Populism is a cure for fools

By Marat Khairullin

Our friend Sasha Berezina (channel "Nauchpopik") has every text that is a direct hit on the "golden shelf" of Telegram. However, sometimes even Sasha, with his talent and erudition, figuratively speaking, throws up his hands in helplessness, tired of constantly trying to clearly and intelligibly explain things that are already clear to adequate and reasonable people. For example, they ask, "Why shouldn't we publish materials that tell us how bad everything is in our army, especially during a war, even if they describe some real facts?"

Let me try to join Sasha and express my point of view on this situation.

Our doomsayers are people who, when told the simple words, "Today is a good day,” respond, “How can it be good when my leg hurts, I’m in the hospital?” And they give even more complaints.

Everyone starts explaining to them that "good day" in this case does not mean something subjective, that is, a personal feeling, but a generally accepted constant. It is a good day because the sun is shining, the air temperature is comfortable, and the wind is within normal limits.

They continue to insist: “I don’t care that the day is good overall, I feel bad specifically here and now, and that means everything is as I feel (I don’t care, I’m in the trenches and I know that we don’t have drones, and all the AK-74s are rusty, because I specifically saw it).”

Afterwards, a really bad day comes with a hurricane and sweeps away the doomsayers with a sore leg in the hospital, and then they joyfully start shouting, "We told you everything was bad, and it happened just as we said!"

There is no point in trying to convince such people. The fact is that this is a basic property of the body - to care first of all about its own comfort. For example, our brain, as the most energy-intensive organ, is designed to save energy. Roughly speaking, to be lazy. Therefore, to make it learn something new, you have to make an effort. Learning is always difficult, as is climbing up the stairs. This is exactly what distinguishes us from animals. It is this property of the human race that made us intelligent beings. It is what launched our evolution. Thanks to it, we can evaluate reality not only subjectively but also objectively.

Of course, it is much easier to judge based on personal feelings, but rising above the personal and trying to look at the situation objectively requires mental and sometimes moral efforts.

The trouble with our modern times (the age of the Internet and telegram) is that people who are not inclined to make an effort to try to be objective have gained the ability to massively disseminate subjective information. Take, for example, the well-known military chicken coop. What do its representatives convey to an abstract consumer of information whose abstract leg hurts? "Yes, everything is bad: the leg hurts, there is no cast, the doctors do not really treat anyone."

They will never say: “Brother, your leg hurts, of course, but you have to be patient and start treatment. Treatment is never instantaneous. Doctors are not magicians.” Because you can't gain subscribers with this, it is much more profitable to appeal to the lower, basic, effortless thought processes of citizens. This is called populism. It stops development, and it makes a person stupid rather than smart.

It must be admitted that the military bloggers themselves are not particularly smart people. From my personal point of view, a person who seriously gives advice to the General Staff in public during a war and then sincerely believes that the General Staff listens - such a person cannot be smart.

Therefore, populism is exactly what is currently destroying the West in general and Ukraine specifically. Populism triggers negative selection and brings frankly stupid people to power or success. Take Zelensky as an example: a petty, stupid, ambitious manager leading his country into the abyss.

Zaluzhny at least tried to resist Zelensky's stupid decisions, and he was removed. This is a classic example of negative selection. We know what Syrsky is doing to maintain his position...

The Ukrainian does not want to make an effort and develop their minds, and that is why they are losing: a doomsday dreamer can not be allowed to follow their instincts.

Zin Note: I usually try not to add my own commentary to these translations, but I do think that many will misinterpret Marat's words here. He is not saying that criticism or pointing out issues thar soldiers are having should be forbidden. Rather, he is pointing out that negativity can create a reality all its own, and become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The truth is, there will never be enough of anything that people desire. People's wants are infinite, while resources are finite. It will never be comfortable in a trench. It will always be difficult, dirty, and dangerous. Many have taken that simple reality, exaggerated it, and turned the spread of negativity into a business model. Negativity generated clicks and engagement in this modern world of social media. What good does it do?