Denazification following WW2 was a failure. In many ways, the U.S. and its allies which would go on to form NATO to oppose the USSR would quickly dust off German officers, generals, and scientists so-as to pick them up and use them against the Communist Russian lead counter-axis.
I describe a lot of human politics with this idea of Axis / Counter-Axis, I'll go into what that means, and how it is directly utilized by political actors to rationalize all kinds of bullshit. Then I'll get into more specifics regarding disinformation promoted by the Russian State, and after that, some general thoughts on how this has become a source of sour tension between myself and a friend of mine who has a very fucking stupid perspective on the war.
To catch you up on the WW2 knowledge, here are a few quick videos:
Operation Paperclip
Failure of Denazification in Germany and NATO-lead Europe, as well as within the USSR
The ones that got away in Nuremberg.
Contemporary Neo-Nazis, Far-Right Nationalists in Europe:
Ultras / Hooligans in Football, just a small taste
Rising Antisemitism in Poland
Of course, Poland's Alt-Right is chalk full of hyper-religious, social conservatives
Pre-Invasion Azov Nationalist Camps for Children, 2017
Post-Invasion, Azov attempts to deminish its origin as Nazi/Nationalist, due in part to extreme casualties and due to limitation of weapons from Western countries to the units it contributes.
The U.S. as the 'World Police' goes back a ways:
We learned a lot of incorrect lessons as a species following the cessation of hostilities between the belligerent nations of the German-Italian-Japanese Axis, leaving only one remaining aggressor, the Soviet Union, on the map as a fighting force. Propped by US production and lend-lease, the Soviet Union likely would have not been able to resist the Nazi armies during the critical years of 1941 and 1942. By 1943, a significant amount of materiel was still dedicated to keeping the Soviet Union's military humming along, and US supplies would arrive in the Union's ports right up until the Nazi's were properly defeated. The US maintained hostilities against Japan for a short time after, resulting in the use of nuclear weapons as it and the USSR continued to squeeze Imperial Japan from multiple angles. As seen in Operation Paperclip, and more broadly the Race to Berlin, trust between Stalin and the US/UK lead coalition was at an all time low.
Stalin dropped the Iron Curtain, and famous events like the Berlin Airlift demonstrated how the US's mastery over logistics would be one of its defining features as a fighting force. The USSR would oppose NATO in various manners, projecting power and attempting to court allies with the rest of the world as NATO attempted to do the same. This complicated dance of geopolitics saw the US and USSR once both condemning the UK, France, and Israel over actions in the 1950's (Suez Canal Crisis). The Cold War's official closure with the collapse of the Soviet Union of Russia in 1991 would of course result in what may go down in history as the "great sigh of relief". Communism was 'defeated', Fascism was 'defeated', and seemingly a great peace had befallen the world. China became the world's factory, Russia's hydrocarbon and raw mineral extraction would become the world's asset.
It seemed like the only problem was that Africa and the Middle East didn't respect Western Democracy. As evidenced from startling scenes of American Helicopters airlifting Afghani deployed units off of roofs like the end of the Vietnam War, the issue of US power projection and it's attempts to 'spread democracy through superior firepower' was a failure. Today, the US returns to an isolationist policy agenda promoted internally by the Republican Party, making the Democrats ironically Warhawks once again, a position they swapped from during the Party Swap of the 1960's. The geopolitical problem of US power projection and its role as 'world police' is not one that has gone unnoticed by its rivals in the forms of Oligarchical Russia and Dictatorial China, and to this day, trace messages about how the US no longer needs its military to contribute to global trade security, and you will probably find yourself following a long yarn that ends in a Russian or Chinese originated mouthpiece or news source.
