Putin Is Not a Hero Because He Criticizes Woke, and He Is Not to Be Trusted

From Vox

It is a serious problem with American conservatives that we assume when powerful people say the right things they must be sincere (even if their actions contradict what they say); the hero worship of CCP-pandering Elon Musk is an example. Conservatives also tend to be biased in favor of whoever is being targeted by the Democrats and woke ideology, as if there cannot be two types of evil facing off against each other. The worst example right now is probably Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, undoubtedly an extremely clever man who said made many true critiques of woke, anti-Christian ideology in a speech this week.

In the same speech where he announced suspension of Russia’s last nuclear treaty with the US, Putin warned that the West is headed for “spiritual catastrophe.” “The Anglican Church,” Putin said, “is considering a gender-neutral God. May God forgive them for they know not what they do.” I cannot help but be reminded of when the devil quotes Scripture to Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew.

Putin continued, “Look at what they do with their own peoples: the destruction of the family, cultural and national identity, perversion, and the abuse of children are declared the norm. And priests are forced to bless same-sex marriages.” In the same line, the Russian Orthodox Patriarch recently pontificated, “We have entered into a struggle that has not a physical, but a metaphysical significance … If humanity accepts that sin is not a violation of God’s law, if humanity accepts that sin is a variation of human behavior, the human civilization will end there.”

Now, insofar as that goes, Putin’s and the Patriarch’s observations are entirely correct. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which is the greatest mass murderer in world history, also frequently makes completely accurate critiques of the West and its corrupt woke theories. That doesn’t make the CCP any less a mass murderer; just as Putin is making such self-righteous statements while he is prosecuting an unjust invasion of Ukraine that has killed over 200,000 of Russian soldiers, Ukrainian soldiers, and Ukrainian civilians. Not to mention the fact that Putin launched his career as a Soviet KGB foreign intelligence officer; that is, as a spy or thug working for the Soviets to do their dirty work and lie effectively about it to non-Russians.

Putin even reportedly said in 2016 of his KGB spy career, “I was an intelligence officer myself, and I know how dossiers are made up.” Oh, by the way, the Russian Orthodox Patriarch reportedly worked in intelligence for the KGB as well, based on Swiss records. It is quite possible, even highly probable, that both men are simply manipulating the non-woke West and their own people to serve their own interests, just as they once did for the Soviets. Conservatives must not be so desperate for strong male figures that they praise masculinity that is abusive and destructive instead of masculinity that is creative and sacrificial.

One could say that the Biden administration and NATO are prolonging and escalating the Ukraine war for their own bad purposes; and that is true. One could also say the Ukrainian government (like any government in the world) has been corrupt for years, and that the current president is a puppet; that is again true. If one looks merely at the governments, there is no good side in this war. But justifying Putin’s invasion on those grounds would be like saying that the CCP would be justified in invading America and slaughtering Americans en masse. The American people don’t deserve to suffer mass murder because our illegitimate ruling administration is evil and corrupt, and neither do the Ukrainians deserve to be mass killed because their government and its supporters are corrupt.

In sum, just because Biden and co. are bad does NOT make Putin good. Just because Putin says good things, does not make him good either. Regardless of who his political enemies are, regardless of what truths he speaks, Putin is a dictator who has deliberately started multiple unnecessary and unjust conflicts that caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, both of the locals and his own Russian people. Putin was a KGB intelligence officer, meaning that he would have been trained as an expert in psyops, in fooling people. You cannot trust a man who rose to power by manipulating (possibly killing) and targeting people and lying about it.

Conservatives have got to start thinking objectively and critically instead of being mere reactionaries. We have got to stop assuming that someone is good because his opponent is bad, or that good words are the equivalent or result of actual virtues. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Putin’s biggest supporter right now, is a perfect example of this, as I said above. I regularly read CCP state media, and I can tell you that it often says 100% accurate things about Biden and his administration. That does not make the CCP good. The CCP is the greatest mass murderer of all time and it continues to practice ethnic-based genocide, torture of political prisoners, mass surveillance and oppression, and many other evils. It might speak truths, but for all the wrong reasons. Therefore, the CCP and Putin deserve no credit for speaking the truth—they do so for their own immoral ends, namely to further their quest for power while undermining their enemies.