The Grey Zone vs Grey Matter

 

There are a lot of useful idiots out there.

The latest zany bunch of pitiful Putinistas I had the mispleasure of running into have been the putrid pile of pinheads running The Grey Zone, an online tabloid so blatantly anti-Ukrainian, they’re either run by the Kremlin, or really love the Kremlin (and no, I’m not providing a link) .

The cover story involves some dude in the background of a Zelensky photo-op. There’s a dot on the dude’s backpack that you or I might have mistaken for a brand logo, but which the Eagle Eyed folks at Grey Zone assure is a Nazi death’s head. They magnify it for us, so it looks like a dollop of spilled oatmeal. Nazi death’s head they assure us, and computer enhance it later in the article.

I am reminded of those flying saucer people who saw spaceships every time someone waved a pen-torch.

Is this blob on a backpack really supposed to be a smoking gun? Irrefutable proof that Ukraine is irredeamably nazi and presumably must be destroyed? Or, at the very least, not assisted? Gimmie a break.

The question is not whether Ukraine has neo-nazis. Of course it does. It’s got a well-documented problem with neo-nazis and unhealthy far-right nationalism, as do a lot of countries, especially in Eastern Europe – you think Russia doesn’t? The question is whether this justifies the annihilation of the country! 

What makes for a nazi country? Depressingly popular arm patches? Problematic Black Metal lyrics? Popular misconceptions of history? Backpack pins you need an electron microscope to see? Or is it something more systemic – a government actively implementing race-laws, building concentration camps, and actively pursuing genocide with all the power of the state. This is what the tankies have to prove – not these little gotchya moments, which aren’t nearly as shocking as they think they are.

Is it not interesting that Russia’s chief Rabbi has condemned the invasion? You’d think he’d be all over that. How about Israel? How about Zelensky himself, a Jew whom Ukrainians elected as President???

Thing is, Russia invaded Ukraine, not the other way around. Russia is bombing Ukrainian apartment blocks, maternity wards, playgrounds, and powerplants, not the other way around. Russia is looting Ukrainian cities, not the other way around. Russia seeks to erase Ukraine’s existence, not the other way around.

None of this is balanced out by some dude wearing a pin.  

useful links: 

https://medium.com/muros-invisibles/grayzone-grifters-and-the-cult-of-tank-fbd9b8e0dbe2

https://www.rferl.org/a/zizek-interview-russia-denazification-ukraine-war/32204259.html?fbclid=IwAR1tZ8yDxFGjspCKcDyH9SdxfSUQ0pDHAm85y4191aH126ym3dGk3FBsrDY