A Profoundly Stupid Narrative

[Jimmy Snacks]

The Profoundly Stupid Narrative That Nuclear Brinkmanship Is Safety And De-Escalation Is Danger

Caitlin Johnstone

Oct 17

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Of all the face-meltingly stupid narratives that have been circulated about the US proxy war in Ukraine, the dumbest so far has got to be the increasingly common claim that aggressively escalating nuclear brinkmanship is safety and de-escalation is danger.

We see a prime example of this self-evidently idiotic narrative in a new Business Insider article titled "Putin's nuclear threats are pushing people like Trump and Elon Musk to press for a Ukraine peace deal. A nuclear expert warns that's 'dangerous.'" 

"An understandable desire to avoid a nuclear war could actually make the world more dangerous if it means rushing to implement a 'peace' in Ukraine that serves Russian interests," writes reliable empire apologist Charles Davis. "Such a move, which some influential figures have called for, risks setting a precedent that atomic blackmail is the way to win wars and take territory troops can't otherwise hold, a model that could be copycatted by even the weakest nuclear-armed states, and may only succeed at delaying another war."

Aaron Maté @aaronjmate

Not every day that a headline can fully capture the depravity of US media and political culture:

 

11:37 PM ∙ Oct 16, 2022

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16,862Likes4,310Retweets

Davis' sole source for his article is the UN Institute for Disarmament Research's Pavel Podvig, who is very openly biased against Russia.

"The West supports Ukraine with weapons and financial and moral and political support. Giving that up and saying that, 'Well, you know, we are too afraid of nuclear threats and so we just want to make a deal' — that would certainly set a precedent that would not be very positive," says Podvig. "If you yield to this nuclear threat once, then what would prevent Russia in the future — or others — to do the same thing again?"

Like other empire apologists currently pushing the ridiculous "de-escalation actually causes escalation" line, Davis and Podvig argue as though nuclear weapons just showed up on the scene a few days ago, as if there haven't been generations of western policies toward Moscow which have indeed involved backing down and making compromises at times because doing so was seen as preferable to risking a nuclear attack. We survived the Cuban Missile Crisis because Kennedy secretly acquiesced to Khrushchev's demands that the US remove the Jupiter missiles it had placed in Turkey and Italy, which was what provoked Moscow to move nukes to Cuba in the first place.

Throughout the cold war the Soviet Union insisted on a sphere of influencethat US strategists granted a wide berth to, exactly because it was a nuclear superpower. Even as recently as the Obama administration the US president maintained that "Ukraine, which is a non-NATO country, is going to be vulnerable to military domination by Russia no matter what we do." 

Nevertheless we're seeing this new "escalation is safety and de-escalation is danger" narrative pushed with increasing forcefulness by imperial spinmeisters, because it would take a lot of force indeed to get people to accept something so self-evidently backwards and nonsensical.

Timothy Snyder @TimothyDSnyder

All of you who are saying that we have to give in to nuclear blackmail are making nuclear war more likely. Please stop. When you give in to it, you empower dictators to do it again, encourage worldwide nuclear proliferation, and make nuclear war much, much more likely.

7:29 PM ∙ Oct 14, 2022

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"All of you who are saying that we have to give in to nuclear blackmail are making nuclear war more likely. Please stop," tweeted Yale University's Timothy Snyder recently. "When you give in to it, you empower dictators to do it again, encourage worldwide nuclear proliferation, and make nuclear war much, much more likely."

Snyder, who has been photographed grinning happily with Ukraine's President Zelensky, does not actually believe that people tweeting in support of de-escalation and detente will cause a nuclear war. He uses the newfangled buzzword "nuclear blackmail" to discredit calls for de-escalation and detente because he wants those who support de-escalation and detente to be silent. He says "please stop" solely because he wants peace advocacy to stop.

"Nuclear war comes because we’ve done too little not too much," tweeted Alexander Vindman, a key player in advancing the Trump-Ukraine scandal, further pushing the narrative that greater escalation is where the safety is.

In response to a tweet by France's President Macron saying "We do not want a World War," a senior policy advisor for the US government's Helsinki Commission named Paul Massaro tweeted, "Precisely this sort of weak, terrified language leads Russia to escalate." 

Imagine being so warped and twisted that you see that as a sane response to the most normal statement anyone can possibly make.

