This post isn't meant for the left - nothing I can say will give them insight or change their minds. Like the old saying goes: "You can show a leftist truth, but you can't pull his head out of his ass." Or, something like that.
You get the picture.

But there are some non-leftist who were scratching their heads when Tucker Carlson challenged the pervasive "Putin man bad" chorus last week.

I was not one.

I was actually pleased that Tucker caught on to something I had been thinking since mid-June, when NBC's Rachel Scott asked Putin about deaths and imprisonment of his political rivals.
(FYI: https://www.westernjournal.com/putin-rips-detention-jan-6-protesters-accuses-us-government-assassinating-ashli-babbitt/)

Media on both left & right claimed Putin skirted answering the question, but that's wrong.

He gave an answer. They just didn't like it:

𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻‘𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗥𝘂𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗮 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗦.

He brought up the "allowable" rioting, death and distruction of the BLM /Antifa riots, which prompted sane viewers to think,
"𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘭, 𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵...“

And when Scott, out of either actual or feigned cluelessness pressed him on the point, he said things that the feckless politicians in DC dared not utter:

"People went into U.S. Congress with political demands.”
“Four hundred people are now facing criminal charges,” he continued. “They are facing prison terms of up to 20, maybe 25 years. They are called home-grown terrorists. They are being accused of many other things,” he said.
“One of the participants, a woman, was shot dead on the spot,” he said. “She was not threatening with arms or anything.
“Why am I bringing this up? Many people are facing the same things as we do, and I am stressing this — we are sympathizing with the United States, but we do not want the same thing repeating here.”

<<{{{ 𝘽𝙊𝙊𝙈 }}}>>

After 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 of lies, name-calling and destructive actions by those who are 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝙨𝙚𝙧𝙫𝙚 𝘶𝘴,
Vladimir Putin's truth bombs were like Andy Dufresne's opera album played over Shawshank prison's PA system.

Immediately, the realization that the corrupt, hate-filled people who call us "deplorable, stupid, backwards, xyz-phobic, maggot, terrorists..." are the same ones who have been telling us for years that Putin is a souless monster flooded my head.

It was then I became, "Putin-Curious" - a name I created borrowing an LGBTQIA(...) naming strategy for people who are unsure of their sexuality.

I want to state for the record that just because Putin spoke the truth about depravity and corruption in our government and society, that does 𝗻𝗼𝘁 mean that I'm a fan.

I'm not ignoring the fact that Putin all but admitted that he imprisons and perhaps kills his political opponents, nor that the Russian invasion has killed innocent people. Those things are horrible and in that way, Putin is monsterous.

Understand that the question isn't so much "Is Putin a good guy?" but rather, "Who is more depraved? Putin (and those in charge in Russia) or their American/Western counterparts?"

Carlson's words demonstrate some of the thoughts behind this question:

"Why do Democrats want you to hate Putin?
Has Putin shipped every middle class job in your town to Russia? ("or Chy-na?" - my addition)
Did he manufacture a worldwide pandemic that wrecked your business?
Is he teaching your kids to embrace racial discrimination?
Is he making fentanyl?
Does he eat dogs?" (or "kicks dog?" in the case of Biden - also my addition)

Again, this 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 imply that Putin is a "good guy" - just asks the question: "Who's worse?"

Since we have little-to-no honesty in our 'news' media, we are left to research this question ourselves.