Cognitive Dissonance, Clown World and Supporting the SMO

Why do Russian Nationalist support continuing the SMO to the bitter end when the people running Russia are just as anti Russian as the people running the EU and Ukraine?

May 19, 2025

In Dr Livics experience anti Russian Westerners on the internet can be divided into 4 general categories, the first will always support the latest thing which is the vast majority. This is where NAFO is, basic bitch redditors, people who unironically trust fact checkers etc. The next biggest group are pseudo conservative boomers for whom the cold war never ended. This group is certainly smaller than the 1st but they are common enough amongst fans of Ben Shapiro, Glen Beck, and Zionist Evangelical types. Then we have the 3rd smallest group which is younger morons who think that Ukraine has serious potential to become the 4th Reich because Ukrainian Nationalist who work with Western Intelligence agencies and go on trips to Israel when they are wounded have Swastika tattoos and do tiki torch marches. This group while younger are the intellectual equivalent of boomers who think they are well informed because they read Zero Hedge or Breitbart as opposed to simply trusting Fox News. Our trogdylites in the 3rd category believe that since they follow social media from aggrieved Finns, Baltic swamp mutants, and various SS wannabes from the former Eastern Block that they “get” Russia. Ironically their beliefs about Russia are identical that of the second group of boomers for whom the cold war never ended. They are certain that Russia is run by a Stalinist/Bolshevik Cabal that wants to destroy Europe etc etc. This convergence of belief about Russia amongst the 2nd and 3rd category is because their opinions were actually formed by the same people. Modern SS LARPing Eastern Europeans are a product of 2 things in principle, Western cold war spookery and most hilarious of all the USSRs own anti Russian “Nation Building” amongst its constituent Soviet Republics and Warsaw Pact Satellites. You see the late KGB and CIA actually were on the same ideological team and by Andropovs time Soviet “dissidents” inside the USSR were cranking out anti Soviet literature that was no different than Radio Free Liberty CIA slop. This KGB/CIA swamp is where all the modern SS LARPing in Eastern Europe germinated. After the USSR was dismantled FSB picked up where the KGB left off and the Russian Federations soft power was used against Russia basically. That is FSB harassed Russian Nationalist and drove many of them into the arms of these anti Russian Eastern European “Nationalist” SS LARPers that the KGB and CIA created in the 1st place. This phenomenon of Moscow fostering anti Russian elements in its near abroad and in Russia itself is where we can genuinely speak of the USSR leaving Russia a bitter and horrendous legacy.

This is another topic though and in the future we will it explore further but todays post isn’t about that specifically. Todays post is meant for the 4th and smallest group of SMO skeptics (accusing all of them of being anti Russian is going to far) for whom I have some sympathy and consider smart people. As a matter of fact, this 4th category even has fair representation over at Ruriks blog and unlike the 3 groups to whom I have nothing to say besides snark and berating the 4th are people I actually would like to engage with in good faith. These are people that know that Russia is not a Stalinist/Bolshevik revanchist Imperial power, but a country ran by people no different than those that run the West. This 4th category has sympathy for Russia and Russians but can’t understand at all why Russian Patriots want to fight Ukraine and NATO to the bitter end on the battlefield while their own country is just as occupied by a hostile satrapy. It very well may be beyond my humble abilities to provide a satisfying answer to every one of the 4th group that reads this but if nothing else I hope to at least help them better understand Russian Patriotic thinking in regard to the SMO. Im not going to rehash Russia and Ukraine’s historical grievances against one another or go over NATOs expansion to the East or any of that. This post is meant specifically for people that understand that Ukraine is culturally and ethnically Russian clay historically but who don’t understand the point of the current SMO when Moscow, Kiev, Washington and London are run by the exact same sort of criminals.

