True Tragedy

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

True tragedy has always fascinated me. It makes for lousy novels, unless you like eating grey fog with a spoon, but can be an effective background for a novel, within which pre-doomed background the character can carve out difficult wins.

What I mean by true tragedy is the type of pre=determined plot in which two people/nations/forces run at each other, each with vital and urgent needs from their own point of view and they can’t see the other pov at all, no matter how they try.

Most of the most fascinating tragedies of this type happen when two cultures collide, because cultures — and those embedded in them — truly are at a very essential level blind to each other.

When I was researching the simultaneous Boer and Zulu invasion of South Africa (no, the Zulus were not even vaguely “native” and assuming they were simply because it was the same continent and they’re black is not just racist but arrant ignorance. They were no more native to South Africa than Frenchmen to Portugal during the Napoleonic wars. The fact outsiders can’t tell you apart from the natives does NOT make you native.) I realized I was reading about that type of tragedy. And that the same type of tragedy (rather than overpowered, oh, so strong colonizers against helpless “natives” who worship nature) is what happened in America with the Amerindians. To an extent it’s what is unrolling before our very eyes in the Israel/Palestine conflict, which has only NOT resulted in complete elimination of “Palestinians” because the Israelis have the patience of Job and perhaps an insufficiently developed sense of self-preservation. (I recommend on read The Washing of the Spears by Donald R. Morris, for a glimpse at the big picture.)

What happened in all of those cases (and is happening in Palestine, in slow mo, with one important difference) is that a civilized culture came into the sphere of a barbaric one.

I’m not going to apologize for these terms, btw. Words mean things. A civilized culture, in general, in western terms, means one with adequate means of communication, a sense of belonging and human worth beyond the most basic and pathetic tribal affiliation, and some kind of shared moral/philosophical ethos. (For most of the west, that is Judaic/Christianity. Other cultural disagreements happen, of course, but it’s on the framework of that background.) Barbarians, OTOH are the default background from of humanity. There is no link, no belief in overarching humanity beyond the most basic blood ties. Tribes can be long lasting and widespread, but at the bottom there’s an assumption of shared blood and more importantly — since the shared blood is (no matter how provably wrong) often at the very heart of modern nationalities too — the denial of humanity or value to anyone else. The basic philosophy of the barbarian is “survival for me and mine/at the expense/despite/never mind anyone else.” (All humans can get pushed to this place in moments of dire need. But for the barbarian it is the only mode. And this is also present in our current issue.)

The problem of barbarism/paleolithic mode of interaction with other cultures is that it developed a very simple, very effective way of dealing with invasion/incursions of other tribes into their area. Remember, they don’t give a hang about the people coming in, not even women and children. Their way of retaining their land and getting rid of the invaders is simple, basic and …. showy. Showy and ruthless are needed.

So, if you notice a settlement from another tribe on your lands, you go over and commit the most ruthless, shocking atrocities you can think of. You kill men, women and children (unless you take those as slaves) in the most horrifying way. Slice, dice and often eat. And leave the corpses as a warning.

For two barbaric tribes, this works. If the outpost was a part of a tribe, the first tiptoe over the line, you just showed them they don’t want to come here. You’ll do worse than just killing to them. From what I understand in most neolithic clashes, this would either make the other tribe retreat and find an easier place to colonize/raid/attack, or at least pause hostilities while you prepare for bigger fights.

When the enemy you’ve spotted is a civilization, though, you’ve just bought yourself hell. Civilized people tend to view neolithic barbarism as putting yourself beyond the pale of humanity. You become a feral beast who must be eliminated.

There were serious debates in the clashes between civilizations on whether the Zulus had souls, whether Amerindians had souls. Dismissing these as racist misses the point. A lot of us who are visually indistinguishable from the Palestinians (basically Mediterranean sub-race) have had more than a few moments of feeling that way about Palestinians after 10/7. There is a type of behavior so barbaric that civilized human beings immediately, instinctively class it as “not human.” This is intentional as a war tactic of barbarians, of course. It’s the whole “Don’t mess with those guys, they’re not even human” but it misfires badly with a civilized enemy, who then decides to exterminate the “non-human.” The other part of this is that barbarians always underestimate the size of the group they’re dealing with. Because they don’t understand group allegiance beyond the tribe.

The end of these clashes is ALWAYS that the barbarians are exterminated with prejudice. Sure, sometimes the barbarians survive physically. But the culture is obliterated root and branch and civilization imposed on them. (It can take a very long time.)

A note on the Palestinian7e and the general culture have been part of the “civilized” world since Rome, but their culture itself has progressively become more barbarian-like and yeah we can say a lot about supremacist religions, and illusions of relevance fed by a corrupt media and world powers, but the fact remains that 10/7 was pure Neolithic war tactic, and that they were convinced this would somehow, oddly, win the war. That is PURE barbarian thinking, and shouldn’t be possible for someone in the 21st century. But here we are.

Anyway this type of clash is a true tragedy because there’s no finding middle ground.

To an extent, though what we watched with Zelenski and Trump in the oval office is even more tragic. There is cultural misunderstanding but there was no need for it. Both cultures are civilized and there are bridging advisors. It’s not always obvious, but there was no reason for the conflagration, either.

SURE there are cultural assumptions on either side, but when it comes to tragedy, this is not the pure tragedy above, but in my opinion, more of an Othelo type tragedy in which a third party sets it up, for its own purposes.

Francis Turner wrote his view of it here, and he sees it more like a tragic culture clash, but I beg to differ.

My view is more of an Othello. For how I watched the meeting (without sound) look at this: Full Body Language analysis.

It is my opinion that Zelinsky — having agreed to sign the treaty and demanded to do it in the oval office — then walked into the room already determined not to sign. More importantly, he walked in determined to humiliate Trump and make him plead with him.

Now there is some tragic misunderstanding there, mostly of who Trump is and of the cultural moment in the US. Europeans tend to view all of the US as the same, and they really believe in a “uniparty” and they’ve doubtless been listening to the press talk about how old and impotent Trump is. This is tragic indeed.

But more importantly we know now for absolute fact that before Zelinsky went into the oval office, he talked to the same broad group of democrats that had been “supporting” him and they advised him to “resist” Trump, to demand more, to refuse cease fire, etc. etc. etc. They wound him up and convinced him he could get whatever he wanted and adulation besides.

