I’m glad to be kin to the monkey

You see it as a problem that some in Ukraine "have doubts that the liberal West is better than the conservative East." I see your claim of western superiority as a problem, and a major one. Was it the West or the East that gave the world crusades, and conquistadors, and Operation Barbarossa?

I agree very strongly with your point about the way hawks speak of appeasement. They talk as if 1938 was the only moment in human history when someone tried to resolve a conflict by making a concession to someone else. Actually world leaders were doing this as far back as 61 AD, when Rome and Parthia concluded the Treaty of Rhandeia. On that occasion, concessions made by the two sides resulted in 50 years of peace between them.

I agree that studying our evolutionary heritage can help us humans understand and address our current predicament.

Chimpanzees not only hunt smaller primates, they also have wars among themselves, over territory and resources. They're intelligent, social animals, and also feisty and dangerous ones... Just like us humans, except that we're more intelligent, more social, and feistier and more dangerous too...

I share your determination to write about "the end of illusions"... Although I'm not sure it will ever be feasible to wholly replace competition with cooperation — is that what you're calling for, Caitlin?

I'd suggest it may be more feasible to keep competing and cooperating, but exercise more collective self-control over how we compete...

I definitely agree that we as a species need to become more conscious about ourselves. Including and especially about dangerous and troublesome sides of our evolved character.

You've made the statement that Stalin invaded East Germany and other countries "following the Second War World". No, the Soviet army entered Germany and the other mentioned countries during the Second World War. That's a major reason why the Second World War ended as and when it did...

I strongly agree with your bottom line.

It's a serious error to regard even the worst of humans as something other than a human.

A subtler error than claiming they did nothing wrong, but a serious error nonetheless.

Humanity as a species needs to learn as much as possible from the horrors of the Nazi epoch, which we can't do if we regard the Nazi leaders as totally "other".