Political Memes

That's what absolutely hits me, I do get these people. Before the Invasion of Ukraine in 2022, I'd be among the lot. I was calling for peace with Russia in the ongoing russo-ukrainian war that started with the invasion of Crimea in 2014.

I still wanted lower expenditure for the military, tighter economic bonds with Russia (which mostly meant german investment in Russia and import of russian natural gas), I was in favor of North Stream II and wanted to ensure peace through economic integration between the EU and Russia. The russian economy should simply rely so much on the european and vice-versa, that war between us or aggressive imperialism by Russia would simply be too expensive for them.

And while I (to this day) carry strong anti-american sentiments, they are grounded in my opposition to imperialism. The difference between them and me is that they will only ever see the West as the imperialists, while basically excusing everything Russia does.

And that I simply can not. I was... unsure about what to think about the russian invasion of Crimea, of course I absolutely detested it... but at the same time I hung on to my strongly pacifist tendencies and hoped that somehow the whole affair could still be settled peacefully.

But with the all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has shown that any lack of opposition will be taken as a sign of weakness by the imperial russian power and an invitation to commence aggression and subjugation. This is unacceptable and Russia can not be allowed to profit from the conflict it started, because that would only encourage further incursions, war and loss of lives in the future.