Something remarkable about Russia’s escalation of their war against Ukraine is how clear the dichotomy between the two is; supporting Ukraine and opposing Russian aggression is obviously correct. As such, polling in Canada, the US, the UK, and Germany show the Western public overwhelmingly back Ukraine. Considering how oblivious the public, at least in North America, are to political issues outside their own borders, it is heartening to see most feel strongly about the war.
By contrast, pundits who accused anyone concerned with Russian aggression of being warmongers before Russia escalated in late February like Glenn Greenwald, or engaged in more candid Putin apologia like Tucker Carlson, were silent as the first bombs fell on the people of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, and elsewhere in Ukraine. However, as it became slowly apparent that Kyiv would not fall and Ukrainian democracy could not be simply beheaded, there has been something of a re-pivot at home against Ukraine. For example, by March 9th, Tucker Carlson and Glenn Greenwald, among others, leapt at the opportunity to promote Ukraine bio lab conspiracy theories as if to both tie Ukraine to some fiction about Hunter Biden, but also to justify Russia’s war. Essentially, figures like Tucker Carlson and Glenn Greenwald wanted the opportunity to treat this war as another culture war issue, where supporting Ukraine is the position of the establishment and is therefore degenerate or imperialist. Their entire brand is built on illiberal contrarianism.
Like most politics, war is not something that merely exists in the abstract. War terrorizes. War destroys buildings – homes and workplaces and stadiums and churches. War forces people to leave home for shelter, either in a different part of your country or another country altogether. War makes men and boys, and sometimes women and girls to take up arms and fight for survival, for a better life, or in the case of Russian conscripts deported to die in Ukraine, to fight for the nationalistic dreams of the fascist oligarchs in the Kremlin. War maims, both body and mind. War is where rape is weaponized en masse against women, against children, and against men. War kills. War orphans, widows, and destroys families. War is unavoidable but it is serious and real, now horrifyingly real to forty million Ukrainians.
Politics inherently intersects with war but war should not be just another hot button issue used for partisan games or the latest moral panic on Twitter. That Tucker Carlson and Glenn Greenwald contrive this war to attack liberalism shows just how little tact they view politics with. Russia’s war against Ukraine should not be just another topic in the culture war consuming the Anglosphere. Nevertheless, the gravity of war – of this war – did not stop Carlson and others from cynically utilizing the war as another line in the sand dividing the liberal west and her enemies.
More interestingly has been the pivot of public figures outside the commentariat. After providing Ukraine with Starlink to compensate for internet disruptions caused by Russia, and ten days after signalling his support for Ukraine, Elon Musk posted the above meme, reducing widespread public support for Ukrainian sovereignty to the “current thing,” supported by unthinking drones rather than out of principled concerns for injustice. More blatantly reactionary, former Staind frontman and current Country singer Aaron Lewis said Americans should hear Putin out. To reiterate, just like Greenwald and Carlson, the views of Elon Musk and Aaron Lewis are not representative of the general public. However, Elon Musk is the richest man on the planet, with a hivemind of prepubescents and manchild Redditors slavishly worshipping him, and Aaron Lewis’ asinine protest song “Am I the Only One” was a hit on the Country charts. These men wield influence, and have engaged in abuse of their platforms.
Given the world is seeing the carnage Russia had wrought, with stories of massacres and attacks on civilians, and the pictures of lifeless bodies and mass graves out of liberated Bucha and other settlements near Kyiv all public, it should be even more obvious that Aaron Lewis was incorrect. If the world was sane, he would have been sidelined by society for even sympathizing with Russia to begin with. While the extent of the havoc Russia has wrought in Ukraine was not (and remains not) fully uncovered when Musk and Lewis said the things they said, anyone with a basic knowledge of Russia’s wars in Ukraine, Syria, Georgia, and Chechnya is horrified but unsurprised. But supporting Ukraine and opposing Russia is merely supporting the current thing, right?
From the Commentariat to the Country stars, why are there Westerners who, in some capacity, oppose Ukraine? Broadly speaking, contrarianism. They see that the public and the political class have mobilized in favour of Ukraine and against Russia, so they instinctually assume the opposite to be true.
