Nothing Means Anything

Here is another great quote from Peter Pomerantsev. Surkov was the chief ideologue of the Kremlin at that time. He was also a bestselling postmodernist writer who had to write under a pseudonym, of course.

In the twenty-first century the techniques of the political technologists have become centralized and systematized, coordinated out of the office of the presidential administration, where Surkov would sit behind a desk on which were phones bearing the names of all the “independent” party leaders, calling and directing them at any moment, day or night. The brilliance of this new type of authoritarianism is that instead of simply oppressing opposition, as had been the case with twentieth-century strains, it climbs inside all ideologies and movements, exploiting and rendering them absurd. One moment Surkov would fund civic forums and human rights NGOs, the next he would quietly support nationalist movements that accuse the NGOs of being tools of the West. With a flourish he sponsored lavish arts festivals for the most provocative modern artists in Moscow, then supported Orthodox fundamentalists, dressed all in black and carrying crosses, who in turn attacked the modern art exhibitions. The Kremlin’s idea is to own all forms of political discourse, to not let any independent movements develop outside of its walls. Its Moscow can feel like an oligarchy in the morning and a democracy in the afternoon, a monarchy for dinner and a totalitarian state by bedtime.

Pomerantsev, Peter. Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible

This is what happens when nothing really means anything. This is also why all – and I mean there are zero exceptions – of the children of the Kremlin dudes who can’t shut up about the degraded West and the dreaded gender confusion are extremely cosmopolitan, invariably living in the “degraded West”, and very often genderfluid.