Wednesday, June 7, 2023

The Nazis Are Coming

Now that the election season is gearing up, the smear merchants on the left will be flooding the airways with denunciations of Republicans as Nazis. Trump is Hitler, they will intone. That Trump was the most pro-Israeli president we have had in ages and that half his family is Jewish, does not count. Repeat after me, Trump is Hitler.

Even the mild-mannered Florida governor saw his announced candidacy provoke a reaction from some nitwit at Vanity Fair. Since Hitler was already taken, she compared DeSantis to David Duke.


No one is going to think that these leftist smear merchants have anything resembling a functioning mind.


We also know that the mainstream media will support the Biden candidacy with everything it has. It will not only malign and defame all Republicans, but it will suggest that under a senile demented old fool, we have never had it so good.


One basis for exalting feeble old Joe is his handling of the war in Ukraine. No one seems to care that the war itself was the consequence of Biden’s feckless and cowardly withdrawal from Afghanistan. Since they need to counter the assumption that Biden is weak, they trot out the Russian war against Ukraine, as evidence that Biden has shown strength in holding off a Russian attack. He has been willing, as the saying goes, to fight to the last Ukrainian.


Of course, Ukraine is being reduced to a pile of rubble. And we do not even know who blew up the dam yesterday. Our propaganda media keeps saying that Ukraine can win, but they ignore the fact that Russia cannot lose. 


Anyway, we have sent billions to a backwater, largely corrupt nation, in the interest of making Joe Biden look tough. We have done so because the propaganda media has sold America on the idea that the Ukrainians are fighting for liberal democracy. They are fighting against Russian autocracy, and we cannot allow the Russians to prevail.


That being the case, you might imagine, correctly, that organs like the New York Times are somewhat embarrassed at the fact that Ukrainian soldiers have been sporting Nazi insignia on their helmets and uniforms.


The intrepid warriors against all things Nazi, by which they mean far-right, turn out to be supporting military units that proudly claim their Nazi provenance.


It may be news to the New York Times, that is now in full damage control mode, but it is not news to anyone else. Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge writes this:


The surprising Monday Times headline said that "Nazi Symbols on Ukraine’s Front Lines Highlight Thorny Issues of History." This acknowledgement comes after literally years of primarily indy journalists and geopolitical commentators pointing out that yes indeed... Ukraine's military and paramilitary groups, especially those operating in the east since at least 2014, have a serious Nazi ideology problem. This has been exhaustively documented, again, going back years. But the report, which merely tries to downplay it as a "thorny issue" of Ukraine's "unique" "History" - suggests that the real problem for Western PR is fundamentally that it's being displayed so openly. Ukrainian troops are being asked to cover those Nazi symbols please!--as Matt Taibbi sarcastically quipped in commenting on the report.


The ability to rationalize and to cover up Nazi symbols is breathtaking. And yet, why is it that we are not overly surprised?


Once upon a time there really was a Hitler. And the New York Times did not report vigorously on the horrors that Hitler was visiting on Europe. It covered up the story, and not just the story of the persecution of European Jews. 


You see the Times was supporting the great icon of modern liberalism, Franklin Roosevelt, and it did not want to create a climate of opinion where FDR might feel obliged to do something about the situation in Europe. As it happened, for the first eight years of Hitler, FDR did nothing of consequence.


The Times did not care, because the New Deal….


Winston Churchill once opined that only one man could have stopped the horrors of World War II. Churchill was too kind to say so but that man was Franklin Roosevelt.


Reporting on the Nazified Ukrainian military, the Times opts for historical context and deep understanding, Its solution to the problem is for the soldiers to cover over their Nazi insignia, the better not to confuse the morons who are getting ready to vote for tough guy Joe Biden.


Besides, the government of Ukraine has been working hard to shut down these groups. Apparently, not hard enough. The Times reports:


Ukraine has worked for years through legislation and military restructuring to contain a fringe far-right movement whose members proudly wear symbols steeped in Nazi history and espouse views hostile to leftists, L.G.B.T.Q. movements and ethnic minorities. But some members of these groups have been fighting Russia since the Kremlin illegally annexed part of the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014 and are now part of the broader military structure. Some are regarded as national heroes, even as the far-right remains marginalized politically.


Nazi insignia, not a problem. At least, they are not Republicans.


The real problem, for the Times, is that the Ukrainians are lending credence to Putin’s propaganda. The Times tells us that said propaganda is false, which suggests that wearing Nazi insignia does not mean that you sympathize with Hitler. It is a vestige of a long forgotten past. This is called editorializing in a news story, which used to be unacceptable for serious journalists.


For now, the Nazified Ukrainian military still continues to receive billions in support from America and Europe. The stories coming out of that region are largely favorable to the Ukrainians and largely disfavorable to the Russian aggressors.


But, keep firmly in mind, Ukraine is not the issue. Joe Biden’s political future is the issue. And that future depends in some considerable part on the ability of the mainstream press to persuade large numbers of people that Trump is Hitler and that we must destroy him, at any price, lest he run around the world supporting Nazi armies. 


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1 comment:

Walt said...

I disagree on one point. A lot of people (American voters) with allegedly functioning minds do —and will continue to— believe that all Republicans are Nazis. Just scan some fb threads.