Regarding the last point and the main topic of discussion of today’s interview, I figured I’d weigh in and add my last couple of thoughts on it. In my mind, there is no difference between incompetence and treachery. This is because I see the world as a series of actions that are pseudo-explained and rationalized after the fact. In terms of results, there is no difference between intentional and unintentional sabotage — a smoldering ruin is the result of a gas line rupturing by mistake as much as if it were an act of deliberate insurance fraud sabotage.
For me, the debate over sabotage or incompetence is a distinction without a difference. Both types should be put against the wall.
But, if you wanted to get into the hazy and mystical world of thoughts, intentions, and best wishes, then I could also argue that allowing incompetents to staff every single high level post in the government is a kind of treachery and a form of deliberate sabotage as well. After all, through the laws of chance, we’d expect at least SOME competents to make their way into positions of power in what is a high-stakes, high-reward professional sphere that ought to select for such types. Instead, it seems that we either have competent traitors or incompetent patriots, and the results they both produce are largely the same.
In the end, it all depends on how we define terms and whether or not we believe the sputtering explanations of well-fed ministers and public officials and half-public/half-private oligarchs who happened to accidentally make all the mistakes necessary to end up with pockets full of government money allocated for other things, but also made all the mistakes to totally mismanage the Ukraine crisis for the last three decades.
It begs the question: if they are so incompetent at waging a war, why are they so competent at stealing money? Perhaps this isn’t a competency crisis so much as it is a priority crisis? An identity crisis, maybe? How many ministers, oligarchs, and spooks have Israeli or Turkish or Latvian passports? A relevant question to ask, no?
I don’t know about you, but I’ve stopped believing in accidents and coincidence.
Me, I never attribute to bad fortune and incompetence what can more readily attributed to a coordinated conspiracy. The stakes are too high in geopolitics to believe that anything is left up to chance. But hey, a lot of people seem to prefer comforting lies. This SMO has definitively proven that Western peasants prefer to lap up soothing lies about clever plans and secret patriots and believe that end times prophecies are coming to pass.
