#Putin is the Nazi here!!!

[loneranger0369]

Intercepted Calls proving Russian Soldiers blowing up Kakhovka Dam and then flooding Kherson, the Zoo that lied near it (killing all Animals except Ducks and Goose) and then flooding other Cities lying nearby.

Russian soldiers left back Mines, that led to extremely dangerous Conditions for farmers.

No Farming. No Food.

Then the Attacks on civilians, Malls, educational Institutions, Hospitals and much more....

It is a really horrible warfare.... Flooding Cities, placing Mines in farm Areas, attacking innocent Civilians of Ukraine... They are desperate in starving the people of Ukraine and forcing them into Homelessness....

All because of Claims that the Ukrainians are Nazi.... DOES THAT MAKE ANY SENSE? If Zelensky is Nazi, then TARGET HIM!!!! WHAT DID THE INNOCENT CIVILIANS DO????

Putin is monstrous.

Putin is again friends with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who himself is a Monster....

Monsters making friends with Monsters....

There was a Time, when Russia helped my Country (India) defend ourselves against the occupying and terrorizing Pakistan during the Kargil War, when USA was funding and supporting Pakistan....

That Russia is long gone.... Now, it is just Madness....

Russia is the Nazi here. Forcing Army to do wars. Feeding horrible lies to all Population.

Russia is the Nazi now. Russia needs to burn...

[amerasdreams]

for people who claim to be independent, for "America first"and for freedom, trump followers seem to swallow and regurgitate russian propaganda quite closely

[paskariu]

Keeping my heater on one out of five is making me feel more patriotic than i have in the entire rest of my life combined

[spaghettioverdose]

🏞 somewhat-popular-blog Follow

Omg how do people on this site like communism! I read somewhere that communists eat babies!!

🐸 blood-and-heroes-88 Follow

It's true my grandfather died opposing the soviets in the war 😡

He fought for liberty and freedom

🏖 i-love-florida Follow

Communists persecuted my family for no reason

They took our home and our farm

🌅 garnetfucker93 Follow

Omg that's so fucked up what the fuck

🎇 shitfuck-opinions Follow

Communists are literally so fucking evil they literally kill you and eat your baby

☭ popular-marxist-leninist-blog Follow

Communists do not eat babies. This myth has been disproven several times including by anticommunist sources. It originated from like 3 nazi groups, two CIA agents and some weird ethnonationalist cultist.

[Several paragraphs of quotes and citations from relevant papers and articles from both communist and liberal sources and even one where the US very clearly admits to lying about communists eating babies]

🎇 shitfuck-opinions Follow

[Links to a series of articles that cite other articles that cite three nazi groups two CIA agents and one ethnonationalist cultist and also like a link to one guy with a youtube channel with 700 subscribers]

🌅 multifandom-the-blog Follow

Why do you literally love putin you tankie

💣 anarchomccarthyism Follow

YOU CANNOT HIDE THIS IN THE TAGS ASDGHGS

[Screenshot of "#clink clank here comes the tank"]

27,378 notes

[dontforgetukraine]

"I watched a film today at the Venice Film Festival titled "Russians at War." Since our film is in the same section as this one, I usually wouldn’t speak publicly about it. However, in this case, I cannot remain silent, because it’s not just about films and art, but about the lives of thousands of people who die in this war— a war that has instrumentalized propaganda as its weapon.

This film may mislead you into believing that it is an anti-war film, one that questions the current regime in Russia. However, what I witnessed is a prime example of pure Russian propaganda. Here’s why.

The filmmaker begins by expressing her surprise at the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In her film, she always uses the term “invasion” and never "full-scale invasion." She does not mention that Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea in 2014. These two events seem to not exist in the world of this film. The filmmaker also states that her country hasn’t participated in wars for many years and that she has only read about wars in books. Thus, the war in 2022 was a complete shock for her. It’s interesting how the filmmaker could overlook the fact that her country has been inherently involved in various wars and occupations for at least the last 30 years (1992-93 Transnistria, Abkhazian War, 1994-96 and 1999-2009 Chechen Wars, the 2008 war in Georgia, and the 2015-2022 invasion of Syria).

