Ukraine, Russia, America and this war business. / Talk TV.

A FEW of my responses to discussions/posts in Friends’ Facebook page, slightly edited. 

<>Ukraine, Russia, America and this war business. 

COUNTRIES go to war not because majority of their people want a war. Leadership decides on a war. Political leaders prefer to "settle" differences, ideological animosities and trade competition, via armed hostilities. If all peoples decide to hate each other and refuse to explore ways to find common, shared coolness, then humanity is doomed. Yet it all boils down to domination of the commercial market. 

      Imagine if the rest of the universe hates all Germans, Japanese and Italians (and they hate back as well) on account of World War 2? Ignorance. Yet I don't get it why many hate the Chinese. All they do is sell stuff that we continually buy. Those who say they don't buy anything Chinese, swallow drugs that are made from Chinese API or use a cellphone or laptop that was made in China. 

      Many Ukrainians, mostly celebrities, hate Russians more than the other way around it seems. Before the war started in Feb 2022, there were almost 6 million Ukrainians living in Russia, excluding those who work there. Yet when fighting ensued, 2.77 million Ukrainians fled to Russia. Meanwhile, pre-hostilities, there were between 11 and 12 million Russians living in Ukraine. So why are they killing each other? They are married to each other, kin and friends and neighbors. 

       I mean, my neighbor is a couple from Ukraine and Russia with 4 kids. They have a sticker on their mailbox that says "End the war!"

<>Talk TV.

I DON”T watch "talk TV" or talk shows anymore since I quit journalism and opted to stay in mostly. But from time to time, I listen/watch some blahblah on Fox, MSNBC or CNN via YouTube, just to check what’s this that people are chatting about? News anchors say this, the opposite side say that, stiff that we agree or disagree with. 

       Media people are provocateurs. That provocation to speak our mind is a hallmark of democracy. But abusing it is a different matter. Meanwhile, I try my best to veer away from name calling people on social media, just because they espouse thoughts that are contrary to mine. I chose to read/listen or I just don't whenever I notice retorts that tend to straddle disguised idiocy and crass mojo. 

Yet that is my understanding of America. Accept or reject then hush. I practiced half of my life's journalism within a dictatorship that mowed down or wasted many of my colleagues because they talked too much. Tucker Carlson talks took much, Rachel Maddow talks too much, Piers Morgan talks too much, Joy Behar talks too much. 

       Yet we need voices to balance the heat, contradict each other. Whether we like it or not. Just that I got older and impatient to listen to stuff that “heard those done that” already. I’d rather watch NBA, a TV series with Arrow The Good Doog, Ching The Zing, and Fizz The Wiz.