This is a third post written by our comrade and commenter Manuel Rodriguez from Venezuela.
The West’s Odd, Over-the-Top Hatred of Russia
I’m used to a “Marxist” type of thinking where everything that is done or thought boils down to economy and class interests, or at least is related to these somehow. Some of the things done by the West in the Ukraine war don’t make sense in a Marxist sense, and this gives me the impression that they’re actually driven instead by irrational hatred, even though I don’t usually view things from a Identity Politics kind of perspective.
Much of the stuff done in the beginning like banning everything Russian, flat-out, bald, naked demonization and economic aggression, all done in a sudden “burst”, doesn’t even make sense if we view it as an color revolution attempt. Instead it’s more like SJW Cancel Culture. Russia was literally cancelled!
One of the principles of color revolutions that they always apply is that they make sure that economic aggression methods and other destabilization tactics are not directly linked to them or that “sanctions” are aimed only to the “dictators” and don’t sanctions don’t affect the common people.
The ultimate goal is to make the living conditions unbearable so the population stops supporting the government. The idea is that this might goad some forward-thinking military folks to do a coup attempt against the government. But the end result of the sanctions and the cancelling is that the Russian population feels that the combined West has declared a civilizational war against them where their very existence is at stake (which is actually the truth), closed ranks, and rallied round the government.
I get the impression that there is an actual deep, visceral hate against Russians in the West that explains these behaviors rather than them simply being the actions of certain interests or a coherent strategy. There doesn’t seem to be anything that the Russians have done that justifies this if we view history.
I’ve been studying a bit about Orthodox Christianity. There might be a possibility that Orthodox Christianity possess certain ancient thinking styles that the West doesn’t like. “Pagan” mindsets that the West’s ancestors worked continuously centuries and even millennia ago trying to destroy.
Their seemingly gut reaction is nothing more than a subconscious reaction to something that they can’t quite point out but despise and absolutely want to destroy. I used to think that all the Abrahamic religions were quite the same, but Sufi Islam and Orthodox Christianity seem to be exceptional in their structural and historical features.
I’m trying to discover more on my own from various authors and sources, but it was briefly discussed before in your blog how the Russian mentality has traits that belong to Eastern mentalities.
The hatred of Russia is so ingrained in the West. I’m watching the film Apt Pupil. It opens with a pie chart of groups killed by Nazis. Jews and Ukrainians each have about an equal giant slice, then Poles, Gypsies, homos, and criminals. No mention of Russians. I didn’t know the media was pro-Ukraine so long ago, though anti-Russian sentiment goes way back in the West.
10 million Poles died. Compare that to 6 million Jews.
I don’t fully understand Orthodox Church, beyond visiting one during Greekfest. I seem to recall they have some ties to the pre-Roman Irish Christianity in Ireland and Britain.
Hungary seems to have wanted to be friendly with Russia according to Western media.
At one time, Slavs liked the idea of Slavic unity.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.rbth.com/lifestyle/330599-russian-slavs-different/amp
Seems like a pipe dream now. I guess more Southeast Slavs support Russia. In some way romantic nationalism is BS, even though I’m guilty of it. I read recently Ukraine was more under the thumb of Mongols than Russia. I also think Northwest Russia is more Nordic than Ukraine. It’s probably not uncommon to have a Mongol-kissed Slavic Ukrainian thinking he’s an NS Aryan and a Russian Viking or Finn thinking he’s a Slav.
You mean Southwest Slavs, right? Southeast is Ukrainian and Russian.
Technically. The ones that support Russia do seem to be on the Eastside of the SW. I considered East Slavs more Northern. Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Serbia.