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Entry tags:
Dept. of Learning Stuff
Political Language
One of the few positively interesting things I've learned as I've watched the Russian invasion of Ukraine (for varying powers of "positively interesting") is the existence of a couple of phrases smarter folks than I have used to describe what Putin's doing, even as his invasion stalls.
He is gambling for resurrection.
According to a political science specialist interviewed on MSNBC, this is the practice that one takes when one's policy/mission does the opposite of what you've expected to do, but you double down - nay, triple and quadruple down - on that policy, in hopes that those viewing you and seeing how illogically wedded you are to that policy, and how much you're willing to personally risk on behalf of that policy, will back off (probably hoping to avoid pieces of you as you explode), and you'll be able to pull off your original mission because they've finally stopped attacking you.
That really does appear to describe Putin.
Of course, the other phrase I learned apparently was coined by Dat Ol' Facist Otto Von Bismark, who supposedly described a particularly foolish military maneuver, of the type I tried to describe above, as "committing suicide for fear of death."
One of the few positively interesting things I've learned as I've watched the Russian invasion of Ukraine (for varying powers of "positively interesting") is the existence of a couple of phrases smarter folks than I have used to describe what Putin's doing, even as his invasion stalls.
He is gambling for resurrection.
According to a political science specialist interviewed on MSNBC, this is the practice that one takes when one's policy/mission does the opposite of what you've expected to do, but you double down - nay, triple and quadruple down - on that policy, in hopes that those viewing you and seeing how illogically wedded you are to that policy, and how much you're willing to personally risk on behalf of that policy, will back off (probably hoping to avoid pieces of you as you explode), and you'll be able to pull off your original mission because they've finally stopped attacking you.
That really does appear to describe Putin.
Of course, the other phrase I learned apparently was coined by Dat Ol' Facist Otto Von Bismark, who supposedly described a particularly foolish military maneuver, of the type I tried to describe above, as "committing suicide for fear of death."
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Yeah, I'd say that's true.
I think we can agree that Putin's the kind of dangerous that Kissinger always was, that Bush was, that too many policy-makers in the First World have been.
100%. Terrifying. Especially since, as you alluded to, he's less accountable to anybody else and that's only got more and more true.
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