this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2024
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It is perfectly relevant. Putin, and thus the rest of the Russian political machine that backed him up, chose to put ideology (his personal agenda of territorial expansion) over human lives (of both Ukrainian and Russian). Can one really fault Ukraine for making the decision to fight back when the decision was already made for them? From some philosophical point of view, one could then put the 'blame' on both- since both have chosen to put ideology above lives and extend the fighting. However, one forced the decision of the other. Blame cannot be equally assigned, when the blame didn't even exist until the unilateral action of one party.
The concept of "ideology" is perhaps too narrow a definition for such a situation as Ukraine, however. Most people boil it down online to just "Western proxy war vs Russia", but it is more than just politics, it is the threat of extinction of Ukraine's independent self-determination, freedom of expression, and ethnic distinctiveness.
I think Timwi was getting at this part of ArbitraryValue's comment:
Also worth emphasizing that they specifically say this preceding that:
In other words, unless I'm mistaken, even supposing their thought might somehow hold true that Ukraine's surrender would save lives, they maintain support for Ukraine's fight against Russia as they're putting their ideology over human lives. Nevertheless, they think it's important to recognize that they are doing this, rather than think there is no ideology in play whatsoever in their position.
It's not necessarily the best way to have approached this given the charged topic (particularly framing it as a certainty of far fewer lost lives), but I think that point is worth remembering. Introspection is especially important in serious matters, otherwise you lose sight of what you're really fighting for.
No-one (but you) said “fault”.
The message you responded to only pointed out that the Ukrainians, too, put ideology above human lives. If you can't fault the Ukrainians for fighting the Russians, then you can't fault them for putting ideology above human lives.