundreds of thousands butchered there, all of whom were defending their nation from an illegal invader, but not a peep from you. No "I stand in solidarity" with Iraq to be found.
Nor is there anything about you standing in solidarity with Afghanistan, as the folks there were murdered for 20 years, also in an illegal invasion based on lies, by the US. That illegal invasion was apparently a good one in your mind, or perhaps those "savages" needed killing even though defending their country against invaders?
I also missed your condemnation of the Saudi genocide in Yemen, where the US is actively supporting and refueling Saudi war planes so they can bomb the country back into the stone age, killing countless civilians in the process. Presumably because if one set of brown folks are butchering another with our fly boys helping, that is a just thing to do, because it’s us, right?
My point is not that you are a complete hypocrite, although that is clearly the case. The point is that the only reason you even know where Ukraine is, is because you have been goaded into having a strong opinion about it NOW, not a month ago, not a year ago. That's it. I'm not saying what Russia is doing is good - I'm saying Putin has been telling "The West" for eight years that a Ukraine that is going to join NATO won't fly with Russia as it is a direct threat (any more than Russian missiles on the Mexican or Canadian border would fly with the US, for the identical reasons), and this is the predictable outcome of ignoring him for that long, if not giving him the middle finger. But that is incidental. You had no strong opinion about Ukraine for the last eight years because your masters weren't coaching you to have one. You know nothing about the history of the region or what led up to this regrettable military action because it simply didn't matter to you until Fox and CNN told you it should, and told you how you should feel about it. The reason you probably knew nothing about the constant attacks on the Donbas region and have expressed no opinion on it or the massive civilian casualties is because you're completely ignorant of the dynamics and issues in the region, and can only spout facile sound bites you've been fed. The reason you didn't realize that the current government is a US-installed puppet, and NOT A DEMOCRACY BY ANY STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION, is because you've bought the MSM narrative hook, line and sinker. Just as you expressed strong views on vaccination and COVID 2 weeks ago, there is now no mention of it because your short attention has been redirected. You spout support for the official narrative du jour, because you're an empty suit, with no capacity for serious thought and no desire to know anything that requires more than 10 seconds of propaganda consumption.
You know what you aren't paying attention to? The Durham investigation and the clear evidence Russiagate was a treasonous lie designed to undermine a sitting president. That's simply not in your wheelhouse. Nor is the obvious massive death and injury toll from the vaccines and the ongoing emergence of proof they are deadly over time. Not how you've been lied to every step of the way by your health authorities and regulators. Not how your liberties have been methodically stripped away ever since the passage of the "Patriot" Act and you've been living under effective martial law ever since. No, you have no strong opinions about any of that now because you have all the depth of onion skin, and will happily virtue signal in accordance with whatever nonsense is fed into your thick skull by propaganda channels that know you're not particularly self-aware or bright. Believe it or not, reality is more complex than "anyone who opposes Western Imperialism is evil or crazy," which is the perennial narrative you happily parrot. You are the definition of a useful idiot, and your presence on FB is one of the primary reasons I've lost interest in it."
I'm guessing she won't be responding any time soon.
I've removed a troll from the comments - a guy who has never before commented on either FB or here, and suddenly left six messages filled with American apologia and outright falsehoods, starting with the notion that Russia never received assurances that NATO wouldn't expand east of Berlin. Of course, even ten seconds of research show that to be a lie. Thus he's gone.
https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2017-12-12/nato-expansion-what-gorbachev-heard-western-leaders-early
You nailed it, as usual.