The trend over the last few years has been to call those sensitive spirits on the left snowflakes.

We've been mocked for creating safe spaces on college campuses.

We've been ridiculed for adding trigger warnings that alert people to content they might find traumatic.

We get blamed for being too politically correct, which usually means inclusive.

And now the existence of cancel culture is apparently entirely our fault.

All of this, of course, escalated dangerously in the interminable years since Donald first announced his run for the Republican nomination in 2015.

But something else started happening too.

At the same time the right was criticizing us for being whims, they were becoming mired in a pathetic mix of grievance and projection.

Republicans are bewildered that they can't be openly racist, homophobic or misogynistic, without paying a price.

They're outraged that the estate of Dr. Seuss pulled some of his books from circulation because they contained racist images.

They were apoplectic with a fictional six-foot yellow bird because he, the fictional bird, had the audacity to encourage people, including children, to get vaccinated.

They freaked out when a bakery sold gingerbread people instead of gingerbread men, and when Hasbro made its potatoes ginger neutral, which honestly is always how I prefer my potatoes.

And most recently, Tucker Carlson, whom I call fish sticks, expressed horror because M&Ms were given new footwear which rendered the candy-coated chocolates sexually undesirable, to all of which I say, with deep sincerity, fuck your feelings.

This week I'm thrilled to definitely a word, honored is definitely a word, but also prescient to have his my guest.

Fiona Hill, whom a lot of you know from her amazing testimony in front of Congress in 2020, and most recently for her incredible book, which we're going to talk a lot about, there's nothing for you here, which resonated with me on so many levels.

And I would imagine for those of you who read it, and if you haven't read it, please do. It's extraordinary. Fiona, welcome, and thank you so much for being here.

Oh, thank you so much, Mary, for having me. It's a pleasure.

I've wanted to talk to you for a long time, and then I got a podcast, and I had a reason to ask. But when I asked you, things were a little, I don't know if commas the right word because things were never come, but in terms of your area of expertise, they were a little comber.

So you must be a little busy right now with what's going on in Ukraine.

And so, the least, I mean, I'm probably like everybody else pretty preoccupied with this. I mean, we don't know where things are heading. As we're speaking now, blooding me a Putin has moved an enormous amount of troops to all of the borders of Ukraine, North and Belarus to the Russian Ukrainian border from the south to the territory that they annexed already from Ukraine in Crimea.

And everybody's just wondering, is he going to move? And there's a lot of deliberation in Europe as well about whether the United States might be this time around overreacting because, you know, the past, of course, blooding me a Putin has moved against Ukraine before annexing Crimea, they've intervened in Syria.

And Putin's done a lot, so maybe back in 2008, he also invaded Georgia. And each time we were much more muted in our reaction, not quite sure, you know, is this the halbinger of other things to come or is this just the result of some spatties having in a particular time, back in 2008, the president of Georgia, Mickal Sackachevili, or, you know, is there some kind of narrow issue here that this is all about, can this be easily resolved?

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