To them this was win-win. They were going to put Trump on the spot in the oval office, and if he rolled over paint him as weak, if he didn’t go back to painting him as Putin’s stooge, which they still think is a winning play, judging by their media.

And so it played out. Major loss for Zelinsky. An upset for Trump, but come on, not even the right squishes were siding with Zelinsky. Not even those who all out support Ukraine.

Where the cultural blindness and inability to understand what is happening comes in it’s at Zelinsky’s level and more broadly European level.

They really, really, really don’t understand our current Democrats. They have their own despicable elites in Western Europe at least, but most of them haven’t seen through them. They are as we were say in 2016. The masks haven’t even half fallen. So to their minds, and certainly to Zelensky’s minds it is unbelievable that they’d instigate further war and deaths and risk Ukraine being obliterated and the other states in Europe threatened TO MAKE TRUMP LOOK BAD; to score points in their captive press. (They keep missing that no one is watching/believing that, not in the US. The election should have been a clue, but apparently not.)

And so even anyone that Zelinsky might have consulted would have been unable to advise him better. They and him probably would assume that the democrats had the best interests of Ukraine at heart, if not Trump’s. And in Zelinsky’s case, it is even less likely he realized they were willing to underbuss him to score points, since these are the same people who were helping him till a month and change ago.

So he did what they advised. he had no clue. They’re probably still telling him to “Stand strong” or some derivative thereof. They’ll do this until they realize this isn’t causing most Americans to turn against Trump — a poll in a day or three — and then they’ll ignore Zelinsky* and discard him, like they discarded everyone they used in the past from what’s her face Sheehan to Greta Thunberg. Everyone is a rock star to the left when being used against their true enemy: their domestic opposition. And everyone stops mattering when the attack fails.

But in this case their puppet has substantially wounded his nation’s chance of survival and perhaps the safety of Eastern Europe.

Look, in that position, at that time, Trump did what he had to do. The only thing he COULD do.

How does this end? I don’t know. Right now Trump might be more than willing to throw Ukraine under the bus, but I can tell you he will not willingly endanger Poland.

Can he pull a rabbit from the hat, and make it so that we can still get a ceasefire and use the minerals deal as a trip wire to protect Ukraine? I don’t know. If anyone can, it is this administration (Not because Trump is a super-genius. He might be, but that’s not the point. But because he’s not a politician and his out-of-the-box thinking can allow him to come up with unconventional solutions.) Will he?

I don’t know. Having had my own arguments with Europeans recently, I can tell you the temptation to bitch slap them is almost irresistible. And yet saving them is probably ultimately in our interest. Even if I — and I’m sure Trump — am not willing to sacrifice American lives to that cause. (Not anymore.)

At this point all we can hope for is that Trump pulls a hat out of a rabbit.

And remember that no matter how much we hate the left we can’t hate them enough.

*I realize I spelled Zelinsky many different ways in this. The truth is, I tried to look it up, but nothing clear came up, and I’m typing this while tied to the roof rack in the back of a speeding car. I don’t feel up to go back and change it all to be only one, much less figuring out which is correct.
So, instead, those of you who come up with a count of the number of ways I spelled Zelinski’s name, send me the number and your snail mail to my bookpimping email, and I’ll send you a signed book by return mail. :) Make my issues with spelling work for you. Go.

163 thoughts on “True Tragedy”

  1. Well written, Ms. Sarah. In many of these situations, our fellow travelers often forget that ZERO poison is the correct amount to put on our children’s breakfast, not some, however diluted.

    But the left have poisoned the reasoning of many people so that they cannot acknowledge the existence of evil, much less recognize evil in any person or group of people…

    Liked by 2 people

  2. Zelenski

    Zelinsky

    Zelensky

    You’re not really trying, Sarah! T.E. Lawrence could have come up with a dozen more spellings.

    Liked by 5 people

    2. Garibaldi: CenTOOree

      Molari: CenTAAAHHHHHHHRRRRRRHi

      Garibaldi: ToMAYto

      Molari: ToMAHHHHHHHHtoe

      …

      (both, singing) Lets call the whole thing off!

      Liked by 1 person

          1. I’ve been searching for that vid, but have come up empty. Plenty of other bloopers, but not the “let’s call the whole thing off” one. Do you have a link handy?

            Liked by 1 person

            1. wish I did…

              It was part of some TV show, possibly a B5 documentary or Doyle remembrance.

              And I have also searched, without success.

              “What is your quest?”

              Liked by 1 person

          2. I don’t believe that I’ve seen it. (That should tell you have powerful their performances were.) Now I need to go find this.

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            1. Found a reference to it, althouhg I had it somewhat garbled.

              The exchange, per a below linked page:

               The Hilarious Outtakes for each season. Highlights include:

              Garibaldi: Someone’s trying to frame me for the explosion in the Cobra bay. They planted a schematic of the bay and a pouch of Centauri Ducats in my quarters.Londo: Centauri? (Pronounced sen-TAHRY)Garibaldi: Centauri. (Pronounced sen-TORRY)(Short Beat)Londo: Po-tay-to?Garibaldi: Po-tah-to.Londo: Tomayto,Garibaldi: Tomahto!Both, singing: Let’s call the whole thing off.

              Frrom here: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Funny/BabylonFive

              In the subfolder ” Everyone Else / Multiple “, scroll down.

              Liked by 1 person

      1. Israel may remember that old time Old Testament justice thing. It might not be King David coming back with a large sack of trimmings, but “Civilize them with the Krag” is, sooner or later, going to become plan A.

        They are too Europeanized/Leftroid, thus they didn’t take advantage of the golden opportunity to clean out Hamas. I am suspecting that once we get down to “certainly no live hostages”, the gloves come off and things get… ugly. Permanently.

        Liked by 2 people

        1. Then things won’t come down to “certainly no live hostages.” Hamas is probably cunning (I decline to call it ‘intelligent’) enough to grab some more hostages before they run out of their original supply. They wouldn’t even have to be Israelis. I’m sure there are enough gormless Westerners in Gaza “helping” the locals for Hamas to have an adequate selection. Then all the usual suspects can demand drawn-out negotiations to compel Israel to make hundred-to-one prisoner exchanges for the fresh hostages (as the Westerners rhetorically spit in Israel’s eye), while Hamas gets an extended breathing space.

