Putin clearly put some forethought into this whole affair. Mobilized forces under the guise of 'training.' Him or subordinates tried to anticipate threats fabricating.. devices.. to cope.
Much like Russia's efforts at taking Crimea and disemboweling civilian government in Donbas showed a lot of planning. Crimea was the surgical strike the media made itself marvel at. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_gr…
In Donbas Russia leaned upon more 'irregular' forces. Using them to attack police and places of government to oust the locals. These would turn out not to be elite soldiers but often country bumpkins. kp.ru/daily/26225.7/…
Russia used it's military to sow Ukraine with heavy weapons after taking out civilian government and implanting it's own. These were the fighters who downed #MH17. businessinsider.com/russian-igor-s…
I think what me and a lot of others thought was Russia was going to replay the 2014 invasion but with it looking more like Crimea than Donbas. Russia seemingly tried this plot by investing in traitors/turncoats but was only partially successful. themoscowtimes.com/2022/04/03/ukr…
If Ukraine only hibernated since 2014 without preparing itself for the invasion they knew one day would come, Russia would've been successful in taking Kyiv and holding false referendums by now.
IMO this is one of the reasons the memes are so lit. Ukraine's efforts went completely against Russia's script. A script they've successfully replayed in nations across it's borders for decades now.
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I'm all for free speech but lets be real, if Trump gets unbanned he will go straight to inciting mobs again. He never got over losing the election, then losing his attempt to steal it.
All those years of grooming his followers into thirsting for political violence were wasted. But he has not been punished beyond getting banz0red. We would be right back to roving mobs of militias within weeks incited by their cult leader.
And I do mean cult members in the literal sense. Cultists who were directly given names of "Enemies of the People" and complied by attacking them and sending pipe bombs like Cesar Sayoc AKA the MAGA bomber did.
It is no mistake that Russia's state propaganda lately mirrors that of schizophrenic right wing 4chan posters. Exact same pipeline with much of the same objects of obsession.
"Who is your enemy today? Whatever we tell you it is."
"What ideologies or beliefs do they hold? Everything the previous targets we programmed you to hate held."
Repeat this enough times and you end up with messes like in #pt.
Pro-tip, you can identify these people IRL by how they structure their expressions. Basically it is a fucking mess. Take every grievance they formed over a decade and string them all together.
Recalling that time I saw Assad/Putin's ass lickers cheering the killing of rescue workers and it made me realize it was a death cult. A cult whose targets were marked by Kremlin.
As time went by a lot of these profiles adorned themselves with MAGA caps. With their programming to hate entities like rescue workers and media intact. Why those groups? Because they made authoritarian regimes look bad.
That really was the only unifying variable behind what types of people these users called for the killing of or cheered their deaths. The moment a journalist published something on Russian airstrikes they were marked for violence, prior they were not a threat.
Now lets see @eshaLegal explain how rebels got Assad's helicopters to drop CW on themselves because that contortion of reality is always fun to watch these types make.
@eshaLegal And here we see @eshaLegal carry water for Assad, selectively quoting OPCW to avoid their reports that positively documented CW use. Not like people can read for themselves right? Here is more from OPCW, confirming CW use.