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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 1, 2023

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I posit that aiding Ukraine is in fact the anti-war position, just as handing a weapon to a man who's being mugged is "anti-mugging".

I'm sure that's what they said about Korea and Vietnam, too.

The game of "claiming that my warmongering is defensive" has a long history.

Does that mean it's impossible for war to ever be primarily caused by one of the two belligerent parties?

The Romans are said to have "Conquered the world in self-defense."

I still challenge anyone to find me a primary source, contemporary to the war, from the perspective of those starting a war, that did not have at least a vague claim to the moral right to start the war. We have this perception that before WWI, countries just started wars for fun, and it was an accepted thing that happened. But in reality, there was always some moral justification for why this war was morally acceptable. Humans have a basic understanding that war and violence are bad, and need some moral framework that provides them with some flimsy moral highground. One might content that this or that moral high ground was so silly that no one could possibly believe in it, but if it wasn't important it wouldn't be done over and over.