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I have known them from my reading, as they have kept reappearing like poison ivy down the decades, ever since 1917. That man who Iooks like Lucifer, Vladimir Lenin, called them “useful idiots.”
You might think that after the fall of the Berlin Wall, no longer did (useful-to-Russia) innocent fools stick up for communism. Not so. During Canada’s peacekeeping in Afghanistan there were learned professors, the “Regina 16,” who wrote like unrepentant Marxists to explain their reasoning as to why orphans of “imperialist” Canadians killed in action over there should not receive university scholarships. (I wrote of the 16 on my old blog)
The ivory tower, unfortunately, is not the last of the holdouts for communism. Canada’s prime minister has expressed admiration for China’s “basic dictatorship.” When the House of Commons voted on whether the communists were “genociding” the Uyghurs our born-filthy-rich PM led the rest of his liberal party members to leave the House during the vote. But the vote would have been a “no brainer” to all the other prime ministers in the British Commonwealth.
In recent times a person might not believe in Russian communism, of course, but still innocently believe in Russia. Such madness. As if expecting that the “good Russians” will control their insane leaders, like the “good Germans” almost controlled Hitler, like how our good police officers almost control racist cops. “Almost” only counts in horseshoes.
I grimace to think that after Putin, over there in Russia has been replaced, over here fresh useful idiots will have sprung up. It’s like how, after every war, fresh peaceniks will think we should destroy all our swords because surely, this time around, everyone, including the Russians and Chinese, will have finally learned the horror of war. But even if we have, the Chinese communists and Russian oligarchs are slow learners.
You would think that a Canadian ambassador in Moscow, with access to reports, would know better. You would be wrong:
‘Russia is not going to hell, it’s “coming from hell,” he told a Canadian International Council event in 2012, according to the Ottawa Citizen.’ “All things considered, (Putin) is already one of the finest leaders Russia’s had in centuries.”
More: ‘“I don’t think Moscow is an aggressive marauder,” Westdal said in 2017 testimony before the House of Commons standing committee on national defence. “I don’t think it wants war and a broken Ukraine on its western flank.” The ambassador from 2003-2006, Christopher Westdal, has this month said he was wrong. (National Post, p. NP1, in the Edmonton Journal, March 3, 2022)
Perhaps “useful idiots” consume too narrowly, and too blindly. During the Cold War there was a scenario, voiced by Russians, that they could discern false Soviet propaganda but Americans couldn’t discern false American propaganda. It ain’t necessarily so. The experience of several Russian speaking Ukrainian families with relatives in Russia, as noted by the BBC, is terribly instructive.
“My city’s being shelled, but Mum won’t believe me.” (Link)
Mum would instead believe Russian TV news, and state social media, before her own daughter. Well, we can’t all be as smart as a prime minister from any nation other than Canada.
Yes Virginia, there is a conspiracy of Russians at keyboards in cubicles on Russian troll farms. And they are enabled by anti-vaxxers and useful idiots.
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Sean Crawford
In the heart of the new west,
March
2022
