With this single “conversation” they undermined every security deal they had anywhere in the world.

I disagree. If it was a single conversation the world would be shocked but they could still cover it up. Politicians say dumb shit and walk it back all the time.

It’s the fact that his first term was already such a blundering mess in terms of diplomacy, combined with the fact that he somehow got re-elected, the accelerating bullshit ever since and now finally this mess. If they hadn’t been chipping away at any international goodwill so thoroughly, the response would be closer to “I can’t believe a US president would say that” rather than “the US as a whole is no longer reliable”.

I went back to find this post just to tell you that “my personality is the color Florida” has me cackling for several minutes now. I hope your day is as great as your jokes.

And yet there are plenty of histories today that challenge the claims of the past’s winners. A part of studying historical literature is discerning and accounting for the bias of the authors and correlating it with other sources. A part of studying history in turn is matching up what you find in literature with what archaeology finds.

History isn’t done once the event has happened. Even if the oligarchs win this war, it’s unlikely they’ll be the ones to build the Actually Really Eternal Empire (Forever This Time) that manages to suppress all study of history ever.

The winner may write history, but they’re not the only ones to ever read it.

We’re about to see how the next elections turn out. Maybe all is not lost yet.

That would risk direct conflict between nuclear powers. I’m not sure that’s a gamble we should take.

I’m not sure we shouldn’t take it either. I don’t know, really. But it’s scary.

The world will continue to exist and some portion of mankind probably will survive too. At some point, historians will dissect the current crisis – whatever the outcome – with the same scrutiny as today’s historians examine other past events.

And I hope they won’t face the same issues as today’s historians, who have to watch as their departments are cut down one by one while their cries of alarm go unheard.