Rob Allen
Life of the Party
One thing that has been really disappointing is seeing all the FB posts by people condoning Putin's barbarism because he claimed "Ukraine is a nazi country." And they bought his bullshit hook, line and sinker. Even if that were true, which it isn't, the fact that a significant number of people think it's perfectly okay to invade a country and kill their civilians and pummel their cities because PUTIN says it's "a nazi country" is truly terrifying. The stupidity of so many is staggering to me.
But it's always best to keep the eyes wide open and address the realities of Ukraine, the USA and any other country. No country is "all good" or "all bad." All nations have a dark side. Even Denmark.
Are there neo Nazis in Ukraine? Yep. Is Ukraine a nazi nation? Nope.
Don't take my word for it. Jewishunpacked.com, an Israeli site that monitors such things, reports that the main neo-Nazi group in Ukraine is the Azov movement, a group that grew out of the Azov Regiment in the war chaos of 2014. Jewishunpacked estimates Azov has around 10,000 members in a country of 40 million people (it used be more two weeks ago, but 3 million refugees have fled to escape death at Putin's hands). Azov is primarily characterized by aggressive Russophobia. Not surprising, given the long sad history of Ukrainian persecution at the hands of various Russian Czars and brutal dictators. They have no power in the government at all.
Jonathan Dekel-Chen, a history professor at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, said "In terms of the sort of constituent parts of Nazism, none of that is in play in Ukraine. Territorial ambitions, State sponsored terrorism, rampant anti semitism, bigotry, a dictatorship...none of those are in play. So this is just total fiction."
By way of comparison, the Southern Poverty Law Center estimates the KKK in the USA has up to 8,000 members, and there are many other neo Nazi and white nationalist groups in the USA. So the numbers of neo Nazis in Ukraine and the USA are fairly comparable. There may actually be way more in the USA, split among different groups. One difference is that the Azov battalion are actually deployed in combat right now, fighting for their country, instead of marching down a street in some American city acting like pathetic jackasses to anyone they deem as being "below" themselves.
This in NO WAY means I condone any actions of Azov or any other Neo Nazi group! I just find it rather odd that so many Americans support Putin, who just killed ten Ukrainian civilians who were in line to buy bread, because there are some neo Nazis in Ukraine. Does this mean, using their own logic, it is perfectly okay for Putin to invade the USA and kill our civilians any way he wants, since we have as many neo Nazis here?
So yeah. There are some neo Nazis in Ukraine, just like here. But Ukraine and the USA are not Nazi countries and anyone who says so is a liar.
The irony is that there is one person behaving like a Nazi in this brutal invasion and we all know who he is.
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The only people I have seen condoning Russia have been Middle Eastern posters. Iranians in particular.
I have seen nothing but anger and condemnation from Americans.
Maybe I don't travel in the right circles.