Don't get me wrong, I'm swede and like most here I'm firmly on Ukraine's side and see the pure evil shit Russian military does _every _day without any illusions. But this framing of good vs evil does not seem to pan out. A common sentiment is just to wipe out Russia from the map. And tempting as it might be, that doesn't seem very noble/good and the alternative, "Russian people finds the good in them and throw out the oligarchy forcefully and install democracy", is very naive. I mean even the US, a fully armed populace of strong freeminded men can't seem to see that they are treading the same path as Russia and take action. How reasonable is it then to have that expectation of a people systematically disempowered for decades.
Good vs evil is simplistic, but it serves as shorthand for "it's worth fighting for".
Are you in Donbas currently? If not, you are not fighting anything.
That's a very simplistic world-view. One does not have to be on the frontlines to help an effort. People donating to https://ukrainedefensefund.org/ are still "fighting", even though they aren't literally gunning people down in Donbas.
But they are not fighting. They do not take the same risk, they do not suffer the same, they do no share burden with those that do.
The problem is that as a European, giving in here means they come closer. Next time it’s the Polish border, then the German.
Asassinate Putin, a sponsored coup. Something like that.
Good vs evil is simplistic enough that It can be used to convince basically anyone that those are a good idea. The only thing we really have to be wary of is that thing someone said:
The only thing that’s necessary for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.
To use the example already given, how about Ukraine? I have a very hard time not placing that in a good vs evil framing.
It’s true that Ukraine isn’t perfectly good, and Russia isn’t purely evil, but it’s pretty damn close.
Here’s a nation that was just keeping to themselves and growing closer to the ones that didn’t want to annex them (surprise surprise) and the evil overlord thought that was too threatening and decided to pre-emptively annex them.