(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . A Tale of Two Demonstrations [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-03-07 Pro-Putin Appeasement Propaganda A couple of weeks ago I attended what was billed as an “anti-war/peace rally” at the Lincoln Memorial in DC as the 1-year anniversary of the Russian war on Ukraine approached. Despite glorious early spring weather and an exceedingly disparate group of at least 18 different organizations sponsoring this problematic event, the turnout was gratifyingly pathetic as only about 500 connoisseurs of Kremlin talking points actually showed up. And while there were no doubt a few genuine anti-war activists in attendance, it was clear from the wide range of seemingly incongruous flags on display (e.g. the Russian tricolor flying alongside the old Soviet Hammer & Sickle and the even older Tsarist Imperial flag favored by Russian neo-Nazis), that this was a collection of really fringe groups with absolutely nothing in common other than an abiding opposition to continued US and NATO support for Ukraine. Curiously, one of the larger contingents in attendance (at several dozen strong) turned out to be the Larouchites, who have apparently rebranded as the Schiller Institute now; but the far more interesting people at this event were the handful of pro-Ukrainian protesters who also showed up: mobile.twitter.com/… @fella6_9 This dude sporting all the Ukrainian flags was one of the counter-protesters who became something of a viral meme, particularly among the NAFO community. When asked why he was there protesting against an “anti-war” rally (by an RT reporter no less), he admitted that while he had no Slavic members in his own family tree, and hence no ancestral stake in this conflict between Russia and Ukraine, he was in no doubt as to who the actual aggressor was, and which side was waging a just war in self-defense. He even went so far as to compare Ukraine’s remarkable resistance against the Russian invasion as analogous to Britain’s heroic stand against Nazi Germany in 1940-41 when they too essentially stood alone against totalitarian terrorists. For my money though, the true heroes among the counter-protesters were a Russian guy living in the area who had been flying a Ukrainian flag from the back of his bicycle for the past year to show his support for Ukraine, and his utter disgust with what Putin’s Russia has been doing in terms of war crimes. As he put it to the same RT reporter, he had never really thought about Ukraine at all until last year’s invasion, since he was Russian, not Ukrainian — but now he was ashamed to be Russian and felt compelled to show his solidarity with Ukraine. @DylanBurns1776 And then there was this woman from New England who had travelled all the way down to DC to bear personal witness to the lies Putin’s apologists were making at the rally. She had actually been one of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) volunteers who had been monitoring the ceasefire line between the Ukrainian army and Russian-backed separatists in the Donbass according to the Minsk Protocols prior to the February 24 invasion last year, only to see her home base in Luhansk destroyed by Russian bombs and shells as her group had to be evacuated under fire from the war zone. Now this was true courage from a real peace activist who literally had put her life on the line for her principles — in stark contrast to the faux outrage expressed by most of the speakers parroting Putin’s propaganda about the US and NATO somehow being responsible for the initiation and continuation of the conflict, neatly captured by this centerpiece banner: @DylanBurns1776 In sharp contrast to the mostly low-energy and discordant appeasement party on February 19 (where the concluding slow-motion “march” to the White House more closely resembled a funeral shuffle than an actual march), next week’s pro-Ukrainian rally on February 25 turned out to be a much more uplifting affair. Despite the far more typical raw winter weather usually associated with late February, turnout was several times that of the previous pro-Putin rally, with a veritable sea of blue and yellow Ukranian flags. mobile.twitter.com/... The Ukrainian flag-cape guy made another appearance, though since there were literally hundreds of others sporting the same fashion accessory at this rally, he was kind of hard to spot in the crowd. Fortunately, none of the previous week’s pro-Putin apologists bothered to show up to counter-protest this pro-Ukranian rally, so everything remained quite peaceful and positive. There was even a different self-identified Russian who had a sign there indicating that though he was Russian, he still supported Ukraine. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/7/2155167/-A-Tale-of-Two-Demonstrations Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/