Leaving his office in the Kremlin a few days ago, Putin criticized the West’s “culture of abolition,” which he condemned as “abolishing” Russia, “an entire millennial country, our people.” “This is the third time in recent months that Putin has criticized the so-called ‘culture of abolition.’ This is exactly what Trump, Tucker Carlson and the Republican Party have been condemning for years.
“The culture of abolition aims to make decent Americans live in fear of dismissal, expulsion, shame, humiliation and expulsion from society, as we know it,” Trump said as he received his party’s nomination for the 2020 Republican National Convention.
Tucker Carlson, one of the most famous presenters on Fox News, condemned the progressives trying to “cancel” everything from Space Jam until the July 4 holiday.
Putin’s fixation on transsexuals and homosexuals also resonated with American right-wingers. In several states, Republican bills aimed at restricting LGBTQ rights or discussing them in schools are on the rise. Last fall, Putin said that teaching boys and girls about different gender identities “borders on crimes against humanity.” A few months later, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to impose sanctions on parents of transgender children who supported them in the gender reassignment process.
Then there is the admiration for Putin himself. Before Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Trump called him “insidious,” “genius,” and “smart” for “seizing the country, a vastly vast area, a large piece of land, with lots of people.” And just log in.
In a Fox News report, Carlson rhetorically asked, “Why do I hate Putin so much? Has Putin ever called me a racist? Did he threaten to fire me for disagreeing with him?” But Carlson called Ukraine a “benevolent puppet of the Biden State Department” and suggested Putin’s invasion was nothing more than a “border dispute.”
The lies of Putin and the American extreme right feed each other. Carlson segments appear on Fox News in Russian propaganda. And when the American Web tion wars Reviving an unsubstantiated Russian claim that the United States was funding biological weapons laboratories in Ukraine, Putin repeated the story. tion wars.
The conclusion that authoritarians think alike is a omission of deeper truths. Putin, Trump, Carlson, and a growing number of right-wing commentators and militants share almost the same narrative for the same reason.
Remember that Putin was ruled by a Russian oligarchy who was fabulously enriched by the expulsion of the wealth of the former Soviet Union. Similarly, Trump and the radical right in America were funded by the American oligarchy: Rupert Murdoch, Charles Koch, Rebecca Mercer (daughter of hedge fund mogul Robert Mercer), Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwartzman, and other billionaires.
What do these two groups of oligarchs get in return? “Strong men” divert public attention from the oligarchs’ plunder of their economy and focus on cultural fears of “other” conquest. Putin’s modus operandi was to nurture Russian ethnic pride and nationalism. The mode of action of Trump-Carlson Radical Rights was to stir up American white supremacism.
In both cases, the “strongmen” and their allies mythologized the “higher” culture (full of stories of blood ties, homeland, and religion) as if it were an endangered decadent force trying to attack and destroy it.
The decadent force for Putin is the West. As he said on Friday, “national culture has always defended the identity of Russia,” which “received everything the best and creative, but rejected the liar and the pervert, which destroyed the continuity of our spiritual values, moral principles and historical memory.” “. Hence the mythical justification of Ukraine’s seductive but underdeveloped Western culture, which threatens to conquer it and Russia.
The narrative of Trump, Carlson, and White supremacy is similar: According to this narrative, America’s dominant white Christian culture is threatened by blacks, immigrants, and coastal elites who threaten to destroy it.
The cultural wars now being waged by the Republican Party over trans people, homosexuals, poor women seeking abortion, and sex education and the history of American racism stem from Putin’s narrative of cultural warfare, a socio-cultural disorder full of “decadent” West. It resembles a right-wing claim that the “secularists” staged, in the words of former Trump Attorney General William Barr, a “ruthless attack on religion and traditional values.”
These talking points served to divert attention from the systemic economic plunder carried out by the oligarchs, leaving most people poor and tired. For this reason, the grievances that characterize Putin, Trump, Carlson, and the Republican Party are incorrigibly cultural; They are never cheap, they never have anything in common with the social class and, of course, they have nothing to do with the predation of great fortune.
Cooked to the ground, today’s oligarchs and “powerful” (with their mouthpieces and lackeys) try to justify their wealth and power by attacking the progressive values that have shaped the West since the Enlightenment. XVII. And XVIII. In short, the values of tolerance, openness, democracy, self-government, equal rights and the rule of law. These values are incompatible with the society of oligarchs and tyrants.
In the end, the oligarchs and the “strong” will lose. Putin will not bring Ukraine to its knees, Trump will not be elected president, and Carlson and his ilk will not persuade Americans to abandon their ideals. But cultural wars will not end soon because so much wealth and power has been consolidated in the US, Russia and other parts of the world that illiberal forces have risen to judge it.
Robert Reich, former US Secretary of Labor, is a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley and author Surviving Capitalism: For ManyNot a few sisters Common goodness. His new book, System: Who rigged, how do we fix it, Just released. He is a reviewer Guardian In the US
Translated by Emma Reverter
Source: El Diario
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
