As Putin's brutal invasion of Ukraine continues, we look at the failures of the Western left to grasp what is going on. WATCH NEXT:THIS explains why Russia s...
There’s a certain kind of reactionary-left personality that I think is more common in parts of the west that used to be colonial powers, where if you’re far enough along the political spectrum that the mainstream parties all look to you like different variations on fascism, you’re particularly vulnerable to messaging from geopolitical enemies of your own country for the simple reason that they’re opposed to the political structure you’re also opposed to. Here in the US I’ve run into a few such people, and it’s also clear that Russia’s soft-power operations have made efforts to cultivate relationships with the American left wing (people like Jill Stein and others in the Green Party). It’s pretty obvious, though, that they’ve had less success than they have on the right. It takes a particular kind of useful idiot to think, as a anti-colonial socialist or communist, that an oligarchic, expansionist, and socially-repressive right-wing autocracy is actually in your political corner.
There’s a certain kind of reactionary-left personality that I think is more common in parts of the west that used to be colonial powers, where if you’re far enough along the political spectrum that the mainstream parties all look like different variations on corporatist-fascists, you’re particularly vulnerable to messaging from geopolitical enemies of your own country for the simple reason that they’re opposed to the political structure you’re also opposed to.
Makes a lot of sense to me.
Here in the US I’ve run into a few such people, and it’s also clear that Russia’s soft-power operations have made efforts to cultivate relationships with the American left wing (people like Jill Stein and others in the Green Party). It’s pretty obvious, though, that they’ve had less success than they have on the right. It takes a particular kind of useful idiot to think, as a anti-colonial socialist or communist, that an oligarchic and socially-repressive right-wing autocracy is actually in your political corner.
I have to admit I know very little about the US politics. I’m fairly certain Russia tries that here in Finland as well, but well, our communist party is pretty much dead (and good riddance). Aside from the usual far-right wackos, their best bet here is probably to try to affect the peace movement people. Though even most of those I’ve talked with, with some exceptions, know that aggressors in wars should not be rewarded in order to keep the peace.
I have to say that Russian soft-power ops are scary. A lot of people here think that they are just the few wackos who everybody laughs at, and then think that when a certain popular right-wing party repeats Russian talking points they are completely unaffected by all that.
Yeah, you guys have the Winter War and Continuation War relatively fresh in cultural memory, which probably limits the reach of Russian propaganda. Over here, we remember the Soviet Union primarily as our Cold War rival, and neither side of that conflict came out of it with clean hands. For a certain kind of person, the sins of the American CIA and State Department during the Cold War don’t just reflect badly on our government; they somehow also make the Soviet Union, and therefore Russia as its successor state, the Good Guys of the last century of global geopolitics.
Yeah, my mother is an evacuaee from Karelia (though she was a small kid back then), so definitely relatively fresh - at least for my generation.
I’ve seen some of that America bad so Russia good - line of thinking in Finnish Internet forums too. But from what I’ve gathered, in our left wing it’s usually more “both suck”, which was certainly visible in our NATO discussion, but even then most of the Left Alliance (our most leftist party that isn’t a complete joke, we have communist party too, but they’ve never held seats in parliament) supported joining NATO. When it comes to financing Ukraine I’d say it’s way more unanimous “yeah, fuck Russia with this one”.
Of course, the commie party is pretty much “yea, surely Russia not that bad, we need peace” from what I’ve seen, but well, they hardly have enough people to be able to keep the party an official party (requires 5000 signatures every 2 elections with no seats).
There’s a certain kind of reactionary-left personality that I think is more common in parts of the west that used to be colonial powers, where if you’re far enough along the political spectrum that the mainstream parties all look to you like different variations on fascism, you’re particularly vulnerable to messaging from geopolitical enemies of your own country for the simple reason that they’re opposed to the political structure you’re also opposed to. Here in the US I’ve run into a few such people, and it’s also clear that Russia’s soft-power operations have made efforts to cultivate relationships with the American left wing (people like Jill Stein and others in the Green Party). It’s pretty obvious, though, that they’ve had less success than they have on the right. It takes a particular kind of useful idiot to think, as a anti-colonial socialist or communist, that an oligarchic, expansionist, and socially-repressive right-wing autocracy is actually in your political corner.
Makes a lot of sense to me.
I have to admit I know very little about the US politics. I’m fairly certain Russia tries that here in Finland as well, but well, our communist party is pretty much dead (and good riddance). Aside from the usual far-right wackos, their best bet here is probably to try to affect the peace movement people. Though even most of those I’ve talked with, with some exceptions, know that aggressors in wars should not be rewarded in order to keep the peace.
I have to say that Russian soft-power ops are scary. A lot of people here think that they are just the few wackos who everybody laughs at, and then think that when a certain popular right-wing party repeats Russian talking points they are completely unaffected by all that.
Yeah, you guys have the Winter War and Continuation War relatively fresh in cultural memory, which probably limits the reach of Russian propaganda. Over here, we remember the Soviet Union primarily as our Cold War rival, and neither side of that conflict came out of it with clean hands. For a certain kind of person, the sins of the American CIA and State Department during the Cold War don’t just reflect badly on our government; they somehow also make the Soviet Union, and therefore Russia as its successor state, the Good Guys of the last century of global geopolitics.
Yeah, my mother is an evacuaee from Karelia (though she was a small kid back then), so definitely relatively fresh - at least for my generation.
I’ve seen some of that America bad so Russia good - line of thinking in Finnish Internet forums too. But from what I’ve gathered, in our left wing it’s usually more “both suck”, which was certainly visible in our NATO discussion, but even then most of the Left Alliance (our most leftist party that isn’t a complete joke, we have communist party too, but they’ve never held seats in parliament) supported joining NATO. When it comes to financing Ukraine I’d say it’s way more unanimous “yeah, fuck Russia with this one”.
Of course, the commie party is pretty much “yea, surely Russia not that bad, we need peace” from what I’ve seen, but well, they hardly have enough people to be able to keep the party an official party (requires 5000 signatures every 2 elections with no seats).