As IF Times

It seems that people really don’t learn from history.  We’re not even referring to ancient history, ie: from more than 20 years ago, which to many people may count as ancient history.  Anyone who has watched Jay Leno on an episode of “Jay Walking” when he was still the host of the eponymous show ( which is itself ancient history)  will know just how vapid the average person is on knowledge of simple and widely known facts.

In large part, this explains the ease with which narratives become hard wired into a population via a zealous and coercive media.  Add some government money to the mix and you have a nation of zombies collectively jerking knees upon hearing the magic word, like a post hypnotic suggestion from a carnival hypnotist.

That people don’t learn from history is sad, but in most cases, many don’t even know it.  We’ve just come out of (hopefully) two full years of handwringing angst over a medical hysteria issue as overblown as teen acne, but on a much more grotesque scale.  We can never count the lives disrupted and lost, the businesses destroyed, the money spent and the social destruction that resulted from the narrative that was Covid.  The Orson Welle’s radio presentation of War Of The Worlds was recast in modern guise as a pandemic and it played worldwide with infinitely more impact than his fantasy play. At the peak of the hysteria, many malleable people were proud to announce their vaccine status as the new social badge of enlightenment.  Subsequent infection of the Covid flu didn’t diminish the faith in their virtue signaling.  Imagine how much worse it could have been if not for the 3 or 4 shots they received.  Phew.  Yet, they would make fun of people wearing garlic necklaces to ward off vampires.

The new subject of the virtue signaling mob is of course Russia.  On the heels of their invasion of the neighboring country of Ukraine, virtually every media outlet, western nation, corporation and Hollywood wanna be or has been are jumping on the cancel Russia narrative as if they were rushing for the last shrimp at the buffet table. In fact, I’d be willing to bet a year’s worth of shrimp consumption that the majority of these people are at least triple vaxxed and are looking to get to the head of the virtue signal line.  My previous post covered off the large multinational corporations distancing themselves from Russia, but since then, they’ve discovered new ways to ostracize anything Russian.

Russian artists and performers are being canceled from their engagements.  Russian tennis players have to publicly denounce Putin in order to play at Wimbledon.  A US based space fundraiser scrapped the name of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in history to go into space.  A figure of undeniable historic significance, deleted because he had the misfortune to be from the same nation as Putin…when Putin was probably still in short pants.  This is reminiscent of the childish means by which small children avoid bad things; they cover their eyes and hope it goes away.  This virtue signaling today on everything Russia is the same childish thing for the modern generation of immature knee jerkers.  They want to distance themselves in any way possible from anything Russia.  I guess a number of cocktails and at least one salad dressing will have to be re-named.   Perhaps they’ll cancel any and all achievements made by Russian personalities in history. The guy behind Alex Ovechkin just moved up in NHL rankings since Ovechkin may be ixnayed.  He’ll be the victim of re-written history.

Some may recall internment camps for all Japanese citizens during the last World war and the subsequent shame it brought to America in the aftermath.  The chest beating and sanctimonious virtue signaling at the time was supposed to set the barrier against this kind of stupidity ever happening again. Oh wait, that was ancient history.

We know that no one comes to these unfounded and often hysterical conclusions on their own without the enthusiastic prodding of popular media.  Unfortunately they are being led by the same people who marketed the last great disaster. By now, people should have figured out that the news business is about ratings and influence, not about news. Ask most people where either Russia or Ukraine is on a map and they’d be lucky to find the right continent. Even less likely is any real understanding of the dynamics and history of the conflict.

There’s that word again, history. For the benefit of the intellectually malleable, history is not just what happened yesterday.

In only a week’s time, the entire focus of media hand wringing and angst surrounding the melodrama which was Covid, has all but disappeared. It has now refocused on the new disaster du jour, which is the military conflict in the Ukraine brought on by the Russians.  Fauci has so quickly disappeared from his regular offerings of inane utterances that he may be in witness protection.

You can almost see and hear the cartoon vapor trail as experts clamber to get on board the next media shiny thing.  Like the Covid narrative before, the usual and predictable cast of pundits are all on one side of the conflict.  To sum it up, Putin bad, Ukraine good.  When asked about the reason for this position, they tell you that it’s obvious: Ukraine is a democracy and Russia is about Commie despotism, it’s an easy call. We have a madman in the guise of Putin against the reasoned, democratic voices of the West.

Or is it?  The incredible irony of people in the coddled West who willingly submitted to 2 years of forced lockdowns in their activities and movements, of being forced to wear masks and endure harm from unproven vaccinations (now proven and documented) as well as being beaten and arrested by their own governments for failing to comply, or to even voice opposition is tragically comical.   But to fight for democracy in a nation far away, which actually isn’t one, proves beyond any residual doubt that, yes, people are as dumb as they seem. People who wouldn’t fight for their own right to breathe air are suddenly up in arms about freedoms.  The same crowd that wants patriotic Ukrainians to fight back and protect their homeland borders,  want people to disarm here and leave the borders unprotected.  While nationalism is considered a bad idea in America, Ukrainians need to fight for theirs.

Like the one sided views on the Covid farce at its peak,,  every news outlet, politician and even opportunistic corporations are now publicly expressing their outrage at Putin’s aggression over a helpless neighboring nation.  Governments have imposed economic sanctions against Russia and in particular, the banking industry, to cut off Russian activities with the west.  Not to be outdone, a veritable who’s who of International commerce have announced their withdrawal from doing business with Russia as per the graphic above.  In addition, Russian vodka and products are being removed from sale and people with any Russian lineage are being ostracized.  The great protector of democracy in North Kanadia even detained a planeload of Russian nationals while in Canada.

If you have a look at the companies haughtily cutting Russia off, you’d be hard pressed to find any more than a fraction of them that Russia couldn’t live without. If you think about it, this in fact would be true for most nations.  How devastating a blow would it be to the average Russian not to have access to Porno hub or TikTok? How will they survive not being able to view the latest cat videos on Facebook and Instagram?  Coca Cola is hardly a loss because it doesn’t go with vodka anyway.  Playstation and Nintendo are toys.   Sony, Disney, Paramount and Netflix are essentially pushing Western propaganda ( with no recent good products ) so that’s no loss.  Danone yogurt; ok that’s a blow.  Harley Davidson is a blow to the 5 customers they have in Russia because the 3 week riding season will be all but dead.  Nike and Adidas; they can buy their stuff under the table and much cheaper right from the factory next door in China.  Auto companies including all of the major brands have declared their cessation of doing business in Russia.  We doubt this will last more than 3 weeks because that business is so mercenary.  We’re not even sure if Ford or GM sell any cars there.

Come to think of it, there’s a darn good chance that Russians will ultimately wind up a better nation without exposure to so many of the useless things that seem to have such a hold on Western societies.  These companies may learn that they aren’t needed in any society. That’ll learn ’em.