More Chill Pills, Please
Published at 08:53 on 3 March 2022
OK, the first round of sanctions is in place. Can we step back and assess for a moment.?
Face it, Russia is not leaving Ukraine tomorrow. Or next week. We don’t get to decide when Russia leaves. Russia’s leader does, and right now that leader is Putin and Putin wants to stay in. That sucks, but that’s also the way it is and it’s not going to change overnight, sorry.
“But this is unfair to the people of Ukraine!” Yes, it is unfair. Monstrously unfair. You think a nuclear war between the USA and Russia would be more fair? Go watch Threads and get back to me on that one. Sometimes there are no good options, only really bad and less-bad ones. This is one of those times.
What has been done in response so far is about as good as one could realistically expect to have been done. In international politics, that is close to a miracle.
To reiterate, now is the time to step back and assess.
For openers, hit the pause button on ideas like blocking all Russian addresses from the Apple app store. New sales of iPhones have been banned. What’s been sold in Russia cannot magically be unsold. Given that the phones are already there, might not it be useful to have some way of getting apps to them? Apps for things like secure, encrypted messaging that cannot be spied on by the increasingly repressive Russian government? Security updates for such apps already installed in Russia? Or how about an OS update that makes it easier to jailbreak Apple phones, in case Russia cuts off access to the Apple store and tries to control what apps its citizens can run?
If, on later reflection, there is a solid, strong argument for cutting off all access, an argument stronger than any compelling argument for maintaining access, then by all means cut it off. But do the reflection first.