Vortex
Member
This is a good question!
At least part of the answer is that we should doubt accounts that seem to be simplistic, or where it is obvious that one side has relied on presenting its version from on high as if it were the only version.
So in the Ukraine, it is a fact that the former president was elected, and was destabilised with the help of outside (Western) agencies. It is also clearly a fact that part of the population fears the new regime - with good reason - they are willing to use weapons against them. It is also clearly a fact that this part of the world has old scores to settle, and should not have been disturbed.
If Western politicians were to face a skeptical press to explain their actions regarding Ukraine in hindsight, I think they would have a very tough time - they get away by talking from on high.
The parallels with Global Warming are extraordinarily clear. If the proponents of this theory were to debate with their scientific opponents in public, I think support for this nonsense would vanish overnight.
Of course, in both cases there could be some secret reason why particular policies were followed - but I doubt it - was the secret reason that made attacking Iraq sensible?
David
That is a point of view. But it isn't a complete one. There has been a prolonged media campaign, from many directions, both inside and outside Ukraine, which affects both the situation itself, as well as the many ways in which it can be assessed. It isn't realistic to think there is a single "correct" interpretation.
As for Ukraine, here I what I want to say as an actual Russian: the situation is indeed obscure, and getting more and more obscure every day, because of dirty and revulsive disinformation and mutual defamation campaign by ALL sides of the conflict.
However, while situation is indeed complex and cannot be painted in black-and-white terms, Russia defininitely deserve no less blame for this ugly massacre than the West. There are simply no "good guys" here; ALL sides are equally happy to demonize each other; to spread slander, lies and hateful propaganda; and - what is really horrible - to move from dirty words to atrocious deeds.
This is no surprise. As I told in many of my previous posts, Russia is getting more authoritarian, reactionary, militaristic, imperialistic and clerical day by day - just like the USA under the infamous rule of George Bush Jr. The USA had its Patriot Act, which gave a powerful stroke the freedom and dignity of Americans; Russia today faces a flood of bizzare "banning laws" which try to supress any individual and cultural freedom of Russians, including the freedom of the Internet. Believe me, this is a hard time for Russian free-thinkers now.
So, while alternative media of the West did a very good job of exposing the corporatist authoritarianism of the Western countries, it paradoxially turns its eyes for the equally ugly and opressive neo-tsarist authoritarianism of Russia. Sometimes I got angry while reading it; despite my respect of Western alt-media work for reporting violations of the freedom in the West, I also feel disdain for its refusal to report similar events in the non-Western countries like Russia. Reminds me of mid-20th century, when some American opposition speakers deservedly criticised their own government's opressive tendensies - and simultaneously praised the Soviet Union and Joseph Stalin.
In my strongly held opinion, it is time to move beyond primitive "Good Guys vs. Bad Guys" model of describing armed conflicts. After long readings of history, I came to the conclusion that it is war itself that is evil, not this or that side of the war; there is simply no good sides in an prolonged mass murder. And civil war is the very worst type of war - all military horrors are multiplied if the sides of the armed conflict came from the same cultural evironment.
And, what is the most insane fact about wars, the sides of it always blame each other for the blood spilled. They think of themselves as the Good Guys, and of their opponents as of the Bad Guys - while the "enemy" side thinks the same way, but in the opposite direction.
We - all the people of East and West, North and South - need to stop looking of who is to blame, and start looking for a non-violent means of resolving conflicts, whether on personal or global scale.
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