The Putin Apologist Agenda
OurContinent presents: the Putin Apologist Agenda. Find out what are the most common agenda points, arguments and ways of arguing used by apologists of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Very handy, if you need to debate them!
The Putin Apologist agenda:
1- There is no such thing as truth – Accepting certain things as facts is a question of loyalty, not of truth seeking. If the facts speak against Putin’s Russia, create confusion. It’s not about proving Putin right, but about convincing people that there is no right. “What can one really know? Nothing is certain. No one will ever find out what is true anyway.”
2- “The West is just as bad” – Portraying Putin’s Russia like a free and peace-loving country would be an almost impossible task. It is much easier to deflect the attention by stating that ‘the West is just as bad”. For every injustice committed by the Russian regime, you come up with an injustice by any Western country, real or perceived, now or in the past.
3- Selective suspicion of the media – Because most Western media report on Putin’s crimes, label them ‘mainstream’ and ‘fake news’, and only trust media that claim to be ‘against the mainstream’, like unofficial online outlets, social media accounts and media owned by the Russian state, like RT and Sputnik. The only criteria is that they have to be pro-Putin.
4- Complain about “Russophobia” – Despite their country’s size and nuclear arsenal, Russians are actually an oppressed minority in the world, misunderstood and stigmatized by everyone. Russia is the eternal victim of the West, of the media, and of history. All of Putin’s transgressions are justified because of this victimhood. To make this clear, constantly complain about bigotry and prejudice against Russians, so-called “Russophobia”.
5- Forget Putin’s friends – Whether you are politically left or right, there is always a way to align Putin’s position with your own, just forget about all those friends of his that you don’t like. If you are right-wing, you see Putin as an enemy of Islamism and the left, conveniently forgetting his alliance with Iran, Hezbollah and Venezuela. If you are a leftist Putin apologist, you depict the Russian president as heading a struggle against Western “fascism” and “imperialism”, but ignore his far-right friends in Europe and the US.
6- “Not pro-Russia, just anti-war” – Instead of admitting that you are an apologist for a dictatorship that invades its neighbours, you claim that your defence of Putin’s Russia has, in fact, very noble intentions. Your goal is simply to prevent further escalation between Russia and the West. You are nothing less than a hero who jumps in to protect the scared Russians who feel threatened by Western imperialism. You are “not pro-Russia per se, but just anti-war”.
If you think it is unfair to single out Putin fans, we promise to upload soon a similar agenda about jihad-apologists.
(The idea to create this “agenda” of our political opponents was inspired by the “Regressive Agenda”, which critically outlines the points of the regressive left and was created by video artist Devon Tracy)