Meanwhile you've got idiots like Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger acting like they're being brave tough guys by welcoming continual nuclear escalation while calling anyone who advocates de-escalation cowards:

Adam Kinzinger #fella @AdamKinzinger

Must be a tough existence being so afraid. The #Ukrainians started as the underdog but still fought and now will win. Ole snowflake @DavidSacks is trembling as he blames America for the invasion. #nafo https://t.co/1LN15hNzeJ

David Sacks @DavidSacks

If one of my companies told me that it had a 25% chance of going out of business, we would drop everything and focus on that. Intelligence analysts say there’s a 25% chance of nuclear war and Biden is in Oregon.

12:33 AM ∙ Oct 16, 2022

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The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel somehow pulled off the heroic feat of getting an article advocating de-escalation published in the Washington Post with a piece titled "The Cuban missile crisis was 60 years ago, but it’s urgently relevant today." Reminding us how close we came to total annihilation and how we only survived getting so recklessly close to nuclear war by "plain dumb luck," she argues that humanity cannot risk going to the brink like that again.

"Humanity cannot afford to spin the cylinder again in this game of Russian roulette; we must unload the gun. Our only path forward is de-escalation," vanden Heuvel writes.

Indeed it is. It's absolutely insane that humanity is risking its own extinction over these games of empire-building and planetary domination when we've got so many other existential hurdles we need to focus on clearing. 

 

 

This is all completely unnecessary. There's nothing inscribed upon the fabric of reality saying states need to be waving armageddon weapons at each other. There's no valid reason not to lay aside these games of global conquest and collaborate together toward a healthy coexistence on this planet.

We could have such a beautiful world. All the energy we pour into competition and conquest could go toward innovation that benefits us all, making sure everyone has enough, eliminating human suffering and the need for human toil. We're trading heaven on earth for elite ego games.

There's no valid reason we can't move from models of competition and domination to models of collaboration and care. Collaboration with each other; care for each other. Collaboration with our ecosystem; care for our ecosystem. We're throwing it away in exchange for senseless misery and peril.

 

 

[spin_dry]

How long are people going to be screaming nuclear war? It’s a ridiculous narrative. The fear is at hysterical levels. 

[Jimmy Snacks]

4 minutes ago, spin_dry said:

How long are people going to be screaming nuclear war? It’s a ridiculous narrative. The fear is at hysterical levels. 

Had you been and adult at the time  I’m sure you would have dismissed The Cuban Missile Crisis as hysterical and ridculous.

[racer254]

4 minutes ago, spin_dry said:

How long are people going to be screaming nuclear war? It’s a ridiculous narrative. The fear is at hysterical levels. 

You complained about it when trump got into the White House.  Pushing fear that the orange man was going to push the button.  Right now the only people we need to worry about are the war mongering democrats in the swamp that is Washington DC.

[Skidooski]

7 minutes ago, spin_dry said:

How long are people going to be screaming nuclear war? It’s a ridiculous narrative. The fear is at hysterical levels. 

Started way back in 2016 on Inauguration Day    

[spin_dry]

6 minutes ago, Jimmy Snacks said:

Had you been and adult at the time  I’m sure you would have dismissed The Cuban Missile Crisis as hysterical and ridculous.

Whatever it takes to keep your fear alive. 

[Jimmy Snacks]

1 minute ago, spin_dry said:

Whatever it takes to keep your fear alive. 

I’m just discussing things here…no fear or worry whatsoever.

[Skidooski]

[spin_dry]

7 minutes ago, Jimmy Snacks said:

I’m just discussing things here…no fear or worry whatsoever.

You could’ve fooled me. Nuclear war is typically a scary thing. Especially when an asshole in Russia convinces some people with rhetoric that he’s going to launch. 

[Anler]

I have zero fear of nuclear war but our world is devolving into economic despair and this policy of perpetual war needs to stop immediately. 

[EvilBird]

Imagine if Trump was still President. 

Dems would be screaming about it on CNN, and Spin and MC would be posting daily about how Nuclear War is inevitable with lunatic orange man in charge. 

But with Biden at the helm no worries 

[Mag6240]

Just now, EvilBird said:

Imagine if Trump was still President. 

Dems would be screaming about it on CNN, and Spin and MC would be posting daily about how Nuclear War is inevitable with lunatic orange man in charge. 

But with Biden at the helm no worries 

Nailed it. 

[Highmark]

Our weapons are killing Russian boys.   That's all you need to know about escalation.  

