>>how disconnected you are from the culture wars.

I think I have to thank the youtube recommendation engine for that, plus a strong disinterest in self-help advice coming from self-appointed 'experts', climate denialism, and anti-vaxerism.

Speaking of the Ukraine invasion, I ran across something interesting in Peter Zeihan's 'Disunited Nations'. The reason NATO was aggressive about admitting ex-Soviet states had to do with France trying to control Germany. I'm too lazy to really dig in to the recent history of NATO, but I found it both plausible and interesting.