How Putin Fooled the Western Left
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ส.ค. 2023
- As Putin's brutal invasion of Ukraine continues, we look at the failures of the Western left to grasp what is going on.
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As a leftist in America, this has frustrated me to no end. Thank you for talking about this Vlad and have a good one.
There was a guy I was flirting back and forth with, but he was always a hard core tankie type.
...Vladimir Putin kept me from getting laid.😡
@@grmpEqweer Maybe you dodged a bullet, you never know with tankies
Ditto. The "Alt-Left" VV talks about is hardly left (imo) and nothing unintelligent they say at this point is shocking. But Chomsky, West, Wolff? Ugh, their tankie takes have been just horrific.
@@jeffreyhanc1711 I think that Vlad talking of 'americacentrism' is spot on.
American imperialism is generally bad. However America isn't the only imperial power in the world and not everything it does is bad. The way American leftists will swoon for any counter party, be it a major or regional imperial power is... frustrating.
Its simple. They are principally anti american not anti imperialist. Thier approach to geopolitics is the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Sometimes better to become an ally with your enemy, rather than with the enemy of your enemy.
Yup, which makes them liars and worse.
Sometimes the enemy of my enemy can still go have fun with himself.
This! They just wanted the US to be sufficiently undermined so that they could take over. And when this was done toward Soviet imperialism, they were supporting an ideological ally. So win win for them back then.
How the modern left rhetorically justifies their support for an almost fascist modern Russia, I still don't understand. That part is just weird all around.
The German variant with Sahra Wagenknecht and Alice Schwarzer makes this abundantly clear. Sahra has become a hero among some far right AfD types.
I am a leftist in the Baltics. I always love how many of these leftists, saying NATO should not have expanded somehow forget - we chose to join NATO. Maybe we deserve to have a choise? And also how many pacts have Russia signed and broken when it comes to Eastern Europe?
Budapest Memorandum, ahem...
I don't know. You tell us how many pacts, treaties, memoranda, and understandings the Soviet Union and modern Russia have broken. Please list them for us.
@@eric55406 The Budapest Memorandum preamble assumes the end of the Cold War, which the United States and its NATO allies never ended. The Ukraine coup in 2014 was a violation by the signatories, and that voided Russia's non-interference clauses.
Don't forget that it was the United States and NATO that pushed Ukraine to sign the memorandum - fearing another nuclear armed country in Europe that could balance France and United Kingdom. Having the Soviet Union splinter into two or more nuclear powers was not in the West's best interests.
@@Too-Odd Thats a hilarious reversion of reality. Putin is habituationally threatening the west with nuclear distraction since 2008, started the biggest recent war in europe, yet somehow the west, who had been going so easy on russia (see ressource trade and high tech exports) supposedly kept the cold war on.
Not to mention, "Ukrainian coup". I guess the parliament voting against teh president and the president resignating is a bit too complicated for some fascist sympathizer like you?
@@Too-Oddrussia broke the Helsinki accords.
This seems like blaming the victim. " you are the victim of abuse because you looked at your attacker with a skeptical eye" Vlad you articulate things in a way I wish I could.
Here's your daily reminder that Noam Chomsky denied the Cambodian genocide and carried out a letter writing campaign to convince newspapers to ignore reports about the genocide. He also denied the Srebrenica massacre and called the death camps 'humanitarian camps.' Chomsky is awful, and the fact that neither of these outrages affected his reputation on the Left is truly damning.
Well said!
This makes me sick. One thing is to have no clue about the facts, another is to fabricate ones to suit your agenda, and denying the victims justice in the process!
His many demonstrated false citations are another damning thing about him. He deserves to be pilloried. His Cambodian genocide denial knocked him out of the realm of respectability for about 15 years, but in the 90s it was all forgotten about and people started listening to him again. Chomsky is a total villain.
@@MaggieKeizai I think in the same way John Pilger has turned out to be...
Chomsky has always been one one mindset, one that you'll find in lots of western socialists and is easy to boil down: America = bad, and therefore anyone that opposes America = good
When Russia is saying NATO threatens them, they are not talking about the Russian Federation, they are talking about the Russian Empire.
That's a good distinction - although I think this sentence become obviously true when we say "existential threat". NATO is only an existential threat to Russia conceived as an empire.
Exactly.
For many in Russia, there is a clear and unbroken continuity between the Russian Empire the Soviet Union and the Russian federation.
They're all just Russia in the minds of these people. Sometimes it has more territory sometimes it has less.
But any territory ever had is rightfully Russian.
@@VladVexler , there's an even cleaner, closer shave to make: a group of well-working dynamic democracies with poplular power-transitions in the former Soviet space is a threat to the current Russian monarchy. Russia doesn't even need to have imperial ambitions to have its monarchy threatened by democracies.
Great video!
I agree with this, but I think it should be phrased better.
NATO threatens nothing except Russian imperialist and expansionist AMBITIONS.
Russia can be as imperialistic as it wants, just not at the expense of its neighbors, who (as sovereign nations) have the right to choose their own path and what international agreements they sign.
it does not matter what russians are saying.
NATO never threatened russia, because it was created to CONSERVE russia! NATO's primary goal is to RESTRAIN genuine antirussian developments in the west (military-wise)
as an ukrainian leftist, it makes me... well, mostly facepalm at this point. it's good that there're people out there who can see putin's regime for what it is
Left in Ukraine is definitely not the same as left in the US (and the rest of western Europe that can't seem to get off America's despite talking shit all the time)
Zelenksky and his fascist regime puppets of the imperialist west aren't a solution
I completely agree and if such a regime were to attack our Canada I would hope and pray we would react with at least half of the bravery, courage and love of place Ukraine has shown.
as an Ukrainian leftist, you're either dead or somewhere else, but definitely not in ukraine
Good luck to your country on its new status as ground zero for the restart of European neoliberalism, im sure your new series of right wing corrupt nationalist governments will be infinitely better than the other corrupt nationalist government out east
Thank you for your analysis. Im Lithuanian. We understand what it is russian occupation.
I am born Czech and thankful for expansion of NATO.
We were occupied in 1968 by the Russian imperialists. We and other East European countries are desperate to be protected against Russian brutes. Just look what they are doing to Ukraine! And why do you think Fins and Swedes were so eager to join in?
@@bilic8094 You can't compare your word vomit with an actual intelligent argument.
@@bilic8094Russia is invading its neighbours, speaking about restoring Russian imperium, allying with countries like Iran and North Korea and threatening to nuke western capitals, but there's nothing to worry about?
I am western european, and i strongly feel that eastern european intellectuals have been ignored by the western europeans while they were right all along.
Current Russia is worse than UdSSR in the sum of its years and Ukraine needs NATO more than Sweden and Finland.
@@bilic8094 Why can't anyone compare Russia to the Soviet Union? The leader of Russia is a former member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, who was a KGB officer. He is literally a product of the Soviet Union.
Since I live in a (formerly) neutral country, I get upset every time someone suggests that NATO expansion is a devious American plot to surround/contain/threat Russia. The Swedish position (and it is sound) has always been that all nations - not least the small and neutral ones - have an absolute right to choose their own national security policy, i.e. to join NATO or not. NATO has never forced anyone to join - but someone may have felt compelled to join because of the Kremlin's actions. Chomsky's arguments are not only one-eyed US-centric, they also imply that no country has the ability and/or knowledge to determine its own security policy, which borders on intellectual dishonesty.
Chomsky's position is that countries are _only_ self-interested if and when they are _opposed_ to the West.
They don't believe you. They don't think you even have your own opinion.
As a leftist myself, that's the one thing that bothers me most about about these kind of leftists' arguments. Everything is so US centric, to the degree that they are incapable of thinking that things might be unrelated to the US. And the Russo-Ukrainian war for the most part doesen't really have anything to do with the US.
And addition to that, because US imperialism is apparently the root of all evil in the world, we should support Russian or even Chinese imperialism instead. No, imperialism is bad no matter what.
"Chomsky's arguments are not only one-eyed US-centric, they also imply that no country has the ability and/or knowledge to determine its own security policy, which borders on intellectual dishonesty."
He's working off of Cold War era political "Realism" which divides the world into a polarized spheres of influence by the leading super-powers. It's a perspective grossly out of touch with reality and completely ignores the idea of national sovereignty.
Well maybe Russia wouldn't of thought like that if Nato stuck to it's Motto of defensive alliance but as we seen on many occasions Nato was an offensive alliance.
Putin: "I am a far right religious autocrat attempting imperialist expansions of my empire."
Tankies: "omggg hes literally Lenin 2!!!!!"
Lenin at least had ideology. Modern Russia has too few things to offer. All they are offering to the public is "we are great, we won great patriotic war, obey us", a big dose of whataboutism, and ruined mental health of the nation.