          I’d like to be wrong. I’m not expecting it.

          Hamas delenda est, et, republica restituendae.

          Liked by 3 people

          1. Gormless indeed. Any non-Muslims working in Gaza are clueless that they are free bait for the terrorists, unless they have a sizeable group of very well armed, non-Muslim guards

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            1. They also chose to enter an active war zone, putting whatever happens to them on their own heads; certainly not on Israel’s.

              Liked by 2 people

  4. I was thinking about the Barbarians vs Civilization debate during a discussion on WH40K Space Marine Reivers. Basically, they’re terror warfare Space Marines, and largely ignored because they’re kind of useless on the tabletop.

    But it hit me, the entire point of them, in universe, is specifically to deal with barbarian worlds. They can speak barbarian, and lock down the world into imperial rule to eventually be brought up to whatever more normal standard the imperium operates at.

    Just one of those weird ways that setting tries to be wildly over the top bombastic grimdark and seems to land on something actually more workable that the stuff mainline scifi does without even realizing it.

    On the minerals deal, what people miss is, it is not the tripwire: it is the thing that ends Russia’s ability to make war. Currently Europe pays Russia more for petroleum products than they supply to Ukraine in aid. They are finding both sides of the war, because they have no other choice.

    A 4 year cease fire that also makes Ukraine a major raw materials exporter will kneecap Russia’s ability to rearm, without any outside intervention. It is a logistics victory rather than a tactical one.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. If some very sneaky folks make a habit of rupturing the pipelines feeding Russian gas to Europe, we may see the collapse of Russia.

      Pipelines are rather fragile, and almost impossible to guard effectively.

      Of course, retailiation might include winter hits “by terrorists” on the Trans-Alaska pipleine, effectively solidifying the contents until summer.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. It is my understanding that in the long life of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline they have had leaks at absolutely the worst time of year at the most remote points, which required stopping the flow, which have not resulted in clogging the pipes. Not sure of the details as this was third or fourth hand, but I think it would be harder than one might think absent airstrikes.

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        1. The crude is piped very hot. “Piping hot”, lol.

          If they leave it sit long enough, cool enough, it’s too thick to pump.

          Liked by 1 person

    2. And this is the full evil of Democrats. I can’t remember where I saw it or even when, but a few years ago someone said that you can make perfect sense out of every insane thing the Democratic Party does with foreign policy (and most of domestic policy too) once you realize that they don’t think other people are real.

      To them, the rest of the world is just a collection of pawns to be used in playing their own insider game of sociopolitical advantage.

      So yes, to our leftist politicians, deep-sixing a deal that could not only end the current war, but also remove Russia’s ability to start another one while making Ukraine and Europe far more stable and prosperous makes perfect sense. Will thousands of people die as a direct result? Yes. Does it put the entire world in danger? Yes. But they…do…not…care. Because the answer to “does it hurt someone I hate” is yes, and it was actually the only question. Little things like second-order consequences or long-term prosperity don’t matter when other people aren’t even people.

      Liked by 3 people

      1. The man of system, on the contrary, is apt to be very wise in his own conceit; and is often so enamoured with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government, that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it. He goes on to establish it completely and in all its parts, without any regard either to the great interests, or to the strong prejudices which may oppose it.

        He seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chess-board. He does not consider that the pieces upon the chess-board have no other principle of motion besides that which the hand impresses upon them; but that, in the great chess-board of human society, every single piece has a principle of motion of its own, altogether different from that which the legislature might chuse to impress upon it. If those two principles coincide and act in the same direction, the game of human society will go on easily and harmoniously, and is very likely to be happy and successful. If they are opposite or different, the game will go on miserably, and the society must be at all times in the highest degree of disorder.

        ― Adam Smith

        Liked by 3 people

        1. I need to go reread Lord of the Isles again.

          I would be unsurprised Drake had read that, and then fed it right back into the one villian’s creeping dread that the pieces on her board were perhaps moving themselves.

          Liked by 2 people

      2. As I wrote on a comment on my substack that Sarah discusses:

        I’m not normally a conspiracy theorist but I do find myself wondering if the Bidenites actually want Ukraine to remain a quagmire. Both from their slow-walking of supplies in the past and now the report that Zelenskyy met with Dems just before his WH disaster. Did they prime him to blow it?

        What I don’t understand is why? not just the Trump meeting but in general. What benefit do they get from a forever war in Ukraine?

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Why else? $Billions in graft and kickbacks, of course! A giant sop to their cronies in the military equipment business. 2/3 of the money sent to Ukraine can’t be accounted for. Where did it go?

          Liked by 1 person

        2. A day or two ago, I saw a post (Xeet, maybe) giving 10 reasons why Z want the war to continue. Don’t recall all that many, but:

          a) Sweet weapons money buys even better perks if you steal some.

          b) The ultranationalists would have his head if he backed down.

          c) With the war on, he can continue martial law and ignore niceties like elections and due process when he throws critics in jail.

          d) If peace breaks out, a lot of people will be looking for answers, pitchforks & torches or rope in hands.

          Liked by 1 person

        3. They Certainly do not want peace to start under a Trump presidency. I don’t think it is about Trump getting credit for the peace because they will just lie about that. 10 years from now they will teaching some lie minimizing Trump and all the MSM will agree.

          I think that they are really worrying about all the money that could be siphoned out of a democratic led effort to rebuild Ukraine. Look at how much money the Haitian relief made the Clintons. Structuring the inevitable “Rebuilding Democracy in Ukraine” aid programs to hide the graft from the beginning makes it a lot easier than modifying something that has already started the next time the democrats get control. In fact Zelensky’s antics at the White House may be enough for Trump to tell him to go pound sand when he asks for money after a peace deal happens.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. As much as they don’t want Trump getting the credit — as you say, they’ll just lie about that in 10 years — I think the bigger issue is, they also don’t want the war to end or rebuilding to start while DOGE is running and exposing the extent of the graft.

            They will want to wait for a Democrat President who will shut down DOGE with his/her very first EO. Then, and only then — when there are no critical and analytical eyes on the many non-profits/NGOs that will form to “assist the war-torn people of Ukraine” while skimming half the cash off the top — will they insist the war end and “rebuilding” begin.

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        4. None of The Foggy Bottom Boys want to be reassigned as the third assistant attache to the new U.S. Embassy to Nagorno-Karabakh. Keeping Russia not-losing, while continuing to make them expend people and resources, both scarce, means the weakened Russian Federation and their set of subject-alliances stays in place. The alternative is a period of chaos where every little chunk declares independence and starts doing their own thing, each bit of which would require State Department individual attention, which would severely interfere with the DC cocktail party and kink orgy circuit.

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      3. Just to deny Trump a W for a speech to Congress, tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, more deaths in the Ukraine war.

        Way to go, Donks. Convince me you are beyond the pale. Convince enough, and y’all can go the way of the Whigs and Federalists.

        But as Spock advised,

        “…Go to Hell…”.

        Liked by 1 person

            1. Consider the combination of the French machine “Guillotine” with the Japanese machine “Pachinco”.

              -Much- more entertaining.

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      4. So…they’re barbarians, by Sarah’s definition. Unable to see any pov other than their own, and fully convinced that they are the only true humans.

        Liked by 1 person

    3. The Barbarians vs the Civilized and a war to the death (of one of those parties) reminds me of what I read of Texas history with regard to the Comanche tribes. Peerless, brutal warriors, rather like the Spartans, actually – who lived for making war and stealing horses, and nothing much else, regarding non-Comanche as pretty much prey, slaves or something to torture for fun. What the Comanche commonly did with live captives reminded me pretty much of what the Hamasniks did to everyone they captured on October 7, actually. It took more than 50 years of warfare, and the US Army slaughtering the horse herd of the last defiant Comanche band and destroying their food supplies to bring an end to that long war.

      It might take pretty much the same kind of thing to sort out the Gaza Palestinians, only maybe it won’t take quite so long, since the Israelis seem to be tired of living under the constant threat.

      Liked by 3 people

      1. A note: While the Comanche were essentially alone against the US Army, Hamas is not alone against the Israelis; consider the difference if, say, Mexico had been supporting the Comanche as a matter of policy. Until/unless Iran can be neutralized (by whatever means necessary) Hamas will be almost impossible to actually defeat. Eliminate, yes, if Israel gets really tired of it. But that would require the rest of the “civilized” world to STFU and let Israel get on with it and fix the problem permanently. Got my vote, but I’m not in charge of anything.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Given how feckless much of the world is, regarding terrorism on their own soil, there is an obvious move to achieve STFU, if someone cares to make the point.

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    4. Clauscewitz (sp!) in On War spent an entire chapter the length of most novels on supply trains and logistics. They’re that important.

      And Trump’s dealt with logistics problems and supplier negotiations on levels most DC folks barely know to exist.

      Liked by 2 people

  5. Good summary. BTW I love the neologism to “underbuss” although I’d drop the double-s. In reality Trump’s deal with Ukraine would deter Putin’s aggression much more than membership in NATO, an increasingly irrelevant fig leaf. Using arms against a major supplier of rare earth’s to America is something even Putin wouldn’t risk.

    Not that he cares, but Trump could make a great move to both scare Putin and kill the criticism of himself as on Putin’s side by supplying the Poles with the arms that he had designated for them and that Biden cancelled. Poland is the true buffer, not Ukraine. The Baltic states are unfortunately in a bad position no matter what we do.

    Liked by 5 people

    1. In a few more years, Poland may be demanding the return of its lost territory, going back to the 1600s. They are in the top 15 of defense budgets, and they are being kinda cagey on exactly what all they are spending. And I expect a “space program” in about 5 years.

      Their stuff works. They train like crazy, and they are growing a logistics capability that is more and more “expeditionalry” every day.

      Poland may soon be proposing “Warsaw Pact II”, perhaps without the USA, much to Putin’s dismay. And wouldn’t -that- be a barrel of monkeys?

      Liked by 3 people

        2. The Lithuanians … have mixed views of the Poles, based on conversations I had this summer. They appreciate that the Poles were/are not the Teutonic Knights or Russian, but implied that the Polish tail wagged the Lithuanian-Polish Commonwealth.

          Liked by 1 person

      2. they are being kinda cagey on exactly what all they are spending. 

        “Everything they have on anything that is for sale” seems to fit pretty well. I’m not sure that is a Good Thing(tm), but I certainly don’t blame them for doing so.

        Liked by 2 people

      3. Actually Poland is pretty open about what it is buying. The Reader notes a search on ‘Poland/South Korea arms deal will find up to 1000 tanks (with coproduction) 50 light attack jets and artillery. The US is selling them F35s, major upgrades for their F16s and 96 Apache attack helicopters. I’m sure this worries both the Russians and the Germans. Also the Reader wonders if they have a nuclear program in the basement. And we have trained and supplied their Special Forces up to the point that they are the best in Europe.

        As to Warsaw Pact II we should get behind it and support it short of any Article 5 type provision.

        Liked by 2 people

        1. Yeah, the Poles seem to be going for ‘largest working tank force of Europe’ which really wouldn’t be that difficult considering how woeful the rest of the continent has funded their military.

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          1. They were also massively expanding their “home guard” to basically any Pole who wanted to get trained, appearing to aim for the Swiss model of battle rifles and machine guns in every home front closet.

            Though that was the last government before their last elections – I have not seen if the new one is continuing all of that.

            Liked by 1 person

  6. When an individual proves themselves unwilling or unable to abide by their society’s rules, then the society has an obligation to remove that individual for the good of the rest of that society. If the society does not protect its citizens, then it will cease to be a functioning society and will crumble.

    The same holds true for cultures. When an entire culture proves itself unwilling or unable to coexist peacefully with other cultures, then there are only two possible outcomes. The peaceful culture allows itself to be overrun and destroyed, or destroys the invading culture. There is no middle ground.

    Hamas, and by extension the people of Gaza, have repeatedly stated that their only desire, the only outcome they will accept, is the total destruction of Israel. This is not a place from which you can negotiate peace, only a pause in hostilities while they re-arm and fund raise and plan a bit, as history has repeatedly shown.

    I fear Zelensky was hoping the US would be willing to turn Ukraine/Russia into the slavic Gaza Strip.

    Liked by 6 people

  7. Related ONLY the the last bit of your post (and putting aside the very interesting barbarian/civilization clash) Grok 3 says 5 times for Z-bro’s name. I think Grok missed that final variation, so I call it 6 different ways. Here’s what I asked, and what Grok replied:

    Me: In Sarah Hoyt’s latest blog post https://accordingtohoyt.com/2025/03/03/true-tragedy/ she spells the Ukraine’s leader’s name differently many times. How many different ways did she spell his name in that post?

    Grok: In Sarah Hoyt’s blog post titled “True Tragedy” published on March 3, 2025, on accordingtohoyt.com, she refers to Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, using multiple spelling variations of his name. Below is an analysis based on the content of the post to determine how many different ways she spelled his name.

    The post discusses various topics, including a critique of centralized control and a mention of Ukraine’s leader in the context of war and leadership. Sarah Hoyt is known for her informal and sometimes intentionally playful or sarcastic style, which can include deliberate misspellings or variations for effect. To answer the question, I carefully reviewed the text of the blog post and identified each instance where Zelenskyy’s name appears, noting the exact spelling used.

    Here are the distinct spellings of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s name found in the post:

    1. Zelensky – This is the most common transliteration of his name in English media, dropping the extra “y” and simplifying the first name.
    2. Zelenskiy – An alternative spelling with an “i” instead of a “y” at the end, reflecting a different transliteration convention.
    3. Zelenskii – A variation with a double “i” at the end, possibly an intentional quirk or typo.
    4. Zelenskyy – The standard spelling that includes the double “y,” which aligns with the Ukrainian transliteration of his name, as often used officially.
    5. Zalinsky – A notable deviation where the “e” is replaced with an “a,” potentially a humorous or careless alteration.

    These variations appear across the post, with some used more than once. For example, “Zelensky” is the most frequently used, appearing in multiple paragraphs, while “Zalinsky” appears once in a context that suggests it might be a deliberate jab or error. The post does not explicitly state why the spellings vary—whether for stylistic flair, to mock the inconsistency in media reporting, or simply due to lack of proofreading—but the differences are clear upon examination.

    In total, there are five distinct spellings of Zelenskyy’s name in the blog post: “Zelensky,” “Zelenskiy,” “Zelenskii,” “Zelenskyy,” and “Zalinsky.” No additional unique spellings beyond these five were found in the text.

    Thus, Sarah Hoyt spelled Ukraine’s leader’s name 5 different ways in her post “True Tragedy” on March 3, 2025.

    Liked by 1 person

    2. How many different ways did she spell his name in that post?

      That is a VERY wordy way of saying “five”. I have a much better opinion of mine own long answers, now.

      Liked by 1 person

        1. But I bet Z-bro wouldn’t mind the troop of hot female “bodyguards” the the late and unlamented Libyan dictator kept!

          Liked by 1 person

  8. I’ll just note that the Ukrainian ambassador seems to have thought that her boss was there to sign the agreement. She looked mortified and embarrassed when the blow-up started.

    Liked by 5 people

    1. That’s because the *normal* diplomatic routine involves diplomats from both sides sitting down and getting an agreement over the course of a few weeks/months, then a public meeting to sign papers that have already been printed and ready. Standing up in the middle of the press conference to say “and the Americans have agreed to X, Y, and Z” when no such agreement has been reached ends in one of two ways. The (D) way is for the former President to nod sagely and agree to anything that gets said. The (R) way is for the President and VP to stand up and say “No, we never said that and we’re not signing that.”

      There’s a new way in DC. This is the way.

      Liked by 4 people

      1. Zelenskyy met with Senate Democrats before meeting the President. Wonder what they told him?

        Would have laughed my ass off if Vance said “You’re not Darth Vader, bub. You don’t get to alter the agreement.”

        Liked by 2 people

      2. Presumably one that the ambassador wasn’t invited to, or she might have warned her boss that he was about to be an idiot.

        On a semi-related note, I just skimmed through a summary (one person’s version) of events that led up to the Invasion of Georgia. The summary – posted by someone who claimed his version was the true and correct one, of course – was similar to one version of the events that led up to the Ukraine mess. If those two event storylines are correct, it leads one to wonder if there are certain individuals within the bureaucracy with pull who are bound and determined to politically isolate Russia… even if it costs every last citizen of the former Soviet republics.

        Getting back to Zelensky –

        After his disastrous event at the White House, Zelensky was then feted by the various European leaders, including Charles III. Starmer even offered to send British troops to Ukraine (see below). And yet, for all the talk of how we must support Ukraine, no one ever gets back to the core question that Trump is attempting to address – namely, how does the war come to an end in a way that 1.) Leaves Ukraine intact as an independent state, and 2.) Leave Ukraine as a country that still has living males. There’s lots of shouting in social media by people who rightly point out that Putin can end the war anytime he wants to, while ignoring the fact that so far, Putin has not chosen to do so. How exactly Putin will be convinced to stop the war while following the present course of action is glossed over. Presumably these people genuinely believe that if Trump shouts at him loud enough, Putin will pull the troops back across the border. And pay billions of dollars to Ukraine in war reparations. And turn himself in as an international war criminal.

        Regarding the (see below) mentioned above – People are glossing over the fact that while Starmer said British troops would be sent to Ukraine (quietly ignoring the fact that the British military has barely any working equipment, and less than 80,000 troops), he also said that it would be under the auspices of a US approved plan. So much (once again) for Europe taking the lead in anything.

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  9. Z

    Doctor Zin

    3-ZPO aka “Zeepeeo”

    Zhortstuff

    Tiny-Z

    And for the really bad/warped pun: Zie moj circ, Zie moje malpe

    Liked by 2 people

  11. Good analysis, though I’m not sure “our” Left will throw over Zelenskyy (just to throw in yet another alternate spelling) quite as quickly as Greta Thunberg or Cindy Sheehan because they had alternate banners/puppets to pursue those particular ends and/or grifts.

    The Ukraine grift — and it’s a big one, judging by the evidence to date — pretty much falls apart without Half-Pint there. That raises the stakes for the Uniparty, and you can see it by the aftermath.

    Liked by 2 people

    2. I think that 1/2pt can be replaced by someone equally corrupt. OTOH, without USAID/CIA/State/etc money from the US, the grift is going to be leaner and possibly harder to accomplish.

      Liked by 1 person

  13. The Polish PM has a fair insight:

    “500 million Europeans are asking 300 million Americans to defend them against 140 million Russians.”

    But of course it’s really about economics – the EU GDP is around $19 trillion (USD), where the U.S. GDP is basically $30 trillion.

    Now maybe if the EU had sent Ukraine more than they sent Russia post-sanctions, they’d have a better moral position.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. The Reader also notes that Russia’s GDP is stated by their government to be $2.2 trillion. He knows that number is overstated but not by how much. The European countries have a minimum 10:1 economic advantage and a 3x population advantage. They don’t need us to defend themselves against Russia.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Overstated indeed, most likely by somewhere between 2X and 10X. The population numbers are almost certainly inflated, too. Even Putin probably doesn’t know the true numbers. Russian bureaucrats lie even more than U.S. bureaucrats.

        Liked by 1 person

      4. What they need is the will to fight. They seem to have been beating that out of their young men for a while now.

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    2. The big problem with the war from Ukraine’s perspective is the “warm bodies” issue. As I noted on X the other day, sending all the money and equipment in the world to Ukraine doesn’t do any good if they don’t have people to man the front line. Tusk’s comment (was it his? I’ve also seen it attributed to Ursula Van Der Leyen, from the EU.) is focused on the manpower.

      Liked by 2 people

      2. Considering that apparently the only way Ukraine is getting anyone to recruit is by sending out actual press gangs….

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  14. To be honest: I am not convinced Europe can be saved. Western Europe, anyway. They’re like pandas at this stage, except less cute and actually even more aggressively stupid.

    I might be convinced to de-Islamify the continent, but…giving them back to the same band of idiots? What for?

    Liked by 2 people

  15. If you watch the press conference, it’s obvious Z. did not intend to sign. My red line is not risking nuclear war with Russia. It’s a stupid bet–and putting Ukraine in NATO could trigger nuclear war.

    The clothing controversy was interesting. I think “costume” was a translation of the Ukrainian(which I do not speak) word for “suit,” because there’s a similar German word. Nevertheless, he came dressed for war, not peace and economic development.

    There is no path to a victory that would satisfy Zelinsky. So, he’s gambling his country’s future. It’s a bad bet.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. My red line is not risking nuclear war with Russia.

      Then you have nothing to worry about because that isn’t along any of the possible paths and never has been.

      I wish people would extract their heads from the cold war fantasy world.

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      1. Russia has nuclear weapons, and might choose to use them. Is something preventing that? Or merely discouraging it?

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          1. No, not really. Certainly nothing that can be used for an actual war.

          2. The Russian situation does not allow them to fight a nuclear war and never has.

          I’m going to be sending in a guest post on nuclear war sometime this week. Because I’m losing brain cells to the brick wall at an unacceptable rate.

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        2. I’ve heard several people who know a lot more than I do (admittedly a low bar) say that given the poor state of everything else Russia owns and how finicky nukes are to keep in working order, it’d be a miracle if they had even a single one that could actually go boom, and having that one attached to a rocket that could actually go zoom is yet another level of improbability.

          Heck, there are knowledgeable people who doubt that any more than half of ours are functional, and compared to the rest of the world, we’re obsessive about maintenance.

          I’m willing to believe them on that.

          But how much are we willing to bet that we’re right about that? I’d rather assume Putin has at least one that works. You don’t have to be very wrong to be VERY wrong when it comes to someone using a nuclear bomb.

          Liked by 3 people

          1. The Reader is sure that Russia has a few nukes in working order. They are likely reserved for use against China if China decides Siberia is a more attractive target than Taiwan. 10 or used on their own soil would be enough.

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            1. They may think they have a few that work. How few they think they have that would work is an interesting question.

              Even back in the days of the USSR there were significant doubts about maintenance quality of Soviet warheads, with reports leaking out of major (months) of rework being performed on warheads designated for “testing” before they were used in nuclear test shots.

              Now, forty or so years later, the question is not is anyone with the required skills still doing the required big stack of maintenance on their remaining supposed-to-still-work devices at the required intervals, but are the components bits that could be sold on the black market while not setting of rad detectors still actually in those devices.

              Given how poorly all of their other Soviet-era mil stuff was maintained and how thoroughly it was pillaged, I would be skeptical.

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              1. But given they think they have some that would work, they could act as if they do, up to the point they launch and most go “pffft”.

                Note that “not work” is somewhat of a sliding scale – a fusion device that only set off its initiator fission bit would still be a nuke going off. A full nuclear no-worky where only the HE charges go off would at minimum leave a nasty mess, though in a much smaller area than any detonation.

                Liked by 1 person

                1. The Los Alamos Primer (“Everything we knew about building a nuclear bomb… in 1943.”) had a bit where they figured an HE detonation but a fission “fizzle”… they calculated a “mere” 50 Ton yield. Puny for nuke, but still a heckuva mess by anyone’s standard.

                  Liked by 1 person

                  1. Thinking more along the lines of what happened at the Titan silo explosion, where when they found the fizzy bits in the debris some of the HE had gone off.

                    Like

          2. Are these the same people that said Russia was running out of missles, drones, shells, and bombs multiple times and the Western Wonder Weapons will end the war in a month? The same people that left the Taliban with billions of dollars in military equipment?

            These folks should have to do a tour cleaning up the battle field damage after the dust settles. Without a EOD unit clearing the way beforehand.

            I don’t know what Russia has, but I’m not going to risk WW III on the opinions of the West’s “experts” and “top men” after the last couple of decades of shitty Neocon outcomes.

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            1. Well, they did run out, so they got more drones from the mullahs and artillery shells from the Norks.

              The people tracking artillery shells use rates have some interesting insights and correlations.

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              1. Many of the most popular narratives reduce to “I don’t know anything, I don’t know how to learn anything, and the talking heads who’s job is to know nothing don’t know anything, therefore it is impossible to know anything”.

                Liked by 1 person

                1. When total EU payments for petroleum products to Russia exceed total EU aid value to Ukraine, of course the Russians can keep going. The fungibility of money seems to be a concept beyond many professional prognosticators, so it escapes their models.

