People That Look Like You Are Being Prevented From Boarding Trains In Ukraine

I’ve written on numerous occasions about how the instinct to boil every problem down to white supremacy or transphobia or some other all-encompassing evil, makes problems harder to solve. But I don’t think I’d realised how deep this habit runs until Russia started a war in Ukraine.

No sooner had the bombs begun to fall than the usual suspects were using them to highlight their pet grievances. Rogue pronouns, “wokeness”, racism, transphobia, the political spectrum was united in their desire to prioritise the culture wars over this actual war.

In my article, Putin’s Battle To Control Reality, I wrote about the lengths Putin (and many other leaders) go to to control the thinking of their citizens. Edmund wanted me to stay on topic. By which I mean, he wanted me to give more focus to his pet grievances.

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Edmund:

Your "give a dog a bad name and hang it" analysis ignores the casus belli. And you even managed to bring Trump's name into it. Can you dig a bit of background of the corruption in Ukraine and how the president's son benefited? Can you tell us about the Nord Stream pipeline sanctions the same president lifted when he came to office? Can also do a bit of research on the destroyed bio labs setup by US in Ukraine? Actions and consequences go together and not your tunnel vision of an analysis.

BTW people that look like you are being prevented from boarding trains in Ukraine to escape to Poland. How about that, Steve?

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Steve QJ:

BTW people that look like you are being prevented from boarding trains in Ukraine to escape to Poland. How about that, Steve?

Yep, I know. I saw that. What's the point you're making? That I shouldn't care about the innocent people who are dying because some of them are racist? Can I not oppose racism and simultaneously believe that civilians in Ukraine don't deserve to die?

I'm not pretending Ukraine is perfect. There's just absolutely no value in picking at flaws in Ukraine while a madman in a country god knows how may times their size breaks international law to attack them.

My analysis is simply of one aspect of the problem, how it's reflected elsewhere in the world, and how we should be paying more attention to it.

If you want an all encompassing breakdown of every thing Ukraine ever did wrong, by all means, go find the several books that would be needed to cover the topic. I'll content myself with worrying about the men, women and children dying right this second, thanks.

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Whenever somebody says something particularly stupid, and then stops replying once I point it out to them, I like to pretend that they quietly acknowledged their mistake and went away a more thoughtful person. And while this is almost certainly wishful thinking, I think the fact that Edmund didn’t reply further is telling.

This war has revealed both casual and overt racism, in Ukraine and elsewhere, and it’s been heartbreaking (and infuriating) to see. But anybody who finds it more heartbreaking than the bombs currently falling on children’s hospitals and the devastation of innocent people’s lives simply isn’t wired-up right.

It is my fervent hope that we’re not so busy dealing with World War 3 for the next few years that there’s time for a conversation about these issues. About how differently we talk about refugees whose skin happens to be white. About when having a Netflix account became a measure of people’s worth. About how people find time for racial discrimination in the middle of a war zone.

But even as somebody who is concerned enough about racism to spend the majority of his time writing and talking about it, it’s clear that now isn’t the time for that conversation. Hopefully Edmund, with a little nudging, realised that too.