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PaperclipPerfector  7mo ago (text post)   26328 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 25, 2023

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Did anyone of you had Waffen SS fighter getting standing ovation in Canadian parliament for their 2023 bingo card?

Congratulations - you will be rich.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66908958

Canada's House Speaker apologises for praising Ukrainian who fought for Nazis

Yaroslav Hunka, 98, was sitting in the gallery and got a standing ovation in parliament after Mr Rota said he was a "hero" during a visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. During World War Two, Mr Hunka served in the 14th Waffen-SS Grenadier Division, also known as the Galicia Division - a voluntary unit made up mostly of ethnic Ukrainians under Nazi command. Division members are accused of killing Polish and Jewish civilians, although the unit has not been found guilty of any war crimes by a tribunal.

Now I doubt that the svastika will be on the Canadian flag anytime soon. But the fact that the ideology blinded the people to make even a basic background check on the so called hero is troubling. And there seems to be some kind of full blown damage control operation going on.

Anyway a lot of Canadian politicians will have to figure out how to unsuck this dick. ADL seems to be silent as of now. Media try to bury the waffen ss part in the bottom of the articles, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the more fanatical ex blue checkmarks try to write opinion piece explaining how this unit were somewhat different than the rest of the Waffen SS.

So what actually happened? They just didn't do a background check? Historical illiteracy? Aide who hates his job let him through for a giggle?

For added hilarity, it was on Yom Kippur.

Isn’t this basically “Ukraine good, Russia bad.” No need to think through the details.

The memory of the Commonwealth, the Soviets and Americans fighting on the same side has long faded. Plus the Cold War happened. It's no longer part of the public consciousness.

Let’s not forget when then-Congressman Adam Kinzinger praised the totally 100% real heroism of the fighter ace the “Ghost of Kiev”. Or when NATO shrugged its collective shoulders when Ukraine fired a missile at Poland, blamed it on Russia and then lied about it even after contradicting evidence came to light.

Nobody in the West is acting seriously about this war anymore. The battle lines are frozen. Russia isn’t giving up territory it has annexed. Ukraine will be just another failed state, just another sacrifice made on the altar of neoliberal democracy.

Or when NATO shrugged its collective shoulders when Ukraine fired a missile at Poland, blamed it on Russia and then lied about it even after contradicting evidence came to light.

Well, the important part is that if it was Ukrainian missile, then it was a collateral damage of anti-air missile.

The battle lines are frozen. Russia isn’t giving up territory it has annexed.

That does not appear to match reality, as far as I know.

I’m not sure they were ever taking Ukraine seriously. The minute the Russians crossed the border, it was treated like a kids’ story. Ukraine good, NATO good. Russia bad. Ukraine will win, Russia is pathetic and weak. Made up stories of heroism. And of course boycotting and deplatforming and renaming anything Russian. Cancel the Russian opera singer, if you can’t ban Russian athletes, make them compete under a different flag, and of course shame anyone who doesn’t use the proper names (Kyiv, Ukraine (no the), Chicken Kyiv, The Russian Invasion of Ukraine) or companies that don’t leave Russia within the first ten minutes. Anyone who questions the narrative is either a Russian Troll or fooled by one.

Now a lot of the above, worryingly, sounds a lot like what was going on in WW1. We at least in America, saw the war as a chance for glory, we cheerfully shit on the Germans and renamed Sauerkraut to Liberty Cabbage. And eventually we found out just how bad war can be.

Have you read this article? https://www.ecosophia.net/notes-on-stormtrooper-syndrome/

I think you'd find it interesting given some of the points you've made above.

I would like to chalk this up to the foolish youth of American nations who haven't yet tired of the millennias of ruin warfare can bring.

But the truth is probably more grim. I recently watched They shall not grow old which is ostensibly about the British youths in WW1, and they too had a cheerful glee about them to start with, despite being part of a culture that has seen its fair share of horror at that point (if not of the industrial kind).

Maybe people are just eternally naïve about such things. There are seemingly endless examples of bloody conflicts that everyone was strongly convinced would be over by Christmas. The power of delusion is strong, and maybe it has to be to muster the will to defend oneself in the first place.

It's about exposure to reality and control of narrative. These proxy wars will continue to happen, even "real" "wars" will continue to happen. New soldiers are born every day, and they will be continuously fed into the meat grinder, until the mass of the populace gets exposed to the harsh reality of war, it will never end. This war needs to happen on US ground, everyone must feel the pain viscerally, personally for it to be real. When people die somewhere else, it's an abstract thing. It doesn't really register to the common person. If it does it will be swept away by some other personal problem or the news cycle will shift and some other bullshit will fill their attention.

Expecting historical literacy from a college-educated progressive is like expecting fluent latin from a duck.

Expecting historical literacy from a college-educated progressive is like expecting fluent latin from a duck.

Do I even need to tell you why this warrants a warning?

No you don't. At the same time it was on Yom Kippur and from Justin Trudeau of all people.

You can't tell me this aint something directly out of a Tom Wolfe or David Foster Wallace novel. A duck speaking fluent latin would have been less absurd.

Weird meta-thought: if Hylinka had gone for a paraphrase of the Dr. Samuel Johnson quote about a woman preaching being like a dog walking on its hind legs (not done well, but you are impressed that it is done at all), would that have passed muster by seeming high-effort? Same sentiment, better language.

Hard to say. Maybe?

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Trudeau has said that Canada has committed genocide. Perhaps they're just owning it.

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