The war in Ukraine shows very clearly how imaginary or parallel realities clash with the real, tangible reality.
The parallel reality that has been constructed for a long time on Russian Kiselyov/Solovyov TV has been described at length. It is one in which lives not only the Russian underclass, for whom this TV is blaring 24/7 in the background, but also the country's top leadership, with Putin at its head. The distortions of that reality are mind-boggling, so people outside this universe do not understand why people in Russia not only do not protest against the horrific war crimes in Ukraine, but even mostly support them.
It may be difficult to grasp at first, but in this universe, all the horrors of war - the bombing of maternity hospitals and children's hospitals - are carried out by Ukrainians themselves. Everything bad that the Russians do in Ukraine is turned on Russian television into Nazi, Banderite atrocities which they, urged on by their American "masters", do to themselves in order to discredit the good name of Russian arms.
On Thursday, General Konashenkov, the official spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Defense, said without blinking an eye that a coronavirus had been developed in Ukrainian laboratories on behalf of the Americans for distribution across the border into Russia. And a lot of other nonsense. The fact that the shops are empty, the prices are sky-high and the rubles cannot be exchanged for any currency is not the fault of Putin and Russian aggression, but of the USA and the damned "Anglo-Saxons" (not to be confused with the English and the historical Saxons), whose aim from time immemorial has been to weaken and destroy Russia. We have heard much about this "reality" of the Russian world, but much less is said about the reality in which part of the Western world has lived for a long time. We are talking about the increasingly left-minded part of the Western world, which has likewise broken away from the earth and gradually moved next to Putin - into the astral plane. That is right, an astral world parallel to Putin. In one astral plane, the main problem is "Anglo-Saxons", and in the other, the age at which schools should teach about gender identities, the age at which children should be allowed to start hormone suppression "therapy" and how to limit parents' ability to influence their children's whims.
In this astral plane, a "battle" is fought against latent racism, cisgender patriarchal domination and various self-invented phobias. This "battle" is mostly fought virtually, each in his own smart device with the imaginary cardboard swords (cancel culture). In this parallel universe, the whole "pink pony" culture, with its snowflake fragility, has blossomed into a colorful flower. Walking in chains with a wooden frame clamped around one's neck and kissing the boots of shameless (because people with self-respect wouldn't let others do it) black people was the apogee of this culture.
It became clear to anyone who had not slept through physics lessons at school that, with Putin's gangster culture at one pole and this "pink pony" culture at the other, the discharge of electricity was inevitable. The only question is where the lightning will strike. The first strike hit Ukraine. It is imperative to make it clear here that I categorically dissociate myself from the narrative of the Russian universe that the war is between Russia and the US on Ukrainian territory. Putin may think that, but in reality, the war is between Putin's Russia, which has floated off into a parallel universe, and the real Ukrainian state and people who remain on the ground.
It is also clear that Putin would never dare to attack Ukraine (without the slightest necessity and substantial gain) if he were not confronted by these pink sweeties - Macron, Scholz, Biden. If the "reactionary conservatives" (in the modern left's classification) like Reagan, Thatcher and Churchill were sitting on the other side of the table, then no war would be even close to happening.
When the war in Ukraine started; when bombs were thrown at real houses and real people died, instead of the grand explosions in video games, it seemed for a moment that humanity might be able to wake up from all these pseudo-problems. In the early days of the war, the Covid pandemic, until then considered a huge problem, disappeared from the radar of public opinion like the morning mist in the July sun. It seemed that all those political-ideological games would disappear.
It is clear that the political tug-of-war will continue, and these leftist ideas have not gone anywhere. Germany cannot refuse Russian gas because it cannot renege on its promise to the Greens to close all nuclear power stations by the end of the year. Russia bombing the maternity hospital in Mariupol is extremely bad, but the principled closure of nuclear power plants (which is practically unsupported by any serious arguments) is much more important than that.
This discourse of thought is very accurately described by the vote of the European Parliament on Wednesday evening to impose sanctions... on Poland. Poland, which has taken in one and a half million Ukrainian refugees, is being punished for its judicial reforms, which do not correspond to this left-wing perception of reality. The reality of Polish life should be brought to the astral plane which is parallel to Putin's astral plane somewhere high in space. Did the fact that Europe has been in a situation of real war since February 24 change the vote one jot? Not at all. 478 in favor and only 155 against.
On the same day, the German Chancellor, whose name I do not even want to mention so as not to have to capitalize it, basically confessed that he could not wait for Ukraine to finally give in so that he would be released from the torment of his conscience. How else to interpret his phrase that a military solution to the Ukrainian war "is pointless". A "diplomatic solution" must be sought. That is, Ukraine should capitulate sooner, and then everyone can live as before. Burning Russian gas and fighting various phobias. Perhaps he could go to Mariupol and demonstrate his "diplomatic" skills? Perhaps he could share his advice with the relatives of those who died?
The myth, perpetuated for years, that military solutions "are pointless" and that a "diplomatic solution" should be sought (read: concede as much as the perpetrator demands) is precisely why Putin is Putin. It is because, one after the other, all these Obamas, Hollandes and Merkels have been talking to Putin in the language of diplomacy, while Putin has been doing whatever he wanted with violence.
At the moment, the shameful circle dance around Polish fighter jets, which on paper the many times more powerful NATO is afraid to hand over to the Ukrainians, just to "avoid angering Putin", is not a sign of real strength. Until the West, still slumbering lazily in its astral plane, wakes up and comes down to earth next to the Ukrainians, who now seem to be the only ones doing what they have to do, there will be no stable, long-term peace on earth. A stable peace is only possible when reality defeats illusions.