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Notes -
You know, it's funny, while I recognize that I'm being unreasonable and likely biased when I say that this shit pisses me off. It does piss me off. I'm not sure if I would classify it as an "Eastern" or "Marxist" perspective but it does seem to me that both Orban and Dehrer seem to have failed to grasp certain fundamental tenets of western philosophy and thus the stakes being fought over.
Dhrer seems to be complaining about how the Ukrainians and various former SSRs have reacted to Russia's actions as though they were an existentiantial threat, Meanwhile I would suggest that they are quite right to do so. It's not as though Putin and his supporters have been shy about their intentions.
I find it Ironic given Dehrer's professed beliefs. He (if anyone) should appreciate stubborn resistance in the face of overwhelming odds, but he won't because he's more afraid of consequences than he is of evil. I would expect the people who accuse the Ukrainians of "making things worse" by refusing to bend the knee to their rightful Tzar, and who accuse NATO of risking nuclear war by assisting them to take an equally dim view of the residents of the Warsaw Ghetto for defying the will of their rightful Fuher. My reply to whom can be summed up in two words "fuck that".
I was just thinking about how Dreher is here basically taking a "Why can't these other guys just lay down and die kindly, since otherwise there's a (marginal) threat to my life and welfare?" point, since - as far as I remember - he has criticized similar thinking when it comes to Covid response.
Of course, deep down, it's a familiar scenario - a rather naive American journalist encounters an authoritarian power (here mostly the Hungarian government, though Dreher seems to also feel his Orthodoxy should predispose him to at least some Russia sympathies), learns that the narrative is a bit more complicated than how Western media might generally talk about authoritarian governments that it dislikes, and resolves that actually the authoritarian government is a Much Maligned Victim and should be trusted on everything. (Though he has never offered an explanation why he thinks that the American government's Covid response was overbearing but the Hungarian government's considerably tighter Covid measures were nothing to particularly comment on, but then again similar double standards are nothing new here.)
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