Day 631
It occurred to me this morning that Russia decided to wage all-out war against Ukraine exactly ten years ago today. The last two years have been the bloodiest, most gruesome part of the crime, warping our cognitive bias that helps us make fast, but sometimes incorrect, assessments of what happened before November 15, 2013.
February 20, 2014 will mark 10-year anniversary for some, February 24, 2022 will be a 2-year anniversary for others, but November 15, 2013 is the seminal day for me1. And that’s ignoring 20-year anniversaries from 2004. (Google Photos keeps on asking me if I want to delete my snaps of that cold, mushy mess).
Thank heaven for today’s new gurus – ex-GIs from failed US military campaigns turned blue-ticked cultural warriors — whose fantasies of a better way come tumbling down in Xspaces with soothing replacement theories, with hardcore anonymity. They are admirable. They are energetic. They work up a sweat at the edges of convention, then smash on through with the earnest fecklessness required to come up with epithets like BLM and BIPOC. No need for flashing images here (though the thought of small turd-like icons, with wafts of steam proportionate to the freshness of the deposit, did cross my mind).
Putin chats up paratroopers in Ryazan. (Reuters, November 15, 2013)