midway, the essay mentions
In a nuanced treatment of the question of Russiaâs fascism published the year before its invasion of Ukraine, Marlène Laruelle asserted that âRussia has no ideology of racial destruction or domination that would allow for a parallel with Nazism. Nor does it display an ideological doctrine forcibly inculcated in the population, successful mass mobilization around a project of utopian regeneration, a high level of repression, or dictatorial functioning.â In 2022, none of that holds true. Russian society, especially online, has been suffused with an ideology of destructive war motivated by racial animus and Russian exceptionalism. The ideology is contradictory, weak, and illogical, but it is constantly transmitted in popular culture.
Laruelleâs book is briefly reviewed here:
From the privileged vantage point of 2023, most of her predictions seem so wrongâŚ
BBC News - Russian rocket hits Ukraine medical clinic
Is the stern the best place to hit a warship like that? It seems like once they were alongside they were outside the minimal range of the shipâs arms and could have leisurely chosen a spot to detonate. Assuming those were piloted in real time via video link, but I think thatâs a given.
Orcas seem to think so.
Would it be outside the range of crewmen firing RPGs?
I mean, itâs still just a matter of seconds to get into another position. And considering the other one blew up when hit, it wouldnât make much difference? But this was such a daring raid that I can see why they wouldnât take any chances and blow it up as soon as it was close to the ship.
Well, sailboats do wiggle their rudders suggestively
I would guess that hitting the stern would, if not fatal for the ship, be most likely to disable it (steering or propulsion), making it easier for other drones to attack.
Laruelle strikes me as the academic version of the commenters we sometimes see who whinge about liberals and progressives calling anything they donât like âfascistâ and then demanding you only use the term if theyâre wearing brown shirts and swastika armbands and making the Jews their primary targets.
Most competent observers have understood at least since the annexation of Crimea that the Putin regime has been something more than âilliberalâ.
No good can come of this
(This is an opinion piece, not an âexplainerâ.)
So, iodine tablets all around?
has already stared down the barrel of the biggest nuclear disaster ever. Short of atomizing a containment building, this will be (a) local, if not then (b) contaminate Rostov, (c) be readily cleaned up and (d) firmly blamed on 
.
NextâŚ
Sure Jan.