In more than one way, it looks like doubts about the F35 were not only primarily voiced by people quoting Kremlin and Beijing originated (for lack of a better word) slander; it seems like the Pentagon had internal motivations to let those stories cover the F35's actual capabilities. It is too late, now, for these two rival nations to match the US's capabilities with F35, though China's J21 seems to be coming quite close. Such examples as listed are a very small selection of how dramatically over-contributing the US is to global trade security, and its fairly small Nuclear Arsenal covers a lot of nations beneath a deceptively sizable umbrella. With a South-Pacific equivalent to NATO being slowly formed, it appears that Defensive Alliances will be the predominate form of deterrence from aggressors. Instead of bringing countries into wars of aggression, the defensive "All Vs. 1" policy of NATO's Article 5 has so-far kept NATO countries out of domestic conflicts between anyone touching them. Fingers crossed the whole Greece/Turkey situation over some islands doesn't break that record.
Axis and Counter-Axis: Political Messaging as one component of power.
This idea of Axis and Counter-Axis comes from the great tendency for topics to be boiled down to a support / oppose dichotomy. While real world politics are far more complex, the truth is that for Democratic Nations, the simple version of policy is what people vote for. Those votes are largely determined by demographic indicators which create value systems that can be manipulated intentionally by politicians to generate popular support. In a society of animals opposed to unnecessary action to maintain resources, he who proposes change must propose one that is substantially better than the current condition at the right time when it seems people most will endorse the action. Failure to sell the topic, legislation, proposed action, etc as critical and world-endingly important will result in an uncaring public being fickle and ignorant of the policy. Thusly, manipulations are many levels of governance in our species' nations has always focused on 'emergencies'. Very rarely are these actually emergencies, often being multi-year issues, or even decades-spanning conflicts.
Axis therefore refers to proposition, and Counter-Axis as opposition, for simplicity. Observe political thinkers and you can see how Axis and Counter-Axis arguments play out before understanding anything more than the political alignment of the two arguments. If a stance is taken by one party, a counter-stance is almost certain to arise from the other baring extremely significant circumstances. US Congress is united right now across isles in its Congress in opposition to the Chinese Communist Party, and the Racism being casually flaunted by the GOP shows you the flavor of rationalization its leadership promotes. Many leftists, progressives, and non-axis political party independent observers will note that the Democrats of the US Congress are especially bad at consistency of values. This allows the GOP to consistently drive a wedge into DNC's voting demographics almost exclusively along the dividing lines of demographic chunks, a finely crafted piece of disinformation can evoke homophobia in straight liberals while also promoting transphobia in gay liberals, and whites-are-bad sentiment in black liberals.
This methodology works by identifying something that is sort of true, or is actually true, then overstating its importance, impact, and general state of scale for an associated political group. It works best in hierarchy-reducing organizations like pro-democracy Leftists of Liberal ideology, because it casts doubt on the validity of one's own alignment and if you are truly enabling the self-efficacy of people valuable to your vision of society. Since Humanitarian ideology goes hand-in-hand with the idea of self-determination, self-rule, and autonomy through democratic governance, it is very easy for rank-and-file hierarchies like the American GOP which is known to have a formalized pecking order to manipulate media and other avenues of informational spreading with literal info-hazards. If you somewhat doubt the efficacy of masks regarding COVID-19 prevention like I do (a good reply I got on one of my recent Unprompted Commentary essays), it likely is due to the fact that the messaging on the topic you have received is likely poisoned. By what exactly? Repeat exposure to anti-maskers and general pro-conspiracy narratives which have leaked into the mainstream; virtually all social circles to the point that factual evidence on the topic is VERY HARD to find with any reliability.
From these facts there is a clear point about informational manipulation and messaging being a new, complex form of political posturing meant to signal voting behavior along demographic and ideological, highly intellectual, avenues. Despite it all, there's a lot of citation hunting you have to do now to rebuke Jordan Peterson. The man is effectively a neo-nazi sympathizer obsessed with genociding trans people, but he can cite an academic paper or two which support one or two elements of his claims, meaning there's 'truth' to the message... if you dig. If you uncritically endorse it, you can defend it when criticized to investigate by going "he has sources!!!!" and then elaborating that the evidence is clear, without citation. This is a problem. I have this problem, often times I try to stick close to literature, but my memory issues and narcolepsy often impact my ability to track down citations. When pressured to put the extra work in, I can do it, but sometimes I want to cite something and won't find it again for plural months, which is frustrating to say the least. That means often times, I'm hoping you are prompted to investigate the matter on your own terms (though I often discourage it by implying I am right, see the link above about masking again, I state plainly that I think I am right), and do so despite the fact that even providing citations and bibliographies... people won't read everything.
