The Massive Hypocrisy and Ignorance of Liberals and Progressives on the Russo-Ukrainian War
With cartoons
I had a blast from the past from Facebook. Zuckerberg’s algorithms reminded me that I posted this cartoon three years ago:
Ah, yes, how so many progressives and liberals in the United States rallied to Omar’s defense. How dare those nasty Republicans and Zionist fanatics try to censor this Muslim Congresswoman of Color! Such actions are reprehensible! Look at us! We defend free speech! Those Republicans and right-wingers want to crush it in the name of fascist theocracy!
Today, I came across another cartoon, but unfortunately I can’t find it now. It shows a Yemeni woman standing on a pile of rubble waving the Ukrainian flag and saying “Now they have to see us!”
Many of those same progressives and liberals, swept up in self-satisfying moral outrage over the Russian invasion of Ukraine and egged on by their social media leaders and peers, would now decry that second cartoon as “Whataboutism.”
As Caitlin Johnstone said, "Whataboutism" is a common misspelling of "Damning evidence that western powers are lying about their motives and values."
No, that damning evidence Must Be Ignored, and if not ignored, ridiculed and disparaged, because the only allowed topic of conversation is how evil Putin is for invading Ukraine. Putin’s reasons are irrelevant. NATO expansion for the last 29 years is irrelevant. Obama’s post-Maidan coup that installed neo-Nazis in positions of real political power in Ukraine is irrelevant. Ukrainian army and militia shelling of mostly Russian speakers in the two breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine, which has killed 14,000 people over seven years, is irrelevant.
Israeli bombing of Syria, which is going on right now, is irrelevant. Saudi bombing of Yemen is irrelevant. American bombing of Somalia is irrelevant. Anyone who brings those things up is just Putin’s puppet justifying Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and should be censored because they are probably traitors on Putin’s payroll.
Obviously, this kind of thinking helps out the managers of the American Empire in their quest to control the narrative and to encircle, break up, and exploit the fuck out of Russia. But how does it help those who are thinking that way right now?
The truth is, it doesn’t. Not really. It gives them a brief, morally superior high and enables them to sound oh-so-sophisticated and to be members of the self-righteous clubs at the right kind of cocktail parties, hipster watering holes, social media sites, and liberal church socials. For political conservatives caught up in this ignorant nonsense, they get much the same thrill out of it; just in different places.
As a Marxist, my primary interest in the Russo-Ukrainian War is to end it ASAP because peace would bring the most immediate benefit to the working classes in both countries. As an American citizen, I can advocate for peace by pointing out ways in which it can be achieved at no cost to myself, my country’s national security, or to my fellow Americans.
The only way peace can be achieved in this instance is to come up with some way of satisfying the reasonable and rational security interests of both Russia and Ukraine. That cannot be done if one side is painted as the Devil Incarnate and the other as pure, brave patriots fighting for Freedom.
The Biden Administration should be loudly condemned for steadfastly refusing to avert this war by guaranteeing Russia that Ukraine would not be admitted to NATO. If they had done that, there would have been no Russian invasion.
The Biden Administration should be roundly condemned for encouraging the naive Ukrainian government into poking the Russian bear again and again until the bear lashed out, much as is depicted in this cartoon:
OTOH, the Biden Administration should be praised for announcing there will be no NATO no-fly zone over Ukraine, because that would require shooting down Russian aircraft, which would cause a shooting war between the United States and Russia, which should be fucking unthinkable to anyone with an ounce of sense because both countries have nuclear weapons, the use of which would destroy civilization.
Yet, I see liberals saying “If we don’t stand up to Dictator Putin now, when? Are we just going to let him have everything he wants because he has nuclear weapons?”
For one thing, Putin’s really not a dictator. He’s an authoritarian oligarch, but he doesn’t have absolute power. For another, has any Russian leader ever threatened the use of nuclear weapons on the United States or Western Europe if they didn’t let him invade a country that had never been under Russian control?
The answer is NO. Somehow, I don’t see any Russian leader ever being stupid enough to threaten an actual NATO member state with the choice of annexation or invasion. IOW, that question is just plain ignorant. It might play well in a high school debate class, but not in the real world.
Anyway, you know it’s bad when so many people whom I used to think had more than two brain cells to rub together now sound like redbaiting McCarthyite sheep who make Joe Biden and Antony Blinken, of all people, look reasonably intelligent.
Thank you for reading. Good night, and good luck.