The filmmaker starts her narrative with a Ukrainian who now lives in Russia and fights on the Russian side. This is a very intriguing choice for the beginning of a story about Russians at war. Later, this character will claim that a CIVIL war began in Ukraine in 2014. He will also suggest that Ukrainians bombed the eastern parts of their own country (and this is why he moved to Russia). Another character will declare that Ukrainians are Nazis. We’ve heard these narratives before; they are (and apparently still are) widely and actively propagated by Russian media. One of those horns of propaganda is Russia Today channel, for which the director of "Russians at War" has previously made several documentary films.

Throughout the film, all characters express their confusion about their actions in Ukraine, stating they want the war to end and that most of them are fighting for money. In the final part of the film, the battalion is moved to Bakhmut, and most characters die in battle. We then see their comrades and relatives grieving at their graves. All of them repeat that they don’t understand why this war is happening and who needs it. In the end, the filmmaker concludes that these are poor, ordinary Russian people who are being manipulated into war by larger political games. I found this perspective amusing because the filmmaker—like putin and his regime—plays an interesting game with these people. They deny them the simple ability to possess dignity and to think and decide for themselves. To her, these people are merely powerless objects. If those engaged in a war that has lasted over 10 years were not powerless, it would imply that they, in the majority, actually support this war, wouldn’t it?

You will feel pity for the people depicted as dying in the film and for those we see crying for their loved ones. And you should—if you are a normal human being, you should feel pity, sadness, and emotion. However, it is also important to remember that these individuals joined the army that invaded an independent country, many of them willingly, as we learn from the film. You should also recall Bucha, Irpin, Mariupol, and the civilians who were murdered there. Remember the thousands of children who were illegally transported from Ukraine to Russia. While I’m writing this and while you’re reading it, missiles are striking Ukrainian cities. The buttons are pushed by ordinary Russians. Are their crimes any less significant simply because they claim to be unaware of why they are involved in this war?

By the way, the director asks one of the characters if he thinks the Russian army commits any war crimes. He answers “no,” claiming he hasn’t witnessed any war crimes. Interestingly, the director echoes this in her interviews, stating she saw no signs of war crimes during her time near the front (https://www.reuters.com/.../russian-soldiers-given-their.../). We can only be happy for her that she was fortunate enough not to witness any war crimes. Unfortunately, thousands of Ukrainians have not been so lucky.

I could continue, but I believe it’s enough to understand that this film presents a very distorted picture of reality, spreading false narratives (calling the Russian invasion and annexation of Crimea a civil war; suggesting that the Russian army does not commit any war crimes; presenting those who are part of the aggressors army as victims).

If you decide to watch it, I recommend following it with another documentary about Russian soldiers titled "Intercepted," directed by Oksana Karpovych. "Intercepted" also opens a door into the lives of ordinary Russians fighting in this war. You’ll be curious to explore it, as it will undoubtedly surprise you. You may also want to add "20 Days in Mariupol" to your viewing list, just to be able «to see through the fog of war," as the director of "Russians at War" so aptly put it."

—Darya Bassel, Ukrainian film producer of war documentary “Songs of Slow Burning Earth

[animentality]

Tumblr is made of stronger stuff than most social media, I think. 

We survived being sold and the porn ban and being sold again.

The finale of Supernatural. 

We have witnessed the rise and fall of Facebook and now Twitter. Who knows what else we will witness, the death of Instagram, the execution of TikTok. Maybe we’ll see the rise of MySpace again, from the ashes. 

The death by firing squad of LinkedIn, maybe. 

I know I will go down with this ship, if there is any iceberg powerful enough to crack its hull in two. 

Let it come. 

I will see us through to the end. 

This is my embarrassing home of almost ten years. This site saw me go from a 15 year old teenager to a 25 year old tired adult. 