Got it in one
far right? how far? lmao even if he was Lenin himself they would still support their bankster owners and their capitalist imperialist endeavors.
"Empire" would be cool if he wasn't just worried about NATO. He also simps for Israel.
Cut out the "far right religous" part and that about sums up Lenin tbh
One of the problems with American intellectuals is that they seem to think everything other nations do is in some way a response to something the US has done. They appear to forget that other nations are quite capable of doing things entirely on their own.
You have hit the nail on the head. Despite often claiming to be open minded internationalists, a lot of these people are very parochial and naval gazing in their outlook.
Thank you for putting this together Vlad. I am quite frustrated with Chomsky and the like. Eastern European countries do not 'belong' to Russia, let alone Putin. We want NATO guaranteed safety and Putin can showe his arbitraty wishes up where those belong. I've been confused by these people's idea that Putin has to be given something. Given what? My country isn't a cookie that is to be given to anybody. What a ludicrous misreading of the circumstances.
Thank you! I wish I could give you a 1000 likes instead of 1.
🇺🇦 Слава Україні! 🇺🇦
Amen, Slava Ukraine!
Countries aren't poker chips.
These leftists somehow believe that the Baltic States, Eastern Europe (including Ukraine) have no agency of their own, no sovereignty, that they are merely US pawns. How wrong they are!
"I've been confused by these people's idea that Putin has to be given something. Given what? My country isn't a cookie that is to be given to anybody." - This is one of the best comments I have read on this issue. And, in a sense, "Chomsky and the like" have a very imperialistic stance, as if it was, like you wrote, up to the US to "give" countries to Russia. That is fundamentally imperialistic. So these guys, always decrying US "imperialism", are in effect proposing that the US, not the Ukrainians, decides the faith of Ukraine. That is imperialism. Interesting...
as an actual anti-imperialist western leftist: thank you for saying it. witnessing some of the people i have respected for a decade give these atrocious takes on Ukraine has been so disheartening.
Agreed.
Chomsky has been doing it for years. Look up his milosevic antics. I basically ignore the whole anti war (when its the west) left. Same reason i never liked Corbyn, hes balls deep on this stuff.
well you might wake up and realize leftists are most of the time as bad as death plague.
They are agents of KGB and now Russia. This is great time to see them coming out from closet. Moscow giving them such orders to tell the naked propaganda.
@@Ukraineaissance2014you are pro war? Because one guy is annoying? 😂 your standards are laughable
"russian interests" - goddammit how ridiculous it sounds! Interests of a criminal, interests of a rapist, interests of a terrorist, interests of a slave master, etc.
Criminals interests DO NOT COUNT.
But they do and the West do nothing serious to stop them.
So you're telling me you actually believe a hole country of tens of millions of people are all criminals, rapists, terrorists and slave owners... And I'm sure you've never actually talked or even been near anyone from russia... but you systematically de-humanize a whole ethnicity with the information you get, which I'm sure comes from the mainstream western media... And also claim THEY are the ones who are indoctrinated and brainwashed by propaganda.... Riiiiiiiight
There is no NATO expansion to the East. There is only former Soviet member states escape to the West. People vote with their feet.
Exactly. Chomsky and others refuse to ask, “Why do Ukranians and others want to join NATO? The EU?” They know the answer already and it’s inconvenient for them.
I hate how they dont give the same consideration to Ukraine for their national security or political destiny. In the end it's just saying that might makes right as long as the might isnt American
Which is extra hilarious given how much more powerful the US and NATO is than Russia.
These are Soviet alligned leftists. They are just a mindless horde, which only serves the Kremlin and their current leader. They might have been once ideologically left, but over the years this faded away into the same Soviet dependencies, which plagued the eastern bloc until it collapsed. Thinking for themselves is considered treason, questioning the Kremlin is a treason, so they remain quiet, even if they know deep inside, that the Kremlin is the biggest spreader of fascist propaganda.
I had once a chat with such wannabe leftist, I told them that the Nr1 source for right wing propaganda is Russian state TV and they still were convinced, that Putin has no control over it and America is the issue for Russia spreading right wing propaganda.
Ditto for the people of Crimea.
@@renstein8210 You mean the invaders squatting on stolen land?
@@0816M3RC The Ukrainians? Squatting on land (Crimea) that they have no right to? I agree.
"The US 'empire' is good AND bad. And we need it to be good in Ukraine" - The bluntest and most profound use of nuance in the whole discussion. Thank you.
The US is currently involved in combat operations in Ukraine AND pretty much the entirety of the Ukrainian government is on US/Western financial support.
The US empire has gone bad like a spoiled steak. It need a fresh blood and will stop at nothing to get it.
@@renstein8210 No we are not actually involved in combat operations in Ukraine.
@@0816M3RC Yes, yes you are. The United States provides a lot of intelligence for Ukrainian operations. Satellite imagery, Global Hawk surveillance of the Black Sea, AWACS coverage of the air space over all of the territory of Ukraine. These are combat operations.
@@renstein8210 In what alternate universe is this combat? Does that mean radio operators and intelligence analysts have combat experience? Does that mean the Western and Eastern blocs were actually in a hot war until 1991?
If you were talking about the handful of Western special forces in Ukraine (who were probably not directly involved in combat operations) you might have had a leg to stand on, but this is just nonsense.
I think by insisting that NATO not accept applications from those countries that lie inbetween Russia and Western Europe he is ignoring the right of those countries to choose for themselves who they wish to ally with and what defence pact they wish to belong to .. in essence to insist that they remain defenceless and vulnerable to his own ambitions. - i.e that he doesn't want NATO defending them because he wants them for himself.
EXACTLY. Russia starts from a a position that its neighbours in the near west are NOT sovereign. They are just Russian satellites that have had their strings cut. The fact that these non-sovreign satellites have joined a non-aggression defense pact in NATO is akin to a lawnmower or a flower bed deciding move to a different yard. How can your property decide to no longer be your property anymore? Its nonsensical but its the way the Kremlin thinks.
Russia explicitly promised not to invade Ukraine if they surrendered nukes (Budapest Memo). So anyone who criticized NATO expansion should be harder on Russia.
Yeah, because they were supposed to remain neutral. And wanted to remain neutral, or at least the people did, before the maidan coup in 2014. Only after a US backed coup put in place a right-wing pro-US government did Ukraine restart talks of joining NATO. And if you don't think there was a coup you're simply uninformed and buying into western propaganda.
In 1962 when they found Soviet Nukes near their coast, in cuba, the US and USSR almost went to war. Rightfully because of security concerns from the US. Ironically they had been doing the same to the Soviet Union in Turkey.
So you're telling me it's legitimate for Cuba to be a security concern to the US and Ukraine isn't a legitimate security concern to Russia? Talk about double standarts
Absolutely correct!!!
Yet to these commies who enjoy capitalism ( they are all very rich) want the middle class to disappear. They should move to Russia post haste
I am left of center and I have really appreciated the clarity the war has given to politics. It shows who is serious on the left and who is a clown. If you are so worried about the west that you condone imperialism as long as it isnt western imperialism then you arent a serious person and can be safely ignored. If you take Russias imperialism seriously then i can take you seriously even if we may disagree on specific politics.
This!
The hypocrisy of Africans and Asians in particular when criticising American colonialism is just nuts.
If you’re anti-colonial / imperial then you MUST logically be agains the war.
Not to mention that in 2002 in Rome Putin specifically supported Ukrainians security decision autonomy
@@dro355 Never ask a CCP shill what the Chinese were doing in Tibet, Xinjiang, Manchuria or Vietnam.
Surely couldn't have been.... imperialism 😆
Yep.
100% agree. Well said.
@@dro355
...In '02, I'm guessing he felt the need to appear harmless.
You know, to avoid buildup of defenses against the imperialist war he was dreaming of, one day.
Just a guess.
When Noam Chomsky and Henry Kissinger are expressing the exact same opinions you know something is very wrong.
I wasn't aware Kissinger is still alive. I'm glad Biden never invited that POS to the WH
That they are still alive, being one.
Indeed.
There was a wonderful cartoon in an alternative magazine put out by the satirical Church of the Subgenus that showed how the world political system was actually not one of left and right...but a loop where the far-left and the far-right became one and the same. I think it had Lyndon Larouche in there at the junction...but I think now we'd have many of the same figures on the loop at that point.
I first thought about that cartoon (which I should have saved) when I recall General Flynn sitting with the Green Party candidate for President at a fancy Moscow dinner back in about 2015. And who be sharing their table...Vladimir Putin and the heads of Russia Today!
@@gerrelldrawhorn8975The idea of a loop goes back a long way. I first encountered it in the '70's, and it probably wasn't new then.
I still try to find this mysterious document that says:
"Not an inch to the east..."
Who signed it?
Where are the documents?
