This is an amazing article and Podcast. You do get the very best. And thank
You so much for writing it out. I hate great podcasts that aren’t written. I like to read not hear great ideas so I can go over certain facts and ideas. You publish some of the best most excellent thoughtful critical and fact based stuff out there. You should be advising the White House. You are GREAT. Keep
I listened to this podcast yesterday, and I have one point of minor critique. You framed the debate for individual Ukrainians as one of resistance or capitulation. In your description this is an incredible hard choice, but involves high risk of death on one side and what sounded like basically a life of despondence on the other while potentially saving lives. I think this underplays the risks involved. If you were a gay, or even effeminate, Ukrainian for example, this fight might seem like a much more existential threat to you in the wake of things like crackdowns on men “suspected of being gay” (https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/05/08/russia-new-anti-gay-crackdown-chechnya). If you were a reporter or anyhow involved in media, this takeover seems likely to be the end of your life’s work, as the future would entail either complicity in state propaganda or constant risk of death. If you were any kind of ethnic or religious minority, or merely an outspoken person in the current society, this would be a drastic change of life for you with a whole new set of risks, restrictions, and humiliations.
I could go on, but I think you get my point. Your depiction, while valid, seems to underplay the realities of the authoritarian regime that modern Russia is, even before considering the economic impacts. The choice you depict seems to underplay the existential realities of fighting for a freer society vs. submitting to a repressive one. I don’t think we should underplay the real risk to life and liberty that submission would entail. This may not be Jews in the third Reich level, but I don’t believe it is quite so simple as risk life or be depressed. For many there’s likely profound risk on both sides here.
"I think what this has finally made impossible is any illusion about the inevitability of the world progressing toward a more democratic, more interconnected, more cosmopolitan, better place."
My comment
China is now very good at building dams. The US is now very good at enforcing PC. What country/system will dominate the 21st century?
It's amazing to see in article after article and social media and talking head shows that Tucker Carlson is mentioned more as a factor for Ukraine than Angela Merkel's decision to shut down nuclear power or Biden's, on his administration first day, banned the Keystone XL pipeline.
The United States has gone from a net exporter of oil, to an importer. So, in essence, the West is funding an appreciable amount of Russia's war.
This is an amazing article and Podcast. You do get the very best. And thank
You so much for writing it out. I hate great podcasts that aren’t written. I like to read not hear great ideas so I can go over certain facts and ideas. You publish some of the best most excellent thoughtful critical and fact based stuff out there. You should be advising the White House. You are GREAT. Keep
It up.
I listened to this podcast yesterday, and I have one point of minor critique. You framed the debate for individual Ukrainians as one of resistance or capitulation. In your description this is an incredible hard choice, but involves high risk of death on one side and what sounded like basically a life of despondence on the other while potentially saving lives. I think this underplays the risks involved. If you were a gay, or even effeminate, Ukrainian for example, this fight might seem like a much more existential threat to you in the wake of things like crackdowns on men “suspected of being gay” (https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/05/08/russia-new-anti-gay-crackdown-chechnya). If you were a reporter or anyhow involved in media, this takeover seems likely to be the end of your life’s work, as the future would entail either complicity in state propaganda or constant risk of death. If you were any kind of ethnic or religious minority, or merely an outspoken person in the current society, this would be a drastic change of life for you with a whole new set of risks, restrictions, and humiliations.
I could go on, but I think you get my point. Your depiction, while valid, seems to underplay the realities of the authoritarian regime that modern Russia is, even before considering the economic impacts. The choice you depict seems to underplay the existential realities of fighting for a freer society vs. submitting to a repressive one. I don’t think we should underplay the real risk to life and liberty that submission would entail. This may not be Jews in the third Reich level, but I don’t believe it is quite so simple as risk life or be depressed. For many there’s likely profound risk on both sides here.
As always thanks for the great work you do.
Quote from G. Packer,
"I think what this has finally made impossible is any illusion about the inevitability of the world progressing toward a more democratic, more interconnected, more cosmopolitan, better place."
My comment
China is now very good at building dams. The US is now very good at enforcing PC. What country/system will dominate the 21st century?
It's amazing to see in article after article and social media and talking head shows that Tucker Carlson is mentioned more as a factor for Ukraine than Angela Merkel's decision to shut down nuclear power or Biden's, on his administration first day, banned the Keystone XL pipeline.
The United States has gone from a net exporter of oil, to an importer. So, in essence, the West is funding an appreciable amount of Russia's war.