I shall continue until either it or I give out. Whether that’s in ten years or a hundred. Whether I am 35 or 95. 

Walk arm in arm with cringe posting, flower crowns, night blogging, indiecore, Mishapocalypse, Klance death cults, SU Nazi discourse, She-Ra paramilitary death squads, turbo gay hell, Putin Destiel Election, oh the stories I have to NEVER TELL ANOTHER LIVING SOUL. 

I hate it here. It’s so embarrassing. It’s humiliating. 

I can never leave. 

I couldn’t go. Could never say goodbye. 

As long as you are here, I must stay. 

As long as you remain, I must also persist. 

[olderthannetfic]

People have said this in the reblogs, but people who are concerned about what Project 2025 might do to AO3 should try to prevent that by voting for Democrats, including Joe Biden (or whomever replaces him if that happens), and supporting campaigns by canvassing, phonebanking, donating, sending postcards. If you're not a U.S. citizen, you can't vote or donate but you can probably find other ways to support, including by reblogging pro-voting posts on here. It's not a done deal. One person in the reblogs brought this up too but I wanted to elaborate: There's a huge problem on Tumblr with anti-voting propaganda, especially spread by tankies and other kinds of horrible people. I think that more people need to consider that if they're going to decide "hey, the occasional funnee meme isn't worth following a terf or Nazi or other anti-LGBTQ+/racist bigot" that should expand to tankies. Supporting dictators like Putin and Xi is supporting anti-LGBTQ+ politics, supporting racism (these people all violently suppress racial and religious minorities) and is supporting censorship. They are kind of famous for that. Supporting Putin, especially if you are also downplaying or making excuses for the invasion of Ukraine, is also supporting genocide because that is what he is doing to Ukraine right now. That should be a firm line for you, I think, if your convictions aren't like completely worthless lol. Some things should be more important to you than fucking memes! And at least have the bare minimum critical thinking skills to wonder if people who spend so much time doing apologetics for right-wing homophobic transphobic dictatorships, might be discouraging voting because they're ok with the U.S. also becoming a right-wing homophobic transphobic dictatorship.

One of my eternal vent pet peeve things is how many people make excuse for the blogger heritagep/osts (username is without the slash, but they and their friends are name-searchers). This is a person who regularly reblogs pro-dictatorship propaganda including for fucking North Korea, discourages and shames voting, and also is a vicious anti-semite who tries to hide that under supposedly being pro-Palestine. The way you can tell this is they're constantly making "Zionist blocklists" but if you look at the names that are actually on those blocklists, they're nearly all people who are outspokenly ANTi Zionist but who happen to be Jewish and post about that.

The excuse people constantly use for following them is that their blog is about documenting old Tumblr posts. Which just seems so flimsy because there are so many blogs that do that these days? Nearly all the rest of which are not antisemitic transphobic-dictator-apologists. H/eritageposts' commentary isn't even that funny. A lot of it is "anti" adjacent shit acting like everyone who ever liked Hetalia or Shingeki no Kyojin is antisemitic and responsible for rising Nazi sentiment online, which is kind of rich given the antisemitism and pro-right-wing-dictator stuff they've been radicalized into. Like lol call fujoshis "cringe" all you want but hardly any of the people I know who were into Hetalia in 2010 are antisemites in 2024, but you, on the other hand... Like maybe fandom is not in fact the danger and you can be a sucker for Internet extremism even without it!

Anyway, people, please just have bare minimum standards and compassion for who you follow and promote. No one's saying that you ahve to research everyone you reblog from, but there are blogs who regularly post this shit, you'd notice if you followed them or even glanced at them, that people make excuses for following because "funnie posts." Like come on. Have more self-respect and more actual courage of your convictions than that. All you're showing is that when the actual dictators are here you'll fall right in line the second they make a joke you laugh at.

--

Even if that weasel wins, plenty of people have fought horrendous governments before.

Queer people didn't have any fucking rights in the US when I was a kid, so we fought. We'll just have to fight again if it comes down to it.

Always vote.

Even if all the candidates suck, they're never all the same.

