This is the new subnormal, get used to it. These are the new laws of political physics: for every action/occurrence in the news cycle, the right-wing will cobble together an opposite narrative, invalidating the breaking news story and adding it to some conspiracy theory.
In the past hour signs that Russia has escalated to chemical warfare in Ukraine have been reported. What this does to the NATO redline — assuming this is real — is a good question and your guess is as good as anybody’s.
According to multiple reports, about an hour ago, Russian forces used what appears to be poisonous substance against Ukrainian military and civilians in the city of MARIUPOL, which was dropped from an enemy UAV.
The victims have respiratory failure, vestibulo-atactic syndrome.
— Scootercaster (@ScooterCasterNY) April 11, 2022
And here’s the return punch.
How long will it take for the American Right to claim this is a false flag from Ukrainian bio-weapons labs funded by Fauci and facilitated by Hunter Biden? https://t.co/af8Lw7rJL4
— Ron Filipkowski ?? (@RonFilipkowski) April 11, 2022
Getting close … pic.twitter.com/ELBoOAGeBx
— Ron Filipkowski ?? (@RonFilipkowski) April 11, 2022
Newsweek writes that they are attempting to independently verify these claims.
NATO has warned that the use of chemical weapons could prompt further action from the West. Late last month, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that using chemical weapons is a “blatant violation of international law with far-reaching consequences.”
President Joe Biden previously said that such an act could be grounds to trigger an intense reaction from the U.S., though he stopped short of saying what that might be.
Newsweek could not independently verify Monday’s claims. However, several Ukrainian officials also posted about the accusations on social media.
Solomiia Bobrovska, a member of Ukraine’s parliament and secretary of the committee on foreign affairs, called on Biden and NATO to respond to the reports.
1/2 #RU 1,5hr ago used unknown substance in #Mariupol. Victims experience respiratory failure,
vestib.-atactic syndrome.Most likely chem.weapons!This is red line beyond which ? must destroy economy of despotism.We demand full embargo on all fuels from #RU &heavy weapons 2UA now!— Ivanna Klympush (@IKlympush) April 11, 2022
Obviously, this is breaking. We’ll stay on top of it and see where it goes.
This … is my surprised face.
4chan is already claiming it was Israel. Watch the lies quickly spread.
What, short of nuclear weapons, does Russia have to do to get the backlash they so richly deserve? They have been preying on and attacking the rest of world for decades, and Putin keeps raising the bar. He and his ilk have been planning on what they will do with our elections this next time, as well as making financial war on Europe. Brexit was all Putin. Now chemical weapons on those poor battered souls in Ukraine? Putin is not to be trusted. There is no line he won’t cross. He is a danger to the world, not unlike Hitler. In fact, his recent crack downs on his own citizens is similar to some of Hitler’s early measures to secure his own position. How much more do we let Putin get away with. How far is far enough?
The people you hate feed on your feelings of impotence. Remember that the next time you wish to channel your outrage. There are better ways.
Excuse me? Keep your self-righteous, arrogant advice to yourself. You make assumptions about the rest of us based on your smug, over-bearing sense of self-importance and know-it-allness, and it’s insulting. We’ve watched as Putin has relentlessly pounded Ukraine back into the stone age. His attack is going affect numerous countries by creating massive food shortages, and considering the timing of this war, that was deliberate planning on his part. He’s taking down more than the Ukranian people. Millions will be affected by this. The ‘people I hate’??? Right now, that’s pretty much Putin, and I don’t see him ‘feeding on my feelings of impotence’. He’s too busy feeding at the trough of his own madness.
Contributing what we can to Ukraine is a more effective way to channel this outrage. However little that is, it’s worth a LOT more than your online primal scream therapy.
Ukrainians don’t need our tears or our outrage. THEY NEED HELP, big or small. So why don’t we give it to them, huh? They’ve more than proven they can pay Putin back for every atrocity he’s willing to unleash.
I’m all for giving the Ukranians what they need, more than. I don’t know how you get my expressing my opinions as ‘online primal scream therapy’. Maybe you think the rest of us don’t deserve to share our thoughts. There’s certainly enough of that repressive energy going around these days, but that’s not what this site is about. We all have a voice (still), we all get to share. Get a grip. Get over yourself.
No, there are additional ways.
Every way of expressing outrage must be used-even those sentiments in these silly blogs/forums. Do Ukrainians need more? Of course they do but if you think our government is not taking the “emotional temperature” of the public by reading/listening to opinions you’re pretty ignorant. Our government needs to step up and help because what the average American citizen can do is very little. We cannot provide weapons and that is what that country needs so badly.
Per the Kyiv Independent, everyone who got doused by the chemical aren’t suffering “disastrous consequences” from it. Coupling this with reports I’ve heard of Ukrainians resupplying their Mariupol forces by helicopter, I’d say that they a) know what they got hit with and b) had the right prep to deal with it in the form of an antidote or treatment. Of course, this assumes all the public info is accurate.