Winston Churchill famously said Russia is an enigma wrapped in mystery or something like that. This isn’t really true imo. Russians understand themselves just fine but Churchills quote does apply to Westerners who lack any accurate framework for understanding the Russian mentality. In my experience to “get” Russia a good method is immersing oneself in their culture and since the Russians we are addressing here are the Nationalist/Patriotic types who insist the war must go on that means being immersed in their subculture specifically. For many years now Dr Livci has done just that. A good measure for understanding the general psychological state of a culture/subculture is checking out their music and I’m going to lean on that method in this post quite a bit. Let’s analyze a song by a Belarussian Natzbol band that I quite like, this method might seem lame at first but I promise you will understand the Russian Patriotic mentality better and you will get why I included cognitive dissonance in the title of this Post. The band is called Elusive Avenger and the song is entitled Pink Sunset. Partial translation of the lyrics:

Fingertips touch eternity

By touch hands grope towards the light

The Dawn is unending

Humanities fate is flipped on a coin (he means tyrants are gambling with human life)

The Crusade has ended in a stalemate

The best of the best have jumped into graves

The Pink Sunset turns grim (note: grim in Russian is like stage makeup and we all know what it means in English, the author of the song is employing a double meaning, the sunset is grim like in our understanding and a facade metaphorically in Russian)

Scheming hands have unleashed war

He saw the shadow of freedom and was killed

In this righteous holy battle

Wounds flashed in red patterns

The pupils froze in a black abyss

Tyrants horde power hell

A scarlet banner on a young chest

A sleek finger squeezes the trigger

The wounded young lad crumples into the grass

He kept valor and honor alive in his memory

He donned his boots and went off to war

The Pink Sunset turns grim

Scheming hands have unleashed war

He saw the shadow of freedom and was killed

In this Holy righteous battle

This is seriously the only version of Pink Sunset I could find on youtube with decent sound quality. Im not sure the Attack on Titan real goes with the music but its the best I can do. I guess Natzbols like Attack on Titan. Ive never watched it but Rurik said it was good I think.

Natzbols in case anyone reading doesn’t know are a young age wise, very active and fairly harassed by the authorities part of Russia’s eclectic Patriot scene. Compared to their relatively small standing in terms of Russia’s overall population they are vastly overrepresented in terms of how many are at the front. It seems like at least once month on telegram they are announcing one of their own has been killed in Ukraine in between posts about how another one of them has been arrested for extremism or violating covid measures in Peter or Moscow. In analyzing those lyrics we see a fair amount of contradictory cognition going on. We have a tyrants ruling from hell deciding the fate of humanity like they gamble with coins, they have unleashed a war with their scheming hands where the best of the best are jumping into graves, but also this war is righteous and holy. The young, wounded lad who crumples into the grass touches eternity and light. This window into Russian patriotic psychology might seem like nothing more than a mess of contradictions and the Patriots are just too dumb to realize that by sanctifying the war that they have been tricked into identifying their interest with those of the tyrants they hate. That take on its surface seems reasonable, and I understand why some Rightwingers would come to that conclusion. However, that conclusion is an overcomplication, Russian Patriots and Nationalist are very aware that they are being used by tyrants and they resent it. They are very aware that their objectives and the tyrants objectives in regard to the war don’t match.

It would be entirely mistaken to therefore conclude that Russian Patriots are just naive fools attempting to play 5D chess, it’s not that complicated. What Russian Nationalist believe is that all the following propositions are true simultaneously:

Russia is ruled by a traitorous satrapy
This traitorous satrapy launched the SMO for its own reasons which don’t have anything to do with protecting Russians or Russian interest
The war is justified for reasons that have nothing to do with the ones for which Moscow started it (well Ukraine started it 8 years ago but you all know what I mean)
The best way to own the worst of the worst in Moscow is to win the damn war

And the thing is all of those propositions are in fact true simultaneously. Expecting satisfying clarity in clown world is expecting too much respected readers. The world is a stupid joke and sometimes the correct answer to 2+2 is actually purple or chocolate milk. That doesn’t mean therefore Dr Livci thinks a man in a dress can be a woman. Metaphorically speaking the proposition that 2+2 can equal dental floss is the same as the proposition that tyrants ruling from hell can unleash a Rightous and Holy War with their filthy scheming hands. But the objective reality really is that the cause of Russian Patriots and Nationalist fighting in Ukraine is just and all of the perfidy in Moscow doesn’t change this. The need to prove the contrary is understandable but it’s an exercise in demanding clarity from a world that is in no condition to provide it. Russian Patriots simply intuitively understand that the world they inhabit is capricious, unpredictable and absurd therefore they don’t torture themselves trying to make clear sense out of the capricious, unpredictable and absurd.