[still-searching-for-something]

I feel like I'm constantly talking like a broken record, lol, leftists this, leftists that.

Sometimes it's surreal to see myself typing that and agreeing with it, given I used to be very left wing myself until the response on the left to October 7th. And I hate the idea that it's giving other people the impression that I'm conservative--I'm not. I have some views that I'd share with conservatives--being a Zionist being one of them... obviously.

But I'm literally bisexual. I support same-sex marriage. I think democracy is the best form of government, that the US should have universal healthcare, should abolish the Electoral College (National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, I'm praying for you). I think the invasion of Ukraine is a monstrous crime and Putin is a threat to world peace. I think systemic racism is a real thing in the United States, as is police brutality against black people. I think vaccines work, and mandates are a good idea. I think most right-wing politicians are right-wing populists more interested in causing democratic backsliding and peddling conspiracies than they are in fixing literally anything.

But I can't call myself a leftist anymore, even with this set of values. Why? Because--oh, God--I believe Israel has the right to exist. And to defend itself.

I'm not even some radical on Israel unlike some friends of mine--I think it's a travesty that Israel hasn't yet legalized same-sex marriage or established a civil marriage system. I think the 2018 Nation-State Law was racist in making Arabic no longer a co-official language with Hebrew. I think Bibi is one of those aforementioned populists. I think Israel has a democratic backsliding problem.

But the rest of the left--the rest of the queer community, especially--has made it clear in no uncertain terms that I am not welcome among them anymore. Like, they genuinely think I'm a genocide defending fascist, which is just so weird to me sometimes. Yeah, me, the fascist who thinks queer rights should be non-negotiable in any society. And they, who are posting pro-Hamas slogans, are the ones standing against genocide and bigotry. Uh huh. Oo-kay.

I don't want to constantly be saying 'Oh, the left...' and 'Leftists when...' like I'm some boomer posting shitty memes on Facebook. The right has its share of problems, too. And I'm sure they'll do something soon to make their antisemitism known as well--especially as the 2024 presidential election draws nearer.

But right now, the immediate threat isn't in Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, or whoever. I'm more worried about being accosted by pro-Palestine protestors with something to prove than I am about neo-Nazi gangs. And so are most Jews right now. And that's why I'm posting about the left more than the right here... even though my values are mostly left.

Oh, the wonders of being politically homeless!

[ohsalome]

How does a state become fascist? How did Russia do it?

A special kind of nationalism is needed here. To convince people that you were once great. That once you were a military empire — and then you were humiliated. This is what Hitler once said: “Germany was great, had colonies in Africa, but we were humiliated at Versailles

Under the terms of the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919, which ended the First World War, Germany had to get rid of its numerous colonies in Africa, China and Micronesia, cede significant territories in Europe and pay reparations to the victorious states of the war in the amount of $442 billion at 2012 prices.. Our empire was taken from us, and our people in other countries and former territories faced genocide. We need a strong ruler to come and restore our empire. To show that we are a big powerful player. And Iʼm ready to do it.”

Putin behaved the same way. He even said that if Russia does not regain its greatness, it will destroy the world.

Also, often in countries that become fascist, there are many economic problems. And nationalism, this feeling of power, can replace food — you will draw your happiness from this feeling, or from the awareness of yourself as a German or a white American. After that, you say that representative democracy is evil. That it allows the existence of LGBT people and the like, that the state is weak because of democracy. Fascism appeals to conservative, religious people who would not call themselves fascists. He tells them: we will protect you from your children becoming gay, from someone destroying your churches. And they often call all their opponents communists. And they get votes. Sound familiar, right?

[...]

It is ironic that the Russians, who were once rightly regarded as the victors over fascism and who now practice fascism, call their war "anti-fascist."

It is necessary to pay attention not to words, but to ideology. Putin can say that he is a liberator — but he is closer to Hitler than to Brezhnev, to Peter I than to communists. And this is an important argument in favor of why the Russians should not leave a single piece of Ukrainian land. For the same reasons why it was not possible to leave, for example, Warsaw under the Nazis.