The bots like to say it, but never give any details
But...but they exist but i just cant link things because youtube 😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊
I remeber there was an agrwement and there was some sort of paper work to my knowledge.
I would add one important factor here: anti-war/anti-militarism
The Left, especially in Europe, dreams of a world without armies and weapons.
This was also a popular position, since the end of the Cold War and the Warsaw Pact the sense of need for military defense decreased in the public.
The war in Ukraine showed, that it can be good to have a proper military defense and that it can be a good thing to defend the own country. These are things that most of the political left despises.
As a European I hear this every day. But it is ridiculous. It's actually a tool of socialist communist extremists aimed at promoting a peaceful utopia only to take control and create a communist dictatorship
Old thread, but i disagree with having strong military as a good thing. The reason there is war in ukraine is the existence of authoritarian states. We have lost our chance after the 2nd world war. When only the us had the nukes this would be easy to democratise the soviet union. We wouldn't have problems with china, North Korea and iran today. Democracies don't want and don't need to spend 30% of gdp to be safe. Democracies don't have wars with Democracies. It is always dictatorship vs dictatorship or dictatorship vs Democracies. This is why the most important requirement to become a NATO member is democracy, and this is why russia was refused. This is the reason why Democracies don't need to spend large amounts of gdp for defence. If our leaders did the right thing at the right time we would be spending 0.2% of gdp for defence instead of required 2% right now, we wouldn't have wars and russia with their natural resources would be in the world top economies, if not the top.
@@distiking In theory it would be great to have only stable democracies with a minimal need for armed forces.
But since there are authoritarian and dictatorship countries out there, it would be stupid for the democracies to neglect it's military.
Jeffery Sachs: “We created what we’re facing today.” American exceptionalism to the point where Mr. Sachs forgets that Putin and Russia attacked Ukraine, not the US.
That twisted intellect will find a way to blame it on the USA - mark my words.
lol you missed the point my friend
@@NestNext No friend, you missed the point. It’s the usage of the royal “we” repeatedly when referring to war that is telling. Individuals don’t go to war with each other. Nations do. Unless I missed something huge, Sachs is an American, and America is not at war with Russia. Watch some more interviews with him, he does it repeatedly, it wasn’t a one-off utterance. That he so fluidly and thoughtlessly says “we” instead of “they” indicates a lot about his world view. Thanks for wasting 4 minutes of my day, buddy.
@@seanmcdonald4686 it took you 4 minutes to say the same nonsense you said in one sentance earlier. When he says we he is reffering to the NATO militarisation that pushed Russia in a corner and forced it to react, an issue that was raised by numerous politicians scholars and bureocrats even before ru invaded ukr, for gods sake even joe biden warned about NATO expansion not to mention Wiliam Burns.
These American leftists, especially Sachs, obviously consider the war to be between the US and Russia, with Ukraine as a junior partner on the American side. They feel that the decision to cut off the flow of weapons into Ukraine is really a lever that the Americans should pull to induce “peace talks.” They want to hamstring the Ukrainian military to the point where recovering any of occupied Ukraine would become impossible. They don’t feel that Ukraine has the right to manifest the future that they see for themselves. They don’t see Ukraine fighting for Ukraine with weapons purchased by Ukraine. They see America creating Ukrainian debt. To be fair to these brilliant dinosaurs, US foreign policy should always be scrutinized closely, but that does not mean that the US can’t be a valuable ally.
Americans have a tendency to view other countries as secondary in ANY situation, and the language they use indicates to me that these Americans are no different. They just can’t imagine that the outcome of the Russo-Ukrainian War could be determined primarily by Ukraine, not the US.
Well done! The most ironic thing I see about some "anti-colonial" American intellectuals blaming the USA for the current war in Ukraine is that it never occurs to them that Eastern Europeans (including Ukrainians) might have minds of their own, and a long history with Russian aggression that gives them reasons to get as far away from Russia's sphere of influence as possible. It's soooo USA-centric it frustrates me so much. God I hope the alt-left doesn't start collaborating with the alt-right on US foreign policy on this matter 🤦♂️
Coming from central europe and what used to be soviet occupied Czechoslovakia I habe no words to express gow angry that makes me.
Vlad has good video about how even anti-Putin russians suffer from.this imperialist worldview and I think much of the same is true for these people.
Fact of the matter is that all of the new NATO members were falling over each otger to get in EXACTLT because of russia
Yep, agree. Of course, the current situation in former Eastern Bloc countries is complicated in many ways but the analysis Vlad has criticised in this video is miles off the mark. These commentators have no idea about what is going on. Odd that Hungary is part of Nato but Orban is good mates with Putin for example, yet Poland is dead against Putin but otherwise aligns with Hingary against much of EU. Reality is always much more complicated than is portrayed in many media outlets.
@@Michael-uw1rc reality is not that complicated, Orban is a corrupt politician, he does not give a shit about Putin or the EU, he is milking both for his own personal ! gains, he will be removed hopefully if the Hungarian people are getting their act together eventually
Everything east of Germany is russia to them
R.I.P Dawn Sturgess.
Please google her.
Haven’t any of these ‘intellectual’ folks ever read a Russian history book? Have they not heard Putler say that the worst thing in history was the breakup of the USSR ? That he wants to recreate the Russian Empire? Have they not heard of Sudetenland? The only way peace will come is if the Ruskis vacate the Ukrainian land they stole. Temporarily 😂. Slava Ukraini. Just stumbled on your show last week and I am finding very educational. Thanks and mind your health!
None of these people are misguided. They all know what Putin is doing but being Anti-America is more important than defining the innocent or upholding international law.
That is the One thing Putin managed to do perfectly, to imply that America is in any way or form responsible for his actions.
"upholding international law"
Which the US is the biggest violator hahaha... the koolaid on this channel is strong.
You don't have to be anti American or even anti Putin to see that the over-arching conflict is Russia defending herself like she has in centuries past.
1990s catastrophe, millions dead in former eastern bloc: supported by US policy and American NGOs
1996 fraudulent Russian election : American policy makers and private oligarchs openly brag about rigging Russian elections to ensure catastrophic Yeltsin stays in power
2000: yeltsins protege, Putin, wins election, his ascension is openly celebrated by the west
2000s: Putin begins to push back against Russian oligarchs like khodorkhovsky, who profited off of the misery of the 90s : west starts to turn against him
Color revolutions, supported by US state department funded NGO the National Endowment for Democracy, puts western-aligned, corrupt neoliberals in power in former soviet republics like Ukraine, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and others
2014: Ukrainian nationalists overthrow president and install pro western government, with open backing by the US and American state NGOs like the NED
2014: Russians in eastern ukraine revolt, fearing reprisals, are equipped by Russia, war in donbass begins with tens of thousands Ukrainians dead, nationalist Ukrainians want to prolong and extend war until total victory, Minsk protocols signed instead by west and Russia
2019 : zelensky elected on a platform of neutrality and reconciliation between Russian east and nationalist west. Immediately received pushback from nationalists, quickly acquiesces to them, desire for ukraine to join nato is written into ukraines constitution, it is unable to be ignored or rejected by an elected official
2021: joe Biden is elected, accelerates efforts to support Ukraine and Russians fear that Ukrainian entry into nato is inevitable
2022: Russian invasion
Now tell me that america has nothing to do with it
@@sixmillionsilencedaccounts3517 Most sane invasion supporter.
International law 1.01 is what ever the UNSC agrees it is , Biden and Putin held 3 summits , they both resolved to go to war ,if they didn't get what wanted ,no matter what the cost , or profit as the US oil and gas sector can attest , the US Russian trade in nuclear fuel continues unabated ,not as much as it was in the run up to the war though , wake up and smell the daisies
It's like a rapist demanding the right to keep raping his neighbors, and that any attempt to stop him was an infringement on his rights of free expression.
That’s how I see it too. Infuriating
Imagine that supporters of that rapist in your country started criticizing the “anti-rape west” and questioning whether rape wasn’t deserved in some cases. And when you cancelled their speaking engagement to your group or organization, they complained they were being cancelled, de-platformed, and silenced.
And that's coming from people who like to (sometimes rightly) complain about victim-blaming.
Some people would have no problem if Central and Eastern Europe became Moscow's vassals again. It's shocking how easy it is for someone to trade human lives, especially when the ocean is protecting you.
It is sadly not only limited to American leftwingers.
Not to mention these are people that (supposedly) supported “Decolonization” or “opposed” Apartheid in South Africa… So much for the right to self determination, right?
Not Americas problem. Spend that money in Hawaii and stop NATO world domination.
@@theholodomorisnttaughtinam2796the US should get out of Africa too.
