You can't hold public office and not know who fought who in WWII
When you start to think seriously about what happened last Friday, it’s hard not to conclude that everyone involved looks like an idiot.
Like, everyone's name?
You just need to know who fought against the Russians in Ukrane during World War 2. Its not exactly a history degree. Even just assuming no one on the team had even a high-school level of history knowledge (already a bad sign), the fact that no one thought to actually look into the deeds they were praising him for is pathetic.
I don't remember the particulars of what happened on the Eastern Front being taught in my high school history classes. The Canadian military was concentrated on the Western Front, so what little detail was covered was concentrated there as well.
Also, when I was in high school, the Ukraine was not an independent nation, but part of the USSR—I don't think our classes even mentioned it had ever been separate. Actually, I'm not sure it was even once mentioned by name. This would be the case for the majority of the MPs as well, as I expect more of them than not were born before 1980.
"Name every soldier who fought in WW2."
"The allies?"
"Everyone."
"Oh you're into military history? Name every soldier."
we are supposed to believe that not one of them thought it might be prudent to remain in their seat and refuse to applaud a man who was self-evidently fighting in the Nazi cause?
We are supposed to believe that anyone cared? The people in attendance were almost certainly thinking about what they planned to have for dinner, or wondering about what their kids were doing, or pondering what they might do on the weekend – not listening to what some random nobody who means nothing did a lifetime ago. Not even the strongest-willed person alive would make it through that snooze fest without having their mind wander off.
This article kind of sucks.
Here is an article that paints a more nuanced picture and doesn't call every MP an idiot.
Not blaming you for posting, OP. Just wanted to offer a take with more depth than "Nazis bad" Everyone knows Nazis are bad. This situation is more complex than that.
I don't really think it is. That article you linked is holocaust revisionism and I think you should really rethink how much grey area you think there is in this situation.
Fighting on the Axis side wasn’t bad; USSR committed genocide, we had interment camps, etc
The engagement in war crimes and in genocide is bad
This person may have engaged in them and that is bad, the same as celebrating a Vietnam vet isn’t bad but celebrating a Vietnam Vet that raped his way through a village is bad
The attempts to make it black and white are a disservice and shows we’ve forgotten the lessons of WW2 where we punished the Nazis but not the Wehrmarcht
And your further comment down seems that you aren’t able to understand this. There isn’t a good side and bad side; there are good people and bad people. The side they are on is largely based on their birth; considering the USSR’s genocide was against Ukrainians they would be more likely to not take that side