Now Putin is talking about Ukrainians like Hitler was talking about Jews. He says that there can be no Ukrainians, only Russians, and that all Ukrainians are actually Russians. This position means that he is going to get rid of everyone who speaks the Ukrainian language. That is why all this delusion of the West about territorial concessions must stop.

[misfit-among-the-angels]

woah, hey, yeah. you can't say an entire race is like that, man. I have plenty of Russian heritage even. can't believe you'd say that lol. i just wanna take care of my family and have a nice life. i'm sure there are plenty of Russians that feel the exact same... :(

I can and i will. I have plenty of evidence to back this up. 🤷‍♀️

Having russian heritage doesn't mean you were born and raised in russia. So idk why you are the one getting triggered here. 🤷‍♀️

Most of Ukrainians want to have a nice life and take care of their families too. And don't you dare to say that the war is "putin's war" because it is not and i am not even gonna mention how these russians talk about my country or any other country that was occupied by russia.

The whole nation is at fault. Because without the nation war and occupations and other shit would not happen. Unless the nation changes and changes their ways but russia doesn't want to change and won't change. We had example of Nazi Germany changing and changing fast after losing but russia never changed even if they lost. 🤷‍♀️

And yes i hate russia and russians for what they did to my country and for what they did and still do to Ukraine. My hatred is very well backed up.

[mariacallous]

The pictures are haunting. There are portraits of Ukrainian men and women who have spent months and years in Russian captivity: soldiers, civilians, paramedics and volunteers. All experienced torture and brutal treatment. Many carry physical scars from their time as inmates. They are among the prisoners of war swapped since 2014, when Vladimir Putin began his Ukraine invasion, with a covert takeover in the east.

In 2019, the Ukrainian photojournalist Zoya Shu began photographing those freed from Russian detention. Over five years, she spent time with former prisoners of war (PoWs) in their homes, talking to them about their life stories and listening to their harrowing accounts of beatings and other forms of daily abuse.

“They suffered. I see them not as victims but as survivors. What they experienced is horrendous,” she says.

Some of those she photographed have terrible wounds. In 2014, Russian “separatist” fighters carved a swastika on the back of a local man, Bogdan Sergiets, in the eastern city of Donetsk. They accused him of supporting Ukraine and being a “Nazi”. Another photo is a portrait of Aiden Aslin, a British volunteer captured in April 2022 while fighting for Ukraine. He and his fellow British prisoner Shaun Pinner, who were both threatened with execution, say they were beaten, stabbed with knives and electrocuted.

Other wounds are less conspicuous. Many prisoners, both men and women, said they were subjected to sexual violence and rape. In Russia and occupied areas of Ukraine, interrogators used a wind-up military field telephone to administer electric shocks, attaching crocodile clips to genitals and nipples.

“There is physical and psychological trauma,” says Shu. “It’s difficult to deal with, and profound. It takes a long time to heal.”

Another torture method is starvation. One former prisoner of war, Borys, said he lost 45kg (99lb) during two years in various camps: “I got very thin. When I was released I was so weak I couldn’t put my leg on to a step.”

Borys says a fellow inmate was so emaciated he became unable to walk and “went mad”, adding: “He couldn’t lift his arms. He stopped eating. They took him away. We don’t know what happened [to him].”

Borys says his captors hit him with plastic pipes and shocked him with stun guns. This was done in a corridor, where there were no CCTV cameras to record the abuse. One day, his guards said his situation would improve if he gave an interview to a Russian propaganda TV channel. They also tried to “re-educate” him.

“They loved to teach us about ‘history’ – we were ‘fascists’. They told us Ukraine was always a part of Russia and didn’t exist,” Borys says.

Other ex-prisoners said they were made to sing the Russian national anthem and recite patriotic poems and songs from Russia. “One goal is to destroy Ukrainian identity,” Shu says, adding that a soldier from western Ukraine who could not speak Russian received extra punishments.

