The news cycle, or whirl or whatever messed-up shape it has, is like a bad soap opera. It consists of uninspiring tales with shabby story structures told by mediocre actors. People got tired of the c-thing story that had been dominating the news mill for two years, so the writers had to come up with something new. Behold the latest news turd: the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
How the C-Thing went up in Smoke
As all eyes are on Ukraine, the c-thing was quietly but very suddenly written out of the script. I’m sure it’s being kept on ice though, in case it needs to make a comeback. The c-thing story has become like Kevin Spacey in Ridley Scott’s film All the Money in the World in which he played a lead role. Spacey was accused of sexual harassment a couple of months before the film’s release, and to avoid any negative association, Spacey was put in the memory hole. All of his scenes were reshot with Christopher Plummer playing the role Spacey was initially cast for. He was in it and then he wasn’t, as if he’d never been a part of it. As Ukraine has moved centre stage, its not just that there isn’t any news from the c-thing front, the entire front seems to have disappeared.
Cold War heated up
It might look like this latest news turd came out of nowhere, but the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has been in the making for a quite a while. Ukraine is a former Soviet republic with a sizeable minority of ethnic Russians within its borders. Russia had annexed the Crimea in 2014 after pro-Russia president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted by a western-backed people’s revolution, and Putin’s posse has been funding separatist groups in the Ukrainian Donbas region. Tension increased significantly when Russia decided to recognise two Ukrainian break-away regions as independent states two weeks ago. Tension turned into war when the bear went for a full-blown invasion a few days later. People across the western world and in countries of the former Eastern Block in particular are up in arms. My heart goes out to anyone directly or indirectly involved in this conflict. Countries in eastern Europe especially have first-hand experience of Russian suppression. However, western powers are no different. They might not (visibly) invade countries close to home to ‘protect’ or increase their sphere of influence. They just suppress and bomb black and brown people in far away lands, so there is no need for a media uproar.
Putin has been given the role of Big Bad Wolf in whichever fairy tale freedom and democracy are the protagonists, but all ‘world leaders’ are bastards, some just bigger than others. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is to serve as proof that Putin is indeed the great dictator. What seems to play no role in the narrative, is that the West/ NATO has been poking the Russian bear for decades. Back in the days, the last head of state of the Soviet Union Mikael Gorbachev was promised that NATO would not expand its sphere of influence in Europe to the east. But NATO did just that. Analysts have warned that poking the bear would undoubtedly lead to an aggressive response and now the bear has acted as expected and lashed out.
War, what is it good for
War is fucked up for several reasons. Besides it causing death and destruction for the many while a psychopathic few get very rich, it’s remarkable that no government has ever said it can’t afford to go to or financially support a war. Many find it frustrating, yet part of an accepted reality that a government can claim it can’t afford a certain level of healthcare, education, social services, or anything else that should be a given in any civilised nation. Although one can be against a certain justification for war, very few seem to find it strange that there is always money to finance or support a war no matter the economic or social state of a nation. Although the media has proven to be quite divisive in general, especially in times of war there needs to be a clear distinction between the goodies and the baddies. Apparently it goes as far as banning entire media outlets. I have been appalled by the curtailing of basic human rights by so-called democratic governments in the last two years, and yet, I was still highly surprised- naive, silly me- to find out that Russian state media networks RT and Sputnik are no longer available within the EU without a VPN. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who was not put in her post because the people voted for her, deemed this banning action necessary to ‘uphold western values’. Putin, however, is a dictator for curtailing press freedom and chasing away the Beeb (BBC) and other state-sponsored western media outlets.
War is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength. Orwell’s 1984 was supposed to be a dystopian work of fiction, not a political handbook.
Stay save, stay sane, stay sharp, and spread the love.
Dark Fairy Adventures 
Leave a comment