370 Comments

Baffled by how unfashionable it is to want the killing, maiming & destruction to stop and genuinely amazed that anyone thinks it can end without a negotiated peace, let alone almost the entire commentariat. It feels like a new low point in public discourse. Thanks for standing apart from that.

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The Pope came under fire in the public discourse this past week for arranging for a Ukrainian and a Russian woman - coworkers at a hospital - to carry the cross for one leg of the Good Friday procession. The idea was that it sent a bad message, that it was “both-sidesing” the conflict somehow.

We’re in a strange, creepy place when it’s considered a moral betrayal for the Pope to publicly state support for international cooperation and reconciliation between the citizens of warring countries. Everybody loves it when he says he doesn’t have the moral authority to judge gay people, when he washes the feet of prisoners, and when he condemns international conflict. Just not *this* international conflict, somehow.

Thanks for this post. It’s a relief to hear someone talking about how strange and uncritical the discourse has gotten.

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I agree that people should try to apply a cost-benefit analysis to all things, just as Chomsky did with respect to the war in Ukraine.

But Chomsky's also wrong. The best path from a pure cost/benefit standpoint is to make the situation so painful for Russia that they (and China) never consider invading a country ever again, and the western liberal order can remain hegemonic.

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"including Chomsky, other left critics of prolonging the war, and me"

Ah, there it is. The framing that is the root of the problem. "Prolonging" a war by assisting the defenders.

"It is nonsensical to claim that an American has no right to an opinion on conduct by America’s government."

Who is claiming this? Chomsky et al are being attacked for believing the Ukrainian must simply bow before either Russian aggression or U.S. demands.

"Russia possesses a large and advanced military"

And every Javelin we or our allies provides chips away at this a bit more.

"I think that living as part of the hegemon has led many Americans to chafe at the idea that there are any obstacles to implementing their will at all, that the world is an entirely pliable entity that will bend to our preferences if we just want it enough."

Do you realize the irony of this line when people like Smith are saying "we should help Ukraine but not dictate to Ukraine" and people like Chomsky are saying "we should dictate to Ukraine the terms of their surrender"?

If this bogs down to a stalemate then that's also quite horrible for Russia, who ultimately has the ability to stop their aggression at any time. The Ukrainians have to concede to an aggressor or fight until the aggressor decides it's no longer worth it. The US and the international community have to decide how to support Ukraine such that Russia very much regrets its decision to invade so as to both help Ukraine and deter future such actions.

For someone with a worldview so strongly based on power differentials that need rectifying, it's odd you seem to evaluate this conflict as if "well life is unfair sometimes" is the end of the story.

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Excellent, reasoned, restrained (by which I mean logical) analysis. The level of hysteria, the pumped-up macho Russia-bashing, the refusal to see Putin as anyone other than Sauron is terrifying, and the swift, furious, and almost universal *moral* condemnation of anyone who dissents smacks of nothing so much as "splitting" (in psychological terms.) It's as though the Western world is suddenly suffering from a severe case of borderline personality disorder. Of course, many of the loudest screamers have already cut their teeth on earlier bouts of cancel culture, so they're getting better and better at it.

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As usual, the "intense social mandate" you speak of only exists online. I've had nothing but excellent discussions about the war and its various facets IRL.

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Great piece.

What runs through my head whenever I think about Ukraine is: Russia has nukes. Russia has *nukes,* *Russia* has nukes.

It may not be right or fair or kind to the people of Ukraine, but as a citizen of the US living in a city that would probably be one of the first targeted, I do not want us to get into a hot war with Russia. I want nothing that would risk any kind of nuclear conflict.

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“I think most people in 2022 are profoundly disillusioned, in politics yes but also in a broader overriding sense, and feel beset by convincing critiques of every idea, party, movement, and institution in American life.”

Man, what a great way to put it. I occasionally think about how deflating it can be that the internet is full of critiques (often quite good!) about anything and everything you could possibly like. Everything from your favorite band or movie to an institution you’re part of or attached has been eviscerated at some point. I hadn’t really considered how that sense of disillusionment manifests itself in a society or what it leads to, but I certainly am now. As always, appreciate your writing.