This is why Peer-Reviewed Journals need better everything. This stuff is hard, takes time to validate, time to have familiar eyes check the notes, time to make sure things are said accurately. If it stops being so goddamn demented, AI will eventually make research oversight so much easier, you'll see Sputnik's next Kremlin-Penned disinformation article rebuked by AI within the hour it posts. Axis and Counter-Axis depend upon disinformation and misinformation, failures in human memory and access to information, and a willingness to believe shit because of demographic statuses. This is why Media-Literacy is such a critical component to motivating a better human species, and why it is so easy to see academic topics hit the public and immediately mutate into fucking disgusting parodies of their original selves. Look no farther than how Latinx, a Queer proposal for Trans, Genderfluid, Non-Binary Latin Americans, suddenly became "Woke Liberal Delusions", or how "Critical Race Theory" went from a highly relevant academic hypothesis (it is now only one component of Intersectionality, a theoretical framework for explaining demographics as inherently beneficial or negative to a person's success in society) into a bunch of absolute morons shouting bullshit like how it's "Reverse Racist" / "White Supremacist".
Through proposing a change to society, political actors offer their opponents a tangible policy or ideology they can attempt to defeat in public theater, regardless of its merits.
Finally, how this all plays into Putin rationalizing the invasion of Ukraine:
Without exception, Putin's gesticulations are that of a madman dictator who thought 'just one more quick invasion' would play out in his favor. The man had previously orchestrated a lot of crap to good effect: Transnistrian Secession, the invasion of Georgia, suppression of democratic institutions in his own country and within former Soviet Union states, encouragement of ideologies that now are key to the US GOP and Canadian Conservatives, promoting loads of middle-eastern proxy conflicts directly or indirectly, and of course annexing parts of Ukraine without meaningful international resistance. 8 years of non-stop combat in Ukraine meant that the Ukrainian defenders had grown really quick adept at Russian strategy, and more importantly were being fed Western supplies on a drip-feed as a non-committal "I hope this costs Russia more" long term proxy conflict. As I learn more about the state of affairs in Ukraine since 2014's invasion, I become more critical and dismissive of people who say this is a "Proxy War".
There is nothing Proxy about the War in Ukraine. Ukraine plans to join NATO and the EU if it survives this war with Russia. We are feeding BILLIONS of dollars of equipment, manpower, and humanitarian aid from DOZENS of countries around the world into Ukraine so it can fight Russia. It has never been more politically easy to rationalize, never so clearly likely to succeed, as it is right now, and as such, I think historians might call this conflict the moment WW3 went from hypothetical to tangible. The sanctions and acceleration of hostilities between Russia and the US, the US and China, and Russia and China, have demonstrated that WW3 will be like WW2: Democracies attempting not to back-stab each other while Fascism and Communism masquerade as allies until an opportunity to betray the other and conquer them arises. All it took was 3 decades of the unequal Free Trade Status Quo promoted by the US without comprehension of its amorality internationally to create the appropriate Axis by which as Counter-Axis could form.
The Counter-Axis of nations by my count (and this term which I arrived to in 2013 is now being slung around, so I am achieving intellectual and sexual gratification with alarming frequency the more this conflict drags on) includes Russia, China, North Korea, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, and maybe India. You will note that these countries are all very, very close together and have opposing ideologies and political incentives for supporting one-another. Meanwhile, the dramatic differences in cultural identities and ideologies on display in the West incorporates so many peoples that the obvious hypocrisy inherent to the US's prolific 'demographic mono-culture' of US North American Whiteness cannot even begin to account for how truly monumental the inertia must be to unite the Philippines, South Korea, and Japan... with Australia. Hell, Vietnam might throw-in so it can get some more help removing landmines the US peppered all over its territory, imagine that!
