[WAR] US government set on complete destruction of Ukraine

[xorcist at sigaint.org]

> Right, to understand people, you need to see things as they might.

Of course!

>
> But that doesn't mean that you agree with what they say and do.

Of course not! :) .. the way far-out example I usually give to this is
someone like a serial killer. If they were sexually, physically, and
mentally abused by their mother for years, and then she dies before he's
had a chance to confront her in any way, it is easy to see how someone
might feel a deep hatred and intense, driving compulsion -- an incredible
hunger -- that can only be sated by killing prostitutes that happen to
look vaguely like his mother did.

I can understand compulsions. Hungers.  I can understand that, left to his
own devices, it is impossible for him to resist that urge for long.

None of that understanding means that I think they shouldn't be locked up,
of course.

But neither am I so swift at judging him in the emotional way that people
do, calling him a monster. He's not a monster. He's a human being. One
that was broken before he knew how to talk, probably.

Not that I'm above finding people monstrous.

>
> And it doesn't even mean that you are willing to take a position about
> them. Sometimes, there's just no point, because there's nothing useful
> about it. You just do what you're committed to, based on your own
> principles and values.

Indeed. I tend to look at things in terms of, what can we work together
on, rather than what can we fight/argue about. I'm not interested, at all,
in "converting" a die-hard National party type to my way of thinking. Nor
am I interested in destroying someone's religious faith. They are entitled
to their beliefs. I don't need them to agree with me to validate my own.
To me, its rather like being the type of asshole that needs to get into
bar fights and all that nonsense. Just a deeply frustrated person looking
to prove themselves.

To the extent that a good, Church-going Christian and I can work together
to DO something we both want to do, I'm happy. I'll even make small
changes to my behavior to accommodate their sensibilities, if needed. I'd
certainly have no issue with not swearing, for example. Other things I
wouldn't change..for example there are some people.. women, and homosexual
men.. that I give hugs to when I greet them.

Hell, I like to THINK that I'd be OK with working with a Nazi who wanted
to do something positive too.

> I have no clue about that. He might just have good advisors. Or maybe he
> and US leaders all work for the same people, and are just playing their
> assigned roles. It's really very hard for outsiders to know.
>

That is an excellent point. In his defense, I'd just say that from what
I've seen of him, in unscripted exchanges, he seems far more erudite, and
together than any Western politician I'm familiar with. Not that I'm a
student of such things, so I could certainly be out of my depth on that.