Cogitation in the Time of War #10 - The boys inside the tanks

Yesterday shared on Facebook a video of an allegedly Russian tank being hit/destroyed by an anti-tank missile fired by the Ukrainian forces (the view point is from the sighter, or visor, from the launcher) and I wrote the following joke (now slightly improved):
- Dad, what did you hunt for dinner today?
- A tank, son.
- And can we eat it?
- Not sure, I guess. The turret is already fully cooked.

From the comments on the different Twitter threads where I saw the video being shared, and since the tank seems to be stuck, I simply assumed that it had been abandoned. I did the joke when sharing it myself because it didn't cross my mind that the video could be directly showing the death of the tank's crew (at least the 2 that sit in the turret).
But that was a assumption not a certainty. I didn't remove the post because I couldn't verify later more details on the video and the strike's outcome. I actually encountered some comments claiming that what we see is a sort of bunker and not even a tank! Anyways, this video and my post generated 2 interesting reactions (via comments) that I decided to expand in a dedicated cogitation.

The first reaction I had was from an old friend who pointed out to me that I was sharing a video that potentially resulted in the death of the tank's crew, most likely boys who probably didn't even want to be there, and thus I was making fun of the death of people, people that are children, partners and/or  parents of someone else. He then added, and I quote:

Evidently, if it were an abandoned tank, I wouldn't see anything wrong with making a joke. But in this case we don't know if it is. It can have men inside and in that case it is a tragedy for several families. I have seen a lot of comments regarding the destruction of Russian manned vehicles like fans reacting to a goal in a football match. Obviously there are Russians of bad nature as there are of any nationality, but most of those men are following orders, many of them paying a personal price that only they know how costly it is. But I don't like to see people descend into tribalism.

This comment caused me to reflect on this and I ended up replying much later, after due consideration. I reflected on making humour at the expense of tragedies, one of the things we often see on social media, with comedians getting crucified by some people when they make the so-called dark humour.

Dark humour (joking about death or other human tragedy) is always a double-edged sword. Almost every time I come across jokes from comedians, and not only, as for example a recent a joke on Facebook about the Moroccan kid who fell into the well and died, the first thought I usually have is "Ooooohhhh man, that is gross" but I usually laugh anyway. And because I have this mixed feeling of shock & laugh, I don't usually say/comment anything, neither criticize nor applaud.
But I have to admit that celebrating the loss of human lives is indeed macabre, I agree with my friend in that regard. When I shared this video I didn't really have that idea of celebration, and I don't even consider sharing videos or photos where fatalities are seen, because as he correctly points out, it's a tragedy.

I believe that so far, even though I've been sharing a lot of my thoughts on the war, and I've admitted that I want Putin to lose (but to lose, as I explained, is him not getting what he intended to do when he ordered this invasion), I haven't been "wishing" death to anyone. So my posts and texts will always be biased, but as I wrote last week already, I don't think that the Russian people is bad, not even the soldiers who are just following orders.

Obviously soldiers who commit crimes, like rapes and others, are already criminals; whether they are Russians, Ukrainians or foreigners who are now going into the battlefield.

And in regards to the reaction people have, I think that sometimes we apply that (portuguese) saying "not knowing is the same as not seeing" but on the opposite sense: if you don't see soldiers dying, it's as if it never happened. People only see a war machine and since they don't see the people inside, it's as if the machine is empty.

That's what happened to me when I saw the video of the tank, I just assumed it was abandoned and for some reason they were destroying it with an ATGM (Anti-Tank Guided Missile) instead of using another method (like dropping a simple grenade inside )... I fell into the same subterfuge that protects us from personal tragedy.

But even though I think there's an explanation for us to "dehumanize" these images/videos, I agree that there is a lot of tribalism when commenting on these war episodes.

I also don't think it's funny when people like us, who are on the outside, make comments celebrating the death of the "enemy", I only accept that (but I don't usually react) coming from Ukrainians because in their case it's "personal".

But the main message that my friend wanted to convey when he commented is quite valid. And it makes me more alert and and pay attention to the things I want to share.

I hope you don't see jokes or glorification of situations that involved the death of people here on the blog, on my Facebook wall or in my tweets. But I do warn that you will find positive comments on Ukrainian military operations, which will obviously result in casualties (on both sides)...

And I finish with the admission that in this case I made a joke in a video that could have resulted in the death of the tank crew. It was already a case (which didn't even cross my mind at the time) and I hope it's the last.