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  • BOMBS@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    2 years ago

    I was coming here to personalize it to Americans as well. This is wild! We lose our minds over the most relatively mildest issues. Imagine if Biden went on live TV scared and saying something like you described, indirectly pleading for Blackrock to stand down.

    I don’t live in DC, but I thought about my city in Florida. I’m in my house thinking, “What if we knew that a mercenary unit was on its way to come take over the city using military force?” and I really can’t imagine what the scene would be like. Would people be leaving the city en masse? Would there be neighbors outside in fatigues with flags and rifles? Would people start shooting into the air as a sign of bravado? Would Costco and Sam’s club be assaulted by civilians stocking up? What would the gas stations look like? Would everyone just assume that nothing will happen because the cops would have it under control? lol I seriously have no idea how the population of my city would react.

    I’m guessing today is a day people will be talking about in 10-20 years. Yo, the capital of a nuclear power, while at war with a neighboring country, was almost sieged by its own troops while the leader of that country went on live TV calling it a treasonous mutiny! I think I’m still in shock 😮 I think I need a support group or something lol

    • NevermindNoMind@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      2 years ago

      Yeah for real it’s really hard to wrap my mind around what Russians, especially those in Moscow, must be thinking. Blackrock was just the closest thing to an American version of Wagner I could think of, but it actuly fits kind of well. It’s 2014, the US is using Blackrock in Iraq, the leader is posting on social media about how the Commander of the Joint Chiefs of Staff sucks, he then eventually posts that there are no WMDs and Bush got tricked into thinking that by the military. So our Blackrock guy puts all his troops on a boat, lands in Jacksonville or something, takes the city over, then marches to DC with little to no resistance, but kills US military personnel along the way. Bush does a scared prime time address then hops on airforce one and fucks off from DC. The Canadian prime minister brokers some agreement with the Blackrock guy, and the battle for DC is averted. Bush says nothing. It feels like some wild alternative fiction novel when I write it out, but Russians fucking lived it.

      And your point on how regular people are likely to respond is really good. People freak out about thunderstorms where I am. We didn’t have toilet paper during the early weeks of the pandemic. What does a 25k strong army marching to your basically defenseless city look like? Especially with basically no warning, shit started popping off on a Friday night, by Saturday morning the seige is coming.

      One thing that is different, and that makes it even harder to put myself in their shoes, is Russians understand and have tolerated a good level of corruption most of their lives. Their cynical to a depressing degree. So maybe all of this wouldn’t be as shocking to them as it would be to us. But that doesn’t mean they were ready for tank battles in their neighborhood. From what I understand Moscow is basically a modern city, full of educated knowledge workers, bureaucrats, and the like, a lot like DC. It’s really hard to think about how they are processing all of this.