Unrepentant Lefty Feminist Tree Hugging Socialist For Peace
Since when did the Democrats get all goose-pimply gung-ho about war?
Photo Credit - AleXander Hirka / Used with permission
Stop all of it right now.
Now. Stop designing and building more and more sophisticated weapons systems. Stop the killing right this minute. Everyone, go home. All the rich nations (who let’s admit got rich by plundering everyone else; sorry, not sorry Global South) are hereby charged with helping all the broken nations rebuild. For free. War is nothing more than theft and murder. When someone does that to one person, it’s illegal. When entire countries do it to tens of thousands, even millions, of people they write it up in history books.
How depraved has the United States become on its way into history?
Well, I hear that “liberal House Democrats” have caved in and rescinded a letter urging our Warmonger-in-Chief to negotiate with Russia. When did the Dems turn into such bloodthirsty hawks who are so completely disconnected from reality? All my adult life, I thought it was only those dastardly, evil Republicans who were eager to send people’s sons out to kill other people’s sons (well, oops, President Johnson). Hell, when Henry Kissinger is urging caution in Eastern Europe we know that we’ve slipped into another dimension.
Need more?
So the Biden administration says it would be “immoral” to talk to Putin in a bid to end the carnage in Ukraine but was ready to sit down with him to discuss the fate of one basketball player imprisoned in Russia (who thought it was a good idea to carry hash in her luggage over there).
I know I’ll get the same tired old accusations anyway — because apparently, the supporters of this war have no other rocks to throw — but no, I do not support Putin. I am not a Russian agent. I’m not being paid by Moscow.
However, I’m also not a blind flag-waver for NATO or someone who believes it didn’t provoke Putin by repeatedly breaking promises. People who do are at best misinformed. Much as we may want to slip into comforting grade school beliefs that we’re the Good Guys and whoever it is we’re invading this time are the Bad Guys, my fellow Americans…it’s time to grow TF up.
I was inoculated against unquestioning patriotism growing up during the Vietnam War.
While watching friends’ older brothers being drafted to go kill and be killed in jungles on the other side of the world, we Junior Boomers also grew up believing that it was just a matter of time before some goofball hit the wrong button and started the last World War. Thought we were goners for sure in 1962 and that was just one of the times we actually found out how close we came to the Big One. We don’t even want to speculate how often we’ve been within one jerk’s dumbass move that would annihilate us all.
However, when calmer voices speak up to warn that it’s not smart to be poking nuclear-armed bears with sticks, we are rounded upon by hysterical bleating about the violated sovereignty of Ukraine. Never mind that The Greatest Country in the World has been going around violating the sovereignty of numerous countries for decades.
Oh, right. Our military and intelligence operatives only violated the sovereignty of brown people’s countries.
Leaving aside (for this piece anyway) all the corrupt and vile moving parts on every side of this mess in Ukraine, at some point we need to face the fact that our — and I’m talking about the United States here — almost pathological need to constantly be killing people in other countries is destabilizing the entire world.
What kind of shining city on the hill does that kind of crap?
I have wondered since I was in the eighth grade what is wrong with men that they keep this insanity going generation after generation. Certainly, women are pulled into the madness as well.
But — and I’m not going to make any friends with this one — I don’t think a society dominated by women would include enormous standing armies and centuries of invasions. I don’t kid myself and think a matriarchal society would be some kind of egalitarian utopia. The gods know women are every bit as selfish, greedy, fearful, and shortsighted as men. But it’s that added dollop of testosterone that seems to keep a large part of the male population intoxicated with bloodlust.
We have too many other existential nightmares bearing down on us now to keep acting like truculent little boys with guns.
It’s abundantly clear, however, that we won’t pull our collective heads out of our collective asses to really address the coming climate catastrophes. No one cares about hurricanes, wildfires, or killer tornadoes until they lose their homes and families. We’ll let our fellow humans get wiped out by the next pandemic and the one after that before we’ll put aside our differences and care for each other. Our preoccupation with grabbing the most cookies while depriving others of the basic necessities of life manifests every day that another alienated boy goes out with his gun and kills people.
And just for the record — before I stow my soapbox for the night — socialism is not a bad thing. Even the most ardent MAGA-head is real happy when he gets his monthly Social Security check or can get that stent put into his ailing heart thanks to Medicare.
There is so much that we do right by each other.
But what we do wrong is going to take us out as we blindly, stubbornly, stupidly insist that the only way to stop war is by killing more of their guys than they can kill of ours.
No. I do not support that.
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