@@ericp1139Kremlin bot
Thank you Vlad, for your outstanding work and this wonderful content. I can´t tell you how frustrated I am by our socialdemocratic chancellor Scholz procrastinating every bit of help for Ucraine pretending it´s all about peace and the worlds safety. I can´t tell you how lonely I feel among my leftist German friends buying completely into Putins narrative and Russian propaganda concerning Ucraine. Will we ever return to facts or are we left with angry beliefs and stop giving a damn about facts forever?
Lex Fridman asked Chomsky about what's going on in Putin's head, and Chomsky said he doesn't have much interest in it.
I’m very left-wing, and have even run for the Green Party. But I’ve lost all respect for these left-wing thinkers during this conflict. This video is right on target.
Same. I saw that Chomsky (who contributed much value to public discourse over the years) video and was absolutely shocked. Just shocked. I still can't believe what I heard. Definitely a significant dent on his legacy....
My dream is to become a climate change activist. But first I'll need my own private jet but give me some street cred.
@@peterkramar6555 Don't do an I do, do as I proselytise! Ain't that the truth...
A lot of these people are old men. They thought the end of the Cold War was the end of the threat. They refuse to understand that since 1991, Russia has changed from an autocracy into a kleptocracy. As "honest" left wingers, they will NEVER understand Putin's mind. They just can't comprehend infinite evil greed.
@@mysterioanonymous3206 chomsky gets a pass since he is 100 billion years old
Speaking as a Pole, if ANY person in politics on either left or right did not express or feel disgust in regards to what's going on eastwards, their political career would be gone in a day or less.
It saddens me to hear how some on the American left see this war. The stereotype of historically illiterate US lives on
I'd say most Americans are globally illertate, being so far from everyone else. History is not nessicarily a shared experience.
Not just the American left. In the UK the mainstream left was led by a guy who literally regurgitated RT's script on Ukraine
Wait till you get a load of the American right! I welcome the leftists that have cavalier attitudes on the war. It lets me know who the disingenuous money grubbing moles are and not to trust anything they say. A good example is Tulsi gabbard, I knew she was a mole years ago due to the talking points she constantly pushed. They were far to alike with lines coming from the kremlin.
we have some morons, thou. I bet Korwin-Mikke still has his mouth full of praises for Putin.
Amazing how most apologists for russian imperialistic tendencies never had to suffer under russian imperialism.
Polish left wasn't fooled. Polish right wasn't fooled as well. I was luckily born in a country that sees Russia for what it really is.
Poland is awesome. Much love and all the best from Germany.
After Finland made the decision to join NATO, Russia continued moving all available troops and equipment from the 5 military bases near the Finnish border to Ukraine. Russia has also moved the 2 airborne brigades from Kaliningrad. These actions should be enough for anyone to understand Russia does not REALLY consider NATO to pose a threat to Russian national security.
The left wing ideological tradition of seeing western imperialism as the core problem is very familiar to me. For Hundreds of years, western imperialism has done a lot of harm in the world. Putin's propaganda is skillfully using this to their advantage, portraying Russia as a victim of western imperialism.
As a Finnish leftist, I am against ALL imperialism. There are no moral grounds whatsoever to support Russian imperialism while you are against western imperialism.
A very good point.
much appreciated, being from the left myself i'm beyond horrorized about this, thanks
My pleasure. Much of the left gets it completely of course.
All tragedies of twenties century happened because of total misunderstanding of actual Jungian nature of Russia
Hey, it happens. A ton of movements are completely coopeted by posers who want to surf that movement to the top. As cooptations go, this is was not even that successful. Not that sizeable of a chunk of the left fell for this. I think that this is entirely solvable. We exclude the people who have proven themselves to be covert pro-imperialists and we move forward. At least now we know who is who.
@@VladVexlerI would say I get it but my reasons are several at once, it's complicated. One could say, enough is enough.
The underwear poisoner carries a loong tradtion of insanity and psychopathy. He governs by Stockholm syndrome and for some reason he still believes he can get away with it.
@@VladVexler i get that most of this is some kind of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" mentality, doesn't matter the nature of him.
And it seems people aren't able to understand that while we sure should not accept the current state of affairs, it could be much worse.
I'm brazilian, and people here are too far off the european reality, so the left here often has a simplistic "all that makes the world more multipolar" must be good defense of appeasing russia.
One problem is the language and geographical barrier, if people here were exposed to content in portuguese from people that are affected by the war, or excellent content like you it would be way easier for them to understand.
As a Polish leftist I can confirm. It's extermely rare to find anyone supporting or making excuses for Kremlin on the left in Poland. It doesn't matter if the left in question is social-democratic, democratic socialist or anarcho-syndicalistic etc. Alt-right is basically the only political group with significant pro-Kremlin leaning. This may be in part for historical reasons. In Poland, like in many other places in Eastern Europe, leftist movements were, at their very inception, aimed at fighting Russian authoritarianism and imperialism, while the nationalistic right was perfectly content with licking tzars' boots.
@@TheKeendark
Yes it does. We have a left-wing coalition in the parliment (made up mailnly of social democrats, with some democratic socialists and soclibs mixed in). While it doesn't get nearly as many votes as I'd like, this is mainly due to the fact, that the political scene is dominated by two right-wing parties (nationalistic right, and liberal center-right). In the meantime, number of people identifying as left-wing in Poland is steadily growing, especially among the younger generation. Many of them simply vote for liberal center-right as the "lesser evil". As is often the case, our political class is generally more right-leaning and conservative than the society itself. However, if you look at grassroots activism, the left is surprisingly strong in Poland.
Polish left = anywhere else right
@@dubokailegala
Libs in Poland often get labeled as "left", while mainstream, moderate left gets labeled as "commies". Thats true, and it's annoying as hell. But as I said before, we *do* have actual left, which would be considered mainstream left in the West, but in Poland it is considered "extreme" for some reason.
None of these tankies ever want to speak with people who've had first hand experience of ruzzian authoritarianism. (I speak as a British centre-leftist here.)
its interesting. thats a tendency with alt-right in many places. they believe Russia is like some "conservative Christian bastion"...where is in reality, I myself from Lithuania, I would NEVER even think to describe Russia as "Christian conservative bastion" 😅 almost opposite of that.
Noam Chomsky being wrong, what a shock
I think everything non-physics related Einstein said (of the things he actually said) were quite silly, too (or took him a lifetime to get.) Chomsky revolutionized so many fields (IT, Linguistics, Psychology...) but also spreads crackpot ideas about so much more than the things he helps us better understand.
Genius does not magically make you know things, have moral intentions or let you see things disspassionately. That is just how it is. If you have "intellectual heroes", you are probably not very intellectual. People need to give these people less weight.
Yeah all his arguments can be summed up in america bad.
@@annoyingcommentator1582that’s why intelligence =/= wisdom. You can be wise but not necessarily intelligent, and likewise you can be intelligent but not wise. Albert Einstein was both of those, Noam Chomsky is not. Chomsky is just a Dollar Store Karl Marx.
I'd love to see you actually try to refute any of what he claimed
1.00. "We said not an inch to the East. That was a NATO guarantee in 1990. " That was NOT a NATO guarantee, that was a comment that James Baker made to Gorbachev that no foreign troops would be deployed in East Germany not about the enlargement of NATO. At the time, the Warsaw Pact still existed and the NATO enlargement was literally impossible. Gorbachev never met with NATO and NATO never made that promise. By the way, a guarantee in International Law is only a Treaty signed by a president. As for NATO it must be signed by all members.And that never happened. The whole story about the NATO enlargement is an urban legend.
Oh no there is an actual treaty, that there is no NATO presence in East Germany. But that only applies to East Germany.
Not sure why Russia invaded Ukraine is such a difficult fact for some people to understand. Thank you Vlad, brilliant as always ❤
Is easy, but is not simple to just support NATO, I'm not Russian, but if NATO get stronger with Ukraine is just worse for basically half of the world freedom
@@filiperosa7496 Why would it be worse for 'half of the world freedom' if a defensive military alliance gets bigger by new members joining it to have security guarantees against aggressors? This makes no sense.
NATO removing freedoms, eh??? The most free countries in the world are in NATO. There is nothing inherent in NATO to set up authoritarianism...
Vlad i suspect from this post is a ruzzian troll.
@@andreasschmidt5857 they don't let anyone join and use their military to gain economic advantages of the third world, some countries in Africa are forced by pure miliary presence to sell resources to EU, they don't have freedom
The way Poland essentially browbeat NATO until they were admitted deserves comment all on its own. As you pointed out, the former Warsaw Pact largely wanted into NATO because they knew EXACTLY what Russia is like.
Exactly! Ukrainians have been begging to join NATO and EU because they have an insane neighbour russia!
Walesa also did talk with Yeltsin about Poland joining NATO, and Yeltsin was okay with it. Yeltsin did understand that Poland is East of (West) Germany, the formerly last NATO country. And that conversation was after the often cited 1990 discussion about “NATO expansion” related to the German reunification… those earlier conversations were only attended by Americans, Russians and Germans - so they couldn’t make any binding promises about any other European country but Germany.