Let’s return back to the point about Russian Patriots knowing very well that they are being used and abused in the SMO with another song/partial lyric translation from Russias Patriotic subculture. This one is called Veteran Detachments by Pavel Plamenev:

We are the Veteran Detachments, Front Line Fighters!

And we want to smash Tryants when we return from the front.

Beat the rich parasite!

Burn the bastards fortresses!

To the wall with the thieving executioners!

When we fought in Donbass like our fathers and grandfathers…

We were betrayed from above..

For palaces and Yachts..

The Majors son and whoever that faggot is will burn in fire..

And all their trophy wives will go to the Soldiers.

No forgiveness or mercy

Truth is in the knife

There is a thirst for justice in the soul of the Russian

Beat the rich parasite!

Burn the bastards fortresses!

To the wall with the thieving executioners!

Some Russian shitlib expats about the author of the song:

Pavel Plamenev is a Russian rock musician, poet, author and performer and ex member of the “Angry Ork” project. He is one of the more well known faces in Russias Patriotic Scene. His creative work is often associated with military themes, male valor, and martial honor in a military setting. At the beginning of Russias full scale (lol@full scale) invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022 Plamenev far from distancing himself from those events openly supported the activities of the Russian Army.

Plamanev does not hide his opinions, he has stated in interviews that he considers the SMO necessary and justified, that apparently Russia fights for “truth”.

Our shitlib watchdogs in the article complain about how Pavel is militarizing Russian youth, being unethical by playing concerts in “occupied” Donbass etc etc. As is standard for such silly dunces they claim Pavel is working directly for the Kremlin as if the Kremlin would sign off on a song set to the Florian Geyer Lied about knifing rich parasites and sending their trophy wives to service soldiers in the dugouts. There still though may be a hint of truth to Pavel having some wealthy benefactor. He has never signed on with any big label but is nonetheless very popular and gets around the concert circuit. The obvious candidate for his actual benefactor would be Prighozhins old network as they would have no problem with songs like Veterans Detachment. Thats just my hunch though. In any case none of that means Pavel isnt 100% sincere and even if he is backed by Prigozhin’s old people he could still make more money by just signing with a huge label, he has enough talent. His lyrics in that song obviously reveal that Pavel simultaneously believes the people running Russia deserve the knife but also the SMO is just and necessary. That particular song was posted all over telegram from troops at the front so it’s safe to say that Russian soldiers are under no illusions about the nature of their overlords. It has to be remembered though that Mobiki are a minority of the troops in Ukraine, most signed contracts to fight which means generally that they see the cause as just.

As this post is meant for SMO skeptics that are more intelligent than NAFO redditors, Boomers who think Russia is still the USSR and Rubes who think Ukraine has serious 4th Reich perspective and Russa is still the USSR an obvious question such a skeptic might ask is what makes these Russian Nationalist and Patriots different from the Ukrainian ones who also hate Kiev and Globohomo? Well the plain up front answer is just that the Russians are right. Ukranian as a nationality separate from Russian really is fake, the Ukrainian state is a Bolshevik abortion that ought to be thrown away etc etc. However, these historical grievances aren’t even the main issue and I said I wasn’t going to address all that grievance stuff here. What’s most relevant is the following thesis of people like Strelkov, Kvachkov, Alexi Milchakov from Rusich etc. Notice there that we have Strelkov representing the Monarchist, Kvachkov Stalinist Socialism and Milchakov the 88r esoteric neo pagans. We have covered pretty much all the main schools of thought of the Russian Nationalist/Patriot scene. All of those individuals have made statements that agree with the following sentence:

As long Ukraine exists Russia is in danger.

