Then and Now: Resistance Against Putin

I should probably mention that I didn’t paint this myself.

Medium.com is an interesting platform. In addition to providing a pretty easy blogging platform for writers, it has all of the Twitter-esque trolls and Facebook-like rants one could ever want.

So, just as on the larger social media platforms, there is a war of public opinion playing out on Medium. Some of the pieces clearly written by amateur trolls and FSB-sponsored, professional trolls. Other pieces are more subtle, but still no less caustic. But for every piece written by a Russian troll, there is another one written by someone who is well-meaning, and just dealing with a bad set of assumptions. It is a waste of time to engage trolls, but it is well worth the time to engage folks who are just dealing with bad assumptions.

Opinions are like…

In today’s age, everyone is now an epidemiologist, a teacher, a prosecutor, a law enforcement officer, and thanks to Putin, a conflict analyst. Obviously, it is perfectly okay to have opinions about things. But there is a difference between opinions, informed opinions and actual knowledge and expertise about specific subjects.

For example, I’ve studied some of mathematics that provide the basis for epidemiology. It gives me the ability to have an informed opinion, but I’m no expert. I watched a few episodes of Law and Order, and I’ve binged more than…