Senile disease of European leftism

Vladimir Pastukhov* - about why the Jewish pogrom in Amsterdam was not an accident

18+. THIS MATERIAL (INFORMATION) WAS PRODUCED, DISTRIBUTED AND (OR) SENT BY FOREIGN AGENT PASTUKHOV VLADIMIR BORISOVICH OR CONCERNES THE ACTIVITIES OF FOREIGN AGENT PASTUKHOV VLADIMIR BORISOVICH

As the cult hero of an equally cult Soviet film said, evening in Europe ceases to be languid. A topic that should have been revealed long ago, but which frightened with its immensity, after the Amsterdam pogrom moved from the socio-philosophical section to the section of criminal chronicles, demanding close and urgent attention, albeit to the detriment of the depth and comprehensiveness of the coverage of meanings.

And we are not talking here about emigrants from the Near and Middle East obsessed with the idea of ​​exterminating Jews. Paradoxically, they are only a tool in this story. They are the knife of the guillotine, but not the executioner. This time other forces acted as the executioner.

Anatomy of a pogrom

“Pogrom” is a Russian word. As Putin grew overgrown with Malofeevs and Dugins, everyone expected that it (the pogrom) would bloom again magnificently in some Russian Non-Black Earth region, like an elastic weed that does not give in to any historical vicissitudes of fate. But fate decreed otherwise, and the pogrom scattered the tulips in the rich fields of the Netherlands. And if it comes to Russia now, it will most likely be imported, overseas, like the same tulips for the holiday, delivered to Moscow by plane from Amsterdam. Well, then, of course, import substitution will start working. Tea, not microchips, Russia can cope with this task easily and quickly.

But let’s return to Europe, where perhaps the first full-fledged pogrom since the end of World War II took place in Amsterdam. The first thing that needs to be said, loudly and confidently, is that this is not an accident or an excess. On the contrary, I don’t know what should have happened in Europe so that, given the trends observed in recent years and especially after October 7, 2023, this pogrom would not have occurred. A miracle, probably, but it didn’t happen, but a perfect storm happened, which brought together all three necessary components of a pogrom at one point:

an active xenophobic minority, a passive majority sympathetic to this minority, and a populist power dependent on the passive majority, relying on the masses rather than on a weakened, decadent elite.

In this regard, I would not overestimate the factor of European anti-Semitism. Of course, he is in Europe, and he never left there. But there wasn't much more of it there than usual. I will never forget one of my first business trips to Europe, to the citadel of liberal capitalism - Copenhagen. A pleasant dinner in a small bourgeois commune in a prestigious suburb, the sweet wife of one of the top managers of something like our Gazprom with a then shocking laptop on the table (can’t take your eyes off). Amateur historian, housewife, conceptual discussions about the fate of Europe in the context of perestroika: “The Germans left us as a legacy an unsolved problem - they were unable to finally solve the Jewish question. And now this task lies heavily on new generations of Europeans.” In general, I am not impressed by the talk of a resurgence of anti-Semitism. Not because he doesn’t exist, but because he’s not the main character here. It was always there, but there were no pogroms for a long time.

The main character here is from another theater. He is a guest star on a provincial stage, where scenes from a long-forgotten farce repertoire are performed in bad taste. In this sense, the events in the Middle East - the horror of terror and the drama of Gaza - are just a trigger for a process that is not directly related to anti-Semitism. They simply successfully fell on the well-plowed soil of leftist maximalism, which demands the immediate and widespread establishment of the “Kingdom of God” on earth.

Paradoxically, these leftist maxims about a world without violence very successfully lay on the extremist maxims about violence as the main and only method of restoring “justice.” Thus, the massive anti-Jewish campaign of numerous Middle Eastern diasporas in Europe powerfully triggered (becoming just a pretext) another outbreak of left-anarchist movement. And perhaps he even disappeared into it, leaving a superficial anti-Semitic trace as a greeting. But we need to understand “who is who” here.

The violent, committed anti-Semites in this story are a small but very active minority. But the left-wing inhabitants, who in real life were absolutely indifferent to the Semites, became precisely the nutrient broth that absorbed anti-Semitism in the same way that it previously absorbed the fight against, for example, air pollution - and pogroms bloomed in full bloom.

