Exactly, thanks for putting it so succintly. If I had a penny for every time I came across a Soviet apologist trying to explain to me how my country’s, my region’s experience with Soviet times was actually really good, especially compared to the really terrible things happening on the other side of the Iron Curtain, I would be a very rich person (especially if converted to my local currency…).
Useful idiots, indeed… And also this is one of the groups that are a prime target of Russian disinformation campaigns. This is not an Anti-American thing on my part (just in case someone interprets it as such), but well, living in a global superpower, not being all that well-versed in history and geopolitics, and generally not being very close to conflict points gives one a certain perspective of things. And a lot of Americans who distrust US media (not without reason, of course) seem to consider any source that offers alternative interpretations of situations that is more in line with their thoughts, without looking deeper behind them.
That - and Putin is not getting any younger. I’m sure he still has many years in him, but also I think that at this point half of his reasons for doing things is his legacy.
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“American imperialism is bad…therefore any country with their own imperial ambition is just standing up against America.” I am probably too online, but this is a sentiment I come across all too often.
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Another major element is shoring up his domestic support with his base. As a petro-state kleptocrat he can’t deliver much to them on the economic front but (as in the U.S.) Russia’s Know-Nothings love jingoism.
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I may indeed be guilty of the “No True Scotsman” argument, but as far as I’m concerned, people who are all for progressive ideals in one particular country but not in all countries are coming from a place that is left-adjacent, at best. And tankies for Russia or China, if really sincere in their ideology, are clearly not paying attention to what kind of government those countries actually have.
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In principle I agree with you. In practise, though, tankies are a phenomenon of the political left.
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For the most part, that has long been true, but we are seeing more and more Russia apologists on the right (just look at Tucker Carlson). It gets hard to tell if they are anti-imperialism or just “America First” anti-interventionalists.
Leftism is about progressive policy first, so I tend to distrust those who have a country preference. American hegemony is not the answer to the world’s problems, but those who prefer anyone who stands up to America are ultimately rooting for a team, rather than ideals. They may be leftists in every other respect, but I cannot take such people seriously.
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I’ll just leave this here, heh
Adam’s Guide to 2022 Terminally Online Leftism
A good summary of the phenomenon we’ve been talking about here, as well as its “terminally online” nature… (And obviously this is not about all leftism, not all online leftism, etc. But there’s a very prominent, predominantly American “leftist community” online from whom I’ve often seen arguments like these.)
(It’s a pretty good channel, by the way, I already recommended two videos from it.)
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Carlson and his ilk have different motives for supporting Putin, deeply rooted in their ideology’s white supremacy. Whether it’s left-wing opposition to American imperialism or right-wing racist isolationism, the weak-minded in either camp are prime marks for Putin.
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I am not saying that those kinds of people do not exist at all, but there are also a lot of people who pretend to be leftists online when in fact they are really right-wingers pretending to be leftists in order to make leftists look bad.
ETA: Perhaps I am just naive. Perhaps more people are sincere than I realize, but I do not take people whom I don’t know on the internet at their word when they claim to be on the left. Especially when they are defending or even lauding an obviously fascist government.
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The US Embassy in Kyiv is now trolling.
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This is the logical outcome of his own actions.
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The brave and free-thinking parliamentarians of Russia have taken the next expected step by wielding their fearsome rubber stamp.
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Translation (google translate)
STATEMENT:zap: Since 2014, @RusembUkraine, @genconrfodessa, @ConsRusLvov and @RusConsKharkov have been repeatedly attacked. A decision was made to evacuate the personnel of Russian foreign missions in Ukraine, which will be implemented in the near future
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Just FYI, President Biden is going to give a presser at 2:30 EST, so in less than an hour, if people are wanting to hear the latest updates from the white house on what happens next.
I think both white house’s youtube channel and PBS newshour channel will have it live.
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