The actual sanctions imposed by actual governments do make sense - they target specific companies and oligarchs, attempting to incentivize them to ditch Putin.

The actual sanctions imposed by actual governments do make sense - they target specific companies and oligarchs, attempting to incentivize them to ditch Putin. The rest is just virtue signaling. People feel that they need to do something, so they do something. Not entirely logical. Not centrally coordinated. Mostly, acting upon emotions. Same mechanism as cancel culture, just against an external enemy now. What baffles me more is the Russia's endgame here. Unlike Crimea and Donbass, the rest of Ukraine has always been much more anti-authoritarian than Russia. So annexing it would yield millions of highly pissed off disloyal population, that has nothing to lose, and blends fairly well Russians in a crowd. Recipe for decades of pretty bloody tensions if you ask me.