I think everyone who has been paying attention saw this coming. Now so-called “socialist” Hasan Piker is putting out CNN level liberal propaganda. Even western polling had to admit that Putin enjoyed an approval rating above 80% just prior to the election, but of course when you have demonized Russia to this degree you have to resort to reality denial to explain what you see.
We need to start using the term “red liberal” to describe these “leftist” political streamers and YouTubers who mimick the aesthetics and language of leftism while feeding into imperialist dogma and liberal assumptions about the world. Hasan also continues to deny the Donbass genocide that had been taking place since 2014 before Russia finally intervened, refuses to accept that Russia had legitimate reason to take action to stop NATO eastward expansion, and downplays the Nazi nature of the Kiev regime.
Now after he made fun of all the dumbass chuds who insisted in 2020 that the US election was stolen and made up all kinds of conspiracy theories to try and justify it, Hasan himself engages in the same kind of behavior when it comes to Russian elections. This is the kind of “socialist” who will act like they are not Democrat shills by superficially criticizing Genocide Joe yet continue to advocate that you vote for Democrats as the “lesser evil”.
It is good though that since 2022 all of these sheepdogs for liberal imperialism have been exposing themselves. Now we know where the lines are drawn. Once again Lenin’s words ring true:
“We are marching in a compact group along a precipitous and difficult path, firmly holding each other by the hand. We are surrounded on all sides by enemies, and we have to advance almost constantly under their fire. We have combined, by a freely adopted decision, for the purpose of fighting the enemy, and not of retreating into the neighbouring marsh, the inhabitants of which, from the very outset, have reproached us with having separated ourselves into an exclusive group and with having chosen the path of struggle instead of the path of conciliation. And now some among us begin to cry out: Let us go into the marsh! And when we begin to shame them, they retort: What backward people you are! Are you not ashamed to deny us the liberty to invite you to take a better road! Oh, yes, gentlemen! You are free not only to invite us, but to go yourselves wherever you will, even into the marsh. In fact, we think that the marsh is your proper place, and we are prepared to render you every assistance to get there. Only let go of our hands, don’t clutch at us and don’t besmirch the grand word freedom, for we too are “free” to go where we please, free to fight not only against the marsh, but also against those who are turning towards the marsh!”
red liberal?
To me that sounds like someone who seemingly supports a right-wing party, but secretly is communist or socialist.
I think social liberal is probably less confusing for this kind of person, you know, a true and true centrist, not left or right.
Social liberal works too but i thought red liberal has a nice symmetry to the commonly used slur “red fascist” that gets thrown at “tankies”.
The point is that there is a certain subset of “leftists” who like to hide their liberalism behind the language and symbols of Marxism. One of the most despicable perpetrators of this nowadays is Slavoj Zizek (who, incidentally, recently proposed giving nukes to Ukraine, tried to portray the Ukraine conflict as some kind of holy crusade of western civilization against eastern barbarism while at the same time managing to sneak in a racist comment about Arabs too…anyway, i digress), but this is an old tradition that goes back all the way to Kautsky and Bernstein.
I personally use Progressive Fascist: whose only hang-up with nazism is that they see it as regressive and would be totally OK with it if it wasn’t. It works because people see progressivism and fascism as mutually exclusive but don’t realize that’s literally what the nazis were about. They (through their fucked up fascist pseudoscience) wanted to ‘progress’ towards their perverted end goals. That’s why you’ll constantly hear arguments about ethics “holding back progress” from neo-nazis.
If you just assume progress = good than you can easily think that you’re a good person just because you’re progressive, and it creates a huge blind spot where nazi shit can slide in. You have to analyze what you’re progressing towards and ask yourself if that’s a world you want to live in. I think it’s safe to say that they haven’t given that much thought at all.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy: