[CCIP]

I have little respect for people who stand on a soapbox and loudly proclaim "Liberty or death!", having never had to make that choice and never facing anything remotely approximating that choice. You are no more qualified to judge people making that choice than a crayon-drawing 4-year-old. It's easy to look down on people who've made that choice - of course, they're cowards who deserve nothing! Let them be dead in the pyre of history, those traitors to great human ideals! It's a black-and-white world after all.

I was born in the USSR. I think that tells you something about where my view comes from. Live in a place where your safety is actually legitimately threatened, or worse, when the real choice is the safety of your family, and then come back and be 100% confident in your answer. But I seriously don't buy this stuff for even a second. It's a historical fact that when they come after you and your loved ones, no forum poll will change the fact that the overwhelming majority will make the choice to save what's dear to them. And no amount of self-righteousness and ego-pumping will make you right and them wrong. You have no right to look down on people who love life and love their family, and would give up anything and everything to preserve them.

History is a complicated thing and people should strive for ideals, but not through black/white proclamations that divide people into humans and less-than-humans.