Putin and the Weaknesses of the West [View all]
KGB Grandmaster Putin surveyed the landscape and his political rivals for geopolitical power. His gaze came to rest on Russia's old rival, the United Kingdom.
An old democracy with a still semi-functioning safety net and a cushy sinecure within the EU, the UK was fairly secure and prospering.
He contemplated their weaknesses and came up with: xenophobia, an old feeling that the UK was not part of "Europe", and racism.
Pressing his dirty thumb on that weakness, and releasing his various Russian and Balkan online trolls and trouble-makers, he helped to engineer Brexit. The UK is now on the brink of an enormous economic disaster of its own making, because a hard core minority of its people believe that Brexit will begin manufacturing unicorns for them, just as soon as they kick out the foreigners.
His eye then fell upon the USA. And he perceived racism, xenophobia, and the electoral college as our greatest weaknesses.
Pressing his dirty thumb on those weaknesses, he elevated a stupid but fascistic imbecile who was completely in his pocket to take over the most racist group in the US, the GOP. And then he and his Russian and Balkan online monkeys began working on the demographics of the electoral college. The USA is now on the brink of an enormous economic disaster of its own making, because a hard core minority of its people believe that "the wall" will begin manufacturing unicorns for them, just as soon as we kick out the foreigners.
I am embarrassed that the USA and the UK have been so comparatively easy to (nearly) topple. With nary a shot fired. But I have to say that Putin perceived our weaknesses quite perceptively.
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