#1 Putin Isn't the Only Monster in Ukraine - Dangerous Propaganda

I'm going to try make you as uncomfortable as I feel...

• Photo by Daniele Franchi

­I'm going to try make you as uncomfortable as I feel, and talk about Nazis, NATO, fake democracy, the awful semantics of warmongers, South Africa’s abstention vote at the United Nations, and John Mearsheimer (the current hero of sanity for societal outcasts like me... and hopefully you).

My position will be perceived controversial by some because we live in a world wherein facts don’t matter. Nevertheless, I’m 100% aiming at the long-term safety of Ukraine.

I’m exhausted from watching the war from the safety of my laptop, over 15,000km away, and more so after digging through the propaganda.

I no longer feel only South African. Now there’s a bit of Russian in me, and even more Ukrainian. But that’s only sympathy. No matter that I’m a man of imagination, empathy requires first-hand experience. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mitigate my horror.

I don’t want to strangle the shouting within me into a short opinion for the sake of social media (which too often manages to appear as egotistical attention-seeking instead of protest). So, I’m making this long-form essay which I’m doubling into a podcast. Maybe my self-education will assist another towards theirs.

The Clouds of Cloudy War

My gut reaction is anti-war, but as I reach my half-century, my head struggles to float in those clouds of idealism. I well know that the initial challenge to understanding important issues is that the bigger the situation, the bigger the bullshit we’re fed.

I seethe with frustration that the war has devolved into a biased narrative eagerly delivered by mainstream Media.

Is Putin the muscular devil, Biden the grandfather of democracy and Zelensky the angel of Ukraine? Should we erase the inconvenience of history and sacrifice the future to live in the moments of tears and fears being broadcast at us by the same people who covered Syria and Vietnam? How quickly the world has forgotten Iraq even though Iraqis never can.

This is another disinformation war meant to fool us whilst fulfilling the passion for ratings, money and power (commercial and geopolitical). War should never be a movie made for TV. And Ukrainian lives should not be traded.

Ukraine is an ambiguous complexity. Unravelling her requires understanding the role of the countries who’ve made her their tug-of-war toy.

On the side of the toy’s packaging, there’s the standard warning: DANGEROUS IF SWALLOWED. Unsurprisingly, the stamp says: MADE IN THE USA. And it’s obvious that Russia swallowed, but not because she was hungry.

I will hardly address Russia’s propaganda because that’s easy to see through. The converse is that even when Putin tells a truth, none but Russians believe him. Even then, not all of them. But enough so that Russia is on his side.

Justifiably, a Ukrainian facing a bullet only needs to focus on the finger on the gun. I’m not diminishing their bravery (which I’m in awe of). But to ensure peace, those outside must seek truthful context and share it - the soldier holding the gun is part of an army which is part of a country which has disputes with other countries in a world ruled by greed for power. Ukraine is being served as an appetiser to Western gluttony.

It’s obvious that Putin is worried because, for the first time in two decades, his neutral-sometimes-charming composure slipped.

Then there was that March 5 speech that he strangely made to sexy Aeroflot stewardesses. I expect that he followed advice that he would seem more friendly, even brotherly, but only a presidential porn movie would have fleetingly distracted us away from the war.

One of the smartest autocrats is making error. But being trolled as insane by tabloids such as CNN is blunder. Don’t underestimate him. An anxious Putin would be a ‘game’ escalator.

The United Nothing

The non-binding UN General Assembly vote on 2 March 2022 was a publicity stunt intended to induce countless headlines from biased media pretending moral revelation is useful. South Africa’s abstention has been treated as immoral and the equivalent of approving the war. It’s been repeated with such vagary that it’s possible that the less attentive would think that it was about a real vote for action.

The real vote happened the week before, with the UN Security Council on 25 February, and was as pathetic because Russia vetoed it. There’s no united United Nations when China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, together or alone, can veto the world to protect their materialism and lust for influence.

