If 'the latest' such 'attack' is 3 months old and is one guy I've never heard of.

just goes to show how deeply ingrained our bigotry and intolerance is.

It is one thing to not like Putin, another to stereotype a group of people. Distinctions.

Have you never been required to take diversity training at work? Even many Republicans get why this is regressive crap.

generalizing a population, black and white narratives, and red-baiting (McCarthyism tactics, look it up if you were not taught it in school).

big·ot
noun \ˈbi-gət\

: a person who strongly and unfairly dislikes other people, ideas, etc. : a bigoted person; especially : a person who hates or refuses to accept the members of a particular group (such as a racial or religious group)
Full Definition of BIGOT
: a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially : one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance

Last edited Mon Jun 16, 2014, 03:59 PM - Edit history (1)

not you, of course

disgusting supporters of crimes against humanity. Sadists at heart.

Of course the Soviets shared his anti gay bigotry because both are products of Orthodox religion. But Putin is no communist. It's funny that you are so stuck in time that you think 'Russian' equals 'Communist'.
Anti gay bigots are anti gay bigots. That is the only definition of anti gay bigots that matters. Don't expect others to excuse your bigoted allies. There is no reason to make excuses for such bigotry. I assume you do so out of agreement with the Russian laws and Putin.

I just can't stand dishonest dialog. I lived through the first nasty cold war crap and then again through bush's years of moving public opinion through a black and white, with us or against us, lens and it is tiring and I no longer want to sit quietly while we get lured back into a rigid vue that unnecessarily closes doors that end in thousands of civilians getting killed.

One of the points I keep making is that I am not one of the people that have posted from RT ( I should not have to defend that). But yet this poster keeps red-baiting me (Redbating is not just saying you are a commie, it is a general term for bigoted attempts to paint other people dishonestly because you don't agree with them).

It is hard for me to get all caught in the label of the day and the misuse of GLBT rights issues as an excuse to rush to war when it is being used as a propaganda tool. Because both Russia and Ukraine are essentially in the same spectrum on the issue.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2014/may/-sp-gay-rights-world-lesbian-bisexual-transgender

and despite the recent posts Russia, while definitely needing to deal further its *minority* anti-semetic population; It is actually less anti-semetic than Ukraine. Anti-semetic and neo-nazism is a huge and growing problem throughout the entire region and needs to be approached as a regional problem. Eastern EU is the region that is highest.

Here is the ADL's map of antisemitism.
http://global100.adl.org/#map/eeurope

Those are simply FACTS and people will defend a factual dialog.

Calling out people who are simply invested in moving toward more fact based dialogs (which lead to better solutions) is not a practice that leads anywherewhere but down. Prejudices and lack of ability to emphasis are a major factor in wars that kill massive innocents.

actually defending Putin (You will have to tell me, I have seen only one person actually defend Putin), and people who are posting either to verify or add information that is not being covered, or who see another side to what is happening in Ukraine and are concerned about the humanitarian component that the western press have avoided and (they opine) Kyiv has supressed. That may be construed as an "anti-Kyiv leadership" (really just pro-peace and pro innocent civilians) but it is not a Pro-putin stand and if the people whining about others arguing with them can tamper down the stereotyping and red-baiting they won't get so much pushback.

It is clear at this point that even the President and Kerry are are not seeing the situation any longer as something that Putin is firmly in control of (if much at all), as they have tempered rhetoric and there are suggestions that direct diplomacy may be quietly occurring.

You might want to wait until you are known before you start knocking people so harshly.
and authoritatively.

As everyone is aware here there are sock puppets that try to stir up things here; better to establish yourself before you go knocking longer term members?

... all showed up at the same time.

There is no difference between using the latest term vs the previous ones used, whether it is "terrorist sympathizer, communist lover, or "Putin Defender".

Red-baiting was actually around before the McCarthy era (and before communism), that was just a particularly heinous form.

If you want to make the case that our government is right to isolate and demonize Russia, that's fine.

I would have even more respect if you made the case based on the real geopolitics and economic motives of our government, and political and economic value of the Ukraine to Russia, but if you can't, that's okay.

However, calling someone who disagrees with our government's policy in that region a "pro-Putin progressive" is the kind of ugly name calling and bullying I would expect from a right-winger or PR shill--but even a lot of right wingers don't see the need to stir the pot with Russia.

It's amazing what views of Nature can reveal to the watchful observer.

And those do exist, even here on DU.

no threat to us.

Whatever Putin's sins, they have no credibility to condemn him until they clean our own house of war criminals and make restitution to our troops and Iraqis--and probably a lot of Afghans.

Am I--or you, for that matter--somehow estopped from speaking out against Putin's acts of aggression even though we had nothing to do with the decision to invade Iraq?

but our government was helping and inciting the opposition and working toward a solely Western tied Ukraine instead of one that was free to have ties to both Russia and the West.

I wonder how many Americans would be happy if Russia did that in Canada or Mexico.

And again, all the howls about Russian war crimes in Crimea coming from Washington would have more resonance if we prosecuted our own war criminals (and if we stopped letting the war criminals themselves comment on the lesser crimes of others).

....and far under-estimate the role of the Ukrainian people themselves as it relates to their own country.

Clearly, the US did have certain desires as to who it wanted to see in power in Ukraine. But so far there's been no evidence that the US did anything to actually bring about regime change. That is attributable to the Ukrainian people themselves, who got up and demonstrated en masse this past winter. The fact of the matter is, there is a long historical distrust of Russia in Ukraine and its meddling in Ukrainian affairs. Yanukovych's embrace of Russia--a country lead by an individual who has reportedly denied Ukraine's very existence of a country--caught the ire of millions of Ukrainians.

If you can show me that the US did anything in Ukraine beyond handing out cookies, giving money to NGOs, or speaking about who they wished to see leading the country, I'd love to see it. Claims that the US actually lead a "coup" in Ukraine are pretty flimsy, given that there's no evidence that what happened in Ukraine was actually a coup.

Now, on the other hand, Putin actually brought in his military to seize a portion of Ukrainian territory (Crimea) and annex it for Russia, in direct violation of prior treaties. And its widely believed that he is providing material support for the insurgency currently going on in the east of Ukraine. That goes far beyond anything the US ever did in Ukraine.

To get coups done.

So.....

https://twitter.com/Catherina_News