According to Reuters, Vladimir Putin claims that the West is Satanic and defies moral norms. The West rejects traditional religious values, Putin argues, as part of his campaign against LGBTQ rights. His military attacked Ukraine on the assumption that the West was too decadent to attempt an effective defense.
The belief that western civilization is weak, unmanly, badly organized, that it lacks decent values and so on, has been dear to authoritarians ranging from Hitler to the USSR to West Asian religious crackpots and to current authoritarians in Russia, China and Iran. Losers.
In this context, the West is not a place or a direction but a culture. The culture of the West includes today's Europe, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, etc.
It's clear that the West has sins of its own. The culture is flawed. But its simple existence threatens authoritarians. That's the rub. People living in tyranny can look across the border and see something a little better. The despot gets nervous.
*
This content was produced in Russia where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine.
MOSCOW, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said the West was "satanic" and rejected "moral norms" in a combative speech delivered from the Kremlin on Friday.
Putin attacked the West's liberalism, saying that, unlike Russia, it had turned away from "traditional" and "religious" values.
At one point in the speech, in which Putin announced Russia was annexing four regions of Ukraine, he asked the assembled dignitaries if they wanted "children to be offered sex-change operations", a practice he implied was widespread in the West.
In his two decades in power, Putin has routinely promoted what he says are "traditional values" and suppressed LGBTQ rights through a number of laws and by backing ultra-conservative movements and initiatives. (Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
No comments:
Post a Comment