I've been doing some reading because I'll be the first to admit I know little about Putin, Ukraine and its president, the role of the US in any of this (both historically and currently) and so on. After p_rushing's comments regarding the globalists vs Putin that explained a couple of things I had been wondering about- specifically the "canceling" of everything Russian that hasn't made sense to me- I decided to start reading from different sources so I could try and understand what the heck is going on. 

Questions I've had:
-Why is Russia allowed to dictate who Ukraine is as a country? I say Russia and not Putin specifically because it seems Ukraine has been jerked around by rulers of Russia for millennia. They're like the red headed stepchild of eastern Europe. 

-Why does Putin not want Ukraine in NATO? What does he lose if they join? I'm talking practical matters here. 

-What is with the explosion of cancel culture attitude from pretty much everyone from countries to sports organizations to companies? I don't remember this being a thing back in 2014 when Russia took Crimea. This is the one thing that has been a huge question mark for me. 

If the last six years, and especially the last two years, has taught me anything it's that the government and the media will make a boat load of noise and use cancel culture to divert our attention away from what it doesn't want us to pay attention to. So, what don't they want us to pay attention to? What's changed since 2014 when we seemed not to be overtly concerned with what Putin did in Crimea/Ukraine? 

-Who is Zelenskyy? Like, the man is not afraid to call out anyone who is not supportive of Ukraine and is asking anyone who will listen to aid his country. He is also calling out the likes of FIFA and other sport organizations to cancel Russian countries from competing and such. 

What I think I understand now:
-Ukraine wants to be part of NATO to have military backing in the event of Russian aggression. This article seems to describe this process. It also wants to be a sovereign nation. 

-Putin sees Ukraine as part of Russia- period. This article explains a lot of his mindset in providing some historical context as to why he/Russia can dictate who Ukraine is as a country. 

-Putin doesn't want Ukraine in NATO for Russia's national security but also because he sees the globalist threat being a problem for Russia as a country. An article I want to link doesn't seem to want to link to the specific story, only to the main site. I'll try to find another one. 

-The globalists want the people to think Putin is a nutcase. This article goes into that subject regarding the media and misinformation. This somewhat answers my third question regarding cancel culture.

-I haven't gotten around to Zelenskyy yet. 

I know these articles don't tell the whole story but they satisfied my questions for now in that they gave me some context. There is way too much history and way too many rabbit holes one could go down to try and understand the basics, much less the complexities, of how Russia and Ukraine got to where they are today. 

I still don't know what to think about it all. I'm a practical person. I think in practical terms. I can also be a literal thinker. These make me see Putin's nationalist POV to a degree in that he feels if he does "A" then "B" will happen, though I don't agree with invading a country and taking it against its will. Just because he sees Ukraine as part of Russia doesn't make it his to take. If that is his only goal/reason for invading then he's definitely wrong. 

If he feels a genuine threat from NATO for reasons I have yet to discover (that's a rabbit hole) then I can see why he feels like he has to take Ukraine before they become part of NATO. Again, I don't agree with him or his actions but I can see the "why".  And at this point Ukraine won't be joining NATO unless they go against their own requirements for how a nation joins (described in part in the first article I linked to) so the point is moot.

As for the "globalist" part of all of this, I have not really ever understood it as a thing, organization, or whatever you want to call it, but I think I'm beginning to, and it's not something I feel good about. At all. I'll reserve my thoughts on that for now.

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