As War Strides into Russia, the Majority Are Not Hearing the Message They Should Be Hearing

Ukrainian incursion into Russia justifies Putin's war of genocide for many Russians.

Courtesy of CNN

‘I don’t think this military operation was a mistake, and I believe that what’s happening now is just one more piece of evidence that [the Ukrainians] are the true fascists (I Still Blame Putin).’

Sooner or later, the lies of propaganda catch up to reality. Reality, in all of its multifaceted brilliance, acts like fertilizer for the noxious ground upon which the tyrant harvests his version of the truth. The war Vladimir Putin commenced in the early morning of 24 February 2022 was based on myriad fantasies. 

The first fantasy was that the Russian army was a professional and capable one. The only signs of professionalism were that the soldiers were paid salaries. They weren’t conscripts. In every other regard, the hung-over soldiers, who had just celebrated Russia’s biggest “men’s holiday” on the 23rd — called “the Day of the Defenders of the Fatherland” — were as confused and as lost as any army that had been completely kept in the dark about the mission could be. When the order came to start up the engines of their tanks, many of the men were lost because the fuel had been sold to buy vodka and pay for the services of prostitutes. 

The other great fantasy that has recently been taken out of the drawer dusted off, and placed up on the dashboard for ignorant Russians is the notion that Ukraine is a “Nazi” country whose dream from birth is to invade and enslave Russians. The quote above is from a woman whose parents have gone missing from the area currently occupied by Ukrainian troops. Despite all of her concern over the whereabouts of her family members, she is still guided and energized by a lie that has been proven countless times over the past two years to have had no roots in reality. 

The desire to be and remain stupid has sadly become a safety blanket for hundreds of millions of people all over the earth. The weeks after the war began, my family and I went to a small Italian village in the North of Italy for lunch. Upon learning that we had arrived from Russia, the waitress told us how great Putin was. That was a common opinion among many in rural parts of Italy. I hear this view from many Europeans, the ones who are undoubtedly “Trump” voters. 

Stupidity, and I blame much of it on the zombifying effects of social media, is like a new “dark age” for humankind. Without “stupid,” Putin could never have invaded Ukraine. Trump could never been elected, and so many other tyrants now on the rise would not be threatening humankind. Climate change thrives on stupidity. 

Russians, notoriously never forthcoming when it comes to volunteering or helping their neighbors, are flourishing. Eternal pessimists, the notion that maybe Putin was right, are being roused from hibernation. A sense of giddiness replaces the endemic apathy because there is nothing more a pessimist likes than when things suddenly become ominous. When they can finally point to things like the burning farms and houses of the Kursk Region and say, “See, I told you. Vladimir Vladimirovich was right. They are Nazis, and they are coming for all of us.”

Residents of St. Petersburg are being offered nominal amounts of money ($70 for 10-hour shifts) to join “foxhole” brigades. The task will be to create the same interconnecting lines of foxholes and tank ditches used successfully in eastern Ukraine throughout the Kursk Region. In the comments section of the online article calling for workers, many people were critical of St. Petersburg residents being called up to do such work. 

“There are 120,000 refugees from Kursk. None of them can dig the tank ditches,” was a common refrain. This is the Russia I know so well. The one that never wants to help out a stranger in need, and this is the one we should all count on if we wish Putin to be removed from power and meet the fate of Benito Mussolini and other vicious tyrants. 

For now, though, Russians are falling in line the way they can always be expected when things get really shitty. They set aside their eternal desire to whine, avoid doing anything, and, for a brief moment, act like people in other societies. This moment is critical for Putin but not as critical as it may seem. 

It might actually be making him more loved and stronger.