As I type this newsletter, continued American aid for Ukraine is in grave doubt. Tucker Carlson is in Moscow to conduct a friendly interview with Vladimir Putin. And we’re receiving reports from the front lines that Russia is advancing, in part because of Ukrainian ammunition shortages. In short, the war is reaching a critical stage, and Ukraine may lose because Republicans are willing to hand authoritarian Russia a historic military victory rather than supply further aid to a democratic ally.
Ronald Reagan isn’t just rolling over in his grave; he may also lurch from it in a fit of incredulous rage. This is a remarkable and potentially catastrophic reversal by a political party that is in a state of near-total, frequently random ideological transformation.
To explain the intensity of Republican resistance to Ukraine aid, I need to return to a concept I wrote about in November: that of bespoke realities. My friend Renée DiResta, the technical research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory, coined the term, and she wrote that it refers to the “bubble realities” constructed by communities “that operate with their own norms, media, trusted authorities and frameworks of facts.”
Among those who oppose aid to Ukraine, there are certainly several paleoconservatives who object on classic isolationist grounds: It’s not our fight, our support is costly, we might find ourselves inadvertently embroiled in war, and so on. But the mass Republican movement against Ukraine is rooted far less in policy than it is in a particular bespoke reality of the MAGA universe, in which Ukraine is a pernicious villain, Putin is a flawed hero and Russia should have crushed Ukraine long ago.
MAGA Republicans’ hatred and contempt for Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian cause is shockingly vehement. Candace Owens says she wants to “punch” Zelensky. Donald Trump Jr. calls him an “international welfare queen.” Carlson says he dresses “like the manager of a strip club.” It’s all bizarre and unreasonable. And it all fits the broader MAGA narrative.
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TF? Reagan would be right there with trump and the rest of the MAGA idiots. He started all of this.
Anti Communism was 90% of Regan’s schtick.
Same with Putin.
Because they were told to, as they cannot truly think or reason critically, and because they’ve subscribed (with their dollars) to the monthly traitor-box to receive and share the enclosed hatred and revenge. Just like Christians are supposed to preach the Gospel, these chucklefucks spread hatred and bad faith misinformation, with arguments that are paper thin and defeated easily by a simple Google search.
It’s the banner of bullies and abject failures in life. The flunkers and cheaters in school. A lightning-rod for the psycho and sociopaths alike. Of those whose parents failed to teach them character and empathy.
Basically, all the assholes you met in your life since you were a kid and who never had a wake-up call to change are highly likely to sympathize or reside under the maga banner.
They idolize Putin’s power and see themselves in Trump (take that how you will; you know they would). They love that fake-it-til-you make it actually works and they can slide by because after all, that’s all they have.
Now in fairness there is a subset of these individuals who may be decent people deep-down. But they’re so ignorant or apathetic to reality they just know no better. In that respect, external, systemic influences certainly play a part. The right-wing propaganda machine is strong and a hard current to overcome.
TL;DR: they are fascist anti-American traitors who love dictatorship and hate democracy, and should be treated as such.
Now explain why tankies Love Russia and hate Ukraine?
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samepicture.pptx
Sorry, I’m running Windows XP with a really old version of PowerPoint and that’s not opening correctly for me. Can someone convert it for backwards compatability for me?
Here ya go!
totallynotmalware.exe
I am going to start naming files that.
I think there’s something wrong with the file you sent me, it doesn’t open anything. Just a black box appears in the middle of the screen and then disappears and then nothing…
Even worse, I keep getting all these popups telling me to send money or else they’ll release my webcam footage, but I don’t think my computer came with a webcam? I found something on the PC that looked like maybe a lens with a vertical line in the middle, but when I press it, my computer turns off.
Your computer is just thirsty. Please share your beverage with it. The mouth is the hole in the side or back with warm breath coming out of it.
Don’t do what this person says it will damage your computer, computers are delicate electrical devices therefore much more akin to fish and should be submerged completely
Putin has Republican leadership in his pocket.
And has since Russia hacked the DNC and RNC servers. They released the DNC emails, no doubt peppered with false entries, but never released the RNC stuff. You just know these idiots in the GOP were dumb enough to put their crimes in email and that gave Putin all the kompromat he needed to take over the whole party.
They released the DNC emails, no doubt peppered with false entries
You guys STILL pretending that the DNC didn’t rig it? Nobody in the DNC ever denied the veracity of the emails, they only raged about their secret plotting on behalf of Queen Hillary being published.
but never released the RNC stuff
This part is a fair point though, don’t get me wrong.
You just know these idiots in the GOP were dumb enough to put their crimes in email and that gave Putin all the kompromat he needed to take over the whole party.
Yup!
Your first baby crush candidate lost a legitimate election. Move on.
Your queen lost to the most vile and unqualified candidate in history because she’s an elitist warmonger who almost as many people actively dislike. This after primaries that were anything but legitimate. Grow up.
Bro I guarantee you I spent more time working for Bernie than you did.
Then why pretend that the deck wasn’t stacked?
It clearly was, no matter how much you call a then-mid 30s guy who happened to support the guy with the best policies a baby…
Because it wasn’t. Bernie lost by millions of votes. Real votes by real voters. Denying the agency of those voters is lazy sour grapes.
This is silly. Republicans, including MAGA, overwhelmingly support Ukraine and don’t want anything to do with Russia. It just takes a few bad apples to make everyone start screaming about how MAGA are Russian lovers… however, what often gets ignored in all this is the fact that Ukraine was once considered one of the most CORRUPT countries on the planet. It’s not about lack of support for Ukraine, it’s about making sure the funds are spent appropriately. Republicans are just making sure the funds are doing what they’re supposed too. Apparently, if you ask questions about this type of stuff, you’re supporting Russia. At least that’s what the Left is trying to say…,.
