PERSONAL

8

1,878

I learned a little bit more about the Ukraine situation, maybe?

3 years ago656 words

Last Thursday, I was too anxious to work because of the threat of the Ukraine situation leading to a nuclear apocalypse. Fear often comes from ignorance, though, and a video about the actual reasons behind the invasion has calmed my nerves a bit. Maybe.

I've not actually been actively concerned about it since Thursday, honestly; when I woke up on Friday and didn't see any posts on Reddit about nukes being fired, I started to relax, and when I started seeing r/all become dominated by vapid distractions again, I mostly just forgot about it and focused on other stuff (like music composition and how lonely I am).

I was alarmed again a couple of hours ago though when I saw a post about how Putin's put his nukes on high alert... or something that I didn't fully understand. Looking fretfully through the comments, I saw a link to this ~30-minute video from the popular (5+ million subscribers) channel RealLifeLore explaining the situation:



In the comments, he says he started working on the video 5 weeks ago (because things take a lot of time to make!), so it wasn't quickly produced in response to recent developments. That in itself is interesting, I think. This (the invasion) wasn't some spur-of-the-moment decision made by a decaying mind.

He mentions the fairly complex reasons for why Russia is after Ukraine: most notably things like resources and geographical defence against an imagined future enemy.

And, importantly, the video mentions that Russia has done this before to Crimea and Georgia (both places I'd vaguely heard of but could have told you nothing about before; the same could be said of Ukraine). The major difference this time isn't that Putin has 'gone mad' (in his old age), as some commenters on Reddit have said, but rather that The West was largely distracted by all the stuff in the Middle East back then.

So it feels like this has blown up as much as it has because it's providing 'entertainment' - in some dark sense - in an otherwise empty broadcast schedule. Or at least that's the way it seems to me in my barely-informed naivete.

I've seen a lot of posts about how BADASS etc the former-comedian Ukrainian president is for sticking around to fight side-by-side with his troops against the big bad bullies who invaded out of the blue for no apparent reason, as if he's the plucky protagonist we're meant to cheer for in the latest action movie. People have found a 'side' to root for, an apparent underdog for whom expressions of open support win virtue points not massively different to those sought from similar proclamations of progressiveness. BLACK LIVES MATTER, you guys, buy my merch!

I'm not saying that it's wrong exactly or that I'm 'siding' with Russia or anything, to be clear! My general opinion is that 'war is bad' and that I don't like that people have to seek and maintain power for the sake of ego when I wish we could all just share and get along. It just seems to be a complex situation that most of us don't understand, brought to wide attention due to circumstance more than because it's unusual. It seems that invasions and military tragedy are happening all the time (which is godawful), just usually off most people's radars.

It'd make no sense for Putin to NUKE THE WORLD!!! in what was seemingly supposed to be an attempt to strengthen his country's resources and defences in the long term.

I've seen likely-20-somethings on Reddit scared he will anyway to 'save face' about 'losing', but they're imagining the situation from the perspective of childish playground squabbles rather than that of a world leader with decades of experience.

But maybe I'm jus telling myself this so then I can sleep tonight and do work tomorrow, and maybe I'm mistaken and there won't be a tomorrow. What do I know?