And the authorities, which amazed everyone with their helpless behavior, reacted in this way not at all to a bunch of people obsessed with the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bdestructing “strangers,” but to this vast leftist faction of European society, which they are forced to reckon with, willy-nilly, due to their populist weakness.

So the chain is built. Emigrants from Arab countries awakened the leftist movement, which was dormant after the recent climate storms (with storming of factories and pouring soup on paintings). The movement adopted their anti-Semitic slogans and went further on its beaten path, demanding the elimination of capitalism and imperialism (this time with a Jewish face), and the confused state, seeing the scale of the movement, decided to withdraw itself. That's the whole pogrom. More precisely, its anatomy. It started in Amsterdam, but could have happened anywhere. And it is quite possible that something else will happen.

Great-grandchildren of Bakunin

And again the Russian trace. We often in vain mention the “left” as a new threat to European democracy and European values, ready to flutter out from under the foam of the “right wave”. This is a separate and large topic for discussion, but in relation to the situation under discussion, the term “left” is not entirely correct. Another designation for the movement that has begun in Europe seems more appropriate: “leftist.” There are two big differences between “left” and “leftist”, as they say in Odessa.

The virus that has struck the modern European intelligentsia, especially the university and media environment, is not leftist (that would be half the story), but leftist. By its deep political nature, it is not just anti-capitalist, but also anarchist. It is precisely this anarchist madness among a significant part of the European cultural class that plays a significant role in the fact that it (this part) is now a mass platform for pogroms.

And by the way, leftist ideology is deeply alien to the ideology of the left. Suffice it to remember that no one caused Marx such irritation as the last-born Russian anarchists Bakunin and Kropotkin. I think that he was much more tolerant of the capitalists themselves.

In my opinion, the surge of this leftist movement in Europe is largely an objective consequence of the difficult transition period it is going through. Numerous challenges, primarily related to the explosive development of the information society and associated technologies, have led to the weakening, fragmentation and ultimately degradation of Western elites.

This can be observed empirically by looking at how political institutions are falling apart and political leadership is shrinking (Johnson, Trump, Scholz, Macron in the place of Thatcher, Reagan, Brandt, Mitterrand). Even Berlusconi looks like a giant.

The crisis of the elites exposed the natural Neolithic mass structure of society. To my amazement, the mass turned out to be not neutral, but charged with a rather powerful left-hand relic charge.

I dare to suggest that the elites in a normal situation play the role of a positive proton for this mass, around which a negative electron rotates. Together they represent a balanced system. Now, when the elites sank, the system became unbalanced, and leftist electrons flowed in a stormy stream along their only driven anarchist trajectories.

The presence in modern European society of a fairly powerful anti-Semitic consolidated emigrant flow only created conditions for superconductivity for this flow, in the whirlwind of which the pogrom arose.

Putin and the anarchists

One of the inexplicable oddities of the Kremlin’s foreign policy is the carefully emphasized sympathy for the right that Putin has continuously demonstrated throughout his entire reign. In fact, his natural allies in Europe and, in general, his main sympathizers are not the right, but the left elements, and above all the leftists.

This affinity is not accidental, but is based on common goals. Putin's policies have long been defined as anti-capitalist and anti-American in essence. But these two goals are the main ones for European leftists. Both publicly and in private conversations, they justify Putin’s actions (even without sharing his views and approaches) with two arguments:

globally, America is to blame for the very creation of the conflict situation, and Putin, despite all his wrongs, fights America as the main evil, which means he is on the side of good.

It is interesting how this situation is extrapolated to both Ukraine and the Middle East. Leftists, of course, do not want to admit that *** [military operation] against Ukraine is good. But they are ready to first justify it (America is to blame), and then support it (someone needs to show America the middle finger). Likewise, no one directly supports the October 7 terrorist attack. Everyone “condemns, BUT” - Israel “is to blame for everything,” since it created ongoing injustice (justification), and someone must, well, at least terrorists, achieve “justice” (support).

It doesn’t take a prophet to predict that this environment, which has become a breeding ground for pogroms, will in the future become the same breeding ground for betrayal of Ukraine.

PS
On November 6, a convoy with ammunition for Ukraine was blocked in Tyrnavos, Greece. Military assistance was stopped by a barrier of red activists. “NATO killers,” they wrote on stopped trucks.

* The authorities of the Russian Federation included in the register of “foreign agents”.