I agree... I just don't know what democracy is anymore. Obviously, I value human ideas like justice, rights, morals - freedom to be who you want to be. But are those ideas really at stake with Russia "invading Ukraine" ?
I would say, indirectly, yeah.
At the very baseline, it is at least at stake for the Ukrainian people. Russia is tolerant enough about people having their own ideas that it's not a huge problem on a day-to-day basis. But, take for example, the Russians that have been demonstrating against the war and detained by police in the thousands. It's just a typical example of the kind of authority you don't want ruling over you if you appreciate values like justice, rights, morals and freedom. Everything that happened in Georgia and Belarus in the last decade or two (I forget the years) is yet another example of Russian authority not respecting these values, nor even attempting to try and come off like they do.
Remember Alexei Navalny, the guy that was poisoned over in, what was it, England? That's now a political prisoner in Russia. It stands to reason that if Russia inserts a pro-Russian government in the Ukraine, then suddenly there's gonna be Russian "agents" in the country to oversee things. You can be damn sure they're not gonna put up with any insurgencies. So for the Ukranian people, as long as you're either pro Putin, or just the kind of person that's willing to put up and shut up, then it won't make a huge difference who sits in government. But there won't be elections. The Ukrainian people won't have an actual say in what future to realize as a country and a people. They will be forced to be a puppet for Russia, like Belarus is after Russia helped their corrupt president keep his slimy fingers on his position after losing the country's first democratic election. Side-note, but just look at their president sitting in with Putin during those weapons tests they were doing right before the invasion. Why is he even there lmao. I know Putin wants to look like he has allies, but c'mon, he might as well had sat there with Kim Jong-un.
One can only wonder about what will happen once the dust settles after this rodeo. "We" let Putin get away with Crimea, then Donbass, and now the whole country. That was after we accepted what happened in Georgia and Belarus. He has shown a willingness to come down on civilians to achieve his geopolitical goals, whatever they are. Seing him in the "war room" with the Belarusian president makes me think Putin wants a Eurasian "NATO". In any case, what's his next move? If Ukraine was friendly to the West and in talks with NATO, and still there were Russian saboteurs and infiltrators there, what happens when Ukraine practically becomes Russia? Will there then be infiltrators in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova? And what if Putin suddenly decides he's gonna take Moldova too? And then what? And then, then what? And so on.
The fact is, Putin has changed Russia's laws, making it possible for him to keep staying in power forever. There are "elections" that he always wins and then if you ask any Russian outside of Russia (and some times from within), they will say they didn't elect him. I'm guessing there's sharks even in Putin's waters, and that there's some kind of "club" of really rich Russians that keep each other in check. It makes sense that Putin is only allowed to stay in power because other powerful people there consider it beneficial. One can only speculate as to the actual specifics, but any variant of what I'm talking about still stinks when viewed through the lens of free democracy. It is the very thing we have fought time and again. The very definition of tyranny. Even just being nonchalant about it is closer to acceptance than condemnation. The US is safe in many ways. You guys are an island and nobody's gonna be dumn enough to come over there and try to take over the American continent. But the threat against principles like freedom and justice are as real today as they have been throughout the entire history of advanced civilization. We have not seen our last war, nor our last threat to life as we know it. When the time comes that good will have to fight evil again, things like how many people are on one side vs. the other, or how much people on one side believe in their cause, or how hard they're willing to fight for it, will actually matter for the outcome of the fight itself. To bring it back full circle, those of us that believe in these things must keep believing in them, and we must keep re-iterating them, and iterating upon them, and never think such a time will come that we can just take it easy and forget the fact that freedom will always be under threat from potential tyranny. This war is an aggressive attack by a corrupt tyrrant against a free people. It's not just some little thing. It is the principles of freedom, rights, justice and morals being literally shat upon right before our eyes.