Using the Words Nazi or Pedophile Should Be the Same As Saying “Your Mama”
Republicans have apparently planted their propaganda flag on the notion that anybody they disagree with is pedophile.
This assertion gives permission for a wide range of mostly unpleasant responses, and people saying these things are not held to account for their viciousness.
There are innumerable ways to connect Republicans with Russians, from Sen. Rand Paul’s oratories in the capitol to the former president’s campaign staff’s willingness to repeat misinformation initially spread by Russian media in 2020.
A willingness to bleat powerful pejoratives about those who would oppose them is the most obvious commonality.
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These days the Russians loyal to Vladimir Putin would have us believe their country is surrounded by Nazis, eager to enforce their flavor of totalitarianism on innocents whose only wish to be be reunited with the Motherland.
The Russian people have deep historical animosity towards Nazis. Roughly eight million soldiers and nineteen million civilians died as the result of Hitler’s double-cross of Stalin. A whole generation of young people was obliterated.
So when some gets called a Nazi, all bets are off. It’s the Slavic version of Your Mama.
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Okay, it’s time for a little history lesson. When I see Russia, the Soviet Union, and communism mixed up or used as synonyms, it’s a code red situation: beware–ignorance ahead. (Feel free to skip the following section if you know where Leon Trotsky was killed.)
Modern day Russia is an authoritarian state, with various oligarchs serving as vassals to strongman Vladimir Putin. Their assets (and their lives) exist as long as they are useful.
When Boris Yeltsin took over as the first president of Russia, the economic system disintegrated, with many of the state’s assets looted by would-be oligarchs; Vladimir Putin’s rise to power in 2000 established him as the ultimate authority.
Authoritarianism is not communism. Communist nations are not automatically authoritarian states, although they have become so in the face or foreign and domestic sabotage.
There are no communists in the U.S. who have control or even influence over anything; our domestic flavor of that type of ideologically driven political organization is best characterized as hyenas squabbling over positions in their social order.
(The word for a group of hyenas is clan; I just thought it didn’t fit what I was trying to say.)
There are democratic socialists in the United States; they favor a more expansive role for government in society. They are a common phenomena in Europe, and haven’t shown any inclination toward authoritarianism when they are in power.
Somebody acting as an agent of Russia –like Sen. Rand Paul– is expressing support for that government’s current worldview, which utilizes conspiracy analysis to define its opposition; globalist is a term used to describe many nations who do not support Russia.
Globalism is a real thing. It’s what capitalists created when commodities, wealth, and data were freed from the constraints of nation-states. It does not have a political vision, transactional relationships are its mothers milk. (It’s in trouble right now, but that’s a few thousand words best saved for another day.)
As far as Vladimir Putin is concerned, his place in history won’t be cemented until the political and economic power of modern day Russia is in league with the Soviet Union at its peak and the height of Czarist Russia. It’s a bastardization of what we call manifest destiny.
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Ok, back to the Russia/Nazi thing.
Vladimir Putin’s point of view (which is the dominant version of what’s going on) is that Ukraine is not a legitimate sovereign state. Denazification in the name of preventing genocide against Russian-speaking peoples serves to dehumanize Ukrainian forces and plays upon nationalism to justify the military involvement.
Although the Ukrainian and Russian populations are blended throughout the region, its people have developed a strong sense of national identity over the three decades since the Soviet Union collapsed. Many speak both languages.
Like many European countries, what is now known as Ukraine was ruled by the various empires, including the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which was notable for its legislative checks on monarchical power, its tolerance of ethnic and religious populations, and for the May Third Constitution, the first codified constitution in modern European history and the second in modern world history after the United States Constitution.
In 1922, Ukrainian Bolsheviks established the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic which became one of the founding republics of the Soviet Union. Initially Ukrainian language and Ukrainian culture were encouraged, and Ukrainian became the official language of administration and schools. In the 1930s, Stalin’s Russification program reversed those decisions, with Russian nationals being brought in to run national institutions.
There were Ukrainians who sided with the Nazis in WWII; they’re dead now. The far right political alliance in the country garnered 2% of the vote in the 2019 election.
The case for the current military incursion is built on lies, both about Ukraine’s history and its present. Russian policy is coherent: it aims toward returning Ukraine to the empire.
Russian military/political/economic pressure on Ukraine is hardly unique. Former Soviet states with westward looking governments are all part of Putin’s larger plan.
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One characteristic unique to authoritarians is their reliance on an “othered” population to drive fear, and justification for the use of state power in suppression said “others.”
With Putin, it’s external political and ethnic entities that need to be brought back into the fold, eliminating what he sees as the ultimate historical shaming of the motherland.
With Republicans, the “others” are comprised of those whose enfranchisement threatens the rule of a white power structure deeply rooted in an exploitative economic system.
Russia is clearly failing to achieve its military objectives in Ukraine. They may win some battles, they may control some (bombed flat) real estate, but they have lost the war.
The depth of the collapse of their economy may take months to be realized by the average Russian, but make no mistake, the European and North American powers have decided to draw a line.
Now if we can only persuade those powers to look within themselves for the same kind of demagoguery, will be an even better outcome.
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“The price of stopping a dictator always goes up. Meeting evil halfway is still a victory for evil." –Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas
Email me at: WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com