                  Liked by 1 person

            2. Might help if you got your information from somewhere other than the ex-spurts at CNN and Fox.

              The mark of someone who has been completely brainwormed by propaganda is that they are unable to comprehend that there might be truth, and truth which can be found and verified. It’s all just conflicting narratives to them.

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                1. Start with CovertCabal. Present day randos have access to satellite intel that cold war era belligerents would have killed to get.

                  Once you’ve digested that, go to Perun and start following links and references, particularly for visually confirmed loss data.

                  Like

      1. It’s an old pic, supposedly. AFAIK, he’s been consistent with the war garb since this thing started.

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  16. I don’t think that the zelskiyy thing is a civilizational clash at all, rather I think it’s just common greed, graft, fear, and bungle.  Ukraine is utterly corrupt.  The deep state panjandrums who counseled him to prevent Trump from getting a SOU talking point are depraved, and Zelensky himself is both corrupt and terrified what will happen if he loses power.  Soros, Goldman Sachs and all the other usual suspects have managed to buy most of the Ukrainian farmland at knockdown prices, nice benefit of the colour revolution and nice payoff for democrats donors too.

    The Europeans, who had, in typical perfidious Albion mode, already signed their mineral deals with zeleskyyy prior to the US signing, couldn’t put a corporal’s guard into the field.  The British Army has more horses than tanks and none of them has a logistics train worth mentioning and it’d be a brave European leader — which means no European leader — who would be able to tempt their young working class men to die for Ukraine.  The only country that might be able to is Poland, and they’ve already put the kibosh on that.

    Putin is a dictator and Ukraine is the victim.  Trouble is that there’s been no way forward to victory for Ukraine.  Sure, the Russian coup de main failed and zeleskiyey didn’t flee, a world historic moment that preserved Ukraine as a state.  But that’s it, that’s the best way forward for them.  Don’t like it because Russia is the aggressor and aggression shouldn’t prosper, but the only alternative is more and more death with Russia in control of the whole thing at the end, or war between major powers.  War between the US and Russia only profits the devil — and George Soros.

    Thank God Trump won.  That was the civilizational conflict and this turn went to civilization.  We need to work hard to make sure the next one does.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. There were windows where maneuver peeked out from the mess of attrition, but strategic leaks scuppered those except for the surprise success of the Karkiv offensive, and starving Ukraine of artillery made sure the Formerly Red Army had time to recover enough from that to set up the current WWI western front reenactment.

      The Foggy Bottom Boys never wanted Russia to actually lose, and they got that.

      At all costs the Europeans and U.S. DoS want to prevent a 1917 collapse and dissolution of the Russian Federation. Given the results of that one I can understand why.

      Like

    2. Time to play Country Joe’s “Feel Like I’m Fixing to Die Rag”. again. Just change a few country names (although they don’t rhyme in the song).

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    3. but the only alternative is more and more death with Russia in control of the whole thing at the end, or war between major powers

      Ok, seriously. I know you aren’t an abject drooling moron.

      How on earth do you (and by extension so many others) get this analysis?

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      1. who’d stop them? Europe? Ukraine? Russian overthrowing Putin? US troops on the ground? Sanctions…. Ha, Europe has spent more money in Russia since the invasion than they did in the beginning.

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  17. I like your definition of “tragedy” and shall adopt it. I learned the term-of-the-art word while reading Othello in high school. It was not this. I think yours is much better because it’s also common-English “tragic”.

    “barbarians always underestimate the size of the group they’re dealing with.”

    But it’s not stupidity. Let’s move to the year 2525 (because it’s in a song) when the solar system is filled with a quadrillion humans. “1%” changes from 100,000,000 (rounding current population to 10 billion for easy math) to 10,000,000,000,000. The amount of resources such a civilization could pour into anything – let alone war – is unimaginable to us. As they say, quantity has a quality of its own.

    Liked by 4 people

    1. There’s a different variation; I think it’s called “classical tragedy,” where the definition is “everyone’s virtues interact to destructive effect.”

      A very good example of this is season one of Arcane. You can see every character has flaws, but it’s their good parts—love of family, love of country, working towards a better tomorrow—that ultimately cause the break into war and madness. There are a lot of analyses out there that lay out exactly why that is an excellent piece of writing.

      Liked by 2 people

  18. I didn’t get a count of the different spellings of Zelinski, but it reminds me of similar issues with the late, mostly unlamented dictator of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi. There was a song about that on the radio around the time of the Gulf of Sidra incident in the 1980’s.

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    1. When names are converted between alphabets (Ukraine uses a Cyrillic variant; Libyan uses a Latinized form of Berber) there’s no “clean, defined” way to assign spelling. There are apparently conventions, but they’re not really consistent; it’s basically a linguistic crapshoot. And it’s worse for non-alphabetic languages.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Toss in that there are now certain spelling conventions to designate Ukrainian from Russian from Belorussian from other Eastern Slavic dialects, and it’s a mess and a half.

        Liked by 1 person

          1. Yeah, the seemingly arbitrary change in the spelling of old, familiar (from WW2 battles) names of places like Kiev is annoying.

            Like

        2. I started to look at the body language video (and bounced off; metered internet sucks rocks), and saw that the host/narrator used a capital ‘S’.

          I’ll stick with German. Polysyllabic words substituting for long phrases is much easier to deal with than non-Roman alphabets. (Carefully nudges umlauts and the Ess-szet behind the couch. :) )

          Liked by 1 person

      2. It’s worse for non-alphabetic languages.

        Even those which use their alphabets differently–like the way most vowel marks are optional to Arabic and Persian orthography–makes for interesting spelling. My favorite was when the Dari/Pashto-speaking engineers in Kabul submitted plans in English to our CENTCOM/NATO engineer office under auspices of the Ministry Of Defiance.

        It was supposed to say “Ministry Of Defense,” but when you’re not certain which vowels to use, nor where, Spellchecker is your dearest frenemy.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. The website president.gov.ua uses Володимир Зеленський as the Ukrainian spelling and VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY as the English spelling.