Now if someone responds with “but Russia has nukes so that can’t be true” this is a big tell that the person making that statement doesn’t get Russia entirely and just how clown world the RF is. For one Ukraine has in fact already invaded Russia and was not nuked in response. Ukraine exists to be an anti Russia, to be more precise Ukraine exists to act as a tool for dismembering the RF in partnership with very powerful people in Moscow and people with Russian passports that live in Europe and Israel. Should Ukraine just occupy say Belgorod and Kursk Oblasts or Bryansk and Moscow doesn’t nuke anyone, and they won’t, then that’s enough to set the dominos of the RFs dismemberment in motion. Once more for emphasis, Russia is not going to nuke anyone, the families of anyone who is anyone in Russia live in Europe so apriori nuking Europe is out of the question. In addition, the goal of the SMO for the people who launched it was for the right to buy back into Ukraine so that means no nuking Ukraine. Hell as it is the RF won’t even damage Ukrainian infrastructure enough to effect train schedules and internet access. Sure, regular peoples homes is one thing but potential business avenues for Oligarchs is an entirely different matter. So please let’s disregard Russian nukes, they count for nothing.

When asked what Army in the world he considered the most ideal a Russian War Blogger I respect named Vladislav Ugolni answered like this:

Well, like if I were choosing the perfect army, apart from everything else - solidarity with my people, for example, social consequences, and so on.

If we were talking exclusively about the military machine.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine (but with normal headquarters, well, at the level of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation) are an ideal army.

There are literally a huge number of average-intelligence residents of large deindustrialized cities, among whom there are even technical specialists, rural cattle, and all this has been stripped to the ground... Well, Russophobes describe the Red Army in WWII exactly like that.

A crowd of zergs-that's how they describe us, but they are fucking Ukrainians looking in the mirror. Biodrones.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine and Ukraine as a food base are perhaps the ideal military machine in terms of effect / safety margin in the history of mankind.

This was achieved at the cost of incredible desecration, literally biological destruction. Any normal Ukrainian nationalist would have shouted STOP THE WAR a year and a half ago. But no.

We cannot repeat all this (because Russia is not a resource base for a military machine, we are a full-fledged country), although some are trying.

But, my God, how perfect is this ARMY of NON-REBELLIOUS SLAVES. I would really like Russia to give a shit someday, so that something like this would fight not for the United States and Britain, but for us.

https://t.me/zola_of_renovation/11685

I absolutely and categorically disagree with him that Russia is a normal country, but he is dead on correct about Ukraine and its Army. The AFU is the hammer and Russias own occupation/mercantile government is the anvil Russian Patriots find themselves stuck between. If the SMO is too heavy of a defeat for Russia than the RF is done as the more Nabiullina and Chubias minded of the elite will just be like “well we can still do business with the West without Russia as long as we rule all the rump states” and they would be correct. As a matter of fact a dismembered Russia will be better for such vermin as they will have even more control compared to the more centralized power structure that exists in RussiaLLC right now. Of course, it’s perfectly true that with the logic of Strelkov, Kvachkov and Milchakov that Ukrainian Nationalist too are correct, Russian Patriots want to destroy Ukraine. But as cliche as it sounds “pravda” is with the Russians Patriots here. The truth is the people actually running Russia are NOT a mortal threat to Ukraine despite the claims of Ukrainian Nationatlist, Russian Patriots do not run Russia, therefore like Vladisov whose telegram post I quoted above says, the smart thing for Ukrainian Nationalist would be to cut a deal with Moscow now so they can rearm and come back after leading Putin by the nose. Some Azovites have actually been calling for that btw.

In conclusion we have a situation where both the current people running the RF and the AFU are part of the same Damocles sword hanging over Russia. Thats why there actually is no real contradiction when Russian Patriots loath their government but reject waving the White flag in Ukraine so that they can go home to write blog posts and picket against the United Russia Party.