Putinists don't really care if we're divided, that's right

[ck4829]

I've started seeing well meaning people and conservatives say we shouldn't come out against Trump and the ever-increasing joke of our increasingly illegitimate federal government because we're playing into Putin's hands or that we're being divisive for his benefit.

I dare to say that, at most, the US people being divided is only secondary, if even that.

If you don't want to play into Putin's hands...

Stop normalizing oligarchy - Let's start saying the Dow or the stock market is no oracle. Stop saying that it's success or lowering actually means anything other than what it means for those countries. It really does not benefit you, just the high level shareholders, oligarchy... just like Putin's government.

Stop being stupid - No, national security is not "There is a mass shooter, sure, but the mass shooter is white and doesn't pray in a funny way, so... win." If Trump says something dumb then excuse it, say he said something dumb and he is incorrect. Period.

Stop being paranoid - The whole willingness to trust Putinists over your neighbors because they're liberal, or if they're Muslim, or if they have the audacity to say their lives matter (The horror... the horror) needs to stop.

Being divided is simply the means; paranoid of the 'other' America, being stupid, and being OK with oligarchy is the end. And if there was a better means to achieving that end, then that is what they would be doing. Remember that.

[matt819]

1. Its all about instability and chaos

That way there can’t be any cohesive Russia policy.

[Igel]

2. Fine.

Then stop paying attention to the intelligence estimate from last year that everybody likes to cite.

If we hold as a tenet of faith their 3rd conclusion, which they say was added late, it's pretty hard to ignore the better grounded conclusions #1 and 2.