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  19. Zelensky and his fans believe they’re in a replay of World War 2 with Putin as Hitler and Zelensky as Churchill. To them the war is a crusade against evil. Trump believes that any conflict can be ended with the right deal and probably sees the Ukraine War as a distraction against the real threat of an increasingly aggressive China. I think Trump sees Putin as a potential ally against China. So we have two very distinctive worldviews here.

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  20. Zelensky and his fans believe they’re in a replay of World War 2 with Putin as Hitler and Zelensky as Churchill. To them the war is a crusade against evil. Trump believes that any conflict can be ended with the right deal and probably sees the Ukraine War as a distraction against the real threat of an increasingly aggressive China. I think Trump sees Putin as a potential ally against China. So we have two very distinctive worldviews here.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I blinked hard when I saw Zelenskyy compared to Churchill this morning. Talk about a lack of historical knowledge. (Given how the Left are beating Churchill with the “racist” stick, it’s not a great choice for other reasons.)

      Liked by 2 people

      1. If I’m looking for WWII analogies the comparisons that come to mind would not be Churchill, but rather Edvard Beneš  or Ignacy Mościcki. I suspect that in a century Zelenskyy will be about as well remembered as either of those are now.

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  22. I don’t have enough awareness of the situation and all the players involved to have an informed opinion. I’m not unaware, it’s just that I don’t have the interest in Europe and Europeans that I used to have to have when I was an intel officer.

    All I can say is that I was driving to the recycle place when I heard the audio of the meeting. I shouted, cheered, nearly drove off the road, and laughed and laughed and laughed. For once, the Executive branch is a pair of American men who had had enough and told this pathetic dwarf whore to bugger off. And ate his lunch, literally.

    I don’t know how things will turn out, but I know it will be the best for all concerned. I have high hopes.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. It’s nice having a pair of Execs who can actually, execute. [I’ll skip the more ribald things that come to mind, IYKWIMAITYD.]

      The staffers eating Zel’s lunch was the chef’s kiss part of the entire episode.

      Liked by 1 person

  23. As I’ve said more than once, the paraphrase of Jack Ryan is apt, “There are no good guys here.” Putin and Zelensky are both corrupt tyrants.

    Neither side can actually win. Russia is in a better position to hold territory, but before the end of this century neither country will exist. There may be lines on a map designating those names, but the populations of ethnic Russians and ethnic Ukranians will be too small to control their own destinies. And any immigrants aren’t likely to take on the customs and cultures they find there.

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      1. Seems so. Although I’m not sympathetic (to put it mildly) with Peter Zeihan’s politics, he does seem to be right on with his demographic analyses; nearly everywhere outside of Africa (and possibly the Middle East) is in or near a demographic crisis. And some of them (China being one of the most glaring examples) have essentially zero hope of turning it around; his numbers show that the Han ethnicity will cease to exist before the end of the century, and the Russians aren’t far behind.

        Overpopulation, my ass. :-x

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        1. No. The Middle East was collapsing before Europe. It only doesn’t seem to be so, because they EXPORT. (Their societies are so craptastic they can’t accommodate even diminished new generations.) The future of Europe is not Islamic. It’s HOWLING emptiness. If we can pull up from our own crashing course, in a century Americans will go back to colonize the empty land of Europe. “Man, it’s so great. I have this huge farm. Mild climate. You wouldn’t believe it.”

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          1. OK, I was going by what I recall reading of the birth rate in the Middle East, which IIRC is higher than almost everywhere except sub-Saharan Africa. Of course, I could be misremembering; that happens more often the older I get.😒

            The Middle East is definitely collapsing culturally, though. As is much of Europe. And Africa.

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              1. I really like the explanation I was given for why the middle east had such insanely off numbers– like, three, four times bigger than could possibly be in an area.

                Well…they got the numbers by walking around and asking guys in the street how many kids they had.

                Which is kind of like if you are at a frat house and you ask a guy if he’s a virgin.

                It doesn’t matter if the guy you’re asking has never looked at a naked woman in his life, he’s suddenly got a half-dozen sons and daughters.

                Liked by 1 person

        2. Others are skeptical as well – see the “Lei’s Real Talk” channel’s latest video “China’s vanishing population and the lie of 1.4 billion people” (about an hour long):

          Liked by 1 person

  24. “Having had my own arguments with Europeans recently, I can tell you the temptation to bitch slap them is almost irresistible. And yet saving them is probably ultimately in our interes

    We can’t save them. You can’t save folks who don’t want to be saved. The leadership has chosen to travel a path which will lead to the Islamization of Europe and a return to barbarism. That’s not something the United States can reverse.

    The only path to saving Europe is the general public themselves either through the ballot box or the cartridge box changing the leadership to advocates and guardians of civilization. Whose expectation of immigrants is assimilation into civilization, not reversion to savagery.

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  27. Trump is speaking and apparently is on fire. The Democrats are sitting on their hands, at best, even if it means sitting there when Trump makes a 13-year-old black boy who’s survived brain cancer an honorary Secret Service agent. Or renaming a wildlife refuge in Texas after murdered Jocelyn Nugaray with her family in the audience.

    instead they brought little black paddles with “witty” accusations on them. The Photos hopping is already underway.

    And Al Green was kicked out of the chamber for being disruptive.

    OTOH they were using tear gas in the Serbian legislature today so it could be worse.

    Liked by 1 person

  28. Now I see that Ian Sams, a former advisor on Kackling Kamela’s 2024 campaign, is warning the Democrats “PLEASE do not do dumb shit”.

    Dude, they’re Democrats. Dumb shit is what they do. You might as well tell fish not to swim.

    Liked by 1 person

  29. Hi Sarah,

    An excellent article. Your observations of the Boer/Zulu wars closely match James Michener’s history in his book, The Covenant.

    Contemporary historical fiction painting the history of North America as technologically superior colonizers versus innocent, nature worshipping native Americans is pretty much organic fertilizer. Frankly, until the introduction of cartridge loading firearms, the colonizers had very little technological advantage over the native Americans. Look up the YouTube video by Lars Anderson on Comanche Archery.

    I daresay that the history of North America can be written as an attempt by western civilization to live with various tribal cultures. The hardening of attitudes against the American Americans only came after decades of wars launched by various tribes. I suspect that this is what we are seeing on Israel today. Israel would happily live with their neighbors. Hamas crossed that last line on 10/7.

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