It didn’t take a generation for Europe to rebuild relationships with Germany after WWI or WWII. And at some point the frantic propaganda of “Russia is just going to invade everybody if we don’t destroy them now!” will fail to materialize.
Different situations, imo. For one, Germany after ww2 benefited immensely from the western propaganda machine, whitewashing it, painting USSR as worse, etc. Additionally, it could be argued Germans never had such a terrible reputation to begin with. Compared to the notably more diverse Russia, which is being slanted as “the other”
I agree, it’s not 1:1. I just don’t think capitalist Europe (fresh off being reminded that they are expendable meat for the U.S.) is going to voluntarily wall itself off from a significant, nearby capitalist economy for very long.
It didn’t take a generation for Europe to rebuild relationships with Germany after WWI or WWII. And at some point the frantic propaganda of “Russia is just going to invade everybody if we don’t destroy them now!” will fail to materialize.
Different situations, imo. For one, Germany after ww2 benefited immensely from the western propaganda machine, whitewashing it, painting USSR as worse, etc. Additionally, it could be argued Germans never had such a terrible reputation to begin with. Compared to the notably more diverse Russia, which is being slanted as “the other”
I agree, it’s not 1:1. I just don’t think capitalist Europe (fresh off being reminded that they are expendable meat for the U.S.) is going to voluntarily wall itself off from a significant, nearby capitalist economy for very long.