In Episode 115 [21] of the CounterVortex podcast [22], Bill Weinberg continues to dissect Vladimir Putin's ultra-cynical fascist pseudo-anti-fascism [23]. Putin presides over Nuremberg-type mass rallies [24] celebrating war and conquest, spews overtly genocidal rhetoric [25], and prepares concentration camps [26] for the Crimean Tatars. Alexander Dugin [27], "Putin's Rasputin" and the intellectual mastermind of his revanchist imperial project, has openly called for "genocide" [28] of the Ukrainians. In areas of Ukraine occupied by Russia, a forced mass deportation [29] of the populace is reported. Putin is clearly approaching a genocidal threshold [30] in Ukraine—while imposing a totalizing police state [31] within Russia. Yet, with unimaginable perversity, all this is done in the name of a campaign to "denazify [32]" Ukraine. The painting of Ukraine as a "Nazi" state on the (dubious [33]) basis [23] of a few ugly right-wing paramilitaries [34] on the Ukrainian side is vigorously repudiated [35] by the leadership of Ukraine's Jewish community. Yet this "Big Lie [36]" is credulously (or cynically) echoed by elements of the "left [37]" as well as far right [38] in the United States—who arrogantly refuse to listen to Ukrainians [39]. Listen on SoundCloud [21] or via Patreon [40].
With reading from Indefensible: Democracy, Counterrevolution, and the Rhetoric of Anti-Imperialism [42] by Rohini Hensman
Production by Chris Rywalt [43]
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