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The Weird Logic of Far-Leftists Who Support Putin in Ukraine
How Stop The War became Blame The Victim.
When Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine on February 24th, it caused a lot of problems for voices on the right and the left.
Putin has a lot of fans in both corners, and these fans had spent years portraying him as a tactical genius, bamboozling us all with his four-dimensional chess moves. Right up until February 23rd, these Putin stans had been assuring us that Putin would never do something as dumb as launch a full-scale invasion of a sovereign democracy.
Ever since then, the right have been able to change gears on Putin fairly seamlessly. This is WAR, and right-wingers absolutely love a good war. Trump is already thinking of ways to escalate the situation ad absurdium.
But what about the left?
Putin has actually cultivated an army of left-wing sympathisers over the years, largely thanks to his support for the RT news network which often broadcasts counter-narratives against the West’s mainstream media.
The leftists that appeared on RT (before it recently stopped broadcasting) are not necessarily pro-Putin. But they are anti-West in a way that serves Putin’s propaganda goals, which is why they get a platform.
Many of these left-wingers are fighting a battle that started in 2003 with the invasion of Iraq. They are staunchly anti-imperialism, anti-colonialism, and anti-war.
Which are all respectable positions. But now they’re in a bind. They can’t support a war, but they also can’t say Putin is bad. What’s a tankie to do?
Simple. Just blame the Ukrainians for fighting back:
