The supposed ‘conservative’ Spectator Magazine is the latest to join the hysterical liberal and progressive anti-Russia chorus.
Spectator writer Justin Doherty, like so many others in western media, is doing his part to defeat the Russians by advancing the increasingly popular half-baked idea that assumes that higher wholesale gas and household energy costs are the new price of freedom and democracy in the West. ‘It’s our little sacrifice for those poor Ukrainians suffering under the jackboot of Vladimir Putin.’
Yes, it’s certainly a very attractive polemic, but in realty it’s a convoluted and ridiculous argument, and smacks of a level of geopolitical desperation not seen in modern history, but it has nonetheless taken hold across large swaths of the Western intelligentsia. Here is the much-repeated claim:
One of the great ironies of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is that Europe is, in effect, funding it by buying Russian oil and gas. Europe has become addicted to Russian energy, which makes up a third of German energy imports.
But Doherty goes even further, opining that one way we can all fight Putin is to take a cold shower in the morning. He explains:
I found myself in Berlin at the weekend gasping for breath in a cold shower, doing my bit for Ukraine. Berliners are a phlegmatic bunch but the arrival of a European war two hours from their doorstep is triggering memories of much darker periods of conflict and stirring not-so-dormant feelings of solidarity and direct action. Could cold showers be the answer?
The least we can do is turn our backs on Putin’s gas by taking a cold shower and turning off the heating. Just four per cent of the UK’s natural gas supply comes from Russia, so collective action could go a long way. The invigorating thrill of a cold shower isn’t so bad once you’ve got your head around it. Some would say it’s actually good for you. The central heating doesn’t need to be on, why not put on another jumper? You could cover yourself in deep heat if need be. The government could encourage us by publishing daily reports on national energy usage, as we decisively reject Putin’s gas and help play our part in this war.
Yes, you read that right. ‘Fight those Russians by using less gas and electricity!’ As expected with most mainstream journalism, it has a natural tendency to ignore context. Here the author casually omits the fact that wholesale energy prices began skyrocketing to record-breaking highs back as early as September and October – long before Putin began his NeoSoviet conquest for world domination.
Previously, conservatives weren’t so easily prone to succumbing to the sort of magical thinking that were was once reserved for political avatars like Greta Thunberg, and the bright idea that driving a Tesla would help to lower the Earth’s temperature. But the fetishisation of Putin seems to have had a detrimental effect on the critical thinking capacity of both the political left and right in the US, UK and Europe.
Doherty went on to tout the much celebrated NATO “2 percent” military spending commitment, joining the elation of seeing Germany move towards militarizing itself, despite the fact that this is a reversal of 75 years of post-World War II allied collective security policy:
Last week the German government undid decades of foreign policy, announcing massive investment in German defence spending and sending anti-tank and air defence weapons to Ukraine. Chancellor Olaf Scholz called Putin’s invasion a Zeitenwende, a ‘watershed moment’ as he pledged €100 billion to upgrade German’s defence forces and committed to top the two per cent GDP contribution to NATO. Such is the widespread shock at what is happening that 75 per cent of Germans support Scholz’s seismic policy U-turn.
Part of this new German arms bonanza will be to ship lethal weapons to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. What Doherty and others cheering from their desks in London and New York conveniently fail to mention is that Germany will in fact be arming actual Nazi battalions in Ukraine. Even the socialist Left can see it, but this fatal Nazi blind spot still persists for most NeoCons and NeoLibs in the free West.
As the West continues to suffer from debilitating inflation and stagflation, the need for a scapegoat will continue to grow, and so you can expect to see many more hysterical stories like this one in the coming weeks and months.
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