@@Lorenz1973 Yeltsin was a very pro Western leader. Of course he was okay with Poland in Nato. He also was okay with the aggressive form of capitalism the west wanted in Russia and allowed it to happen. This is why Putin happened. One can argue that the decade of the 90s in Russia was an attempt by the west to completely exploit Russia. It was also a demographic disaster for Russia with the average life span for men falling under 60. This is why Putin happened.
Amen!
Warshaw pact has the unique distinction of being "defensive" allience that invaded itself TWICE
As a western European I have a lot of hatred for the US. However I can also acknowledge when they do good things. The US came and saved us in the second world war, and that has not been forgotten. The US is now also helping Ukraine's fight for survival, and that too I praise and respect. The world is neither black nor white, but only shades of grey. In this instance, Russia is the darkest of greys and must be countered.
As an East Coast American, I have a lot of hatred for smug Europeans. The British fended for themselves in WWII prior to US involvement so I have to acknowledge this and today Europeans make excellent espresso. The world is not black and white, only shades of coffee beans. Russia is the darkest of beans.
How is it that a random TH-cam comment has more sense than Hasan Piker?
@@YujiroHanma682 It's not that hard lol
As a Brit and a staunch leftist, these people remind me very much of a prime minister my country had during the rise of another expansionist dictator…
Well done you, it's people with weak lefty ideas like yours that have lead to the UK now facing WW3 with no Navy, no real military, no industry and no cohesion in society. Pat yourself on the back 👏
Thank you, Vlad, for a clear-eyed reminder of what Putin really is.
Thank YOU.
It's also sickening to watch the NATO countries' timidity when it comes to supplying Ukraine with the proper weapons not only to defend itself, but also to defeat Russia and take back all the territories occupied since 2014. Analytically weak, and cruel.
The Baltics, Nordics, Poland have zero illusions about Russia.
@@EEX97623That's because they live right next door to fascist Russia.
@@WhizzRichardThompson that's because they all want their own piece of it.
@StelzCat we want Russia to stay in Russia, don't spread like cancer cell or sth...
@@StelzCatfunny how Russian propagandists always attribute Russian imperialist ambition to oponents at the time, be it USA, NATO, Poland, Ukraine... as if Russia was such a peaceful nation 😂
Noam Chomsky disappeared mid 2023 and has not commented on it since.
His model was based on the neutrality of the Finns.
This crashed once Finland and Sweden announced their intention to join NATO.
Soon after Noam addressed a respectful Finnish audience.
J
He lectured, he berated, he wagged his finger at them.
They politely clapped.
Chomsky slunk away not to be heard from again until the Hamas atrocity several months later.
Do you have source
@@maciejkaczorowski1272 could you be more specific?
I mean do u have sorce in article about it or video
Type in
Noam chomsky: Russian-Ukraine war, Finland and Sweden joining NATO
That should do it. About a year ago.
Finland joining NATO was the nail in the coffin for any idea to the contrary of reality. Putin initiated obscene aggression against Ukraine, killing over one million people in the process, because Ukraine was swinging to a pro-wester way of thinking. His war provoked Finland and Sweden to immediately join NATO.
These facts are self evident.
Blow hard retar|)s cant argue their nonsense when the entire world has seen this.
I´ve just listened to this over and over... A few days ago I bumped into some Mearsheimer+ others debate and I was shocked how many people in the discussion below were praising him. It got me really upset, angry. Chomsky, Mearsheimer- all blinded but their anti US politics stance miss out on the reality of the people and countries living in the vicinity of Russia, the unpredictable bad neighbour of ours.
You managed to go through this topic so well. One by one, all the facets. Thank you.
Since the end of WWII or even the end of the Cold War, the United States and its NATO allies have invaded far more countries than Russia.
Hey Vlad, THANK YOU FOR THIS!!!
I’m a politically active US secular progressive and find myself fighting against both sides of the aisle. Your introductory analysis and commentary on the maddening reality of my and out erstwhile progressive allies and activists is both informative and genuinely comforting to me. Thanks, dear kind Vlad.
Bruh, we saw 5 waves of Russia invading other countries 😂 that's why they started seeking NATO membership
Bruh....
Well yeh,they started a war in Moldova and Georgia in the early 90s using the same pretext as in Ukraine today, there are Russian minorities in the Baltic states which could be used as an excuse to reoccupy those countries, which is why they joined NATO in the first place.
I think one thing people are kind of missing is that these leftists aren't historians. Wolff is an "economist" (and those are heavy quotes), Chomsky is a linguist, Jeffrey Sachs is an economist as well, Cornel West is a philosopher. Most of these people don't actually have that deep of a historical understanding. It's kind of like your critique of Kraut's video on Ilyin. They don't actually know that much (I mean, they know more than most), but they have enough knowledge to delude themselves into thinking they understand more than they actually do. I was also bought into most of the pro-Russia narrative, until I started digging into things. And every subject that I've dug into - for example, the bombing of Yugoslavia by NATO, the NATO expansion, the Cuban missile crisis, etc. aren't really as clear cut western aggression and expansionism as the "popular" narrative describes. Now I never take things outright for granted until I've done some research on the subject, even at a very basic level.
This is a solid breakdown. I think it's actually really valid to look into Russian/Soviet KGB/FSB operations as another reason for the lefts (and now the rights), near conspiratorial thoughts on US foreign policy that have led to them always blaming the USA for global destabilization. There are concrete examples of how the left was driven to hate their own country more than mafia/dictatorships, and we are seeing that in the right these days for nearly the same reasons. It's super "controversial" to talk about though, because it doesn't paint either extreme in either party as being that stable. The right is even more dangerous when it comes to Ukraine right now for example, because the extremists are literally in office attempting to block aid to Ukraine.
Thank you. Have become increasingly frustrated with the idea out there that ‘Because America bad, Russia good’.
Geopolitics is not a Disney movie with one clear villain for all situations. You have explained that with much more patience and intelligence than I possess.
Thinking that Russia beating America in this proxy war will be a good thing doesn't mean you think Russia is good.
America is very bad and evil. Most of the stuff we have done - Ike Indonesia - 99.9% of Americans don’t even know happened. We have a very good CIA, they are very good at their job.
There are many personalities I used to enjoy listening to and thinking "with" who fell into this trap. It's been frustrating, disappointing, and in some cases heartbreaking. I feel a bit better, understanding more thoroughly where they're coming from. Thank you for that, Vlad.
Also - loving the overhead camera angle, boss. Great editing, great pace - this is one of your best, and worth waiting for - thank you! (Lots of love, talk soon ;) )
Thankfully all political/social commentators i watch regularly are pro-ukraine. But i have been disapointed by quite a few people that i liked but didnt watch all the time.
It is heartbreaking to hear people you know to have love and compassion within them say the most outrageous dehumanizing things without batting an eyelash. I am with you, don't despair
Russell Brand (who I was never a big fan of, but had some respect for him) seems to have turned into an anti-West conspiracy theory nutter, which is sad.
@igotes he is one of the people I liked, and lost, until this video. He and I aren't BACK...but at least I can see where he's coming from - inaccurate assumptions and broken logic and all. And I can forgive him.
Like he cares. :D
Thank you!!! I figured it out myself but you added elements new too me, you put in a contest, the narrative flows effortlessly like a symphony of words; it isso clear and well explained. If you have written a book I must buy it!!
Thank you for your , in the best sense even reasoning. Through a tricky set of circumstances. You're commenting on Chomsky And others in the American left made me smile in its kind critique. All the best, and greetings from Helsinki/Helsingfors.
Love how those Anti-Imperialists have no problem with completely disregarding any agency for Ukraine.
As a Finnish leftie, I have grown to loathe Chomsky over the last couple of years.
AND for his Ukraine takes as well.
Forgive him. He is going through dementia, like Biden, but unlike Him, Biden is supplying Ukraine with arms, aid, and logistical support.
Leftism is a mental disorder
Same! He has absolutely gone off the rails! It's really sad.
Weird how someone can be profoundly based and also profoundly mistaken.
@@AGHathaway He was always off the rails, he refuses to acknowledge the Bosnian Genocide as a genocide and often defends Cambodia Genocide. The man is a tankie, his theories on Manufactured Consent border on conspiracy theory. Anything the west does is bad and therefore any dictator no matter how vile, must be a force for good.
I grew up in the US, but have lived in Helsinki, Finland for nearly 30 years. My politics are centrist and I have no axe to grind. Living in a country that has long been threatened by first the USSR and now Russia, I'd like to invite all of the ivory tower Western leftists, who have no idea what it's like to live under the threat of tyrants (real ones, and not their imagined ones), to not pontificate about things which they don't understand.
i think Finalnd was called 'pink' for not being entirely red but cooperating with the USSR after the end of the 2nd world war. From the economical point of view that benefited Finland greatly.
