This more a puff piece for Putin from the Anglosphere nativist libertarian right, masquerading as men's rights?

'One of the few feminist contributions to this discussion that I have come across was an article from Daily Mail columnist Amanda Platell...'

Amanda Platell, feminist, since when?

Arndt has form in promoting confected sociocultural issues e.g. 'freedom of speech' on campus for legacy media content/agitprop to help develop 'conservative' voter alliance of ageing nativist white men and women, to help pass unpalatable economic policies and avoid environmental constraints on fossil fuels; strong whiff of Koch Network influence?

Bronwyn,

In my travels through this issue, I came across an extremely comprehensive survey done in 2019.
http://www.iri.org/wp-content/uploads/legacy/iri.org/wysiwyg/2019_december_survey_of_residents_of_ukraine_ngproof_toct_03032020_comments_removed_final.pdf

In it you'll find such interesting results as:
* Svoboda, the party representing those you think have enormous influence in Ukraine, is supported by only about 1% of the voters.
* Even among those that live in eastern Ukraine, only 2% want to be reunited with Russia while a further 4% would like to become an independent country. 78% want to stay in Ukraine. (Remember, this is just those in the east. Elsewhere the desire for Donbass to remain in Ukraine is even higher.)

Lots of other interesting stuff.

Thank you mhaze. I appreciate your insight, but I also appreciate Bronwyn's motivation to argue her position. It has motivated me to find out a little more. A horrible subject, but interesting.

Interesting?

Not to the Ukrainian people.
Interesting is not a word that they would use.

Especially the little 3 year old lying in a hospital bed
with schrapnel in his gut and when asked - "Yuri how are
you?" Replied - "BOOM!"

Yes, I'm with Foxy....let's just emote about the horrors of war and not try to understand what's going on.

Bronwyn,

A nice summary here from the ABC about Nazis in Russia....
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-22/putins-fascists-russias-home-grown-neo-nazis/100927582

As to the previous post, although its very clear that the enforced absorption of the Donbass into Russia will be against the wishes of the locals and will probably result in a low level guerrilla resistance, that doesn't change the situation on the ground.

Here in the west, we always fret about fighting moral wars, trying to be on the right side of the issue and trying to see which side is fighting the moral war and therefore which is immoral.

But as historians like Hanson (and many others) have pointed out, the notion of a righteous war, or being morally on the correct side, is very much a western notion. While Russia fancies itself as being 'western', it has always seen war as an instrument or power. So whether they are on the right or wrong side morally doesn't occur to them. To be sure, they make the right noises to placate western opinion, but notions as to whether the 'liberated' people of Donbass want to be liberated, are not a high priority for them.

As I said, this is contest between T-34s and Javelin missiles, not a contest of morality.

mhaze,

Some people are not capable of understanding or showing
any empathy.