How Russian colonialism took the Western anti-imperialist Left for a ride

Ulara@sopuli.xyz to Ukraine@sopuli.xyz – 53 points –
How Russian colonialism took the Western anti-imperialist Left for a ride
salon.com
8

Absolutely excellent article. I was just thinking about this topic last night with all the Hexbear drama going on after taking a peek at their front page seeing all the Russian colonialism apologists and excusers posting there.

There's a ton of propaganda on Lemmygrad too

I’m still amazed so many of my anti-imperialists don’t recognize that Russia is being imperialist here. It seems so obvious.

Makes sense to me; I've seen how it happens.

  1. Recognize the US govt's imperialim

  2. Notice that US mainstream media generally downplays US imperialism

  3. Discover that RT gleefully covers and condemns US imperialism

  4. Conclude that mainstream news are corporate war apologists, while RT "tells it like it is"

  5. Walk around telling people that Ukraine is full of Nazis trying to genocide Russian-speaking Ukrainians, and Putin is just trying to stop the purge.

The first three points are all true. As is the first half of the 4th point. The problem is not realizing that China and Russia are also imperialists.

A war of conquest, they're claiming Ukrainian land as theirs.

It's wild people believe this is about Russia defending itself. They've left the vast majority of their country undefended in order to focus on Ukraine.

IDK why, but here in Denmark it's not the case. Our most leftist party in parliament "Enhedslisten" (Unity List), that was based on several minor dissolved extreme left parties, including the communist party that collapsed when Russia couldn't afford to continue to support it.

That party which wanted Denmark out of NATO, is now a very vocal party against Russia, and a very strong supporter of Ukraine. Immediately after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, they even changed the policy against NATO to remain until a suitable alternative exist.

There are no parties either right or left wing out of 14 parties in parlament that in any way support Russia, or argues that Ukraine should be the one to seek peace with Russia. (Russian talking point)

The ones who were taken for a ride seems to me to be mostly American Republicans, who cheer Trump when he argues about how amazing Russia would be to have as a friend because they are stronk. And the crowd cheered when Trump asked Russia to interfere in the US election. Trump worked against Ukraine from day one as president, undermining US support.

There have been cases on the left too, but they are by far minor players and isolated cases, compared to how it entered into the Republican party and spread widely.