“anti-imperialism” of idiots

“ This ‘anti-imperialism’ of idiots is one which equates imperialism with the actions of the US alone.

— Leila Al-Shami, “The ‘anti-imperialism’ of idiots”

Quotes

“ It’s really to the point now that if someone has anti-imperialist in their bio I assume they support the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

— Kareem Rifai

“ 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

“ It is amazing how 99% of the people who claim to be anti imperialists, always end up defending the most insane and stupid bullshit. Despite the fact anti imperialism is obviously correct, there is something about it, that only attracts unhinged lunatics.

— Left Hayekean

“ Anti-imperialism: Russia initiating a violent imperialist invasion isn’t a problem, but the US sending aid is somehow the reason why there’s no peace

— Kareem Rifai

“ Russia’s war against Ukraine has exposed the incompetence of the Russian military and the hubris of President Putin. It has also revealed the bravery and resilience of the Ukrainian people, who, contrary to Ron Paul’s ambulatory talking point, had no need of any American to prod or gull them into defending their homeland. Here in the U.S., the war has also exposed the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of an ideologically diverse set of foreign-policy commentators: the “anti-imperialists” who routinely justify blatant acts of imperial conquest, and the “realists” who make arguments unmoored from reality.

— James Kirchick, “How the Anti-war Camp Went Intellectually Bankrupt: Critics of U.S. foreign policy from both ends of the ideological spectrum have found common cause in supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

“ The Stability-Fetishist

Both left-wing ‘anti-imperialism’ and traditional realism can be filed under this category. Each represents a different face of an attitude which views people as mere chess pieces in the great game of international statecraft.

— Six types of ‘useful idiot’

“ The left sees Putin’s Russia as an alternative to NATO, as a rival to NATO. In a sense, they are right: Russia is indeed opposed to NATO. But they do not see, and do not want to see, that the Russian alternative means only a desire to pursue its own, independent but equally (if not worse) imperialist policy.

Russia’s geopolitical goal is not at all to stop Western imperialism, but to make Russia an empire again, more powerful, aggressive and inhuman than the conventional “West”. The Russian state, having suppressed freedom and independence at home, cannot bring any freedom and independence to other countries.

The pro-Russian “Left” does not see this. To use the analogy of George Orwell’s novel 1984, such “leftists” side with the Big Brother of Eurasia against the Big Brother of Oceania.

Such “leftists” are idiots.

— “Leftists” outside Ukraine are used to listening only to people from Moscow: Interview with anarcho-syndicalists in Eastern Ukraine

“ 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)

“ Among the worst disseminators of Kremlin propaganda in the UK are people with whom I have, in the past, shared platforms and made alliances. The grim truth is that, for years, a segment of the “anti-imperialist” left has been recycling and amplifying Putin’s falsehoods.

— George Monbiot, “We must confront Russian propaganda – even when it comes from those we respect”

“ But if you really cannot conceive of a foreign policy principle more sophisticated than “If the US is for it, I’m against it; if the US is against it, I’m for it” then your opinion on these matters are, frankly, rubbish. You are not a principled “anti-war” or “anti-imperialist” leftist if you are indifferent to Ukraine’s struggle, or worse, if you sympathize with its aggressor because you think it’s the lesser evil on the route to an multipolar world order. What you are is a morally depraved apologist for Russian fascism and you should be ashamed for ever considering yourself a leftist. And your kind will be remembered and ridiculed for this, just as the leftists who whitewashed Hitler’s aggression in World War II in the name of “peace”.

— Rodrigo Aguilera, “A breakup letter to the Left”

“ A careful evaluation of recent history illustrates that the claim that US and NATO expansion threatens Moscow’s existence is an exaggeration. That Russia would inflate fears of NATO to pursue its global aspirations is understandable. What is less comprehensible is the degree to which influential Western thinkers, particularly on the anti-imperial US left, have promoted this narrative. This paper will examine the work of prominent US anti-imperial leftists who view the Russo-Ukrainian war through a US-centric lens, a conceptual framework that distorts the historical record. It will first document how these commentators’ explanatory models give outsized attention to US maneuvers, while neglecting regional fault lines, Russian irredentism and historical nuance. Consequently, many US anti-imperial leftists conclude that the US/NATO alliance is to blame for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This paper will explore Russia-NATO interactions and Moscow’s imperial discourse to demonstrate that the blame NATO stance obfuscates the historical record.

— Carl Mirra, “Not One Inch, Unless It Is from Lisbon to Vladivostok” (pdf)

• Oz Katerji, “Literally every single leftist still defending Roger Waters in 2023 is specifically letting Jews, Syrians and Ukrainians know exactly how they feel about them. There’s no excusing ignorance of this bigot’s decades-long, rancid extremism & atrocity revisionism.”

