@Demosthenes: “It’s a lot tougher to convince people that they should simply sit by and let a dictator like Putin take over another sovereign country because the U.S. has been bad in the past.”
1. “US has been bad in the past”?
What “past” are we talking about? Providing support for Saudi bombing and the humanitarian crisis in Yemen? Continued support for the apartheid in Israel? More recent bombings? Military and covert action throughout the entire history of central and south America? Violent sanctions on places like Venezuela? I mean, where to even start.
2. The outrage against Putin and has been a propaganda project in the works for many years. The seeds were set with all of the fake “Russiagate” election bullshit that had right-wing liberals willing to restart the cold-war (or worse). Now, people are intensely interested in foreign affairs because corporate media has no problem creating this interest (and bloodlust) when it comes to official enemies’ actions. There are not principles being upheld here. None. The warmongering going on right now isn’t motivated by anti-imperialism, right? It can’t be.
I have people in the office here who are outraged suddenly, and they act as though they are scholars of Ukraine and have been as intensely interested when the US showed support ($ and otherwise) for the 2014 coup. Suddenly they are acting as though they have been following separatist movements in Donbas and Luhansk for years.
@Demosthenes: “I’m just saying one side clearly has a more impactful argument.”
One can have that argument. But it can’t happen in a vacuum. The last country on the planet that should have any say in the matter is the United States. And I would imagine that any reasonable argument would take into consideration current ignored violence happening at the hands of the parties involved. It would also take into consideration things such as the legitimacy of surrounding a nuclear power with encroaching NATO members and then pretending to be shocked that a right-wing maniac uses it as a pretense (along with declarations of supporting separatists) as a justification for war.
When CNN announces that Putin invaded Ukraine, it should have sparked introspection in the minds and hearts of US citizens. It was like looking in the mirror. Instead, an aggressive propaganda campaign has people (liberals here in MA, in my experience) willing to risk nuclear war as though what it happening in Ukraine is something out of the ordinary and has an effect on people here.