Comrade Antichrist (The Matrix, One.)

The snow glows white on the mountain tonight
Not a footprint to be seen
A kingdom of isolation
And it looks like I'm the queen
The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside
Couldn't keep it in, heaven knows I've tried
Don't let them in, don't let them see
Be the good girl you always have to be
Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know
Well, now they know
Let it go, let it go
Can't hold it back anymore
Let it go, let it go
Turn away and slam the door
I don't care what they're going to say
Let the storm rage on
The cold never bothered me anyway
~Let It Go, from the Disney movie Frozen.

I saw this earlier.

A little Ukrainian girl singing "Let It Go" from Frozen in a bomb shelter. I hope this kid makes it through OK, hell, I hope Disney sees that video and someday offers that kid a job. Girl even hits all the notes right, my God.

And these are the people...desperately seeking peace, solace, or at least distraction while the world shakes around them and their soldiers fight desperately so that their country remains free...that "Conservatives" are busy equating with the Antichrist. 

Because of course, I mean, of fucking course these fucking people would equate Vladimir Putin with Jesus. 

Because they wouldn't know the real one if He was coming in the clouds with power and glory and it could be seen like the lightning from the east is seen even in the west.

These fucking people...be they American or Russian or whatever...think anybody who plays to their culture war bullshit, petty hatreds and resentments is Jesus.

As somebody who was a Christian for most of my life, I seem to recall the Word has a thing or two to say about such people.

And it's always the same way, their hatred or ideological garbage is always the most important thing, and matters far more to them than anything God Himself might have to say. And there's nothing in the Universe that such people hate more than anybody else who's just trying to live their life and wants to be left alone by them while doing so.

Dude that's dressed like Liberace's Garden Gnome here is a perfect example.

Putin made Patriarch Kirill and the Russian Orthodox priests feel important and shit. He put their fake "Traditionalism" and homophobia center-stage. They'll endorse genocide and mass murder and terror tactics and war. 

They'll follow Putin right into hell, and they won't give a damn. They'll say it's Heaven just for a few more seconds of Earthly power and recognition. It was never about Christianity and it sure as hell wasn't about Jesus.

And there's a lot of Americans just like them.

Oh, and while I'm at it, that big "Trucker Convoy" that the Right has been making such a big deal about pretty much flopped. I guess even Sunday traffic on the Beltway was too much for them, they failed to stay together and quite a few of them got lost. 

So much for that attempt at revolution, I guess.

But ya know, it was the sign on the back of this truck that caught my attention. "The Matrix is real."

I wonder if that's how this guy feels.

A Russian prisoner of war, likely a senior NCO from the look of him, was videotaped by Ukrainian media saying that he and his soldiers had no idea what was going on and had been told a bunch of lies about Ukraine having been taken over by fascists and shit. Lies that they knew were lies the second they made contact with actual Ukrainians, and especially once the fighting started and they saw the Ukrainian soldiers fighting them.

Dude talked about how seeing that Vitali Klitschko and his brother...this guy's favorite boxers, evidently...were fighting against his army was an eye opener for him.

He talked about how Russians are constantly brainwashed with this stuff. Dude spoke at length about how a lot of people, not least of all many of the soldiers sent to fight in it, don't want this war.

But of course, those who will never have to go and fight, they love the idea.

Evidently the "Z" painted on the sides of so many Russian vehicles we've seen destroyed, has become the symbol of this new war and whatever godless ideology is behind it.

I would imagine that returning veterans are going to be a problem for this shit, though.

But see, here's the thing. Bear with me for a second.

I think at this point even if the Ukrainians win, or at least hang on, and even if Putin is removed from power one way or another over how badly this operation has been run, whatever idiot Kleptocrat takes over has a ready-made ideology and political movement and symbol to sustain his power. I think in such a case, the war in Ukraine might be scaled back, but would continue indefinitely....like Afghanistan or Iraq, for us. 

I think Goldman is right, we're in for a long war.

Why do I think that? Because if Putin survives and sustains his power, or if anybody who might replace him wants to establish their own...they're going to need an enemy to be against.

And double all that, if NATO gets involved and the more the EU (as an overall organization) and the US take the lead, the more fanatical these fucking people will be...just like US "Conservatives" who I'd argue have become much worse with Trump out of power and his influence starting to fade.

But here's the thing. I'll bet you money that it won't be long before "MAGA" itself falls by the wayside. I would put my money on the Russian "Z" becoming the new thing among the Edgelord "Own The Libs" Right...and making its way down to regular Republicans from there.

Especially if Putin falls (But likely even if he doesn't) "Z" will replace MAGA as the new INRI.

And if you don't think the Russians will take full advantage of that, no matter who is in power, you have another thing coming. The latent Gnosticism and secret desire for heresy that infests the "Christian" Right make certain that if the Russians package it cleverly...they'll bite that hook.

We're in for a long haul here, I'm afraid, against people who will straight-up try and deny reality if they have to, no matter how dystopian the results. If these people really think they're in some kind of "Matrix" we have a problem.

Human freedom and progress depends on enough people believing in reality and truth. Without Truth, no one has any basis by which to challenge Power.

Remember that part.

And the Authoritarian Right, as a global movement, doesn't care how many little girls singing in bomb shelters or old men standing guard with Kalashnikovs it has to bomb to get the kind of power that it wants, they don't care how many stupid conspiracy theories they have to make up or how many lies they have to tell, to make the Truth not matter anymore, to get people to stop believing in objective reality. Just making the effort for long enough break's some people's brains.

Putin is Antichrist, according to the Biblical definition.

But These Fucking People pretty much think he's god.

Think on that, and we'd better get to thinking on how to stop it, too.

 Слава Україна!

If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth. And this idea that government is beholden to the people, that it has no other source of power except to sovereign people, is still the newest and most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves. ~Ronald Reagan