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An Odd Silence from Our Betters
Remember how, after 9-11, George W. Bush made a big deal out of going to a mosque? Remember how politicians from both sides (ha-ha) of the aisle lectured us not to hate on Muslims because 3,000 Americans had just been murdered by gentlemen of Arabic descent shouting “Allahu Akbar!” Remember how each subsequent Islamist terror attack — Orlando Pulse, Fort Hood, London 7-11, Little Rock, San Bernardino, the Boston Marathon bombing — were accompanied by somber editorials reminding us that “Islam is a religion of peace,” and how local and federal law enforcement were ordered to be on the lookout for “Anti-Muslim Hate Crimes.”
All right, since you remember all that, isn’t it weird that no politician has told us not to hate Russians for the actions of Vladimir Putin? No editorials have been written telling us to love our Russian neighbors. No, quite the opposite is happening.
- In New York City, tolerant, enlightened liberals are canceling their reservations and boycotting Russian restaurants, as well as waging social media campaigns and posting bad reviews online, despite most owners being openly antiwar and many coming from Ukraine.
- In the NHL, Russian hockey players are targeted by online harassment campaigns, and Canada is banning young Russian hockey players from participating in youth hockey leagues.
- The Montreal Symphony cancels a concert by a teenage Russian prodigy. The Cardiff Philharmonic has canceled an all-Tchaikovsky program. Because, you know, Pyotr Tchaikovsky was such an ardent Putin support.
- Ohio, Utah, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Ontario, Alabama, Iowa, Oregon, and other states have banned the sale of Russian vodka; a move that has zero effect on Putin and hurts only local retailers stuck with the inventory. (Imagine if these same states had banned hummus and kebabs after 9-11).
- Even kitty-cats aren’t exempt from Russo-phobia. A French Ailurophile organization has banned Russian felines from participating in its events. A friend of mine just adopted a Russian blue kitten, should we picket her house? Should we try to get her fired from her job for this traitorous perfidy?
This is all stupid and as far as I know not a single politician has the guts to denounce it. Not a single major media editorialist is writing to tell us to knock off the anti-Russian bigotry. Even David French has finally found a topic he doesn’t feel like scolding people about.
Why are the people who have been so moralistic about “Stop the Hate” suddenly OK with hate against Russian-Americans? Most likely, it’s because they’ve been totally invested in anti-Russian propaganda over the last few years to stir up hate against the Bad Orange Man. After demonizing Russia for so long, they simply cannot write an editorial or issue a statement telling people to knock off the Ivan-bashing. Or maybe it’s just that they just genuinely hate Russians; even those that had nothing to do with the invasion of Ukraine.
Published in General
This stinks more than 4 day old sturgeon left on the back porch.
And when Corona escaped from a Chinese lab, they were telling us to stop (non-existent) Asian hate and go out to Chinatown and hug a Chinese person.
Using pawns to commit political violence has been normalized through BLM, Anti-Trump and Covid hysteria. All of those things paved the way for this. And it’s always directed towards whites. That’s the only reason they’re not using the “it’s not all Russians” talking point. There is no other explanation.
This was because Obama was bought off by a Saudi prince. Did you ever wonder how an long-time unemployed drifter got admitted to Harvard Law School? Some people did some thing and he got in. Later, favors were returned. As for charges of “hypocrisy”, people without principles cannot be hypocrites.
Yup, it is normalizing of white hatred. I will not be surprised if the killing of whites by BIPOC will even be a crime at some point.
There have been reports that our gov’ment and Canada’s paid vast sums to the media to push vaccine efficacy and mandates.
Is it out of the realm to imagine those outlets have been incentivized to promote anti-Russian propaganda?
To be clear, Russia’s aggression and attack was unprovoked and wrong. It’s continued war is wrong.
But there is, as Paul Harvey used to comment, “the rest of the story”.
I don’t know what that is, at the moment, but I am sure there is one.
There are scales of wrong.
China released a bioweapon that killed hundreds of thousands of Americans (I’m not going to bother combing through all the nonsense to find an exact number).
The jihadists of September 11th killed at least 3,000 Americans.
Whatever Russia is doing in Ukraine right now is nowhere near those levels. Have there been any American casualties?
Make this make sense.