Finland was a part of Russia..
Finland fought along with Nazi's...
Like a Cuban who is afraid of USA
@@stefanmilojkovic Cuban, Mexican, El Salvadoran, Venezuelan, Nicaraguan, Guatemalan, Honduran, Chilean, Columbian, Panamanian, and even Canadian.
Chomsky is dying with cognitive abilities dramatically decreased...
What blows my mind is the arrogance to picture the free will of the people of eastern Europe to join NATO in the 90ies as "NATO-expansion". For these countries joining NATO is a direct result of the occupation and surpression by Soviet Russia for more than 40 years.
Russia - and the Putin-friendly political forces in the West - complain about that because they´re still not accepting the indipendence of eastern Europe. They think that is is fair enough that Russia can force eastern Europe to bend to it´s will, which is utterly ridiculous.
The USSR's collapse was a triumph over imperialism, first and foremost, a victory for nationalism, second, and, at last, though least, a sign of capitalism's success.
Try putting a Russian base in Mexico and see how the US would react.
@@bilic8094 Your analogy would be perfect if not for the fact that russia constantly threatens to nuke the whole west
@bilic8094 why would Mexico accept that?
@@bilic8094 Also it would make even more sense if Mexico felt threatened by USA and the will of the people were to have russian bases
I completely agree that those analysts suffer from the typical American narcissism of thinking only from the US' POV. Being from a country that actually suffered from the end stick of that imperialism (Chile), it angers me to think they see all other countries as mere victims, as if neither their population nor their states are capable of any reaction against (or for) that US' policy, now or in the past.
So, it is not only intelectually poor to analyze international relationships like that, it's also laughable they see themselves as "contrarians" when, in fact, they're just as American as the Tea Party Republicans
This really struck a nerve with me. So many Americans treat Ukrainians like we are not real people with real experiences, views and opinions but victims of us propaganda and don't think for ourselves. And I also see very clearly how attitude of some leftists is affected by the typical patriarchal victim image: we are constantly denied the right to feel anger or being supportive of our army. We have to be this sad sad whining in the corner, waiting to be saved victims. Otherwise, we are immediately painted as villains. Just as conservatives would claim that every woman, who actively seeks justice after being assaulted, is setting a man up. Not so different after all.
Exactly. Other commentators I follow have observed that these American leftists suffer of the same imperialist superiority complex they condemn. They deny agency and right to self determination to all countries that are not the US or Russia.
American diabolists refuse to accept other people have agency. The narrative they sell affords people like Pinochet and other right wing authoritarian goons no culpability in their own crimes.
American speaking up for my fellow countrymen; I find it disheartening (and a little frustrating) that people seem to see this as 'typical' for us when from here it only seems to be such for those of us who are reliably being the loudest about our politics.
We're a large and very diverse nation. Neither Tucker Carlson nor Richard Wolf can claim to speak for us.
@@hannat6406 I think your comment only applies to a politicized segment of the population, namely the MAGA right and more ideological left. I am not American, but pretty close, and I think that outside the above camps, most Americans look at Ukrainians as anything but anyone's puppets. In other words, as a people with a very strong will, identity and mind of their own. I mean, people compare Zelensky to Churchill. Sending you a churchillian "V" (for Victory) while at it! :-)
As a Mexican, Putin has fooled even my own family members who have "leftie" politics. Granted since we're Latino, we know ALL to well about American imperialism but when I try to convince them that Russia invading Ukraine or China buying up Latin America is just as bad, the best response I get is, "But the US does the same thing." To which I agree, but that's NOT a good thing!
People are forgetting that there more than one imperialist country in the world.
This is the sentiment I feel as well. I think criticism of some leftists people like Chomsky and Sachs misses some nuance. It’s almost as if any criticism of NATO or the USA is seen as approval of Russia and Putin. The inverse holds true as well. Any support for Ukraine seems to be synonymous with a condemnation of Russian concern of NATO expansion.
All of those issues can be discussed without having a direct relationship between each other.
Whataboutism is the cornerstone of apologism for Russian imperialism.
That's purposely. Whataboutism is actually born as a Soviet Chekist propaganda tool, which Leftist intellectuals have spread and inculcated so widely among masses of people far less educated and acquainted with such "intellectual" issues that they could well handle instead. Those who were mainly fooled by Leftist intellectuals are in fact such masses, which were so long gatekeeped to a specific worldview to harness by such intellectuals, a worldview that perfectly suits the agenda of fascist regimes such as Putin's Russia as they could be easily posed as alternate to such supposed "Western/Zionist/otherwise "bourgeoisie"" type of imperialism that such intellectuals focuses and inculcate their masses to battle against with.
china buying up latin america is bad? what did china do to Mexicans in history is bad? invade, colonize, or enslave you? china is the no.1 trading parterner for more than 130 countries in the world, chinese work hard to 2nd largest economy without fight a bullet on any war for 40 years. what do you mean buying up? you don't like china to invest in your country? I heard Mexico is replacing china to produce for the US market and many of the factories are invested by chinese and the tech is transfered from china.
"Russian security concerns"
"Russia surrounded"
"Sense of mission"
"Russian destiny"
All this makes only sense if we regard Russians as a superior race and they deserve better than such low lives as Ukrainians, Georgians, Chechens etc. - so these nations were invaded by Russia for a reason.
Russia has a tradition of invading neighbors for "security concerns".
Let' start in Soviet times:
1939 Finland
1953 East Germany
1956 Hungary
1968 Czechoslovakia
1980 Afghanistan
Post-Soviet, when Putin came to power in the end of the 90ies: Chechnya, Georgia, Syria, Ukraine
Most of these nations were Russian allies before they were attacked, however they were in danger of "drifting away" from the Russian sphere of influence. Each one of these "special military operations" led to a permanent military presence of Russian troops which only came to an end when the USSR collapsed in 1991. The other nations on the list (post-Soviet invasions) still have Russians soldiers on their territory.
This is part of the reason that I think people like Vaush, who has been openly pro Ukrainian, has been one of the best leftist figures on the internet.
Praise to the Karkhiv Kid Finder
I'll have to give Vaush another look
The left are inherently confused and utilitarian - whatever seems more popular, will be what they morph into, causing great destruction while they do.
When anyone glibly calls this a 'proxy war', I always remind them that they are completely misremembering the early weeks after the invasion where NATO refused to send Ukraine so much as a bullet for fear of 'poking the bear'
Plus the orange one used the carrot of aide for corruption.
and if anything, it is a proxy war between the us and china.
Ex-CIA Director Leon Panetta openly called this a proxy war. It´s on video. Look for it. I guess the former director of US intelligence is a dope.
I do call this a proxy war, but my usage of the term is neutral. This is a good proxy war where the proxy needs all the support it can get.
@@VladVexleryou have never been to a war, have you? You have never sent a son to a war, have you?
I worked on Germany 25 years ago. There was a team of nice Polish guys working near us. For some reason one of them change mood in a second thinking for some reason that I am a Russian. I quickly explained that I am a Croat and in that moment he apologized and we shook hands. In Croatia we also love Polish people and do not trust Putin's regime. Anyway, some people are deluded by overwhelming Russian tsarist propaganda. Polish people know best that nobody was better off under Russian rule.
Good info ℹ️
Thank you Johnny!
16:41 Mic drop moment for me:
"There is no nuclear risk-free way of standing up to Putin's imperialistic aggression."
Nothing to add.
Chomsky: We have to offer Putin some kind of escape hatch
Putin: I don't need an escape hatch, I need control over Ukraine
Great analysis. Thank you!
The thing that annoys me most about people like chomsky is how they always talk down from their high moral horse while denying literal genocides.
Maybe a next video could be "How Putin fooled the Western right"?
It's interesting to see both far right and left being fooled by same people just with kinda different sets of ideas.
Yes! Agreed
Yes, I’m probably somewhere close to political centre, with some left and right leanings. I’m totally against the Russian invasion of Ukraine and see Putin as a thug. An intelligent and wily thug, but a thug nonetheless.
I have some friends though who are so anti-Biden (I have no problem with that) that they are actually pro anyone who is perceived to be in opposition to him. This is very weird and anti-intellectual thinking, but it exists nonetheless.
I don't think there was any fooling going on there, tbh.
Good idea!!!!!
I pity the fool who can't see that the 2014 "Maidan revolution" was just another US regime-change operation and that notions of left-wing or right-wing politics are irrelevant
As a Georgian I can say that he speaks very well for most of eastern Europe. You are a very intelligent man.
