The Narrative That This War Was "Unprovoked" Prevents Peace
As Noam Chomsky has been pointing out repeatedly, the political/media class have been continually indoctrinating the public with the completely false narrative that Russia's invasion of Ukraine was "unprovoked". Every time the war comes up, the imperial spinmeisters utter that slogan.
But what does it mean if the war is "unprovoked"? It means Putin didn't invade Ukraine because of anything the western empire was doing, so it couldn't have been prevented by the western empire behaving less aggressively on Russia's borders. It means Putin necessarily invaded because he is some kind of evil lunatic who loves to commit war crimes, or a megalomaniacal tyrant who wants to conquer the world because he hates freedom and democracy. Which means he will keep attacking and invading other countries unless he can be stopped. Which means the only answer to the Putin problem is more war.
This is why empire apologists get angry at those who advocate the only sane and rational position toward nuclear brinkmanship by calling for de-escalation and detente. It's because they've been aggressively indoctrinated into the belief that war is the only answer.
As long as the fact that this war was provoked remains unacknowledged by the side that provoked it, the sane path of de-escalation will look like reckless appeasement of an irrational madman, and aggressive escalations of nuclear brinkmanship will look like sanity. The absurd position that Putin is an irrational actor with some kind of weird sexual fetish for war crimes is a one-way ticket to endlessly escalating war and eventual nuclear annihilation, because it leaves you with no options but continually intensifying military confrontation.
Does a madman who goes around invading countries solely because he's evil and hates freedom sound like a real-life human being to you? Or does it sound made up? Like something you'd see in a Hollywood movie? Like something that was concocted by people responsible for controlling the dominant narratives of our society and funneled into your mind using media?
Marvel supervillains have more depth and complexity than the one-dimensional characters the imperial spin machine concocts to represent its official enemies. Thanos was a more believable character with more understandable and nuanced motivations than the propaganda machine's fictional representation of Putin. That representation has been overlaid on top of the actual government official who you might not necessarily agree with, but can definitely understand and engage in diplomacy and negotiation.
Someone's benefitting from the aggressively promulgated narrative that peace is impossible and war is the only solution. And that someone isn't you.
"Of course it was provoked. Otherwise they wouldn't refer to it all the time as an unprovoked invasion."
~ Noam Chomsky
Source: Caitlin Johnston -
https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/the-narrative-that-this-war-was-unprovoked The Narrative That This War Was "Unprovoked" Prevents Peace
As Noam Chomsky has been pointing out repeatedly, the political/media class have been continually indoctrinating the public with the completely false narrative that Russia's invasion of Ukraine was "unprovoked". Every time the war comes up, the imperial spinmeisters utter that slogan.
But what does it mean if the war is "unprovoked"? It means Putin didn't invade Ukraine because of anything the western empire was doing, so it couldn't have been prevented by the western empire behaving less aggressively on Russia's borders. It means Putin necessarily invaded because he is some kind of evil lunatic who loves to commit war crimes, or a megalomaniacal tyrant who wants to conquer the world because he hates freedom and democracy. Which means he will keep attacking and invading other countries unless he can be stopped. Which means the only answer to the Putin problem is more war.
This is why empire apologists get angry at those who advocate the only sane and rational position toward nuclear brinkmanship by calling for de-escalation and detente. It's because they've been aggressively indoctrinated into the belief that war is the only answer.
As long as the fact that this war was provoked remains unacknowledged by the side that provoked it, the sane path of de-escalation will look like reckless appeasement of an irrational madman, and aggressive escalations of nuclear brinkmanship will look like sanity. The absurd position that Putin is an irrational actor with some kind of weird sexual fetish for war crimes is a one-way ticket to endlessly escalating war and eventual nuclear annihilation, because it leaves you with no options but continually intensifying military confrontation.
Does a madman who goes around invading countries solely because he's evil and hates freedom sound like a real-life human being to you? Or does it sound made up? Like something you'd see in a Hollywood movie? Like something that was concocted by people responsible for controlling the dominant narratives of our society and funneled into your mind using media?
Marvel supervillains have more depth and complexity than the one-dimensional characters the imperial spin machine concocts to represent its official enemies. Thanos was a more believable character with more understandable and nuanced motivations than the propaganda machine's fictional representation of Putin. That representation has been overlaid on top of the actual government official who you might not necessarily agree with, but can definitely understand and engage in diplomacy and negotiation.
Someone's benefitting from the aggressively promulgated narrative that peace is impossible and war is the only solution. And that someone isn't you.
"Of course it was provoked. Otherwise they wouldn't refer to it all the time as an unprovoked invasion."
~ Noam Chomsky
Source: Caitlin Johnston - https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/the-narrative-that-this-war-was-unprovoked
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