Quote (Goomshill @ Apr 7 2022 03:39am)
If you were to say that both the pro-Hadi Yemeni coalition and Houthis are bad dudes who commit war crimes, or you were to say that Al Qaeda, ISIS, other Sunni militias and Assad's regime are all bad guys, or you were to say America's tribal allies in Afghanistan and the Taliban were both bad guys, nobody will pitch a fit. Most people would agree, well not most in general, but of the ones who have a clue who any of those groups are. Now given that Ukraine and Russia have both been historic kleptocratic states risen from the ashes of centuries of brutal conflicts and disasters and repression, and we've seen reasonably clear proof that both sides of this war have engaged in war crimes and atrocities, and we know Russia is waging a war of aggression and killing civilians and we know Ukraine has violated the Geneva Conventions and has a battalion of actual Nazis- why, oh why, does it make people so irrationally angry if you say both sides are bad?
In today's world everything is injected with morality. The reason why people respond so angrily is because people hate when you shatter or threaten their world view that what they believe may actually not be the objective moral good. Everyone wants to root for the good guys, so even having undeniable proof that the good guys also do bad things results in cognitive dissonance.
This post was edited by ofthevoid on Apr 7 2022 07:53am