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The infamous Vertical Messaging Apparatus in the West does not exactly encourage nuanced positions on The Current Thing, and it both astounds and dismays me how rigidly the social enforcement has become on taking the "right" stance to the point of people constantly one-upping one another to prove how much they Love The Good Thing and/or Hate The Bad Thing.

We've lost our goddamned minds.

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Isn't this how the glorious wars always go, though? There's no room for nuance when you're trying to convince people to die.

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founding

I have been in favor of arming Ukraine. But I admit that as this drags on, and the body count grows, I wonder if we should have just let Russia take it.

We watch international news every night, and after a quick “This report contains upsetting images” they show what’s happening. The bodies, the sobbing mothers, the disfigured and traumatized kids.

I keep coming back to this: If I had to choose between Putin ruling America and my son’s life, I’d choose my son in a second. Maybe that’s wrong but it’s true.

There are no good choices, but I wonder if people would be better off at home with their families, under an awful occupation, than losing their homes and spouses and kids in this carnage. I really don’t know anymore.

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I’ll take needless contrarianism for $1000, Alex.

I think there is certainly a place for that. But it’s not healthy to define oneself as a contrarian and object to things only to feed your inner contrarian.

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Apr 18, 2022·edited Apr 18, 2022

I disagree with a lot of this, but this part here:

"In recent decades it’s felt like everything has been undermined and nothing has been built. We churn out college graduates who can critique everything yet create nothing. Even the most dedicated partisans seem to have a jaundiced view of their own side, saving all of their passion and energy for excoriating the other. You look at the discursive inroads the socialist left has made in the last decade in this country, and it’s the perfect example: we’ve achieved no power and little representation, but the leftist critique of conventional liberalism has infected liberals, they’re stung by it, they preemptively work to address it, they feel exhausted by it. I find it very difficult to locate genuine, uncomplicated, positive feelings about the broad left-of-center project anywhere. The migration of political discussion to social media has helped extinguish optimism as a factor in political life."

Is a critical broader critique of at least American politics and society. I work for a federal agency and the sheer amount of 'we used to build things now we hire contractors to maintain them' in the air is often palpable.

It feels like we're in the twilight of an age...but that's probably bullshit. Stuff does still get built, things do still change and the world can and does still improve. We just don't talk about it, or don't notice. And so the belief that government especially can do nothing but make things worse and make things blow up grows and grows...

A major shock for me recently, was realizing that in all the contracts I work on, there was now a requirement that all employees make more than $15 an hour, in accordance with EO 14026. I expected this to be a major fight in contracts where the state has a minimum wage of less than $8. The answer we actually got was that the job market was so tight, they'd had to increase wages up that high anyway.

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> Perhaps the notorious corruption and fragile federal government in Ukraine will not prove to be a problem, even with vast troves of weapons having been recently imported.

This is nitpicking, but Ukraine does not have a federal government, because it is not a federation.

"Ukraine is a unitary state." - Constitution of Ukraine, Article 2

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Thank you. This feels so much like the run-up to the second Iraq war it's frightening. All I can think is, "Are we seriously going to do this again, just after we got out of Afghanistan?" Russia is not some isolated desert country with sheepherders in uniform and ancient weapons. Russia is a well-armed nuclear nation, with a friend in another well-armed nuclear nation (China). This is something we should be having discussions about.

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founding

Thanks for this Freddie.

Noah Smith wrote a post on April 11th arguing that in the midterms Democrats should "run on the war," since it's so popular. I find that type of thinking to be abhorrent.

In the Haggadah we use for Passover, there's a memorable line. The Egyptian soldiers are drowning in the Red Sea, the angels in Heaven rejoice by singing and God admonishes, "Why are you celebrating when my creatures are perishing?"

In my opinion, there is nothing to celebrate about this war. And I wish American policy was to advocate for any peace deal that both Ukraine and Russia would accept even if it means a complete rollback of sanctions. I've been labeled a Putin supporter for this POV.

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