The same crowd that says countries in the ME hate us because of us supplying Israel with weapons are cheering us supplying Ukraine against a nuclear superpower.   FUBAR. 

Edited October 19, 2022 by Highmark

[EvilBird]

7 minutes ago, Mag6240 said:

Nailed it. 

Proof is in the pudding 

On 9/7/2018 at 9:18 AM, Mainecat said:

One Muslim blows up a subway and you fuckin clowns want to kill every Muslim on the planet. Russians point nukes at us, hack our elections, supply arms to every war apponent that we faced in the last 50 years fly nuke armed bombers close to our air space and they are not threats BUT are our friends?

What a nieve world you Trump supporting clowns live in.

 

On 9/7/2018 at 1:12 PM, Mainecat said:

Complacency in Europe allowed Hitler with Stalin’s help in the beginning to steam roll across Europe.

if commie Russia and China decide to band together we will be doomed thinking they are not a threat.

but go ahead keep telling yourself the Russians are no threat.....we have this that’s better and that fighter etc....the Chinese are just as equal.

 

On 3/16/2018 at 8:14 PM, spin_dry said:

There will be a nuclear war with Russia and China. There’s no way America can continue to dodge karma’s raindrops for all the pain it’s created in the world. Nope. 

 

On 3/16/2018 at 9:47 PM, spin_dry said:

I’m going to a bbq before the reds decide to push the button down 

 

 

 

On 10/26/2016 at 3:24 PM, spin_dry said:

it's only a matter of time before there's a nuclear war. and it'll be prolonged and devastating. and for the first time it'll be an american war that Fox News won't be covering and cheering. 

oooooofffff. 

[racer254]

12 minutes ago, EvilBird said:

Imagine if Trump was still President. 

Dems would be screaming about it on CNN, and Spin and MC would be posting daily about how Nuclear War is inevitable with lunatic orange man in charge. 

But with Biden at the helm no worries 

 

7 minutes ago, Mag6240 said:

Nailed it. 

It was constant with the dipshits here.  "Orange man gonna start a nuclear war!!!"

Yet, trump, a businessman was able to talk to North Korea and calm things, never had issues with Russia.  Now we have another lifelong politician and look what is happening.  How stupid do some have to be to understand the basic differences?  And then apply them when voting.

[Jimmy Snacks]

Just now, EvilBird said:

Proof is in the pudding 

 

 

 

 

oooooofffff. 

Good find…it took me awhile to come to the realization that the dude is full of 100% unadulterated bullshit.

[EvilBird]

1 minute ago, racer254 said:

 

It was constant with the dipshits here.  "Orange man gonna start a nuclear war!!!"

Yet, trump, a businessman was able to talk to North Korea and calm things, never had issues with Russia.  Now we have another lifelong politician and look what is happening.  How stupid do some have to be to understand the basic differences?  And then apply them when voting.

see above 

[Pete]

Clowns scared of a nuclear war are the same clowns that believed injecting bleach is a good idea.. Dumb America 

[ArcticCrusher]

11 minutes ago, Highmark said:

Our weapons are killing Russian boys.   That's all you need to know about escalation.  

The same crowd that says countries in the ME hate us because of us supplying Israel with weapons are cheering us supplying Ukraine against a nuclear superpower.   FUBAR. 

They'll say its different cause TV said so.

[Jimmy Snacks]

2 minutes ago, Pete said:

Clowns scared of a nuclear war are the same clowns that believed injecting bleach is a good idea.. Dumb America 

Are you saying those people are gullible…huh…interesting.🤔

[Pete]

44 minutes ago, Jimmy Snacks said:

Are you saying those people are gullible…huh…interesting.🤔

Yes you are 

[Jimmy Snacks]

2 minutes ago, Pete said:

Yes you are 

You’re the expert!😂

[Skidooski]

1 hour ago, EvilBird said:

Proof is in the pudding 

 

 

 

 

oooooofffff. 

That's just a taste of their nonsense too. Double talking hypocrites all for the sake of trolling because they're bored AF in retirement

[irv]

1 hour ago, EvilBird said:

oooooofffff. 

 

[Pete]

32 minutes ago, Jimmy Snacks said:

You’re the expert!😂

I’m not the one here 24/7 ya fucking loser

young boyy and Indian come to mind.. gullible fuck

Edited October 19, 2022 by Pete