US Taxpayers Are Funding Ukraine’s Blacklisting Of American Dissenters For Thought Crimes

While skimming billions of dollars from US taxpayers, Ukraine’s autocrat in chief Zelenskyy has issued a threatening blacklist that specifically names US lawmakers and journalists as being “Russian propagandists” who should be rejected by media and society.

To the shock of many, among those names are US Senator Rand Paul, congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald.

Anyone who disagrees with Zelensky is now apparently going to be named a kind of “Putin puppet,” as if the installed leader of a European country is now allowed to dictate a kind of reputation score for US lawmakers and journalists.

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This is the sort of tactic used in fascist, authoritarian states, smacking of Nazi Germany and the old Soviet Union under Stalin.

Conservative Brief reports:

The non-democratic, socialist and totalitarian Ukraine government of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has created a blacklist of western voices that are considered “Russian propagandists” for their criticism of the Ukraine-Russia conflict. [Details Here]

The overwhelming commonality of the people on the list is their advocacy for citizens of nations who are providing support for Ukraine to have a democratic voice on the issue. The Zelenskyy government has stated it will not permit any criticism of their country and demands that all western nations continue to send billions of dollars to provide an appropriate lifestyle for all Ukrainian government officials.

Currently the burden of financing the continuation of the Ukraine government has fallen upon U.S. taxpayers who have provided approximately $60 billion so far for the pay and pension benefits of Ukraine officials and their families. President Zelenskyy says we have a moral obligation to continue this funding, and any voice who would question the process is now blacklisted within Ukraine and labeled a Russian propagandist.

Watch:

US Taxpayers Are Funding Ukraine’s Blacklisting Of American Dissenters For Thought Crimes

The government of Ukraine is censoring American politicians, military theorists, and academics who are deemed ‘pro-Russian.’

By: Sumantra Maitra, The Federalist, July 28, 2022:

On July 14, the Ukrainian government published a bizarre list of academics, politicians, policymakers, and contrarian journalists, who are allegedly propagandists for Russia. The list includes sitting U.S. senators such as Rand Paul, R-Ky., former politicians such as Tulsi Gabbard, and military theorists such as Martin van Creveld and Edward Luttwak, as well as perhaps the foremost living international relations theorist of our times, John Mearsheimer.

A report in Unherd cites a report from the Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation explaining that “the exact criteria for inclusion are also unclear, although next to each name the report lists the ‘pro-Russian’ opinions the individual promotes. For example, Edward Luttwak’s breach was to suggest that ‘referendums should be held in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions;’ Mearsheimer’s breach is recorded as him saying that ‘NATO has been in Ukraine since 2014’ and that ‘NATO provoked Putin.’”

If that sounds familiar, one might wish to recall documents unearthed by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., about similarly oriented programs planned by the Biden administration. They sound extremely similar. As the Unherd story adds, “The ‘Center for Countering Disinformation,’ established in 2021 under Volodymyr Zelenskyy and headed by former lawyer Polina Lysenko, sits within the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine. Its stated aim is to detect and counter ‘propaganda’ and ‘destructive disinformation’ and to prevent the ‘manipulation of public opinion.’”

Given that the Ukrainian government is being subsidized with billions of American dollars, this censorship amounts to American taxpayers paying the Ukrainian government billions of dollars to blacklist American citizens for thought crimes.

John Mearsheimer is one of the kindest mentors young scholars might ever have. Not to mention, he is a towering intellect and a pioneer of the school of international relations theory, known as Offensive Realism. Simply put, this theory argues that the world order is anarchic with no global policeman and that states should be nationalist and take care of their own, instead of pursuing utopian financial and military adventures abroad.

Mearsheimer also understood, before everyone else, why the rise of China is the greatest hegemonic threat that the U.S. faces in history, long before the concept of the Thucydides Trap was coined, and long before the economic coercions, unprecedented naval build-up, intellectual property thefts, and espionage attempts started. He also understood before all contemporary intellectuals, why wasting blood and treasure in the Middle East will dissuade the U.S. from balancing China.

But notably, what likely landed Mearsheimer on Ukraine’s blacklist, was how he understood why pushing NATO expansion would lead to war, why there would be no NATO cavalry to save Ukraine as nuclear deterrence works both ways, what structural forces led to American foreign policy turning increasingly crusading in the last couple of decades, and why America is prone to be influenced by foreign lobbying.

If not anything else, purely from a sense of propriety or respect for academic eminence, the attempted thought policing by Ukrainian officials should be considered internal interference and should infuriate any decent man.

As Dan Caldwell, the VP of Stand Together, tweeted, “Let’s be clear: this is an attempt by an increasingly illiberal Ukrainian government to silence, intimidate, and smear several prominent American foreign policy scholars whose views are increasingly shared by the American people and policymakers. @StateDept should condemn.”

Caldwell added, “Yes there are some goofballs on this list. But that is the point. The Ukrainian government wanted to lump Mearsheimer, Bandow, Luttawak et al in with the loony toons to make it harder to defend the ones who are actually well-respected and credentialed.”

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