this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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I have yet to meet a single pro-Russian leftist in my country. Or a tankie. Sure, shit like lemmygrad, r/communism, etc. exists, but you have to go digging pretty deep to find those people.
Most leftists I know, even those who identify as socialists are pretty much in the "yeah, fuck Russia" camp. To the point that they openly advocate financing Ukraine.
This video is blatant propaganda piece, and not even truthful at what it tries to be.
I don't know which country you live in but I know podcasters and other influencers in Germany and sadly also met their kind in person and passed by a protest. It is real.
Finland. Living next to Russian border might bring some reality checks here.
And yea, I can imagine you could dig some nutjob podcaster here too, but can't imagine finding those people walking around IRL.
But the thing I'm most against is "western left", which is the point where I call out the BS. Vice seat of our right-wing party literally went to a Putin propaganda camp in Russia in around 2015 (by his own admission, no less), yet it is somehow "western left" that gets the blame for few tankies who are nowhere to be found.
Finland might be a different story, but in Germany the Left Party is deeply devided between Russia supporters and others. It is not all the left (which is said in the video near the end) and of cause the right is much worse but it is a group too big to ignore.
And if the video didn't make sweeping generalisations this would be a fine point to tackle. But it's not saying "half of the german left", it is saying "the western left".
It's not OK to leave this kind of stuff as a side note in small print, that is one of the prime tactics propaganda in general uses.
You're right. "The Left" is a vague term and doesn't apply here. I know such people and applied the video to them and as such it's well done but the title and framing during the video is misleading.
Yeah, if the video was less conflictory and was framed in a way that didn't scream polarisation to me, I wouldn't be as quick to dismiss it as a propaganda piece.
As a side note, I'm actually surprised that Germany has such divide within the left.
About the side note: There are different factors at play: nostalgia about GDR, Anti-Americanism and the peace movement (not sending weapons anywhere). And I was especially talking about the party "Die Linke" (The Left). Other parties like the Social Democrates and The Green (both part of the government) disagree on that.
There are ML and tanky organistations outside of parliament. But I think the biggest organized left movement at the moment in Germany is the climate justice movement, which is very decentralized but I think most are against Russia. I might be biased though since I'm part of this movement.
biggest success of pro-russian tankies in my country is single fb page with 2k likes. socdem party that has actual MPs advocated for sending weapons to Ukraine on second day o war and it's only because they don't have single leader (there's collective leadership instead)
I have never met one in person either. I've met countless on the internet. It's as if it was a manufactured outrage instigated by a genocidal regime. It worth addressing talking points distributed among that group.
Have you watched any of the Hassans takes on Ukraine? I only watched clips, which I assume are out of context. In those he was advocating for Ukraine surrender and to stop sending aid. Is that true? Sorry for asking you about it, I just cant stand listening to the guy, so I hope someone who does can offer some insight.
Sorry. I'm not American and I don't know anything about that except what quick google search told me.
The video certainly paints with an overly-broad brush. The effects he describe do exist with people on the left who hate America more than they are willing to engage their brain and consider evidence. People who say they hate imperialism, but justify imperialism when it isn't coming from America (or The West in general). The guy is talking about tankies.