“There is a pattern of constant and systemic violations [of human rights],” Shu says, calling this “state policy”.

Some former detainees have successfully rebuilt their lives. Others remain haunted by their experiences and suffer from depression and panic attacks. According to Kyiv’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, 3,405 people have been returned from captivity, including 95 PoWs on 17 July. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians, military and civilians, are believed to remain in Russian jails.

The exact tally of PoWs is unknown. The figure includes about 1,500 soldiers captured in May 2022 when the garrison defending the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol surrendered. The Kremlin refuses to give a comprehensive list of the people it holds, adding to the agony of families whose loved ones went missing in action.

Shu is critical of international organisations that help detainees. In her view, they have failed to pressure the Kremlin to improve dire conditions for prisoners and to end widespread abuse.

“Where is the Red Cross? Where is the UN? Where is everybody?” she asks. “There doesn’t seem to be much activity or urgency. The level of brutality and torture in Russian prisons requires immediate action.”

[spot-the-antisemitism]

Telling that your stupid pinned poll doesn’t include zios telling me I’m a fake jew because I don’t think brown kids deserve to be raped and murdered by single digit IQ soldiers who can’t keep their hands to themselves. Bet you think you’re slick making us ‘fake Jews’ feel like we’re insane, rape apologist.

Dear self hating jew anon,

Listen I didn't call you a fake Jews, I called you a bogdim and a self hating jew BIG difference.

Unless you are tikkumolamresitance then yeah you're a russian plant and you should stare at your sun vladimir putin instead of spewing chloroplasts at us

but like I pity that you're here using nazi slurs when your own movement literally wants to canabalize you considering leftist want to eat the (((rich))) and leopards always eat the faces of their prey and do not change their spots

Also you seem to REALLY hate Mizhari Jews who are also brown and often children last time I checked. So pot meet kettle.

Also I call you a rape apologist because you saying the Israelis who got raped deserved it, how is that NOT rape apologist

so if you want to use your last moments cursing out your own kind and being a bogdim you're more than welcome to use my platform to make this your confession

We're in late stage hamasnik era and the knives are coming out

Get well soon,

Cecil

[thewebcomicsreview]

Has Sinfest just faded into obscurity now, yeah it's still posting but who the hell cares? Tat's didn't retire when he still had a mainstream enough audience for a send off now he just has the cling ons and he's posting stuff so esoteric that unless you are in those alt-right chatrooms with the 10 year old memes and conspiracies, you have no clue what you're looking at anymore. His "bad alien" arch just had the "adult aged males" walking around and it's suppose to be a threat to the USA.

That's the thing, though, it's not even esoteric anymore.

Like, sure, it looks completely fucking batshit, but then you google "British Lesbian Nana"

And see it was a British cop who has had a few scandals having another one, a local story not worth recapping. Presumably Tats hangs out on a lot of the TERF-To-Nazi-Tradwife pipeline sites, which is more of a British thing, and that's where he's picking some of these references up. And you may wonder what this has to do with Israel/Palestine, but the answer to that is that Tats has one joke seen literally two weeks ago

Or about Ukraine last year

It's all the same joke, which is trying to say that the Woke Degenerate West can't possibly beat Traditional Manly Putin Hamas and it's self-evidently absurd to consider. (Even though Ukraine still stands years later and the Israel/Hamas war is so lopsided that there are huge protests calling on Israel to start a ceasefire because that's seen as something Israel has the power to do unilaterally).

All Sinfest is nowadays is Tatsuya Ishida trying to fit the Current Thing into one of his six or seven joke templates. And, sure, he's got an audience on Twitter and probably on Mumsnet or whatever, but there's no passion here anymore, none of that Timecube je ne sais quoi. It's neonazi Garfield now.

[alcestas-sloboda]

Curse the Ukrainian nazis and their *checks notes* Jewish President and Muslim Minister of Defense

Compare that to fine upstanding groups that russia has, like wagner and their now dead commander with the ss tattoos. No nazis there. I mean would putin lie about there being nazis in Ukraine while they're infesting the russian military?

