#or that they're perfect things that catch everything or instantly will bring russia to it's knees

[medicinemane]

I really do think one of the biggest problems in the world is people's inability to accept shades of grey

Thing is, a lot of people are totally willing to accept shades of grey... unless it's something they care about, and then they're gonna say "no, only my way is correct!"

It's just like... if we can't talk about things like adults, if we can't talk about what the costs of each way of doing things are without covering our ears and pretending our plan has no costs because we don't want it to have any... well we can't figure out a solution, can we?

#I'm not gonna talk about what this is actually about; what's actually stuck in my craw here #instead what I'll say is that like... lets take sanctions on russia as an example #people will be like 'but that hurts ordinary russians more than it hurts putin!' #and it's like... of course it does; of course it absolutely does; that sadly is the way these things work #the people at the top are always hurt the least by these things and pass all the pain on to the people at the bottom #but I can acknowledge that; I'm not sat here pretending that the sanctions are only happy fun times #or that they're perfect things that catch everything or instantly will bring russia to it's knees #and this is what I'm talking about with accepting some grey #I accept that the sanctions I support can hurt people who don't deserve it #and I accept that they're not a perfect solution #it's just in the end I think that the harm from not sanctioning russia and not trying to starve their military of supplies #and just generally put as much pressure as possible on them #that doing it outweighs any downsides #or like killing russian soldiers; I understand that when I hear a russian military pilot crashed and died #and I go 'oh thank goodness'; that I'm feeling glad about another person's life being snuffed out #it's just... one less pilot means one less person to fling missiles at civilians #I accept that I have to back imperfect solutions that cause pain that I don't like #I have to accept that much as I hate it; the US military industrial complex has it's uses with being able to do stuff like supply Ukraine #and that sadly... we can't just wish away war; we have to approach it like adults if we ever want to find a final cure for war #and it may not even be possible; and it probably won't happen in my life #but I can't just peacenik and say 'no war man' and magically have Ukraine not be invaded #you've got to accept a little pain and a little bad when you're thinking about what needs to be done big scale #purely because if you don't you might cause even more pain that what you're trying to avoid; because you just covered your ears about it #...fucking idiot #not saying what this is about; but fucking selfish idiots #I'm even nominally on the same side; just I don't put my feelings first on this shit #and I see I can't just magic fairy dust and hope to make things work out the way you think they will (but they never do) #and I actually worry about shit like government surveillance which for all your claims... you sure seem happy to accept it in this case #and your being fucking selfish and putting your wants and feelings over practical concerns and solutions does so much harm #you literally make the world a concretely worse place with more death in pursuit of your morality