If you’re wondering why Germany isn’t included in those UN Super Powers, it’s because of the inconvenient fact that they’re mostly responsible for the 60-million people that died in World War 2 (WW2). That half of those were Russian is something that isn’t taught enough in the West!

American movies generally exclude the war suffering of others in favour of American nationalism. All countries do, but the U.S.A. is overwhelming the best at marketing its ego.

Nationalism demands superior suffering. In that, all Super Powers are super sufferers. And it’s no different for subjugates such as Ukraine, only proportional to the attention they gain or the power they wield.

It's healthy for the logical mind to remind that the USA, like Russia, has denied the will of the UN. Two profound examples of bias include:

• The U.S.A. being the sole naysayer in the UN Security Council in 2018, then presided by the Russian Federation, in Kuwait’s submission for international human rights law to be applied to the plight of Palestine, and that necessary measures be undertaken to protect civilians and hold all perpetrators of violations accountable and;

• The USA vetoing the lifting of sanctions against Cuba in 2021. They defied the 194 members of the UN General Assembly that had humanely voted in favour. The UN has condemned the embargo 29 times, declaring it in violation of the Charter of the UN and international law. Israel is the country that has most routinely joined the U.S. in voting against the resolution.

I also mentioned WW2 because Nazism will become an issue in my pursuit of understanding Ukraine. There’s a lot to it but maybe racism doesn’t matter in the fog of war. I will explain that later.

Super Propaganda

Propaganda partly exists to pretend that we, the Public, are not useless. And because we don't think we're useless, we choose to believe propaganda. It's a self-contained system of consciousness and subconsciousness choosing death whilst strengthening death dealers. But only the conscious factor gets to drive a fancy car and live in a mansion before dying. The rest pay more taxes.

The first honest action towards escape is to bow to history which commands us to admit that politicians and those behind them can rarely be trusted, and that it is unlikely that any country is kind to others without a hidden plan, and that super powers must be evil to retain that status.

We're supposed to only condemn Putin as the bad guy whilst forgetting the millions the USA has killed, directly and indirectly, during its 70-year history of invasion, assassination, carpet-bombing, rebel funding, geopolitical sanctions and unforgivably economic selfishness that gave us gifts such as the 2008 global recession.

I'm not excusing Russia's role in Ukraine - one dead child there is far too many, and I battle to cope with the tears of those losing their homes. But informed choices cannot only be a reaction to scenes of terror delivered by televisions with terror agenda.

We must punch for truth and win our opinion. I'm not talking to that quasi-human animal that's scrolling through "Ooh, that kitty kat is kute", "Kim Kardashian, I love you", "Bombings in Ukraine, naughty, naughty Putin, let me support Zelensky with three broken hearts, a flower, a kiss and a like," and "Hey, thanks YouTube, there's another link to a kitty kat." Super Powers may control our world, but morons are their lieutenants encouraging us to step into the gas chamber.

Getting the facts straight is important because lying will not help Ukraine in the long term. Lies have played an important role in launching the missiles making victims now. It's possible that no adult is innocent but it's the lot of the common person, everywhere in our world, to allow our lives to be blown away by the hurricanes of sociopaths.

As I end this introduction, there are only three kinds of people still listening to me: There’s the guy who’s immediately decided to hate me because I’m challenging the “hoo-rah” democracy screenplay he’s been fed; the conspirator who supports everything supporting the USA being the Great Satan; and, finally, the rare inbetweener who gains as many opinions as possible in their personal quest for truth. I’m trying to be the latter kind, but it’s been a struggle.

Truth is worth the struggle. The past month found me weeping for Ukrainians whilst angry at the foreign deceits which got them into this war. I'm both sympathetic to Ukrainians and supporter of uncomfortable truth that fails to flatter them. You can also do both without contradiction.

In essay #2, I discuss the merit of South Africa’s contradictory reaction to the war, Russia’s thanks for our abstention, Germany’s clever outrage, and President Cyril Ramaphosa’s response.

I’m Mike Hampton, saying, “Politicians, obey the Public.”