The key to understanding history and geopolitics is to remember: just because one side is bad, doesn’t mean the other side is good
Just because an official narrative is suspect doesn’t mean the most popular counter narrative is automatically true
just because something bad happened to a group of people does not mean they themselves cannot do bad things to other people
this is kinda the key to a LOT of interactions between people. it is astounding how often, in how many simple miscommunications, an individual person’s default conclusion from the thought “I am not intentionally being an asshole to this other person” is “therefore they are intentionally being an asshole to me.”