That anon truly is a free thinker, you can tell, all the best free thinkers parrot kremlin propaganda, no matter how stupid the claim is

I mean it's just terrible how Ukraine has totally wiped out russia using their super soldier mosquitoes full of viruses that target specifically russian DNA, not to mention those dirty bombs we were told Ukraine was building... they kind of seem to just forget about and drop those stories, huh?

Forget the last crazy thing they said, it's time for a new crazy conspiracy, but the one thing that will stay is calling Ukrainians nazis, that's one idiot piece of propaganda they'll never get bored of I guess

it would be genuinely funny if this narrative of theirs wasn’t so harmful for Ukrainian image in the world. like yeah not a single one of us here takes it serious anymore because you can’t seriously call me a nazi in any shape or form but this propaganda story negatively affects decision making on military aid that we receive from other countries.

[tanadrin]

@sadoeconomist

Something politically aware people on every part of the political spectrum from the left to the right think is true and leaders of the Russian, Chinese, Israeli, etc. governments believe in enough to talk about publicly and make major geopolitical decisions based on maybe is not just a crazy fringe conspiracy theory, could be that there's some truth to the CIA, NED, etc. having more involvement in these events than the video author thinks I watched all this stuff happen in real time, and I read your notes, which went over how Russian hybrid warfare succeeded in Crimea in 2014. Every major power takes hybrid warfare seriously, what's objectively stupid is your mischaracterization of how it works. Trying to astroturf a revolution out of nowhere simply by paying random citizens en masse to overthrow the government would indeed be stupid but that's not what it is. Your notes seem to suggest that the video says US was paying little attention to eastern Europe until 2013 but Russia was frequently reacting to imaginary US provocations because they are stupid. It's like there's a giant America-shaped hole in the video's narrative. Ukraine was understood to be a NATO-Russia geopolitical battleground long before Euromaidan, it wasn't just Putin shadowboxing imaginary opponents out of pure stupidity that led to this.

You seem to be operating on the basic assumption that governments don't do stupid things for no reason, or fall prey to obviously inane conspiracy theories. That's simply not true; governments are led by human beings, human beings are subject to a common set of cognitive biases, and when you're an authoritarian right-winger (as the leaders of Russia, China, and Israel all are right now), an explanation for your apparent unpopularity that pins all the blame on the CIA instead of your shitty policies and your attempts to cling to power flatters those biases.

But we don't need to speculate about the propensity of governments to do stupid shit, because we have plenty of historical and contemporary examples of governments believing in nonsense: Havana Syndrome in the US, AIDS denialism in South Africa, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories in Nazi Germany and Imperial Russia, etc., etc. And often these false beliefs lead to real strategic blunders: the Bay of Pigs, the Iraq War, World War II, etc. Sometimes world leaders are stupid! Like, leadership probably tends to select for some kinds of intelligence and ability--charisma, social intelligence, and so forth--but it doesn't automatically make you a geopolitical genius, or make you immune to believing false things about the world.

And the biggest problem with the conspiracy theory outlined here isn't just that we can trace its origin to a fringe American political cult, it's that it's not necessary to explain any development in politics since 1989. There is no problem in understanding the revolutions of '89 or 2000-2014 that CIA involvement is necessary to solve. Indeed, as the videos point out (if you would actually watch them), trying to use "the CIA did it" as an explanation adds considerable problems, bc color revolution theory doesn't work. It's based on misconceptions, misunderstanding of data, and a healthy dose of paranoia.

The only real problem is trying to explain Putin's behavior--and that doesn't require color revolution theory to be true, only that Putin believes it is true. And why he would believe something is true, when he has the supposedly vast power of the Russian state at his beck and call, is easy to explain: authoritarian dictators surrounded by yes men do not have accurate pictures of the world! From Idi Amin to Saddam Hussein to Vladimir Putin, there is a common pattern of authoritarian dictators losing touch with reality, getting really weird, and coming to believe all kinds of counterproductive stuff that flatters their egos. It would be an even bigger problem to try to explain why Putin was immune to that dynamic after 24 years in power.

