As the saying goes, “just because I’m paranoid it doesn’t mean they’re not out to get me.”

There are many layers to both stories and it’s true that arrogance due to power is one of them. If power corrupts, one must contemplate the arrogance and actions of the US oligarchs and the capability of their worldwide media machine to reframe it … But, at least in Putin’s case, the narrative he presents concerning the Nato threat and the targeting of Russia by the US is highly plausible and are probably the primary reason. Even a duly elected non-dictator would probably have taken the same action. Putin did try, on numerous occasions, to integrate with the ‘west’. The US did do a regime change in 2014, Zelensky was voted on a platform of fixing relations with Russia but didn’t, there really are Nazis integrated into both politics and the army in Ukraine, Ukrainian-Russians do form a third of the Ukrainian population, Ukrainians in Donbass were attacked and about 14,000 were (silently) killed, new evidence (Biden’s portable) does suggest there were DOD funding for bio labs in Ukraine and so on.

A theory of ‘what happened and why’ must take into account all the ‘facts’ and not just cherry pick from facts and fiction. Of course, some ‘facts’ and some ‘fiction-status’ may be in dispute but the narrative pushed by the ‘west’ is ridiculously infantile.

And before I get accused of all sorts of things, I view the whole affair as someone viewing a fatal car accident about to happen. It’s tragic but it’s not what the boy-in-the-Porch’s rich uncle is spinning.