“To participate, competitors needed to sport a beard at least 8 inches in length. They stood side-by-side, one lengthy beard attached to the next until the chain stretched through the room. Once they were all clipped together, someone took a tape measure to determine the length of this cable of historic facial hair: 150 feet.”
As odious as nationalism usually is, if this were its primary expression I could live with that. Imagine a world in which Russia simply challenges Ukraine to a beard-chain contest.