So-called “anti-imperialists” among the left in the West have supported Putin’s Russia as a counterweight to Washington’s designs as a global hegemon since his first attempts to gain control of Ukraine in 2004, portraying the country as a hotbed of neo-Nazi neo-fascism and white supremacy overrun by “fascist street gangs.” I ended a few old friendships over this in those years.
It's true that the US has a poor history in regard to cross-cultural fairness, and is guilty of heinous mistreatment of indigenous and minority populations. But many of us do try to be better. It's not necessary to be perfect in order to oppose "bad" behavior in others. Sometimes one person's bad behavior is tolerated or even encouraged in other cultures. The key attribute which can be used to identify universal badness is simple. Does the behavior harm others? If so, it is truly bad, and those of us who recognize it, have a moral responsibility to do something to remediate. There are gray areas. Abortion immediately comes to mind. It's a little off topic, but a logical follow-on. Abortion is abhorrent mainly to the Evangelical Christian Right. The only conclusion I can make in regard to their objection is that if eternal life in the company of Jesus after death is the promise of the Evangelical Right Faith, then the death of the fetus is a tragedy only to the mother who, having considered her situation carefully, has made a difficult and gut-wrenching decision. Others do not have standing to criticize.
TC, Have the number of "ANTI-IMPERIALISTS” out there been counted? You wrote, 'I find this moral obtuseness on the part of people who claim to be the vanguard of “progress” particularly galling when I consider they support Putin as a “counterweight” to the evil they oppose in the west.' I am not impressed that this represents much of faction in this country.
'It used to be that the “democratic left” saw the totalitarians for what they actually were, regardless of what they said they were...' That seems overwhelming true today. I'm not convinced by THE AUTOCRAT’S DELUSION - PUTIN AND THE "ANTI-IMPERIALISTS”
The problem as I see it is the indifference and inattention of the American people. There is much more noise on the far-right and much less organization by the democrats and leftists/progressives. Americans don't like what's happening and not happening but are not aware of the deep descent the country is undergoing. It is the ignorance of much of the citizenry as well as having, been worn down in a country that kept disappointing them, while a few became obscenely rich. Not counting the anti-government, anti-taxes, anti-regulation movements, who admires our government or much else?
It's the people TC; they're not comfortable or hopeful. Inspired leadership? There are good elected politicians, journalists and activists -- but outstanding, just a very few and they're up against the Donor Class (MONEY), the Republican Party, FB/META, Fox News and the barely functioning government (being generous here).
Any part of this due to the ANTI-IMPERIALISTS, I don't see it.
extremely well put and hard to argue with, but for a small point that is probably a matter of semantic misunderstanding: a lot of my father's family considered themselves rabidly anti-Stalinist socialists who had no problem declaring themselves "Trotskyites." if anyone would have asked them, many of them would probably have said that they were proudly "far-Left." but were they? that's a real question. in 1969, I was going out with someone whose parents were important labor leaders who were Party members, certainly until the 1940 pact (possibly beyond), but they were also fierce labor Zionists. I once mentioned this fact to a PL guy at CCNY that same year, and he bristled at the phrase "Marxist-Zionist Movement" because, by his lights, there could be no such things. he wouldn't hear anything different...I had to be wrong. no argument was anything he could possibly consider because BY DEFINITION he had to be right (ie--"correct"). at that point, I decided that the largest part of the farthest Left guys at City College (meaning far Left indeed) were pretty fucking stupid even if they could dance rings around me in any formal discussion of "dialectics." we should also remember that, following all of the crises you mention, membership in the ACP peeled away like crazy, so they all couldn't have been COMPLETELY brain dead. last night, I sat up with a friend and watched Chomsky's latest screed, and he was true to form in finding that most of everything that's horrible in the world is OUR FAULT. it's nice to know that SOMEONE can be counted on for consistency....and AHH...I seem to have forgotten all about TFF, who is probably the most consistent presence continuing to draw breath, alas.
MAGA = Make America Ghastly Again. The right/backward movement isn't worth the name conservative, and one can only wonder why and how they want to govern the NSUS, the Not So United States. "The US wants to be better", the amendments to the constitution are the statements of this, and it is unbelievable that the supreme court can choose to ignore the amendments at will. That's what the you are up against. Left extremists, unconsciously or by habit, is giving this backward movement a hand. Thanks for making that clear TC.
In 1990 I was on a project to Nicaragua, when the Sandinists were about to hand over power to the UNO. Once I was talking to Daniel Ortega's then new wife, that is listening to her rhetoric and seeing the decay of power in her eyes, that you describe.
I can't speak to the numbers; I know of two personally and they are no longer in my orbit. Having birthed their extreme leftist brain cells at Rice U. in Houston and elsewhere, they met and married in Manhattan, where they further crept to the left. Then, eschewing all forms of government, they left the Big Apple and moved to a rundown shack here in Caldwell County, Texas where they "homeschooled" two kids (who cannot do any form of math - Florida would be so proud) and raised goats for slaughter. When they went on their Bernie assault, I had enough. These are two individuals who pridefully seem to think they know more than anyone, who in addition to raising goats, work FOR the state government while condemning it and working against it in their private lives. If you cannot tell from this rant, I have no respect for them at all. As far as I'm concerned, that group of "anti-imperialists" is as much a cult as any other cult, whether or not it has a "leader." I don't know what enticed them into their world, but I do know that when you put two of these like-minded folks together, you might as well multiply that much animosity by a thousand.
