I Won't Let Putin's Apologists Destroy This Moment of Moral Clarity

We can now place right winger Candace Owens in the camp of Putin apologists. Here's something she said on Tuesday:

Candace Owens: “Ukraine wasn't a thing until 1989. Ukraine was created by the Russians”https://t.co/q7oaHcNGrl pic.twitter.com/dQ0bfLUvnX

— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) March 16, 2022

Wow, "genocidal colonization" is interesting. Again, going back to my point about people being stupid, you know – [Putin's] not trying to commit a genocide of the Ukrainians. That obviously makes no sense because there's very – there is no difference, ethnically, between Ukrainians and Russians, obviously. Ukraine wasn't a thing until 1989. Ukraine was created by the Russians. It was, you know, they speak Russian. So, it's absolutely ridiculous. And, again, this entire episode has been exposing to you how ignorant people are about the goals of Vladimir Putin. He has goals. The goal is not just to get rid of Ukrainians. That makes entirely no sense. It would not be helpful for him.

Honestly, my head wants to explode when I hear someone who is this adept at lying call someone else "stupid." But just to be clear on the question of genocide: 

The Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, called Russia's invasion of Ukraine a "clear case of genocide" during a news conference at the National Press Club.

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 16, 2022

Anyone who knows just a tiny bit about Ukrainian history is aware of the fact that the people of that country are pretty well-versed in the meaning of "genocide."

But of course, Owens is also parroting Putin's propaganda when she says that Ukraine "wasn't a thing" until Russia created it in 1989. As for Ukrainians speaking Russian...that is a lie too.

Candace Owens is a smart woman. So it is unlikely that she is spreading this nonsense out of ignorance. Instead, her lies have more in common with what Peter Pomerantsev wrote about Russian propaganda: "It reinvents reality, creating mass hallucinations...the idea of truth is irrelevant." What is the goal of making truth irrelevant? Here's Pomerantsev's answer:

[I]nsisting on the lie, the Kremlin intimidates others by showing that it is in control of defining ‘reality.’ This is why it’s so important for Moscow to do away with truth. If nothing is true, then anything is possible.

For Putin and his apologists like Owens, it is especially important to do away with truth right now because what we are witnessing in Ukraine is a moment of moral clarity. 

Just this morning, Ukrainian President Zelensky gave an impassioned speech to Congress. It included the sharing of this video: 

President Zelensky shows the United States Congress a video of his nation being destroyed by Vladimir Putin's forces, and tells America: "Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace." pic.twitter.com/QBFYc8Ex1H

— Josh Campbell (@joshscampbell) March 16, 2022

Zelensky ended his speech with these words:

I am almost 45 years old. Today my age stopped when the hearts of more than 100 children stopped beating. I see no sense in life if it cannot stop the deaths. This is my mission as a leader of my people, and as a leader of my nation.

Putin gave a speech this morning too. In it, the man who is committing genocide in Ukraine talked about a “natural and necessary cleansing of the nation” (Russia) to “spit out like flies” all representatives of a fifth column and “traitors” who do not back the Kremlin line. Cleansing his nation of flies is a particularly ominous threat.

Life often presents us with difficult moments when moral questions are housed in a complex array of competing claims and interests. This is not one of those moments. In this situation, good and evil are in stark contrast, providing an unmistakeable moment of moral clarity. 

So while I rarely take a position like this, my message to people like Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, Tulsi Gabbard and the rest of the Putin apologists is simple: STFU!