• fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 year ago

    I agree that the world is not black and white, but I struggle with the “good kids on both sides”.

    “Good” is a tricky word just generally. I think you might have said there were “previously innocent” kids on both sides, but they’re no longer so.

    Yet another shade of grey, but I suspect that a lot of the kids doing the fighting have become depraved sadists.

      • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 year ago

        They may be innocent, but have lost their innocence.

        https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/innocence

        The institutionalised torture on the part of the Russians is designed to change the cognitive behaviour of their troops. Devaluing human life, trivialising violence, and establishing corporal punishment as an appropriate response to ideological differences.

        In summary, Russian troops may have had some kind of childish innocence when they left home, but as a result of being forced to participate in depraved acts of violence, are probably no longer good boys.

          • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
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            1 year ago

            Mate, this conversation started by you saying “they’re mostly good kids”, which sounds fairly “large brush” to me.

            The attrocities of war run much deeper than people dying. There are people that will carry psychological wounds for the rest of their lives. I think it’s very important to acknowledge that, lest we forget.