These "Useful Idiots" Probably Aren't Compromised by Russia.

"Useful idiot" is a term apocryphally coined by Vladimir Lenin to describe Americans who would support communist causes without really understanding them. There seems to be a few useful idiots running around America today, siding with Russia over Ukraine in the current war. It's spurned chatter that maybe Russia is paying some of them off or has blackmail material on them, classic Soviet style kompromat. I don't have proof this is untrue, and I wouldn't be entirely shocked if one of the people below is compromised, but I doubt that's the core issue here. The thing is, when they see an authoritarian launch a war of choice on an peaceful democracy, they side with the authoritarian because that's where their sympathies lie. They are anti-democratic authoritarians.

When you grow up thinking that history wants to move towards democracy, it's hard to get your head around the idea that some people would rather move towards an authoritarian dictatorship. Not that they necessarily want to be an absolute ruler themselves, they just prefer authoritarianism. But these are some of those people.

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene

Greene recently called on Ukraine to surrender, saying that it could never hope to win this war. This is a bad take considering 7,000 Russian soldiers have been killed and up to 21,000 wounded in Ukraine war, double what the US lost in the 20 year Afghan war according to the Pentagon. This means that a fifth of the force president Vladimir Putin amassed before the war could now be out of action, as units become ‘combat ineffective’. That makes it seem like Ukraine could very well hope to win this war. (The most threatening thing about Russia is actually its incompetence.) Greene is a congress person, she has access to intelligence reports, why would she say this? Well, because she doesn't want Ukraine to win.

This is part of a pattern. Greene has a history of supporting violent attempts to overthrow democracy, or as she calls it, tyranny.

Representative Madison Cawthorn

Part of me thinks Cawthorn called Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy a thug just because he knew it would generate controversy. He knew everyone would have to denounce him. It's just more owning the libs shit.

But also, Cawthorn sympathizes with authoritarians over democracy. Cawthorn was so involved with the January 6th riots that activists are pushing to bar him from re-election based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which states that no one can hold office if they had taken an oath to support the Constitution and then "engaged in insurrection."

Tucker Carlson

Carlson is perhaps the most useful of the idiots listed here. Russian TV shows "a lot of clips of Fox’s Tucker Carlson criticizing the US or Ukraine. Like several times a day." Hell, well before any shots were fired, Carlson was rallying for Putin, sometimes bizarrely so.

I really wish we could just write Carlson off as an incomprehensible weirdo. But he gets an insane 4 million viewers a night. And with that platform, what he says is "almost word for word what Vladimir Putin … has said in making the argument to justify what's happening in Ukraine." Does this mean he's getting a script from Russia? Well probably not, for one thing Carlson flinched when Russia's invasion started before coming back to side with Putin. It's more likely that Carlson simply admires authoritarianism and dislikes democracy.

Carlson is another person on the wrong side of history regarding the January 6th attack, having made an entire gaslighting documentary about it.

As an MSNBC columnist put it, "Carlson isn’t in favor of Russia over America or angling to aid Russia in dominating or controlling the U.S. — he wants the U.S. to be like Russia."

Donald Trump

Remember that time between finding out the 2020 election results and January 6th, when we thought we were headed to a world where we didn't need to think about Trump anymore? If only.

The idea of Trump being compromised by Russia is not a new one. And Trump has definitely done shady deals in Russia that could be used against him. However, can anything really be used against Trump? If it was revealed tomorrow that Trump had stolen $100 million dollars from charities, would that even be a news story? His supporters would be unfazed considering he's done it before. And if Russia was bribing Trump, we would know, because he would brag about it.

No, Trump likes Putin for the same reason he fell in love with Kim Jong Un (he is so damn weird) because he likes authoritarians. And now he's said there's a ‘lot of love’ behind Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine. Because nothing says love like bombing a maternity hospital.

Something needs to be made clear here, Trump, Putin and all of these other guys, their supporters like to say they are "tough." They're not. They're assholes. They're mean, petty, draft dodging cowards. You know who's tough? Volodymyr 'I need ammunition, not a ride' Zelenskyy.

Fuck these assholes. Slava Ukraini.

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Why Sanctions on Russia Matter

My Time in Ukraine.