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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 15, 2024

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the Russians will not be kind masters as weirdly envisioned by anti-progressives.

Who is saying that? Maybe someone. On this forum, the idea that Russia is some sort of right-wing paradise has been debunked many times. For one, Russia practices a model of top-down state control that aligns tightly with the modern left. The reality is that Russia is neither right nor left by American standards and is not a useful model to either party.

You can be anti-war without being pro-Russia. And you can also recognize that Russian victory is preferable to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of additional Ukrainian men. And even if you don't recognize this, Russia might win anyway.

Will Russia be kind masters of Ukrainian territories? I don't know. It won't be a paradise. But it beats dying in a ditch. And even if you personally don't think so, you have no moral right to condemn other people to die in a ditch against their will.

It's bad when criminals steal priceless things. If you can't prevent them from doing so, you can at least make them pay a high price, and deal them a grievous wound which will make it harder to do the same thing again.

On this forum, the idea that Russia is some sort of right-wing paradise has been debunked many times.

True. Yet the arguments that amount "it doesn't make sense for Ukraine to fight, the peace would be a better deal for them" keep coming back in some form of other. The level of benevolence of Russian masters directly contributes to calculation of the cost of the peace.

Similarly you have no moral right to decry people who wish to fight against an aggressor. This presumption that being Russian beats dying in a ditch is a tautology. Perhaps there is a state where you don't die in a ditch, having fought off the Russians. Perhaps there is a state that you have died in a ditch for nothing and Russia reigns supreme forever. But presuming an inevitable Russian victory as the starting point for discussion betrays biases that colour all points made downstream.

The point remains that people have choice: Ukraine govt chose to fight against Russia, Western govt chose to support a degree of that fight, and Russia agreed to fight against a mildly empowered enemy. Screeching 'just surrender you Ukrainian stooges' is insulting, just as it is insulting to scream 'just surrender you Palestinian puppets'.