(I originally wrote this in 2024. While Donald Trump’s shake-up of Western values might warrant an update, I decided to publish this as-is.)
Ever since Russia attacked Ukraine, I’ve been trying to decode a nagging feeling about how the invasion is discussed in the wider world. I occupy a rare position: I grew up an hour from the Russian border, but spent years living in Western Europe and the US. That dual perspective alerts me to specific “mind traps.”
The West’s trap is an inability to believe anyone can be as cynical as the Russians. Russians truly believe that everything is a power play and conscience is merely baggage. Westerners struggle to understand that there is a culture where status is measured by how nefarious you can be.
Russians cannot comprehend that there are people who genuinely care about values and human life. When the West talks about an international rules-based order to ensure peace, Russians hear a ploy designed to trick them into weakness. They cannot “grok” that promoting democracy comes from a sincere belief that it is a superior system for the common people, rather than a covert weapon to undermine the Russian state.
This mutual incomprehension is what lets imperial ambition go unchecked. The West keeps waiting for a rational actor to negotiate with; Russians keeps assuming the West is playing the same cynical game they are.
When Russians look at America’s disastrous military interventions of the last twenty years, they do not see a naive, happy dog wagging its tail in a cramped room, knocking over furniture and making a mess. They want to see a deep plot—a thug dressed up as a dog to exploit people’s sympathy. They want to see a thug because they are thugs.