Yo, whatever anon wrote in to defend tank club’s honor against my “self-righteousness”… yeah, okay, you’re on to something, looking back that “is hilarious” does sound pretty condescending. Maybe “is interesting” would be better but that’d still sound condescending in a “oh, look at ~this~” way. I think the way that people align around totalizing, universal ideologies in response to the specifics of early 20th century Eastern Europe really is interesting and important though.

Which is to say I didn’t want that to come off as rooting for a side and hooting the other, sorry. So what position do I want to come off with?

The “Wilsonian” solution to the “nationalities problem”, widely applied post-WWI - form states around ethnolinguistic blocs where they stand, even though it’s all just gradients, maybe cheat a bit because the result makes no economic, military, or geopolitical sense, then firmly remind everyone to be tolerant and war is illegal - was a clear failure.

And the Yalta approach, widely applied post-WWII - drawing lines in a way that made sense and comported with the relative strength of power players and then shifting homogenized populations to fit - well, it worked, didn’t it?

Not like that resolves anything.

Following WWI, Armenia formed along the “Yalta” model in a catastrophically traumatic process, I’m sympathetic to anyone who cares for Armenian people having an aversion to this.

Following WWI, Poland formed along the “Wilsonian” model with catastrophically traumatic results, I’m sympathetic to anyone who cares for Polish people having an aversion to this.

For people committed to socialism to come down on either side of this in alignment with those sympathies isn’t… wrong, but the way that shatters unity is pretty interesting. (And on occasion hilarious, when people talk at each other in the same voice of totalizing universalism.)

(And the dream of non-programmatic spirit of socialism that understands, aligns, and improves the people and land incidentally wherever they are now while rejecting the false promise of nationalism? Which I think is being deployed as a way to transcend all of this?

I’ve said in private message to quoms but I’ll repeat here since you’re curious - even assuming the can opener, reject all you want, but if the totalizing ideologies of great power blocs could still get experienced as various nationalisms, the chance that this wouldn’t strikes me as nil.  At best a wiping of the slate, a reset to day zero, a new Golden Age that will itself get invoked in future palingenetic promises and irredentist claims.)

Finally, if you’re telling me I’ve got some weird followers, God, I know. Try to be a good influence. If there’s anywhere I’ve got cause for self-righteousness it’s sure as fuck not maintaining the purest cordon sanitaire. You know this account only really got active under influence of the great witch Monetizeyourcat?