Over the last eight-plus years on Hive, I have written about many topics and created a lot of different kinds of content, from my articles and poetry, to fiction stories and Hive development posts. One of the things I really enjoyed was series of posts, where there might not be a set topic, but it is a more casual and conversational, like a long-running series I had many years ago written on my phone whilst walking the dog. They tend to be reflective pieces, but also hopefully thought-provoking and engaging content that people can interact with and perhaps spin their own content off from. So over the next few weeks, I am going to start a couple weekly series pieces, with this being the first.

Series Pilot:

We Talk Friday

(WTF)

We Talk Friday Ep. 1: Strange bedfellows

While these are going to generally be pretty light conversations on current events, I also want them to be exploratory and interesting, so they at times might be controversial topics, so why not start with the war in Ukraine with Russia. This is obviously a potential trigger topic, but it isn't going to be a deep dive into the conflict, but rather some reflections and some queries.

This week has been an interesting one for geopolitics, as Trump came out and boldly declared that Ukraine should never have started the war with Russia. I am not sure where Trump was three years ago, but Russia invaded Ukraine. But I wonder, does anyone in the US actually believe what he is saying? Are the Trump loyalty cheering him on as he publicly rewrites history? Are his supporters really backing him as he sits on the lap of Putin?

Given history, isn't this position just incredibly strange for the US?

I don't know much about politics or history, nor can I say I have a huge amount of experience with the Russian government. But I do have some Russian friends who live in Finland, and when I visited St Petersburg ten years ago with my wife, we felt safe in a city that was clean with people who were helpful and open wherever we went. But, as I said to my daughter today, there can be a big difference between the people of a country, and the government of the same country. In general, most people want a decent life with access to possibility to improve their wellbeing and that of their family. And also in general, governments want increasing amounts of power and control over people.

For those in the US, how do you feel these Trump statements are being taken in the US?

This is not some kind of trap, but it is more to see what kind of temperature you are seeing in the US right now, and what you sense people are feeling. On the European side of things, these statements have been pretty much uniformly condemned as both inaccurate and incendiary. But it is hard to gauge what happens in the US from this side of the Atlantic. Maybe Russia have a better view, since they are only 53 miles away from the US coast on their East side. Most people don't think about that though.

I often get the impression that Americans in general don't know much of what is happening in the rest of the world, even though they can have an opinion on what is happening. Is this the case? I am not saying that people don't care about what is happening, but I feel like a lot of the media that comes from the US is heavily skewed in many ways, but consumption of media from outside the US is probably low. For instance in Finland, the average person who reads the news is getting it from multiple international sources, as well as the local views, but it is like everything is tailored in the US, for the US market specifically. This narrows the perspective.

The current political environment where people are making powerplays well above the paygrade of the 99.5%, is generating increasing volatility and uncertainty in the world and making it less safe for the rest of us. Just more actions for power and control over the people, from the people who make the rules.

Thoughts?

Perhaps this isn't a very light WTF start after all!

Taraz
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