Few things unite people across cultural boundaries like mutual respect and mutual benefit, and democratic entities which all meet together as a group to yell at each other politely have an incredible capacity to do so. Again, this idea of Liberalism, of Human Rights / Humanitarianism, those are things you NEED for democracy to work. Democratic institutions can't rationalize action if individuals don't feel safe or represented. However, there are always losers in societies, and those losers tend to be unwilling to change with the times or adapt to new ways of life, and thusly you can see a demographic counter-axis ripe for alignment. Startling to me was the knowledge that Russian Orthodoxy is one of the fastest growing religious organizations in the US, and this is owed to the concentration of former Russian Nationals who moved to the US to escape Russia. Ironic, that the religion promotes the conditions that result in Russia, but that's one more tool the GOP uses. The same can be said of Cuban Refugees who really suck Desantis' cock despite him being a racist and dictatorial maniac with delusions of grandeur motivating his entire policy.
Denazification 2: "Special Military Operation" Boogaloo
All of this above is to set up the punchline: in 2014, the hyper-nationalist Azov Battalion was barely 500 members strong, growing to around 900 members by about 2018, then swelling into a Territorial Defense Brigade of about 2000 strong by around 2022 when Russia invaded. The growth of the organization and the ACTUAL existential threat of annihilation by Russian Soldiers has changed the organization over time, as hostilities over those 8 years made the hyper-nationalist and neo-nazi impulses of its founders less and less relevant in the face of... well... taking weapons from the NATO "Gay Agenda They/Them Snowflake Woke Trans-pedo Global Thought Police". You know, once you start really slamming terms together, it really gets laborious to say. I miss when "Snowflake Liberal" was the catch-all from these genocidal pricks, it saved everyone so much more time. Azov was full of Nazis, for sure, but its size in the Ukrainian Territorial Defenses, its size now in the Army? Microscopic. Even at its full size it comprised less than a full percentage of the total armed forces that would resist the Russian Invaders starting February of 2022.
Putin however has pushed and maintained that Nazi's somehow run Ukraine. Ironically, if he were more informed and a better politician, he could point to fucking Poland (get your shit together ya'll) as a source of Nazism in Europe. It's noteworthy that Poland got fucked up by Nazi's, never recovered right under the USSR's thumb, then after being destroyed by Communists for around 50 years harbored Fascist Ideologies in Europe that needed a reservoir. You can see these nazi-fucks anywhere Putin looks for friends, and if he can't find enough Nazi's, he will also look for Tankies (the communist version) because Nazis and Tankies both fetishist a strong totalitarian government that kills the shit out of Jewish people and ethnic minorities. Sorry Tankies, not sorry, get fucked you right proper ahistorical cunts willing to sacrifice liberal society for some fucking idiot bullshit made by an antisemitic dipshit in the 1800's that targeted Western Europe, and not Russia. Marx was dumb, Lenin was dumb, Stalin was dumb, and the whole of the USSR was built upon the same genocide and imperialism the west engaged in historically over the last 500 years -- speed-running the genocide and imperialism in merely 80 years.
Putin has many, many works exploring his ideology, many are non-credible defense. I will instead leave you to simmer on how irrational invading Ukraine over ~2000 alleged neo-nazi's (I sure hope Putin doesn't invade the states of Georgia, Idaho, Utah, Tennessee, or West Virginia if that's his cut-off) really is, and to watch three interesting videos by Youtube Country-Ball Enthusiast Kraut:
The Ideology of Putin's Russia
A Critique of (Political) Realism
And for fun How Vodka Ruined Russia
Thanks for your time, if you read this far, uhhh comment: "Fuck it, Wiafu stickers on my AKM".