The perennially aggrieved Ian Welsh is blasting Russians for sending troops Syria. When Russia invaded Ukraine and sent incomparably more troops to kill Ukrainians, Welsh couldn’t cheer loudly enough. The killing of Syrians, however, looks a lot more disturbing to him.
This is not as illogical as it might seem. Exalted pseudo-Lefties of Welsh’s ilk hate nobody more than non-Russian FSU people. They still petulantly cling to the discredited fantasy of a “good USSR” and detest those of us who demonstrated how horrible and oppressive the “prison of nations” was by escaping from it as soon as possible.
From vast personal experience, I can assure you that nothing dampens the mood at a gathering of arm – chair Marxists as an entrance of a Ukrainian. Welsh and Co can’t wait for all of us to expire already and stop marring the joy they get from their erotic fantasies about the USSR of their dreams.
Clarissa's Blog 
Am I mistaken in the impression that any FSU people/s (Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, etc) aren’t as readily perceived as victims by many Westerners (not only by “Lefties of Welsh’s ilk”) as Africans or Arabs? Could it be one of the influences of Cold War propaganda, which described everybody in FSU as equally horrible and dangerous rather than suffering in the FSU system?
As for some on the Left, talking about Africa or Middle East seems to provide an excellent opportunity for self flagellation – “all 3rd world’s problems were created by West,” but I have yet to see Westerners saying such f.e. about Belarus. Or even applying this narrative with similar force to the current situation in Ukraine, despite USA not fulfilling its promises. May be, Syrians draw more interest since they let one talk about oneself (the bad West), while Ukraine’s history and current situation aren’t seen as providing quite as good opportunity.
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Oh yes. The Lefties love to condescend to those they refer to as “brown people.” It’s a form of racism that masks as compassion. I always feel waves of nausea come over me whenever I hear such a person wax enthusiastically about “about all the horrible ways in which we slaughter brown people.”
This always reminds me of a male colleague of mine who regaled every woman he met with very detailed descriptions of rape scenes in the movies that, he claimed, were offensive to his sensibilities.
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“The Lefties love to condescend to those they refer to as “brown people.” It’s a form of racism that masks as compassion.”
While this may be true for some lefties, I don’t think this explanation is quite satisfying. One of your recent posts was about the tragic bombing in Yemen and how nobody seems to care about it, even though the Yemeni people do pass the ‘brown’ test.
I have no clue why certain causes become more popular than others, but this phenomenon does occur. Some combination of randomness, also maybe a consequence of the 24 hour news cycle. It is hard for any news story to get a sustainable presence in the news media.
“Syrians draw more interest since they let one talk about oneself (the bad West),”
Oh please. Assad has been killing his people for years now with no western response. It is only drawing interest now because it has started affecting the west directly (refugees at their shores).
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Of course, nobody cares about Yemen. People only care inasmuch as there is a simplistic narrative that makes them feel important. Unless one has the massive linguistic talent of Gary Brecher, it is next to impossible to interest anybody in a nuanced version of any overseas story.
Even at the university, the official response to my project about the economic crisis is in Spain was, “Yes, but why should we care about it?”
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