so, why don't i criticize the russians?

because they rarely do things worth criticizing.

i mean, don't get me wrong - i wouldn't want to live in russia, not now and probably pretty much at no point in it's history. at right this moment, russia is struggling with population replacement, and pretty hostile to queer people as a consequence of it. the western media wants to blame this on putin, but it's primarily the church at the crux of it, and kind of a bottom-up problem - i might not face technical legal restrictions in most of russia, but i'd be in constant threat of being lynched, pretty much anywhere outside of downtown moscow. there's video footage of, like, queer-bashing mobs beating people up in the street. i think the smart analysis is that it's a reactionary movement against state restrictions on religion and probably generational, but how long it takes for russia to once again free itself from the effects of christianity is a hard thing to put bounds on.

i'm aware that i wouldn't be welcome there.

but, in terms of geopolitics, of strategic manipulation - it's the russians that are acting like a rational, humanitarian actor, here. it's the russians that are upholding international law. and, it's the americans that are acting like boorish mongoloids, drunk at the party, disinterested in any concept of law.

in theatre after theatre, it is simply the case that the russians are actually right and the americans are actually wrong - and the only argument that any american could come up with that isn't disingenuous is that might makes right, and self-interest defines what is correct, which is of course just an argument for nihilism and chaos.

i'm an anarchist, but i'm not a nihilist.

when the russians fuck up, i'll call them on it. but, they don't - so i don't.