Thread by @SlavaMalamud

When all of this is over, there'll be a lot of pro-Putin Russians who'll try to convince you they didn't understand anything, didn't know, were cut off from reliable information, were forced or afraid for their families, weren't into politics.
Don't believe them.
They know it all

They know what's happening. They know what their country has done. They understand everything perfectly well. And they support it not out of fear but because they like it. Because hate, if you are honest with yourself, is a satisfying feeling.
Because anger feels good.

And they are angry. They are furious. They hunger for respect, they long to be feared.
They hate the West because it's richer and doesn't respect them.
They hate Ukrainians because they no longer want to be like them.
They hate their own non-conformists because fuck those nerds.

This is what Putin has sold them. Not love for the Motherland (they loathe their Motherland, they hate its roads, they despise its corruption, they laugh at its soccer), not pride in the past, not religion, not unity, not strength.
His great gift to Russia is rage.
Murderous rage

And they like it. Rage is a powerful drug. Rage is addictive. Rage is hallucinogenic. Their propagandists are at their happiest when they throw off the mask of concerned Nazi resisters and just let themselves rage. They are giddy. High on it.
This is how nations lose their mind.

They'll try to forget this later. To convince themselves they were fooled, left in the dark by nefarious manipulators.
They will push the memories of their happy, fulfilled, delirious fury out of their minds.
But they know everything. And they love Putin because he lets them rage

They've loved him for this reason and this reason alone all these years.
They felt their dark selves rise, they loved the feeling, they didn't want it gone, and they adored their Dark Lord for showing them this power. The only power many of them are capable of wielding...

Its not a coincidence that so many of Putin's policies are explicitly cruel.
The law that snatched Russian orphans from the hands of would-be adoptive American parents. Anger and anger only was the motivator.
The law that decriminalized domestic violence. Small angry men adore it

The lavish, garish, vulgar Armed Forces Church built near Moscow looks like the only service it's fit for is the Black Mass. It's an altar of blood. A cathedral of violence. A temple of doom.
It has fucking Hitler's hat in it, for fuck's sake!
Russia has been seething for 20 yrs.

It has found its release. It's howling in an orgasm of hate.
And they know it. Every single one of them knows it.
They should never be allowed to forget it.