Lex of Excel's Miscellaney

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/04/us/politics/platner-maine-senate-girlfriends-relationships.html?unlocked_article_code=1.nlA.Bsm5.vZGAKLQzqR0k&smid=nytcore-android-share

And separately!

"There is an evil empire next door to you, and they keep trying to invade"

"Well, just let them? Borders aren't real, silly!"

"When they invade they want to stop you from passing down your culture, ban your language, stop you from celebrating your holidays, kidnap your kids and scatter them to the four winds."

"Well, I would just stop them, I would say no! I'd hashtag RESIST!"

"Then, they will kill you, and everyone who tries to resist."

"Well then I would fight back, I'd form a resistance movement against them, we'd train with weapons and learn to make bombs and..."

"Wouldn't it be easier if you had already trained that resistance before people were dying? Maybe, get them to learn how to hold a rifle or pilot a drone before they have to do it in secret?"

"Yeah, probably."

But the thing is, it absolutely does. People from the countries that haven't known war for decades or have always been the aggressor are equating any military with evil. Even if they say they discern between the perpetrator and the victim fighting back, there's still this underlying feeling of contempt and mistrust. And it is very much interfering with Ukraine's ability to defend itself.

At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, plenty of the so-called 'progressive' westerners were opposing arming Ukraine because 'weapon bad', berating queer Ukrainians posting about taking up arms to fight russia, asking others to disregard charities related to the military needs. People were willing to donate to foodbanks etc, but not to charities collecting money for the frontline needs. Which is fine as a personal preference, and we are grateful for any help, but when it turns into a stance where supporting the military is considered bad, it's equals holding a person's hands back while they're being attacked with a knife so that they can't defend themselves, and then nobly tending to their wounds.

And what's worse, it leads to complete disregard of the victims in the military. While the civilian deaths can draw at least some attention, the deaths in the army are met with indifference. And no, not in all instances it's by design of the military as a system made to kill, so the argument 'if it wasn't for the military, they'd be alive' doesn't work in Ukraine's case. In Ukraine's case, if it wasn't for the military, they'd be just as dead, and many more people would be dead as well.

And still, I remember a post of a female Ukrainian war medic interacting with the foreigners, and realizing that her fellow figters and veterans do not even make it to the list of those deserving sympathy in their eyes despite defending the others (with the adult Ukrainian civilians being far at the bottom of the list way below animals and 'great russian culture', but that's a different conversation). And the military are one of the most vulnerable groups in the Ukrainian society at the moment due to constant danger, exhausting 24/7 work and life-changing injuries. The only way they could become even more vulnerable would be if none of us were given weapons and trained in defense at all, an entire society becoming a target with zero chance of fighting back. So, you know, if there was no military.

White people don't deserve to be oppressed or receive payback because you think they're too privileged.

There's not a single race or ethnic group you can belong to that makes it acceptable to persecute you or deny you equal treatment under the law. Everyone has equal worth and value as a human being no matter what they look like, where they come from, or where they were born.

["Tankie" (noun) - a person with ostensibly leftist views who promotes authoritarianism and often defends dictatorships across the political spectrum; originally referred to defenders of the Soviet use of tanks to suppress protests.]

There's one thing you need to know that will clear it all up:

These people do not have, or believe in, principles or morals. The only thing they value is which of two teams you're on

This is why they rightly condemn the USA's genocide against Native Americans while ignoring, defending, or downplaying Russia's genocide of indigenous Siberians

This is why they use any Ukrainian Nazi they can find as proof that all Ukrainians are Nazis, treat any Anti-Nazi Ukrainians as inherently untrustworthy unless they start calling themselves Russian, yet make no criticisms of Russian Nazis or of the Russian government's imperialist and ethnonationalist rhetoric

This, in addition to regular antisemitism, is why they subject Jews to so many purity tests. A situation very similar to their attitude towards Ukrainians

This is why they rightly condemn the USA's prison-industrial complex but see nothing wrong with China putting Uyghurs in re-education camps

This is why they uncritically cite sources like the Grayzone while decrying any reliable publication that so much as fact-checks one of the good team's claims as a propaganda outlet for the bad team

This is why, despite rightly pointing out that no group of people is a monolith, they have the incredibly hostile reactions they have when a Palestinian criticizes Hamas, when an Iranian criticizes the Islamic Republic, when a Chinese person criticizes the CPC, or when a North Korean criticizes the Kim dynasty. Because despite what they say, they actually do consider good team countries to be monolithic - so anyone from one of those countries who criticizes their government must be a traitor working for the bad team. By contrast, anyone from a bad team country who sides with the good team must be enlightened and incapable of doing or saying anything wrong - as long as they continue to show unquestioning support for the good team

This is why their view on protesters being brutalized by their government depends entirely on which team that government is on

This is why they regard any co-operation between Palestinians and Israeli Jews as unforgiveable (see their reaction towards Standing Together). Because those Palestinian are deemed traitors who cosy up to the bad team, while the Israeli Jews are held as lying agents of the bad team who have no intention of actually working towards peace or Palestinian liberation, because why would anyone from the bad team ever support that

This is why despite an ostensible opposition to racism and other forms of ethnic bigotry, they're somewhat fond of resorting to race science when someone from a bad team country that's not their own, or a marginalized person from a bad team country that is their own, disagrees with them on a political matter

And any other apparent contradictions within their rhetoric, actions, or ideology, can also be quickly resolved if you look at what they're saying through this good team/bad team lens

This is also why the horseshoe phenomenon happens in the first place - conservatives also reject morals and principles in favor of teams, it's the basis for their entire ideology, and while some conservatives tend to view their own society as the good team, the far-right tends to claim that they are being infiltrated and/or controlled by the bad team

We all know that’s bullshit because if you did spend all your time writing “Free Palestine” comments underneath everyone’s posts — more than just Jewish people would be complaining.

Resistance rarely looks like it does in the movies. That is the first lie you have to unlearn if you're ever going to be serious about fighting (gestures wildly) all the things going on right now. Otherwise miss me with your over the top "Burn the shit down" rhetoric; the skill set that burns it all down is often notoriously bad at organizing a livable structure from the rubble.

I'm well aware that it ain't according to the current goyische leftist playbook to talk to Jews, listen to Jews, or witness the stories of Holocaust survivors without immediately jumping in to universalize them or spin them into "But that's what's happening in Gaza--" Button it. Trying to retcon historical events specific to one group to agree with your worldview is a fucking shanda.

Listen to WWII vets. Listen to the accounts of the Tuskegee airmen or the Navajo code talkers or the WACs who served overseas. Listen to the girls and women who were codebreakers at Bletchley Park. They served long hours, days, weeks, months, and often years knowing that even seemingly small tasks were essential to the war effort. Glamorous and sexy and Instagrammable? No. But it contributed to the defeat of the Axis powers, and that isn't nothing.

It's bullshit.

It’s the very childish black-and-white mentality that if one side is “The Bad Guys” then whoever is fighting them must be “The Good Guys”. It can’t just be that a bunch of countries do fucked up shit in the name of their national interest/self-mythology, and that that holds true around the world and across Capitalist/Communist lines.