“ I'm going to boil down the left wing argument against arming Ukraine into its simplest form, they want Ukrainians to run out of weapons and ammo so they are left with no option but to surrender or die. That's what they mean when they say weapons "prolong" the war.

It is, at it's core, a pro-fascist position. It's the exact same argument Orwell debunked generations ago. It's reheated fascist garbage, nothing more, nothing less, no matter how many red ribbons it wants to tie around itself. Read what he said, it's black and fucking white.

Ukraine resists, and Britain stands with her. The fascists and their useful idiots will fail, just as they failed in 1945.

— Oz Katerji

“ ‘Coup’ in this case seems to be just an updated version of the infamous term ‘colour revolution’, a nonsense concept invented by tankies who did not like watching the heroic Serbian working class overthrow bourgeois-nationalist butcher Milosevic in 2000, and so then extended its use to entirely different circumstances in Georgia in 2003 and different again in Ukraine in 2004. It is simply a term used for ‘popular uprising’ when it is one disapproved of by this sub-set of western lefties who assume they know what’s best for other peoples, and/or when the regime it is directed against is allied to Russian or Chinese (rather than US) imperialism or otherwise engages in some hollow “anti-imperialist” bluster.

— Michael Karadjis, “Ukraine myths used to justify Putin’s terror”

Examples

• US libertarians in general: Kremlintarianism

• An anti-fascist message from the shadows of Central and Eastern Europe

• “Stop the War”: “Marching forth with Stop the War: Britain’s left must reject the anti-West reactionaries at the heart of its movement” (archive)

• Syria: “Erasing People through Disinformation: Syria and the ‘Anti-Imperialism’ of Fools”

• Ukraine: Taras Bilous, “A letter to the Western Left from Kyiv”, February 25, 2022 [1]

• Ukraine: Oksana Dutchak, “10 Terrible Leftist Arguments against Ukrainian Resistance”

• Israel: Alan Johnson, “The Anti-Imperialism of Idiots”, “Linfield’s book shows how the ground was laid for the Old Left’s socialism of fools to morph into the New Left’s anti-imperialism of idiots.” (the book: Susie Linfield, The Lions’ Den: Zionism and the Left from Hannah Arendt to Noam Chomsky)

• Caitlin Johnstone

• The Ukraine War: Misperceptions on the Left

• Review of Rohini Hensman’s Indefensible: A Challenge to Pseudo-Anti-Imperialism

• Linda Mann, Their Anti-Imperialism and Ours A Review of War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict, by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies

• Bill Weinberg, Review of Medea Benjamin’s book on Ukraine

• “Glad such a vile display of Putin apologism was cancelled. We are proud that the Labour Party supports NATO, and stands in solidarity with Ukraine in their courageous fight against Russian aggression.”

• The People’s Forum, and Code Pink try to brand themselves as “leftists,” yet they parrot Putin’s talking point about NATO in a stylish graphic stating “Honor the Anti-War legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” (thread) (pdf)

• 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)

• Marvelous Mischief, “One of the things I despise the most about Ben Norton, Grayzone, and most anglo-based “anti imperialist” reporters is how absolutely useless they are to understand anything that is happening outside the US (yes, I know their role is propaganda. But too many believe they can learn from them). Compare Ben Norton’s analysis of Celac, which is just “anti imperialism, be afraid US, rah, rah rah” with Claudio Katz analysis. Which one do you think is more useful, even if you don’t agree with Katz analysis?”, February 4, 2023
  • Ben Norton, “Latin America Challenges Neocolonial OAS, and US Hegemony, at Historic CELAC Summit”
  • Claudio Katz, “Los dilemas del progresismo en la CELAC”

• “Left, Right Alliance: Marcyism, Campism, Alt-Imperialism and Faux Populism.”

• “You aren’t antiwar if you aren’t anti-Assad’s war”

• Taras Bilous, “Should Leftists Support Sending Weapons To Ukraine?”

• Oz Katerji, “This “report” cites everyone that has died in Syria, including the hundreds of thousands murdered by the Assad regime, as being victims of “The War On Terror”. To put it simply, this is effectively academic war crimes revisionism.”

• Eliza Robinson, “Apropos of *that* motion passed at the UCU congress and the general sentiment I’ve seen amongst prominent left wing political figures, a reminder that both-sidesing a genocidal imperial war is not “choosing peace”, it’s siding with the oppressor.”

• Russian and Ukrainian activists silenced at Greek MeRA 25 party event: “Russian activist Artem Temirov writes on what he sees as a concerning trend within the Hellenic left to fall into a knee-jerk “anti-imperialism” that is in fact anything but.”

See also

• Westsplaining
• Campism
• Useful idiots
• Tankies
• Kremlinism
• Kremlinophilia
• Putinism
• Kremlintarianism
• Agency Denial