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Kay Leigh Hagan's avatar

The many reversals you chronicle here, and how they are being used to justify certain actions and divert attention from others, reminded me of an essential skill I first encountered in radical feminist analysis of patriarchy (circa 1980): ‘double double unthink’. It is defined as ‘to go past the obvious level of…reversals and find the underlying Lie.’ Putin is giving that technique a workout these days. Thanks for untangling this for us—without deep knowledge of the history, I could sense the absurdity but not explain it.

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Bob Stromberg's avatar

Very helpful. My favorite takeaway: Under Putin, the word “fascist” (or “Nazi”) just means “my chosen enemy, who is to be eliminated.”

Elimination of your enemy certainly simplifies things. Or... seems to.

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