I wish I could have such a small minded view of world politics that I could also pretend it’s as simple as: just stopy buying that thing from that person.

And then what? Northern Europe can heat their homes on hopes and dreams? Throw up a couple nuclear reactors that are known to only take months to build and bring online?

Europe has been actively moving away from Russian oil where possible (down to 19% from a high of 27%), but it’s not like the market just magically is going to come up with enough supply for the entire continent overnight.

That’s ignoring the fact that the vast majority of “european” purchases come from a handful of countries, primarily Hungary, who is also being run by a pro-Russian dictator.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/3/how-much-of-europes-oil-and-gas-still-comes-from-russia

I know it’ll come across as an unpopular opinion, but some of them just need their ass kicked. Literally went to high school with a kid who was insufferable, a prick to everyone. One day he started bullying one of my buddies who proceeded to beat the shit out of him. He told his football coach he ran into a mailbox on his bike when he had to explain his face looking like it did. After that he was the nicest kid ever - he realized “being tough” wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. I guarantee a few of these kids just need to get punched in the face one time and they’ll start rethinking the “alpha male” ideology.