Actually, just my top ten stories about anything, but it was February/March 2022 that this site first got “big” so it’s the same thing. I try to push a certain style of messaging, and by “messaging” I mean the Russian perspective, which I try to relay the best I can in the most collected manner possible. It’s nice and flattering that I accumulated a decent amount of readers over the past 15 months, but unfortunately, this perspective never quite gained the traction I would have liked. In part that’s because I didn’t post as consistently as I would have liked, but it’s mostly because I said quite a few things that the “pro-Russia” echo-chamber simply does not want to hear. This collection of personalities only want to hear certain things and, frankly, those things do not include what’s true. They want confirmation bias for their own “western civilization” narrative that excuses their own inaction, and conveniently lumps responsibility for action on an imaginary Eurasian alliance. Regardless, it’s good to look back at some topics that were forgotten and sidelined over time.
#10: Russia is NOT the Savior You Want Her to Be
This is a story I actually pushed very hard and wanted to “go viral” but didn’t, and barely made the list of top 10 stories. And, I think, anyone reading this should be able to understand why. God forbid, Russia isn’t coming to save you and you have personal responsibility for your own country’s politics. That’s not something most of the online warriors with Z avatars want to hear.
#9: The Fatal Scale Error in the Ukraine War
Even more than a year after I wrote this, I still don’t see anyone else really commenting on the phenomenon, though I find it extremely significant. Contemporary western audiences, even people with military backgrounds, have a spectacularly bad grasp of scale. 10 guys can’t defeat 1,000 guys without some extreme advantage. An army can’t inflict 10 times the casualties they suffer themselves without an equally extreme advantage. This shouldn’t be rocket science, and even the average person should be able to discern for himself when a news story is obviously false. But, alarmingly, they don’t. I actually plan to revisit this topic soon.
#8: Ukraine Is the New Afghanistan… For Us
Like a cartoon character who sets off his own booby trap, NATO tried to provoke Russia into an unwinnable quagmire, but ended up in one themselves. Arrogance and sunk cost fallacy caused the “collective west” to pump far more money and effort into Ukraine than Russia, completely defeating the purpose of the project in the first place. I wrote this on 7 May 2022, and everything stated here became more true as time went on.
#7: The War in Ukraine is a War on Our Minds
One of my first posts after 24 February 2022, and it’s still relevant now. A good starting point for wading your way through fake footage and disinformation.
#6: War Update: No Ukrainian Girlfriend for You
Despite the silly cover image, this was a good one. I discuss in detail how search engine optimization – literally controlling the words and names of things – is used to push certain narratives and sideline other ones. Now that I’ve reread this article I actually think it’s another topic I’ll hit again soon. Incidentally, searching for stock images of Russian girls and Ukrainian girls will often turn up the same photos 🙂
#5: Is Ukraine the New Poland?
The British strategy of using puppet states as a wedge against their enemies isn’t new. In the 1930s, Britain used Poland as a wedge against the Soviet Union. In the 2010s, Britain used Ukraine (and also Poland again) as a wedge against Russia.
#4: Russia is NOT Losing the Information War
I wrote this childishly naive article assuming that pro-Z talking heads want to hear the truth. They don’t. All they want to hear is that Russia is winning – or more specifically, Russia is doing the things they want to be done.
#3: Masks Off, Our Propagandists Admit the Truth
Back in April 2022 I noted the shift in western propaganda narrative. NATO had prepared for a short, small-scale conflict with Russia and got the opposite. No one was expecting a protracted countrywide conventional war, and were totally unprepared for it.
#2 We Seriously Underestimated Russia; Our Own Propaganda is Killing Us
Or in other words, we drink too much of our own coolaide.
And… (drumroll)
#1: I Finally Understand Why We Hate Russia
This was more of a rant than a pre-planned article, but it turned out to be my most single popular article written here by a very large margin. Maybe that’s simply because I attempted to answer a very simple question that a lot of people ask.
Ian Kummer
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Ian, you’re an honest man – you tell things as you see them – and that’s why I follow your blog. May God bless you, and yours. All the best to you, and to them. Bill *B
The problem is that people who are not in the blindly believe-every-fantasy-about-Russia tribes (Tribe 1: anti Russia, tribe 2: “pro” Russia) are both in cults. Facts contrary to the cult line don’t matter to them, are actually unwelcome, and the people who mention those facts are punished as traitors to the cult. Even on the nazi side Jihadi Julian Röpcke was eviscerated by his followers when he mentioned unwelcome news about Russian victories and quickly learnt to fall into line. On the putatively “pro” Russia side we have a mutual appreciation society of armchair generals (Martyanov, Larry Johnson, the now self-removed Saker, alongside Douglas Macgregor and a couple more) who keep massaging each others’ egos and aggressively pushing the idea that Russia cannot possibly make mistakes, that even setbacks like the Kharkov retreat was some kind of 555D chess strategy. They loyal followers, like religious worshippers, defend them even when they are, as they always are, proven wrong.
There’s no point in trying to deprogramme these cultists. Those of us who retain open minds read people like you, Simplicius76, and Awful Avalanche who show views of the situation from all angles. That is why you’re valuable.