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There's something incredibly surreal about living through a moment that feels ripped straight out of a history book. But instead of thumbing through the black and white photos, now it's captured in high-def on TikTok.

When Russia invaded Ukraine, I found myself sitting at the kitchen table with my mom, just like I had as a kid during countless moments of world-shaking news. Except this time, we weren't dealing with some abstract lesson about the Cold War or a History Channel marathon about World War II. This was now. Real. Chaotic. Right there on our laptop in the kitchen, livestreamed with commentary and hashtags.

I asked her, "Are we going to be fighting the Russians again? I feel like we already did that." She just gave me a look of disbelief, sadness, and irritation. "I just... thought we were done with this," I said.

And wasn't that the whole point? Wasn't the 20th century supposed to teach us something? That we could outgrow the worst of human behavior? Apparently not. We've traded grainy photos of tanks rolling through Europe for TikToks of missiles exploding in neighborhoods.

Our cinematic training failed us. In the '80s, movies like Red Dawn and Rocky IV turned Cold War anxieties into a battle of good versus evil. There was a clear-cut bad guy and a flag-waving good guy. But in 2025, the lines aren't so sharp. Yes, we know the aggressor, but the world feels messier and grayer. And instead of processing it through action movies or evening news specials, we scroll past war updates on our phones sandwiched between shopping hauls and viral cooking hacks.

And it's not just Ukraine. It's Gaza, too. The headlines and the images are haunting. A family sitting in the rubble of what was once their home. A child crying at the edge of a sheet-covered body. An outdoor class being taught when a bomb scatters the children into each other's arms.

You want to look away, to protect yourself from the heartbreak, but it feels wrong. How can I care less about these lives because they're farther away? Yet, no matter how much you care, what can you do? Watch, share, scroll, repeat. The cycle doesn't stop. History doesn't stop. The feeling of helplessness is overwhelming.

It's the same story, the same pain. Governments and oligarchs fight over land, identity, and power, while civilians bear the brunt. The stories are old, but they feel sharper now because we see them unfold in real time, from the ground, through shaky cellphone videos uploaded with the last bit of battery and courage someone has. And yet, even as we bear witness, we're still distracted, watching war updates between makeup tutorials and coffee reviews.

Humanity keeps stumbling into the same traps, just now with better tech and more distractions. The pandemic echoes the 1918 flu outbreak, only now we have Zoom meetings and DoorDash. The rise of authoritarianism feels like the 1930s, with better branding.

Salutes, however, are the same and are sickening. But, for all my failed training, Dr. Jones taught me what needs to be done in situations like this.

Sitting in the kitchen with my mom that day, I thought about how often her generation told mine, "Learn from history, or you're doomed to repeat it." They were right. And here we are, repeating it and scrolling on by.

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Cassie McClure is a writer, millennial, and unapologetic fan of the Oxford comma. She can be contacted at cassie@mcclurepublications.com. To find out more about Cassie McClure and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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