As the assault on Ukraine by Russia continues, killing at least 40 according to reports, U.S. Republicans and conservative pundits have confirmed whose side they’re on after years of praising Vladimir Putin, following the lead of their new figurehead, Donald Trump, who called Putin’s actions ‘genius.’ When they’re not talking about how strong and competent and sexy Putin is, they’re attacking the U.S., going far beyond just criticizing President Joe Biden, and talking about how we should be more like the dictator-controlled oligarchy that Russia has become, calling authoritarianism “strength.”
Eternally irritating far-right pundit Ben Shapiro, for example, somehow managed to blame trans people and giving a crap about them for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying we should be more “aggressive” like Russia and China.
Of course, if you take a single glance at the history of America’s bloated military, which is bigger and better funded than any military force on Earth by far, you’ll notice that we bomb, invade, and spark regime change in nations all over the world pretty much every year of our limited time on this precious planet. In fact, while we were all watching Ukraine in horror, the U.S. carried out an airstrike on Somalia, with headlines announcing that it was the first time we’d done so against the African nation since last August as though six months ago is a long time in bombing terms.
But what do facts matter in the face of the chance to turn the U.S. into a faux-democratic state that is actually a pure oligarchy led by a brutal homophobic dictator?
The political left in the U.S. wasted no time in calling out Republicans for this, mocking them for pretending to be tough while being terrified of queer people and/or pointing out that they want exactly what Putin has and will throw every trans child to the wolves to get it.
