Yeah not only in the USA for sure.
What irks me most is that it’s often people who claim to be unpolitical. But they aren’t really, they just don’t bother to inform themselves and react on gut feelings instead. Those gut feelings can be dumb anger or dumb “Peace & Love”, but if they lead to someone saying that “Putin does not seem like he wants to harm Europe” it doesn’t really matter anymore, it’s just dumb. What can you say to such people? “Inform yourself”?
Meet them on their level. Tell them the more salacious details about what he’s already done, and that he’s basically an evil bond villain playing the long game. I tell them about the radioactive poisoning, nerve agent poisonings, troll farms, election interference. Throw in a bit of nationalism, after all Putin’s been goading us for years, he basically rubbed our faces in his misdeeds… Previously this was all the west, not just Europe.
Yeah not only in the USA for sure.
What irks me most is that it’s often people who claim to be unpolitical. But they aren’t really, they just don’t bother to inform themselves and react on gut feelings instead. Those gut feelings can be dumb anger or dumb “Peace & Love”, but if they lead to someone saying that “Putin does not seem like he wants to harm Europe” it doesn’t really matter anymore, it’s just dumb. What can you say to such people? “Inform yourself”?
Meet them on their level. Tell them the more salacious details about what he’s already done, and that he’s basically an evil bond villain playing the long game. I tell them about the radioactive poisoning, nerve agent poisonings, troll farms, election interference. Throw in a bit of nationalism, after all Putin’s been goading us for years, he basically rubbed our faces in his misdeeds… Previously this was all the west, not just Europe.
So yes, inform them. I do that. More or less - time permitting. And take care that their eyes don’t glaze over.