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Comment by pydry

7 months ago

It's curious how the "true narrative" people fight with such a passion for so frequently coincides with the dominant war narrative currently pushed by the imperial power center they live under.

That is, until 10 years later when they have a new narrative about a different military rival. They quietly stop pushing the old narrative and everyone quietly admits the old one was kinda bullshit all along.

E.g. my views didnt change one iota since 2003 but these views at some point magically stopped conferring a "Saddam sympathizer" moniker from people who demanded unthinking ideological commitment.

It works the same way with people who live under and unthinkingly consume Russian imperialist propaganda too. The more passionate ones make routine demands for ideological purity similar to the one above.

What annoys me is that war is war. Of course there’s an aggressor and defender that’s how war works. A bunch of people die. War happens because there is no peaceful answer to, “who is right”. There is no global true narrative. Does it really matter which side is justified? No. The side that wins writes history. But that doesn’t stop a bunch of people so far removed from the war it will never affect them even one tiny bit from burning cycles arguing about which narrative is the nice “true” one. Likely so they can feel good and comfy and morally superior when they close their eyes at night.

How would you characterize the conflict?

  • Proxy war between two rival imperial power centers dueling for influence over a strategic chunk of land and sea.

    • From earlier:

        That is, until 10 years later when they have a new narrative about a different military rival. They quietly stop pushing the old narrative and everyone quietly admits the old one was kinda bullshit all along. /---/ It works the same way with people who live under and unthinkingly consume Russian imperialist propaganda too. 
      

      It certainly does. The Russian war against Ukraine began with unmarked soldiers, nicknamed "little green men," and Russia denying any involvement, claiming instead that Ukraine was in the midst of a civil war. When the latest Russian weapons appeared in Ukraine, Russia claimed that tourists must've bought them from military surplus stores.

      Then we went through a lot of bullshit - that Ukrainian nationalists were committing genocide in Donbas, or that Ukraine was secretly developing nuclear and biological weapons.

      Now, 10 years later, the narrative has shifted to how this has always been a major confrontation with the USA and NATO, a "proxy war". No doubt, it will shift many more times. Looking forward to when the current "supreme commander" Putin will be regarded as a failure, much like Gorbachev, and blamed for causing the difficult 2030s.

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