I do not hail from Tigray, or any of the other warzones. My friends and colleagues who do, were suddenly cut off from family, as phone and internet lines were severed and would largely remain that way until the end of the war. I'm privileged not to have endured the traumatic experiences of some of my friends.

Nevertheless, I remain stunned until this day, at the sobering reality of just how seemingly sane, sensible, normal people you've known all your life, could just completely transform.

Nationalism and misinformation were weaponized. Consent for the most heinous atrocities was granted.

People I grew up with, friends, family, educated professionals, suddenly abandoned life long ideals & ethics, to blindly cheer on the Ethiopian government's military effort. Even as reports of massacres, atrocities, sexual violence & famine made the rounds.

We journalists were ostracized, declared the enemy. Life long relationships were ended, & we were declared persona non grata everywhere.

Not just journalists, anyone who questioned the necessity of war, anyone who called for a ceasefire, anyone who expressed worry about systemic profiling & war abuses, was slammed as a traitor, by people who we had previously looked up to as exemplary.

EVERYONE changed. I still haven't recovered from seeing an old sociology teacher become a pro war radical nationalist partisan. Everyone, from lawyers, prominent business leaders, feminist movement leaders, religious fathers, got on the bandwagon.

You learn in school about how the intelligentsia and elite classes would be harnessed by the likes of Mussolini and Hitler to provide intellectual backing that would sway the masses into blind support. But I won't forget witnessing this phenomenon engulf Ethiopia. It completely shattered everything I believed in.

Religious fathers who normally preach forgiveness calling on the army to "crush" the rebels.

Legal experts lecturing us on how an army massacre was somehow legal.

Prominent academics from universities across the western world to justify the unjustifiable, and deny well documented massacres and sexual violence. The state was happy to parade these people on state media, as they defended the most immoral and barbaric acts.

There are people who I credit for shaping my worldview, people I once hoped to emulate, who because of their conduct, I wouldn't be caught dead with again. 3 years on, the shock hasn't completely worn off. I was extremely naive.
But...

This isn't an Ethiopian phenomenon, it's a global one.

Fascism rots the brain. Love of "God, flag country," is intoxicating. But too much of it seeps into the part of the brain where you store common sense and conscience. Once you've nicked those, a perfectly logical man can turn into a zombie.

In this case, the idea that one of the poorest countries in the world ought to resort to putting resources it didn't have on an all out war over political reasons, was deemed logical.
It ruined us.