askchapo

they are not my friends, but i know some libs that cosplay as leftists and they completely bought into the nato-framing of the russo-ukrainian war from the jump, while they are generally opposed to what is happening in Gaza.... but not enough to voting for Genocide Joe, ofc.

for russo-ukraine, it was a part of the world they have fuck all analysis about but the news footage really played up how sympathetically white ukranians are. like one admitted that the footage of ukranians being displaced bothered them more, on an emotional level, than the US invading and displacing iraqis. major vibes. combine that casual racism with the fact that there was no geographical placeholder information for them about eastern europe. NATO aggression? what's that? total clean slate for the media blitz to fill.

with Gaza, the extermination and land grab has been a project for a long time. these libs have met muslims since 9/11 and heard voices contradicting state department messaging about the middle east, a place the US has been terrorizing and bombing and invading multiple times in our lifetimes. they have developed their own opinions in that time and there is even acknowledgement of Biden's enthusiastic role in the 2003 invasion of iraq.

of course, they are libs so A Dang Cheeto In The White House is more of a threat to their comfortable brunching than Genocide Joe exterminating Gazans, so their aversion to genocide isn't that motivating.

i will never, ever forget something i think Christman said about how genocidal war was not a problem for Europeans/The West until Hitler committed the unpardonable crime of doing it to Europeans. i have never heard a more succinct framing for perennially fickle western outrage about slaughter.

Decades of stressed attempts by journalists to highlight plight in Palestine means people are inevitably aware that Palestinians might actually be people after all.

Absolutely zero coverage of the ethnic Russians/Russophones in Ukraine being discriminated against / outright murdered means nobody realises there was even a reason the Russo-Ukrainian war started and so are left to conclude Putin is INSANE.

Because Russia (at least according to the propaganda) is a threat to US hegemony, even though this is disregarding the fact that Russia is economically on a far smaller scale than the US and its allies.

Everyone knows Palestine and Cuba cannot possibly fight back against the empire, so in the back of their minds, the ultimate defeat of the brave, noble underdogs is guaranteed so it’s easy to find pity with them

Give Palestine and Cuba the firepower of Russia who can actually fight back against their oppressors and see how quickly the Western public change their tune.

70 years of cold war propaganda.

Media about Palestine in the West was infinitely more than Donbas (literally nothing)

Also big strong countries bad and scary (like China despite doing literally nothing), weak and underdog countries good (notice how nobody supports Yemen because they're a real threat)

Cold war brain never really stopped even if it makes no sense to continue having cold war brain. As far as most are concerned russia is still the USSR even if its evidently not.

Edit: oh and post cold war the media created where russia is the bad guy kept going. Its hard to think of a movie or game where russia isn't the bad guy

Basic premise most agree with in 2024: wars of aggression are bad.

Who is the aggressor, what is their political history, what are the skin colors involved, what are the respective ideologies, who are 'allies'... all of those things influence how the baseline premise is perceived.

I disagree with the premise. The vast majority of the public in the West is on board for both wars, equally.

With imperial propaganda over Ukraine, it's easy to metabolize it without seeming like an open racist

But with Palestine it's impossible, a lot of the western public still value the masks they wear when it comes to race and many liberals aren't comfortable tearing them off just yet to support Israel, even if they're generally supportive and enthusiastic about Israel's warcrimes

So that translates roughly into a general apathy in the west concerning the genocide, which some leftists have confused for widespread discontent over western support for Zionism, which is an illusion generated by social media and bad poll reading

Ukraine piggy backed off cold-war & neo-cold war propaganda decades in the making. theres been a basically unbroken stream of anri-russian media since 1917

Israel ooth doesn't always enjoy such bias, when the proverbial 'chips are down' the imperialists back them but there's plenty of liberal scolding and bones thrown to arab allies in intervening years. there's also something abt all the cameras israel is just gleefully advertizing genocide on that makes it hard for anyone plugged into anything besides cable news to ignore

Because a free Palestine is not seen by libs as a threat to Western hegemony and the perpetuation of the treat train.

"Putin is coming for you next" makes sense on some level, whereas "Hamas is coming for you next" doesn't.

Yes absolutely. Half the Democratic Party believes Israel is committing a genocide. Whereas even half of hexbears still refuse to critically support Russia. It’s night and day, the Ukraine brainwashing went down very smooth