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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
I’ll tell you why: Russians are considered WHITE.
Running to that mosque after 9/11 was one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen.
AND.
Let’s be honest what the issue is with Russia. 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.
No. The Cold War containment strategy was expressly aimed at the Russian elite, not the Russian people. George Kennan’s “Long Telegram” makes this point early, sharply distinguishing between the party and the Russian people.
I agree that this is all stupid. None of this will have any influence whatsoever on Ukraine’s fate. Organizations are meting out petty punishments to people and cats(!) who have no power over Putin’s actions.
I’ve been thinking about this and I’ve come to the conclusion that it might be the sheer fright of Liberals in the Western World caused by the massive invasion of Ukraine that is causing them to cast off some of their more silly values of wokeism in favor of self-survival. This is the first war since World War II that really threatens to spread to peaceful Western nations and disrupt the tranquility we’ve enjoyed for the last 75 years. Green parties in Europe are even doing reversals on carbon fuels in favor of stopping Russia.
A post of Dr. Bastiat’s kind of reinforced this idea. He said he needled a lefty friend of his by asking if Russia’s army was diverse enough to defeat Ukraine, since General Milley had declared “our diversity is what makes us strong.” His friend ended up becoming severely agitated with Bastiat proposing such a stupid idea (even though the friend professed to believe stuff like that). Bastiat’s conclusion was that many leftists really don’t believe deep down in their heart some of the worst woke stuff, and when stark really hits, it shakes loose.
That point, even independent of the post, could change a number of election results. Tick Tock has become a ringing bell. Some will wake, some will not.
I told a righty friend of mine about Doc B’s point, and his mind was blown by how viciously insightful and SchadenFreude-you-too it is.
We are so screwed.