I am choosing to write this blog post today because I just recently reread the one I posted before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I expressed my concern about the growing army along Ukraine’s border, and stated my assurance that things would not go as smoothly as Putin was hoping in the event that he actually went through with his insane plan. I made it clear that his country would suffer greatly, both economically, and on the matter of bloodshed. Well, suffice to say I was correct in my assumptions. Russia has suffered tremendously thus far, and will continue to suffer the more they carry on this farce. But it is not just them who will suffer. Innocent Ukrainians are being tortured, raped, burned, and expelled from their homes. It is a strange feeling to read my thoughts before this all began. Every Ukrainian who has lived through unimaginable anguish was in a better place when I made that post. The entire world was in a better place when I made that post. I’d like to say that the worst is behind us, and clearer heads will prevail. I would like to say that negotiations are on the horizon. In my opinion, they are not. Not even close. I believe we are in for one of the worst decades in recorded history. The 2020s are going to be interesting, to say the least. ‘Interesting’ is certainly one word.
I am deeply troubled by the propaganda I see pushed in Russia and China. It is obvious the two countries have been playing the long game. Putin has been planning his expansion for a long time. And Jinping is still salivating at the thought of butchering Taiwanese civilians in the same way Putin is devastating Ukraine. As troubling as the current trend towards war is in the East, I am perhaps even more troubled by the ‘useful idiots’ in the West; those known more conveniently as ‘Putin Apologists’. These people, bluntly put, repulse me. There is a distressful notion among certain groups (usually right-wing in nature) that Ukraine deserves everything that is happening to it due to its past of corruption. Yes, Ukraine had some questionable aspects to its governance in the past. But to say that they should be left to suffer in the face of the objectively worse (and more corrupt, mind you) power is both disgusting and infuriating to me. No country is free of sin. Even Canada has some very dark spots, for god’s sake. Ukraine does not deserve what is happening to it. The 44 million people who lived happily there before Putin’s invasion did not deserve to have their lives ruined. The women didn’t deserve to be raped and burned; the children did not deserve to be blown apart by artillery; the people who chose to stand and fight for their homes did not deserve to be burned alive from the inside by Thermobaric explosives. None of it should be happening. And yet it is. And yet there are those in the West who cheer Putin on, saying patently absurd things such as ‘What about Iraq?’. It would seem these people are missing the entire purpose of such a statement. You see, one would think that if you stand against unjust invasion of one place, by one people, you should stand against all unjust invasions, by all people. You’d think that, wouldn’t you? But in order for people to remain consistent in their ethics, they have to be intelligent first. To me, Iraq was a dreadful tragedy. And so, therefore (stay with me now, apologists), Ukraine is a dreadful tragedy. You see how I did that just there? It was not difficult for me to make that connection.
Invasions of this kind should simply not be happening anywhere. It is never anything but barbarism. Invasion of another’s home is never justified. The only time full-scale invasion is in any way a positive is if you are invading to help someone get their home BACK. For example, the invasions of Normandy and Italy to expel the Nazis. But what Russia is doing? Madness. But they’ll tell you that is precisely what they are doing. They’ll tell you they are expelling the Nazis from Ukraine. Please do not fall for Putin’s line of bullshit. The man wants to rebuild the Soviet Union, and he will hide behind the ‘Nazi’ thing to seem as if he is the good guy. I assure you he is not. There are psychotic Nazi supporters in Russia. Is he going to invade himself next? The imbecile.
I implore you not to listen to anyone who uses Iraq to claim that Ukraine deserves this. They don’t actually care about those who suffered during the invasion of Iraq. They just want death and suffering for the West. They will pretend to be pacifists, when in reality they are fascists. Those who criticized the Iraq War were undeniably correct. But those who actually mean it are not going to turn around and say ‘Stop funding Ukraine. Putin has a right to take it back’. Those ideals simply do not coincide.
And the threat of WWIII is not even the only thing one has to grapple with when it comes to living in the 2020s. There is also the climate crisis. The writing on the wall does not spell good things on that front, either. And on top of that is the shocking (though perhaps it really shouldn’t be) rise of fascism in the United States of America. The Republican Party has already openly attempted a coup in the country, trying desperately to subvert the democratic process. And yet, somehow they have gotten away with that. Zero sedition arrests among the powerful Republicans who were fully in favour of the events on January 6th. And let us not even mention Trump. I fail to comprehend the whole situation. America is going in a very dangerous direction. And governments like those of China and Russia are loving every minute of it. America needs to stop being so determined to tear itself apart.
Republicans have even entertained the idea of reversing Gay marriage at some point soon. What on earth is happening? I’m glad I’m Canadian, but truth be told, we have our own mountain of concerns. Trudeau is a halfwit who is running the country into the ground in more ways than I have the time to describe. He is one of the worst Liberal representatives in the western world.
Things are bad now. I hope I turn out to be very wrong, but I believe they are going to get much worse. I do not have high hopes for the 20s.