Wow, there’s a lot of “freethinking” going on out there!

Alright, here’s a quick rundown of anti-Ukraine talking points piped in directly from the Kremlin, all of which is totally false:

—Ukraine is run by Neo-Nazis.
—Ukraine and Russia have identical histories; Ukraine isn’t a real country.
—Ukraine commits genocide against Russian-speakers, massacres its own people.
—All footage of war crimes against Ukrainian civilians, destroyed Russian tanks, etc. is fake.
—The 2014 Maidan Square Revolution was a U.S.-backed “coup.”
—The Bidens are a “crime family” somehow puppeteering all events inside Ukraine.
—(A new one I just heard today) Ukraine is the “money-laundering and sex trafficking capital of the world.”
—American-funded biolabs in Ukraine, blah blah blah.

However! There *are* legitimate criticisms you can make about Ukraine and the West! These are *not* Kremlin talking points:

—Biden spoke rashly and dangerously when he stated that Putin should lose power, implying regime change should occur in Russia.
—Arming Ukraine is expensive and dangerous.
—Intervening in Ukraine would risk WWIII.
—We shouldn’t take in Ukrainian refugees.
—NATO expansion in Eastern Europe was a mistake, unnecessarily provocative, etc.

I don’t agree with all those points — I may even find them cruel and bigoted and inhumane — but they’re not Russian propaganda. They’re firmly within the American isolationist/libertarian tradition.

So, that’s kind of the taxonomy I go by. Category 1 are either Russian paid trolls or gullible idiots who have been consumed by the propaganda; Category 2 are more or less legitimate kinds of criticisms.

“Legit criticism”
1) yeah he should not have said the quiet part out loud.
2) We gave 27 billion dollars total. That is three times what US consumers spent at McDonald’s in 2021 for a vastly better outcome
3) Remember Chamberlain?
4) Under international law counties have a duty to accept refugees if possible
5) If countries want to join a defensive agreement they have the right to.