Appeasement
The latest jerk to claim that Ukraine should give up territory in exchange for peace is noted war criminal Henry Kissinger — invited to speak at Davos for some reason, in a long and noble tradition...
Category: Mental health
The Russian Leviathan of hatred
A Swedish-Russian woman, Eugenia Karlsson, became the internet’s latest target for public shaming after she was captured unleashing a horrific tirade on a Ukrainian in Stockholm: I don’t believe...
I found tragedy and inspiration in the same place
This week, I did a panel at George Washington University, hosted by the Organization of Slavic Studies. My co-panelists were career Ukrainian diplomat Kateryna Smagliy and prominent Ukrainian...
Can Roman Hrybov and Oksana Baulina both be my heroes?
Roman Hrybov, the Ukrainian border guard who famously told a Russian warship “go fuck yourself” on the first day of Russia’s shameful invasion of Ukraine is alive — and has received a medal....
Post-Covid solidarity or collective unconsciousness?
Almost all of us have an idealized idea of ourselves, we think we are naturally good and make little effort to measure up. It seems that as individuals we waste too much time navel gazing and don't...
Vacuous jealousy of Zelensky
The rapturious admiration of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — who has more than risen to the occasion as Russia invaded his country — was always bound to inspire a backlash. The whole...
Welcome to the Russian Reich
I have good news and bad news. The bad news is as follows: we are in a new and so far very shitty period of history. Russians are bombing Ukraine, my native homeland, and making threats about...
Vladimir Putin, vampire
Russian President Vladimir Putin is exhausting Whenever I write this on social media, a cadre of paid troll accounts and a few useful idiots inevitably show up to tell me what a bad person I am. In...
On hardening the fuck up
Someone I’m close to recently told me to “harden the fuck up.” In the internet communities I’ve been part of over the years, this would basically constitute a war crime. After all, I have...
Book review: Almond by Won-pyung Sohn
In her first novel, director and screenwriter Won-pyung Sohn tells the challenging story of Soon Yunjae, who has been diagnosed with alexithymia. This condition is a rare emotional deficiency that...