I’m referring to potential evil versus actualized evil and society’s role in preventing the former from becoming the latter. At what point do others have to accept some of the responsibility for the crimes of a murderer? Crimes they could have prevented? Not in the sense that a murderer is not responsible for his actions, of course. There is already far too much excuse making for criminals of every sort, as if the concept of personal responsibility can be suspended as long as a motive can be concocted.
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is no more tolerable if you believe he felt threatened by NATO expansion than if you don’t believe he felt threatened. Telling Ukrainians they provoked Putin by rejecting him and moving toward Europe is like telling a harassed woman she should wear longer skirts. Do not lose sight of who is the offender and who is the victim! If we fail to maintain that moral balance and our perceptions of what is right and what is wrong, we are too vulnerable to propaganda.
— Winter is Coming (Garry Kasparov), Loc. 1370–7
October 27, 2026 comment:
I don’t know if that’s appropriate to call Garry Kasparov a Russian. Because I call him the only sane Russian, whom I wasn’t disappointed in over all these years.
Even fucking Navalny with his ‘buterbrod’ (what he called Crimea) is a joke of a so-called ‘good russian.’ He demonstrated a ton of very controversial imperialistic views.
Garry Kasparov, in contrary, is the only one, who I see repeatedly proclaiming all these things correctly. However, I think it’s inappropriate to call him Russian. He’s from Azerbaijan (which is not Russia!), and he’s a citizen of the US, who lives there. On the other hand, being born in the Soviet Union in 1963, he lived there at least till his 28, and another — what, 20 years? So, it’s safe to assume, he spent his first 50 years of life in Russia, more or so. Which is longer than I’m alive.