really a shining example of how reflexive anti-violence can be used to justify anything you want with sufficient framing and cut-off points for when you decide to start analyzing events

"well gee whiz, I have started paying attention to this issue from today onwards with an abject refusal to read even a paragraph of history and it looks like Group A has marched in to commit violence against Group B. this must be the exact same as when Group X marched in to commit violence against Group Y a few decades ago and the consensus was that Group X was bad, so therefore Group A is also bad!"

works with Russia invading Ukraine, and indeed Hamas doing October 7th. all you need is some bizarre overoveroversimplification that imperialism = violence in any capacity and you have yourself an extremely confused left-winger who starts supporting Nazi-infested NATO.

a country like Russia can be so committed to finding some kind of peace that they try and negotiate with the West for eight fucking years while the West is visibly piling troops and equipment into Ukraine and bombarding the Donbass with artillery, and yet when things finally snap, Russia is the most bloodthirsty warmongerer on the face of the planet and Putin is personally responsible for every single bad thing that happens for the decade afterwards, up to and including the results of every Western election, even ones in the past. meanwhile, the US invades Iraq on such flimsy pretenses that even the word "pretenses" is an absurd word to use and their global punishment is what exactly? oh, the endless streams of countries sanctioning the US and banning George Bush from entering their countries! oh, no worries though, you and the rest of the liberals opposed it. a decade or two after it happened instead of at the time, of course, but you got there in the end. oh, we're all so enlightened and anti-violence and anti-invasions now. here's a gold star, you fucking weasel.

there's only one cure for this and it's to read a book. luckily, Lenin's Imperialism is right there.