Agency denial

“ The popularity of NATO amongst our former colonies is a mystery only explained by them being vassals with no agency of their own.

— DarthPutinKGB

“ Some of these American left orgs that call themselves “anti-war” and “anti-imperialist” seem to mean anti-ONLY-US-imperialist and pro genocide as long as it’s by anyone the US government might consider “bad.” It’s disgusting to watch.

What I see is: The only thing bad is the US, everything else is totally fine. Who cares what people harmed “over there” say? We know better because we’re American.

Zero nuance. Zero contextual analysis.

— Timnit Gebru

“ Leftists should be careful not to talk to Libyans about Libya, or if they do, to hold their hands over their ears. Because Libyans keep giving the wrong answers concerning Qaddafi’s glorious anti-imperialist dictatorship.

Among the worst of leftist idiots are those who warn that if there’s any military action to stop Assad killing Syrians, ’Syria will become another Libya’. Syria under Assad is incomparably worse than Libya in post-dictator chaos.

In order to keep their ’proxy war’ and western ’regime change’ stories going, they have to totally erase the agency of many millions of Arabs. This is because they are racists, these people so convinced of their radical progressivism.

Many of them are just as racist to Ukrainians. Ukrainians who are giving tens of thousands of lives and dedicating all their time and energy to fighting off genocidal invasion. Then leftists decide Ukrainians are the passive/stupid victims of a proxy war.

— Robin Yassin-Kassab, “Leftists should be careful not to talk to Libyans about Libya, or if they do, to hold their hands over their ears. Because Libyans keep giving the wrong answers concerning Qaddafi’s glorious anti-imperialist dictatorship.” (thread) (pdf)

“ The 2014 coup theory is insulting.

There is a reason that the Maidan protests are referred to by Ukrainians as the “Revolution of Dignity”. Calling the events of 2014 a “coup” robs the people of Ukraine of their agency. It says that they are too stupid to know what’s best for them.

— Alan Hayman, “The Coup In Ukraine Is Actually A Complete Lie” [1]

• Jan Krepelka, “Agency denial is not libertarian”, 2022

• Russian propaganda for American libertarians#Denial of agency

• “Leftists should be careful not to talk to Libyans about Libya, or if they do, to hold their hands over their ears. Because Libyans keep giving the wrong answers concerning Qaddafi’s glorious anti-imperialist dictatorship.” (thread) (pdf)

See also

• Orientalism

• Euromaidan

• Westsplaining

• Russian invasion of Ukraine/Ukrainian voices

• Russian invasion of Ukraine/Russians against the war

• Russian invasion of Ukraine/Belarusians against the war