That’ll Learn ‘Em
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.