There are lot of people saying that in charge of foreign policy somewhere. And not a single one actually thinking it.

If I was a parent, I’d like teachers to tell me if my child was questioning my gender. Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with that kid? Do I need to run around the house naked more often?

No, that’s just bollocks. It’s of course a refusal to choose sides. Stop making Putin’s point for him, the whole “if you’re not with us, you’re against us” mindset reeks of coming straight from the Führerbunker.

Why exactly should the global south have any appetite to get involved and thereby legitimize warfare by sanctions, when precisely that method has been applied against many nations in the developing world quite arbitrarily, when they didn’t cave in to Western demands? Clear case of what goes around comes around.

Now, let’s be clear here, Putin is still the far bigger dick and the aggressor, but by how much is a question of perspective. Uncomfortable as it may be, but from most not distinctly Western perspectives the difference is barely even noticeable. Yes, maybe one is worse, but preferably you want to keep both at arms bay and, come to think of it, you don’t really mind when they keep each other busy somewhere far away. At all.

You may dislike that all you want, but dislike probably won’t convert people to your simplistic black and white view when they know better from their own experience.

At which point we arrive at OP’s closing remark: “Either way, it’s a win for Norway.” And that’s hard to dispute for any country taking its claim to being a democracy even halfway serious, considering the manipulative shenanigans that are par for the course at anything Meta.

Agreed. I’d also argue that it would have been better if pirates managed to do the job before that.