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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 24, 2025

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the ethnic similarity of the two peoples,

I think this is very much in the eye of the beholder: Western progressives happily lump together "White" Poles and Germans, but that didn't stop any number of atrocities on the ground in WWII. They also wouldn't generally distinguish between "Black" Hutu and Tutsi in any context that wasn't directly related to the relevant genocide. From someone far away (maybe you are not, but I am), it's hard to qualify feelings on the ground. Surely those genetically similar, Abrahamic-religion-followers in the former British mandate of Palestine are getting along nicely.

Well, but this war was started and heavily propagandised on the basis of Ukrainians not being considered a separate people by the Russians. As a matter of fact, Putin's Chief of Staff is apparently half Ukrainian (and half Jewish). Russians sometimes have a measure of disrespect for them as "backwater swineherds", but it's not genocidal hatred - more people in either country have some relatives in the other than don't.

It appears that the average pro-war Russian's doublethink can perfectly reconcile "Ukrainians and Russians are the same people" and "fucking glass those salo-nazi khokhols already, I can't wait".