ინთელიჯენტ კი არა შენნაირი გამოყლევებულია. გიხაროდენ :)
@@ddmtsa რა არ მოგეწონა? :დდდ ანალიზი გააკეთა სიტუაციის ძალიან კარგად და თუ რამე სხვას ფიქრობ, შეგიძლია, გამოხატო აზრი და არ გადახვიდე პირდაპირ შეურაცხყოფაზე :დდდ
ბოდიში მომითხოვია! ჩვეულებრივი დასავლური პროპაგანდაა, რომლის მსხვერპლი ხარ შენც და მთელი აღმოსავლეთ ევროპაც, რომელსაც კომენტარში ახსენებ.@@lazarebedukadze7244
How I didn´t find your channel before is a mystery, but my God, you can have the insight of a saint, love your content. You have the inside perspective that the Western alt-left and hard Right need to hear.
Fact 1: Putin has boosted NATO expansion.
Fact2: Putin has boosted NATO.
Genius!
Dear Vlad, as someone deeming himself tending to the political left I'm deeply grateful for your careful and thorough piece of analysis.
Thank you so much for your work.
Kind Regards from Germany.
Regards back! Of course a lot of leftists get this, including in the West.
@@VladVexlerYour analysis ignores the human factor : the "macho" president fishing shirtless in Siberia, flying in a Sukhoy, slaying a dragon, aso, is now... sexually impotent. Alina Kabaeva is 31 years younger and the "macho man" who's secretly or subconsciously terrified he is mortal, needed a big victory to deliver to his much younger mistress/wife. Maybe a psychologist or psychiatrist could tell us more.
As for the NATO promises, less than a year before Gorbachev died, he personally answered Russia TV saying there was never any NATO promise regarding a possible expansion. Furthermore, the Warsaw Pact was still formally in ace at that time. But all in all, the parallels with Hitler in the 30s are absolutely striking and I don't see any solution to this except war with NATO. I suspect Putin's hidden plan was from the very beginning this and not Ukraine.
the problem isn't the left, or the right. The problem is when ideology blinds reality checks in any part of the political spectum
@@VladVexlerthis was fantastic. Liked, subscribed, and hit that bell. Thank you for this.
@@VladVexleryes the same lefties that do everything to make the rich richer and privatise everything
As someone who's left leaning my initial instinct on this conflict was to seek out the words of Noam Chomsky, however I couldn't take his perspective seriously as in my mind what he was encouraging was essentially appeasement. Putin and every other despot has to learn that they cannot just roll into another sovereign country with the intention of taking it and suffer no consequences. Putin must fail and must be seen to fail.
Noan Chomsky and alike is like ‘peace in our time’
Really like to know how they think they could apease Hitler
Why would anyone seek that wack job? He has been denying genocide after genocide for decades and should be in a strait jacket by now.
I haven't seen Chomsky recommend any appeasement. He merely recommends not using Ukraine as a proxy state - using Ukrainian bodies as cheap fodder for weakening Russia's economy. Ukraine can't win this war, and everyone knows the only way this war will end is through negotiations. Negotiations don't always result in "appeasement". What's wrong with making Ukraine a sovereign yet neutral buffer state?
Would the USA allow Mexico to be allied with Russia or China and point weapons at our borders? This is a double standard, isn't it?
@@cookiecola5852yeah pretty much like every nazi sympathiser back then and every wishful thinker that believed that giving a few concession to germany would stop another war... still killed tens of millions and burnt europe...
This conflict also hold in balance the far east peace. Ruzzia succeed, china might be confident enough to wage war and take taiwan and the MOST important sea lane for trade would be jeopardize.
It isn't only that Putin must not be rewarded, it is also that a treaty to achieve nuclear disarmament must be seen to work.
Vlad, I LOVE the way you show unequivocally that these American leftist intellectuals are completely WRONG on Ukraine, and yet do so respectfully, leaving room for future agreement on other issues. I wish more people could voice their opinions the way you do. This is better content than the vast majority of pundits on cable making millions. You should write a book in this voice.
Thanks so much!
Thank you, Vlad. As someone who agrees with much of the Progressive Left, I've been extremely frustrated over the last many months by some of the things they've said about the war. Particularly Ukraine's 'refusal to negotiate', as if that's the cause of the conflict, and that if only there was a treaty that would be the end of it.
Yes if only Zelensky would negotiate the war he and NATO provoked according to those clowns. Upside down world from the so called progressive left. One single thing I think is important to do as a leftist and that is to be against invasions by fascists on a democratic nation fighting for its life. It is kind of a bare minimum.
No magical treaty will end the war. When the Ukrainians state, “this war started in Crimea, and it will end in Crimea” they are dead serious. Everyone thinks if NATO stops supplying weapons, the war will end. NOTE! I have been in and out of Ukraine for going on 9 years now and own a home there. The Ukrainians will not accept any treaty giving one inch of ground to Russia. They will fight with sticks and stones first. 😢
The question is: to negociate... what?
The Russians do not respect any treaty (Budapest 94, Istambul 99 & Minsk Agreements).
The fact that Russia (through Putin) expect that countries respect "oral promises" but they do not respect "signed treaties" for me is mindblowing!
@@mihaidumitrescu1325 Russia is not a "side" in Minsk agreements. Russia is an observer, like Germany and France. What is wrong with you, do you really not check what you write at all. OSCE resolutions are advisory in nature and their price is the same as that of verbal promises.
@@user-nl6zv6hz6x that is totally totally incorrect.
I will tell you "what is wrong" with me.
We all know the "little green men" were, infact, Russian troups that were acting under the command of Putin.
What does Russian mean? Paid by the Russian Government and under the orders of the President.
How was the President in charge? By giving money to Wagner (he said that) and by presenting him with orders (Wagner themselves recognize Putin as supreme leader)
Minsk Agreements:
1. 10. Withdrawal of all foreign armed formations, military equipment, as well as mercenaries from the territory of Ukraine under monitoring of the OSCE. Disarmament of all illegal group
2. 1. Immediate and comprehensive ceasefire in certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine and its strict implementation as of 15 February 2015, 12am local time.
3. 2. Withdrawal of all heavy weapons by both sides by equal distances in order to create a security zone of at least 50km wide from each other for the artillery systems of caliber of 100 and more, a security zone of 70km wide for MLRS and 140km wide for MLRS Tornado-S, Uragan, Smerch and Tactical Missile Systems (Tochka, Tochka U)
If Russia does not see itself as "part in conflict" (which is weird, because the DPLR & LPR are, indeed, following Putin's order and follow aggressive war besides their teritory at this moment), Russia should have withdrawed her forces AT LEAST with article 10, which says: "Withdrawal of ALL foreign forces".
What is there more to talk?
On the issue of Moldova:
www.peaceagreements.org/viewmasterdocument/1604
there is THIS document signed by the Russian state.
There is no justification for Russia to not abide it ;)
Way more powerful than "Baker's promise", don't you think?
The term 'NATO expansion' is a framing term to begin with. It was not NATO actively recruiting new members into its fold, it was former soviet satellite states remembering Russian aggression and suppression, seeking protection.
If the Baltics and Poland had not joined NATO, Russian tanks would be there now.
After brexit the EU was on the verge of deterioration. There was serious talks regarding the defunding and dissolution of NATO. Putin 's invasion of Ukraine reversed that.
No brexit reverse that and Ukraine invasion did just further strengthen EU
This is outstanding Vlad
It was never about NATO expansion. That was about Russian expansion. NATO expansion prevents Russian expansion, which interferes with Putin’s aspirations.
Putin himself wrote like 15 page long essay about Ukraine being part of Russia in 2021 but somehow, the brainless leftists online believe that it was about NATO, US imperialism, biolabs, or some nazis in Ukraine. I say that as someone who is politically on the left spectrum but I don't share some of their views on foreign policy. Many of their foreign policy takes seem to be aim for people with the brain of a child.
😅😅😅😅 just rubbish
Lol
Yet NATO expanded before Russia
@@FazeParticles, Yeah. Countries that were afraid of being invaded by Russia joined NATO. Ukraine should have joined. Then they wouldn’t have been invaded.
I'm an American and I consider myself very left (for an American) and I really appreciated this video. I've noticed since as far back as Russia's invasion of Georgia in 2008, that some of the biggest voices on the left are confused about Russia and America's role in Europe. You're right that they have a kind of reverse American-centrism, because they can't acknowledge that other countries are capable of being imperialistic and of driving geopolitical events. They also underestimate how ineffective American foreign policy can be at times, such as the withdrawal from Afghanistan, so they assume that if a big conflict is happening, it must be because America is pulling all the strings and causing it to happen.
The left's view that we should have respected Russia's security concerns is also misguided. The Mearsheimer camp say that Russia has security interests in Eastern Europe, while ignoring the fact that Ukraine is a sovereign country with security concerns. Virtually all of Russia's neighboring Eastern European countries except for Belarus are democratic countries and Russia constitutes their main security concern.
