War & Discourse

Like many of you reading this, I’ve been fixated on the ongoing invasion in Ukraine.

The realization of the invasion and the irreversible consequences has worn on me heavily. Having grown up in a country torn by civil war, any conflict takes me back to a dark place in my heart. 

I hesitated to write anything in the first place. 

I don’t have many insightful thoughts to share about the history, geopolitics, or military strategy of this invasion. I read the Art of War a few years back, I had Eastern European friends growing up, and I read Encarta encyclopedia when I was a kid. However, I have the self-awareness to know that this means jack shit and that these world events turn everyone into an armchair Winston Churchill, so we must tread carefully.

However, I do have an observation on the discourse around this conflict. 

I worry about how quickly the Western zeitgeist settled on supporting Ukraine and how quickly people accepted it. I worry about a weird, 21st century, McCarthyism emerging anew. I worry about people having no historical context posting pro-Ukraine stories on social media mainly because we are used to rooting for the underdog. But this isn’t Rocky IV—we are not talking about Rocky Balboa v. Ivan Drago. The stakes are higher and they demand a more nuanced understanding.

If you read this last paragraph and labeled me a Russian apologist, you are exactly who I am worried about. 

Would we feel the same way, or demand peace with the same furor if the roles were reversed? What if it was a country like Kazakhstan instead of Ukraine? Did you care when Putin went to war with Georgia in 2008? Why do you care now? Have you asked yourself what’s changed for you? I have. 

I think of these alternative scenarios to see whether I’ve accepted the current narrative because of the inertia of the media coverage and social media reactions, or because my own principles and critical thinking guide my opinion. I know I’m not aware and immune to every type of bias, but I am asking the question on which biases are leading me to accept certain things as true. 

In war, the first major victory is asserting your truth and being associated with good and the opposing side as evil. No one likes to think they are the evil ones in the story. 

But it’s taboo to even introduce doubt for the benefit of our own critical thinking. I found it very troubling how much animosity Tim Ferris’ caught for tweeting “Even if you disagree, this is a brilliantly written speech.” while sharing President Zelenskyy’s February 25th address.

To think that most Westerners have enough context to define this situation in such a binary without even the slightest room for disagreement is troubling to me. Whether you like it or not, there are people that believe in the Russian propaganda and the narrative that Putin is out to crush neo-nazis. Also, there are many people around the world that have grown to be reasonably skeptical of any Western narrative and immediately dismiss it as propaganda. That’s who Tim was trying to amplify Zelenskyy’s message to. Remember, no one likes to think of themselves as the evil one. Ever.

Also, I think we should be very clear in how and who we label as aggressors. There are both reported and anecdotal accounts of this invasion being deeply unpopular in Russia and Belarus regardless of the sanctions. The Babushka at your local Piroshky shop is not the one pulling the strings. The driving force behind this invasion is Vladimir Putin and his band of oligarchs and yes-men.

As with most conflicts, where do the soldiers come from? They come from the lower classes, the poor. They are the cannon fodder for the decision of a few wretched people. These men enlist in the hopes of receiving government housing and support if they come back. You can hope, cheer, and pray for Ukranian resistance and minimized damage. Yet, I also hope you mourn the death of every Russian soldier that had little agency to fight a war against their brothers and sisters.

You can believe that there is provable, observable evidence that Putin’s actions in Ukraine are an invasion, constitute war crimes, and will yield a harrowing amount of suffering. And you can also question how you arrived at that conclusion, the context that you may be missing, and wonder about the Russo-Ukrainian history that would lead to this conflict. We need to be more comfortable with holding seemingly conflicting thoughts at the same time. Doing so is a sign of maturity. It’s a recognition of how complex and weird life is.

It may be pedantic to focus on discourse when people are dying. People’s whose lives did not have to be disrupted have been dramatically changed forever. But as I have written before, when discourse disappears, we fire the first salvo in a silent war that brews and escalates into the conflicts we see today. 

Violence is the language of the hopeless. And those who are hopeless will latch onto anything that promises them riches, revenge, or an escape.

Hug your loved ones today. Love is still the simplest and bravest act of resistance.