Said tweet:
When it comes to "fighting words" and "provocations," I find nothing cognitively dissonant about thinking "well, yeah, I would probably react that way too ... but I'd be wrong and I would still be responsible for my actions."
— knappster@edge (@thomaslknapp) July 18, 2022
I was thinking about various things there.
In the larger context, I was thinking about the near constant stream of the Russophile version of "hasbara," under which everything Vladimir Putin, the Russian regime, or the Russian armed forces does was "provoked" by someone else, and the aforementioned are of course fully justified and entirely blameless for anything they do in "response."
For example, Dmitry Medvedev's statement that refusal to recognize Crimea as Russian territory is a "systemic threat" and that any attack on Crimea will "provoke" a "Judgment Day" response.
Implicit in that statement is the idea that the Russian regime gets to wage a war -- excuse me, "special military operation" -- wherever it damn well pleases, but that any response which touches it anywhere it doesn't like is a "provocation" justifying more of, or escalation of, same.
It's not just Russophiles making excuses, of course. The US kept troops in Saudi Arabia, etc., for ten years, conducting military operations all over the Middle East, despite multiple warnings from bin Laden and multiple attacks to drive home those warnings, then whined to high heaven about how unfair it was when that shit actually came home in a real way on 9/11. Why, the homeland is sacred! How dare they go beyond blowing up barracks in al Khobar or attacking ships in Yemen and bring that shit here?
Which is neither to excuse a hypothetical Ukrainian attack on Crimea or a Russian military response, or to excuse the 9/11 attack or the Global War on Terror. But when you buy the ticket, you should expect to take the ride rather than expecting that you're just going to have your way all the time and never face any blowback.
Which is to say: Yes, Putin was "provoked" vis a vis Ukraine. But Putin also had choices, and he made them, and they have consequences, and he's responsible for what he does.
On a more individual level, I was thinking about a "fighting words" incident I saw mentioned at The Volokh Conspiracy this morning.
Which led me to non-hypotheticals I've witnessed and may or may not have been a participant in as a callow youth:
Someone says something insanely rude to or about someone's significant other in his, her, or their presence, and gets punched in the mouth.
When I say I may or may not have been involved, I'm not dodging; I honestly don't remember, so I can't say for sure. I've been involved in heightened incidents where the speech was followed by a slap at or reach for my significant other. In those cases, you bet your ass I went into immediate and violent action in her defense. I don't remember ever doing that over the speech itself, but I suppose it could have happened (alcohol is usually involved in such incidents, and if it did happen it was probably at least 30 years ago).
The thing is, I can understand knocking some guy's dick in the dirt because he called your girlfriend a slut. And I can at least imagine myself being the person who would respond in that manner.
But I can also acknowledge that if I go all fisticuffs on someone for saying something (other than a "true threat," e.g. "I'm going to stab you with this knife") rather than doing something, I'm the one initiating force.
I'm responsible for what I do, even if "provoked."
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