They also ignore the fact that the EU and NATO are largely responsible for the longest period of peace and prosperity in Europe's history. It's also not imperialistic in the traditional sense. America doesn't topple European governments or crush rebellions to force countries into NATO. Eastern European countries begged to join the bloc. Because they know the trade opportunities and mutual defense guarantees are the best deal on the planet.
American foreign policy can be horrific in certain contexts. American history in Latin America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia over the last 80 years is often appalling. But the trade and defense spaces America has created in Western Europe and Eastern Asia are definitely a force for good. When Putin says that NATO expansion was a threat to Russia, he's saying that peaceful democratic countries that are willing to trade for his oil and gas at a loss to themselves are a threat to him, which is an absurd argument. This is a nakedly fascist argument not unlike Hitler's excuses about the Sudetenland.
The American left has far more nuanced and factual arguments about the shortcomings of capitalism and the history of race in America and its role in poverty than the right does, but their need to say that America is always guilty for everything is a bit like medieval Christian self-flagellation. The expansion of liberty and democracy in Europe and Asia in the 20th Century was a major success for the left. We should acknowledge it and be willing to continue to defend it. We should not be seduced by obvious autocrats who want us to do his work of criticizing ourselves for him.
Social democracy roduced greater labor rights than communist dictatorships ever did. Unionization is illegal in China and was also illegal in the USSR. Liberal democracy allowed for workers rights which top down political structures will simply never be capable of delivering.
Quite a good point,good sir
Typical US exceptionalism. Sovereignty was never a priority. The US's treatment of Cuba during the missle crisis saw to that. There isn't a single thing that Russia has done that the US hasn't ten fold. The age of imperialism is ending, learn to work for your well-being instead of leeching from the world.
Great point, although I'm intrigued, why do you say the expansion of liberty and democracy is a major success for the left? is it for the left specifically, or 'also' for the left?
The left has no functional power in America, it's job is to steer the center from going right and to provide a counter-argument to the right and to vote against the right with the liberals and centrists. The left will never decide geopolitics, it will never start or stop an invasion itself, it will never determine technological revolution or immigration policies itself but it can soften some of the more extreme policies in these areas. There might be two parties but actually there are coalitions that form constantly to keep American politics from becoming too extreme. This is why the center right joined the left in voted against Trump. But in the case of Ukraine, the left is not needed to support Ukraine, it is needed to blunt over-intervention. I personally support putting 30k European/American troops in Ukraine so Ukraine can win the fucking war but I admit this policy could lead to global conflict if it backfires, the left provides a counter-weight to liberal or centrist pragmatism that might put too much America power into Ukraine in the name of steamrolling the fucking Russian fascists. The left by nature challenges power structures and the moment it gains power it can no longer challenge the power structure and it just mimics the prior structures to maintain power. This is why the left never runs a state, people certainly choose or allow the left to rule but it converts overnight to the status quo and its policies quickly focus on merely maintaining power.
Thank you for not lumping all the people on the left into one perspective on this issue.
One after another, you are knocking it out of the park!
Thank you!
These are just Americans viewing the whole ammter in terms of their American political concerns, without having any knowledge whatever, it would seem, of the concerns of the Ukrainians themselves, who are assumed to have no agency of their own. A similar outlook can also be found on the American right.
Really great insights Vlad! The thing that most impresses me with your work is how coherently constructed it is. Every time you bring in a new piece of analysis it's like I realize I was only looking at a small part of the painting and you pointed out another part. Keep up the great work!
Thank you so much!
thank you for your video's Vlad Vexler... a breath of fresh air
My pleasure and thank you!
This speaks volumes about your intellectual quality that you even look into the “NATO expansion” argument seriously and analysing. We here discard it altogether without a second thought.
Not one of these people mentions even one time "The right of self determination" the desire of each Ukrainian to take part in the choice of the future of their country ie the very thing that America was founded on
Exactly, they keep saying Ukraine is full of Nazis to justify the war.
America was a negation of self determination for the natives it displaced and killed, is it not?
There is no "right" to self-determination. Its an insubstantial hope.
@@markcreemore4915It’s Article 1 of the UN Charter. People/Nations have the right to choose their own governments and should not be subject to the imperial whims of their more aggressive and/or more powerful neighbours.
@@joshualawson1579 NOBODY cares about the UN😂🤣. It's a total fucking joke, and a bad one at that.
A friend of mine, a former war correspondent, wittily compared Putin's foreign policy to sticking your hand in someones face and yelling "Get your face outa my goddam hand!"
And it works shockingly well. You can clear a subway car doing that
@@lif6737, LOL
Or punching them in the face an yelling “stop hitting my hand”.
Now make one about Putin fooling the Western Right, Tucker Carlson, etc.
Super job of explaining this!
Thank you. As an American leftist who also served as a Cold War and post-Cold War soldier, and who has friends in Ukraine, I have been so very disappointed by so much of the Western left and alt-left foolishness surrounding the Russo-Ukrainian War. Then again, I saw a lot of foolishness and parroting of Kremlin talking points long before the 2022 invasion, so I guess I shouldn't have been naïve about the ability of Putin to dazzle and misdirect so much of the Western left--which, as you sagely note, is American-centric in its critique of imperialism. I appreciate that you've raised so many of my own critiques of Western left pro-Kremlin apologetics, even more clearly elucidated in your video.
Have you supported sanctions against US for illegal aggression on Iraq and Syria? US troops are still in Syria without anyone's approval....
@@BojanPeric-kq9etAny country is free to sanction the US. Sanctions are not god ordained or Bipartisan. For example Western countries who disagree with Russia have sanctioned them(refused to trade). Countries which have closer relations have not. This is such a low IQ point.
@@BojanPeric-kq9etThe United States didn’t invade Iraq and Syria and target civilians or attempt to annex them and make them part of the United States. How can you be this dumb and not know the difference?
I think the thing that misleads them into thinking that way is that the US is, in some ways, responsible for starting unwarranted foreign wars and such, so they don’t trust the US’s claimed reasoning for this intervention either. To me, the real leftist position should understand that yes, the US may be bit hypocritical here, yet we should still be willing to accept that imperialism is a global issue and that any reduction of it, even from fellow imperialist governments, is still a net positive
@@BojanPeric-kq9etUN approval not enough for you?
Thanks, Vlad!
The inability of so many Americans, even of American intellectuals, to see anything from a non-US centric point of view never ceases to amaze me.
Be well, and lots of love from Austria!
Truly. America-centrism is the air Americans breathe and move through. It's always there and very hard to notice without making a conscious effort.
And I won't deny that the same is true for a Western-centric perspective more general in Europe as well but that doesn't make it any less bizarre when viewing it from the outside.
Many non-Americans are just as American-centric. That’s why Russian propaganda about what led to the war works in places like India, China etc.
What about the Republican right& their constant denial of accepting money from the Oligarchs to undermine American Democracy?
@@unvergebeneid And yet look at how not a small portion of the world blames the US not only for this war but the majority of the world's ills. You'll have to excuse us for often taking these accusations centrally and seriously. America is always damned if we do and damned if we don't. Trust me, the vast majority of us would love to completely withdraw from the world that loves to hate us above all other true evils.
@@kkpenney444I agree, but one has to look at who are doing the criticism and how they benefit from what they are asking. When asking for aid, what's the grift. A business contract...is it required to have a family member of a well situated politician or military officer as 51% shareholder (without putting any investment forward). Or is aUS intervention removing their opportunity to strip land and the property of some group who has done better through hard work (and, yes, culturally based ideas of cross family alliances).
one of the best videos i have seen in a while
Fantastic summarization!!
An absolutely superb video. Thank you so much. It was a really clear-sighted exploration of how people who begin from the premise that all empires are terrible, then move to the position that the US is the only world empire today, end up deducing that the US must be at least partly wrong at all times, and give tyrants like Putin far too much of the benefit of the doubt as a result. There is psychology at work here which is important to understand.
Hello dear you and thank you!
I think there's another aspect to the psychology here too. They feel special for being able to identify the subtle US imperialism that people often miss, and as a result they can't look at old-school, straight-ahead annex-your-neighbor imperialism without having to add a layer to it that only they can see.
@@1574meyeah. That is something all conspiracy theories have. The idea that they are special and oh so smart for figuring out the true meaning that the “average” person is just to dumb or deluded to see.
Add that with the popularity of bashing on America for everything on the modern internet
"Both sides" have made horrible errors behind the scenes. But people think they must pick one side to blame. Ukrainians are paying with their lives, limbs, eyesight, trauma for this "double-sided betrayal". 🇺🇦💔
I think a major part of the psychology is the fear of nuclear war. They all talk about nuclear war a lot. Actually, I would say that it is their primary concern, to the point that they are more concerned about alleviating their fear of nuclear war than they are about the safety and well being of Ukrainians.