this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2023
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Also as an American: that’s not a thing to brag about. Sticking to your guns when it becomes evident that your strategy is not going to work is called “sunk cost fallacy”. It’s not good.
Edit:
To clarify, I wholeheartedly and enthusiastically support assisting Ukraine, and I wish our government shared that sentiment. I’m simply pointing out that the War on Terror was a HUGE demonstration of the sunk cost fallacy over the course of over 20 years. Similarly, unflinchingly supporting the Israeli government’s extremely hawkish handling of pretty much every aspect of how they interact with Palestinians is also an example of the sunk cost fallacy, and I’m starting to get really fucking concerned that it’s going to cost Biden the election in 2024, which would be bad for everyone all over the world in a myriad of fascinating and terrible ways… and also, very obviously extremely bad for Ukraine - I would actually not be surprised, if Trump manages to win, that he actually starts to throw in with Putin. Trump fucking hates Zelenskyy, because Zelenskyy refused to submit to Trump’s blackmail and didn’t help Trump’s continued attempts to fuck with our own electoral process.
Additionally, apologies for dragging in so many loosely related issues, but the truth of the matter is that American politics muddles all this crap up into a giant cesspool, and that’s what we have to deal with as citizens.
I think the reason is important. If you stick to something because you think it is the right thing to do, that is conviction. If you stick to something because you think you must continue as you have already invested effort into, that is sunk cost. The point that I'm trying to make, that perhaps I have not worded well, is that you must act with conviction, because if you do not do what you think is right, you either not do anything, or do what you think is wrong. Sure, you may be wrong at the time, and you should be open to reflection, and not be prey to sunk cost.
But coming up with convenient excuses to avoid doing what you think is inconvenient but right is not how leaders behave.
And in this context (if that is what you mean), it is definitely not evident that supporting Ukraine is a strategy that won't work.
100% agree on the Ukraine front. Apologies - I’ve just been infuriated by the complete morass of congressional politics lately and it’s driving me to distraction at times