It's true that the US has a poor history in regard to cross-cultural fairness, and is guilty of heinous mistreatment of indigenous and minority populations. But many of us do try to be better. It's not necessary to be perfect in order to oppose "bad" behavior in others. Sometimes one person's bad behavior is tolerated or even encouraged in other cultures. The key attribute which can be used to identify universal badness is simple. Does the behavior harm others? If so, it is truly bad, and those of us who recognize it, have a moral responsibility to do something to remediate. There are gray areas. Abortion immediately comes to mind. It's a little off topic, but a logical follow-on. Abortion is abhorrent mainly to the Evangelical Christian Right. The only conclusion I can make in regard to their objection is that if eternal life in the company of Jesus after death is the promise of the Evangelical Right Faith, then the death of the fetus is a tragedy only to the mother who, having considered her situation carefully, has made a difficult and gut-wrenching decision. Others do not have standing to criticize.
TC, Have the number of "ANTI-IMPERIALISTS” out there been counted? You wrote, 'I find this moral obtuseness on the part of people who claim to be the vanguard of “progress” particularly galling when I consider they support Putin as a “counterweight” to the evil they oppose in the west.' I am not impressed that this represents much of faction in this country.
'It used to be that the “democratic left” saw the totalitarians for what they actually were, regardless of what they said they were...' That seems overwhelming true today. I'm not convinced by THE AUTOCRAT’S DELUSION - PUTIN AND THE "ANTI-IMPERIALISTS”
The problem as I see it is the indifference and inattention of the American people. There is much more noise on the far-right and much less organization by the democrats and leftists/progressives. Americans don't like what's happening and not happening but are not aware of the deep descent the country is undergoing. It is the ignorance of much of the citizenry as well as having, been worn down in a country that kept disappointing them, while a few became obscenely rich. Not counting the anti-government, anti-taxes, anti-regulation movements, who admires our government or much else?
It's the people TC; they're not comfortable or hopeful. Inspired leadership? There are good elected politicians, journalists and activists -- but outstanding, just a very few and they're up against the Donor Class (MONEY), the Republican Party, FB/META, Fox News and the barely functioning government (being generous here).
Any part of this due to the ANTI-IMPERIALISTS, I don't see it.
extremely well put and hard to argue with, but for a small point that is probably a matter of semantic misunderstanding: a lot of my father's family considered themselves rabidly anti-Stalinist socialists who had no problem declaring themselves "Trotskyites." if anyone would have asked them, many of them would probably have said that they were proudly "far-Left." but were they? that's a real question. in 1969, I was going out with someone whose parents were important labor leaders who were Party members, certainly until the 1940 pact (possibly beyond), but they were also fierce labor Zionists. I once mentioned this fact to a PL guy at CCNY that same year, and he bristled at the phrase "Marxist-Zionist Movement" because, by his lights, there could be no such things. he wouldn't hear anything different...I had to be wrong. no argument was anything he could possibly consider because BY DEFINITION he had to be right (ie--"correct"). at that point, I decided that the largest part of the farthest Left guys at City College (meaning far Left indeed) were pretty fucking stupid even if they could dance rings around me in any formal discussion of "dialectics." we should also remember that, following all of the crises you mention, membership in the ACP peeled away like crazy, so they all couldn't have been COMPLETELY brain dead. last night, I sat up with a friend and watched Chomsky's latest screed, and he was true to form in finding that most of everything that's horrible in the world is OUR FAULT. it's nice to know that SOMEONE can be counted on for consistency....and AHH...I seem to have forgotten all about TFF, who is probably the most consistent presence continuing to draw breath, alas.
MAGA = Make America Ghastly Again. The right/backward movement isn't worth the name conservative, and one can only wonder why and how they want to govern the NSUS, the Not So United States. "The US wants to be better", the amendments to the constitution are the statements of this, and it is unbelievable that the supreme court can choose to ignore the amendments at will. That's what the you are up against. Left extremists, unconsciously or by habit, is giving this backward movement a hand. Thanks for making that clear TC.
In 1990 I was on a project to Nicaragua, when the Sandinists were about to hand over power to the UNO. Once I was talking to Daniel Ortega's then new wife, that is listening to her rhetoric and seeing the decay of power in her eyes, that you describe.
I can't speak to the numbers; I know of two personally and they are no longer in my orbit. Having birthed their extreme leftist brain cells at Rice U. in Houston and elsewhere, they met and married in Manhattan, where they further crept to the left. Then, eschewing all forms of government, they left the Big Apple and moved to a rundown shack here in Caldwell County, Texas where they "homeschooled" two kids (who cannot do any form of math - Florida would be so proud) and raised goats for slaughter. When they went on their Bernie assault, I had enough. These are two individuals who pridefully seem to think they know more than anyone, who in addition to raising goats, work FOR the state government while condemning it and working against it in their private lives. If you cannot tell from this rant, I have no respect for them at all. As far as I'm concerned, that group of "anti-imperialists" is as much a cult as any other cult, whether or not it has a "leader." I don't know what enticed them into their world, but I do know that when you put two of these like-minded folks together, you might as well multiply that much animosity by a thousand.