I think this is the reason.
That said, looking at the pictures of refugees has been making me angry all week. One man–Putin–has no right to destroy the lives of so many people.
Maybe people are reacting–improperly, for sure–to that too.
Remember Freedom Fries? French are white, so that was fine. Couldn’t hate Turks for the same thing, though.
It means this time it’s serious.
I’m not quite sure of the point of your post. You cite the numerous examples of politicians who went out of their way to alleviate public anger or hatred of people who did really horrible things, and I am assuming that you didn’t like that. Now that the politicians are not doing this with the Russians, it seems you don’t like that either. Which policy do you prefer? Or is it just that the policy is now different that bothers you?
This doesn’t make sense. Maybe you don’t want to get the point or lack sufficient rational ability to get the point. It’ all there. Try reading again.
Let be honest what the issue is with Ukraine. They are corrupt and there is a large slush fund of easy money for western politicians and their cronies to live on. That has to be saved at all costs. If possible even expanded.
And one of our own Ricochet moderators celebrates some Irish trucker who crashed through a gate at the Russian Embassy in Dublin. He gets arrested, charged and will have to pay restitution and will lose his job all from from being hyped up on anti-Russian propaganda.
And the Republic of Ireland was neutral during WWII !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy8mEOhSk0s
Meanwhile in America, Ben Simmons, 76er point guard who refused to play and demanded to be traded – now with the Brooklyn Nets – files a ‘toxic work environment’ suit against his former team for back pay (20 million), citing the Philly fans, who were unhappy with his attitude on and off-court.
The LA player Brian Westbrook is whining that the fans calling him Brian Westbrick, a reference to his bad shooting and his ‘hero-ball’ approach.
Then we have Colin Krapernick…
This stuff is insane on both ends.
Just a quick counterexample…
We sanction Venezuela and paint whatzisname … Maduro … as a very bad guy. But we don’t do the “not all Venezuelans” thing either. So It’s not a foolproof indicator.
Has there been an organized campaign like this against the Venezuelans? Honest question. I haven’t seen it but that’s hardly dispositive.
There’s nothing odd about it. The people they really hate are us. Once you realize that, nothing you’ve described in their behavior is remarkable at all.
I don’t see how this is in the same category.
Venezuela never did anything to us. They just do things to their own people via running a Marxist regime. Marxist regimes are also good, so anything bad that’s happening to them is probably someone else’s fault. There’s no American threat there.
Plus, there’s the whole South America thing. South America is out of sight, out of mind. Most Americans don’t know or care about anything that goes on there.
There’s never been an effort to take Venezuela out of Soccer video games, remove Venezuelan products from stores, remove Venezuela from the Olympics, or boycott their restaurants.
The reaction of politicians to the Muslim issue was driven by their typical concerns that the American public is irredeemably racist. Since Muslims are a minority within America, the reaction of politicians was instant, even Pavlovian. But Russians look like the majority of Americans, so the Pavlovian trigger remains dormant. Hate away, wake me up when they start hating brown people or minorities again.
I drive to the store probably using Russian oil but those commie bastards at the Safeway can’t make me buy Russian dressing.
It’s probably just Thousand Island anyway.
Hey, no problem in Pennsylvania. The state is the only retail outlet. (Sarcasm off)
Thought I was pretty clear.
I doubt that any slush fund is still in Ukraine, they were just the pipeline/facilitator.
I left 30 years ago, but I think Oregon still has just the state liquor stores.
Every part of the old USSR is corrupt. Communism destroyed other institutions. Functioning courts, legislature, and regulatory systems don’t emerge in an atmosphere of anomie, raw power, and mistrust. The cultural expectations can’t reemerge.
I agree that the OP reason isn’t the reason, its more that for politicians, its EASY for them to hate on Russian and Putin because it maps back to the Cold War that so many American’s still remember. Easy allows them to make speeches and get sound bites that cost them nothing from a policy standpoint, but makes them popular with the people back home. If they did the same to China, that would cost them campaign donations and maybe their office, so they won’t do that. Protecting Asians in the US from “hate crimes” as a result of Covid-19 means that they show China that they are committed to not making them angry and protecting the cash flow. Not saying anything about Russian “hate crimes” makes them look tougher with zero cost to them politically.