Some contrarianism at least has the façade of being ideological. Rightist supporters of Russia view Russia as a bastion of Christian civilization, opposed to “woke” western liberal decadence, whereas Ukraine is a westernizing country that therefore is licentious. Leftist supporters of Russia see Russia as a bastion against American imperialism, and Ukraine’s attempts to join NATO and the EU is imperialist and in violation of Russian security interests.
Other contrarians, like Aaron Lewis, are making unnuanced deductive conclusions. These contrarians see the Democrats in the US, the Liberals in Canada, the Tories in the UK, and so on, supporting Ukraine, and because the Democrats and others are not only always wrong but are actively immoral, then the correct position is supporting Russia, as these “evil” politicians are opposed to Russia.
Musk and his legion of Redditors have more in common with this second group, though they are at least generally careful to not make outright Russian apologia. They lack the more outwardly partisan appearance of the first group. The rationality behind the “support current thing” meme is that they aren’t supporting Russia’s invasion, they’re merely critical of the uncritical masses who listen to the talking heads on the TV who tell them what to think who then display their support for Ukraine through virtue signalling.
I’m not going to defend the unnuanced politics of much of the public; everyone should support the formation of a politically conscious, educated public, but this is something of a pipedream. The reality is that the majority of the public are only engaged with politics superficially. Many either have a surface-level interest and understanding of complex political issues, or consciously reject politics altogether. Likewise, especially with pure information so available now, people should critically and objectively examine political issues without solely relying on cable news analysts or corporate press to provide their opinions for them.
Nevertheless, you only need a limited understanding of Russia’s war against Ukraine to know who’s in the right here. Scream Azov Battalion; corruption; biolabs; banning of political parties all you want, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is unprovoked and an unjustified crime against an emerging democracy. It has resulted in thousands of deaths and millions of Ukrainians being displaced from their homes, all to satisfy Putin’s imperialist revanchism. Even if Ukraine was an autocracy, like when Iraq invaded and annexed Kuwait in 1990, Russia’s war of aggression would still be unjustified. Of course we should all make nuanced judgements based on our own observations. It’s for this reason that I’m not inherently anti-war, as there are circumstances where launching military action are just, but the conclusion most will draw about Russia’s war against Ukraine will be the same; that Russia’s war is wrong and should be opposed by all.
Is much of the public uneducated about the nuances of Eastern European geopolitics? Are the performatively political cynically supporting Ukraine because it is a relevant political issue? Yes to both, but as aforementioned, the injustice of this war is self-evident. You don’t need to be an expert to know right and wrong here, and Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk, and the rest of the contrarian class know this. The contrarian class see liberal politicians, celebrities, corporations backing a political position or social movement, and thus take the opposite position. The reality is that to the terminally online, whose brains have been fried by being stuck in contrarian circlejerks, all displays of supporting Ukraine are going to be “cringe.” Of course tweeting out #IStandWithUkraine or adding a Ukrainian flag to your Instagram bio makes zero substantive impact, but uninformed or cynical support for Ukraine is better than the opposite. Just because people’s manner of political expression is “cringeworthy” doesn’t render it worthless; in a democracy people should be engaged with important political issues.
Going back to Elon’s meme, opposing something because it’s popular isn’t nuanced. In fact, it’s as equally unnuanced as the “normies” and celebrities who support Ukraine. What distinguishes normies and contrarians is that by taking the opposite stance, contrarians are supporting the murder of thousands, the rape of Ukrainian women, the expulsion of millions, and the deportation of children to be forcibly assimilated in an act of cultural genocide. It is better to be cringe than it is to be on the side of fascism.
As aforementioned, the public’s education and critical thinking skills are mediocre and should be improved, but if your main takeaway from the past two months of war has been anything but unqualified opposition to Russia, then your moral compass is beyond disrepair. Everyone who cares about liberal democracy’s chief concern is supporting Ukraine and opposing Russian jingoism. Anything else is opposition to liberal democracy.
Ukraine, and the Politics of Cringe
Bruh, elon musk do be righty-o tho.