"World leaders don't shadowbox opponents out of pure stupidity" is an assumption that seems wholly ungrounded to me. Why not? World leaders do foolish things all the time on large and small scales. World leaders make mistakes. World leaders can become paranoid and out of touch--and if they lead countries without functioning electoral democracies, they can stay in power regardless. World leaders are not a magic special class of human being. They're just people. And whether it's because they're your uncle who watches nothing but OANN and Fox, or they're the President of Russia and they have yes-men and the Global Research guys telling them only what they want to hear, they can end up making absolute nonsense a load-bearing part of their worldview.

[jewishbarbies]

Hi, I hope this isn't rude, but could you please breakdown your thoughts on the whole 'people saying celebrities are terrible because they are zionist, or similar things' thing? Because I've seen it a lot.

this is a little long just because I wanted to be thorough in explaining the reasoning and thought processes here so sorry if you weren’t up for that.

well, just based on historical fact, claiming jews are not indigenous to the levant is asinine and antisemitic. so when people are upset someone is a zionist, they’re upset they believe in jewish indigeneity. that, and they grossly misunderstand zionism and its many forms. they hear zionist and immediately jump to “this person hates palestinians, wants them all dead, and bootlicks for the Israeli government” and that’s where 99% of problems lie when discussing it. because that’s not what it means. the root belief of zionism is that jews have the right to self determination in the land they’re indigenous to, not that no one else can too. there’s no tenant of zionism that states you HAVE to wipe everyone else in the region out in order to self determine there.

now, there’s political and Christian zionism which are both corrupt and bigoted versions of zionism (most jews agree with this, from what I can tell). it’s christian and political zionism that’s used in the way leftists think ALL zionism is. christians use their zionism to be Islamophobic and continue voting for republicans because they fetishize jews and the modern state of Israel. politicians use their zionism to beguile american christian voters and further sow seeds of hate in their base. both these camps use jews as scapegoats for their hatred and lust for power, and progressives have fallen for it hook line and sinker because terrorist organizations like hamas know they can work both sides with this and some misinformation disguised as colorful infographics on social media.

just like the russian bots that have been spewing disinformation to rally support for putin and hate for ukraine, terrorists use leftists’ fundamental misunderstanding of zionism, judaism, and their internal bias toward jews to gain support for hamas, claiming hamas is simply fighting back against israel. but they use language leftists have become obsessed with to do it - like colonialism, for example. they know leftists give a strong response to that language and are prone to fall victim to propaganda, and they’ve used it to their advantage for decades. palestinians haven’t had an election since 2007. would freedom fighters do that? no. freedom fighters value - you guessed it - freedom.

my thoughts are that leftists fall victim to disinformation like “zionism = colonialism because jews are all white Europeans” because they refuse to vet their sources and responsibly engage with the things happening in the world. they would much rather scream at and boycott and ostracize a minority community than do the work because screaming is easier and more people hear it. being mad about zionism for these people has become a social competition to see who can seem the most progressive, and it’s only shown their bare asses. they’re refusing to listen to the 70% of palestinians who want a peaceful resolution with Israel, the people of gaza who marched during oppression chanting anti hamas chants, and refuse to acknowledge what happened on Oct 7th because all of it would make supporting hamas the wrong thing to do. they’re too deep in it now. they can’t admit they’ve been fucking up. they can’t admit that they wanted revolution in their own country so bad that they yelled over and trampled the people they claimed to be trying to help, and they can’t admit they’ve fallen for propaganda because they’ve convinced themselves they’re immune. they believe they’d punch nazis and hide jews and they’re soooo progressive there’s no way they’d fall for obvious lies. but they have. and they will continue to do so until it’s their lives being played with by privileged assholes in another country with racial biases.

unless someone who identifies as zionist is actually calling for the death and/or relocation of palestinians in the region, then no, they’re not terrible. it’s truly that simple.