Vladimir Putin had an interesting statement about the invasion
of Ukraine and the western response as he perceives it.
He brought somebody unexpected into the mix in his commentary.
I'm a little sad that John isn't here to comment on this as a fellow nerd and
Harrypotter lover himself.
J.K. Rowling a victim of Western cancel culture.
And somehow that means that she has common cause with Vladimir Putin I guess
according to at least him, although she refutes it later, we'll get into that.
This just has to do with the fact that she has been openly transphobic and
Vladimir Putin says, you know, she's a victim of cancel culture just like Russia.
Putin said that the Harry Potter author was canceled quote just
because she didn't satisfy the demands of gender rights.
He continued, they are now trying to cancel our country.
I'm talking about the progressive discrimination of everything to do with
Russia.
Today, they're trying to cancel the whole 1000 year culture our people,
they're banning Russian writers and books.
Putin then compared cancel culture to Nazi persecution.
We remember the footage when they were burning books is impossible to imagine
such a thing in our country.
And we are insured against this thanks to our culture.
So you can see him stealing from a lot of
right wing talking points here in the United States.
I had this image of him just on his mega yacht that $100 million yacht.
He was worried about being seized.
He was notoriously very isolated during Covid just scrolling through
Bari Weiss's substack furiously getting so riled up about cancel culture.
But to me it is interesting and a little scary here how the right
wing seems to be borrowing from each other's narratives and
talking points obviously Russia is not being canceled.
That's so silly but J.K. Rowling did something questionable.
The Russian government started an illegal and immoral war and invasion in Ukraine.
So they are getting criticized.
And yet the number one thing that right wingers love to do internationally
is bask in their own agreement, their imagined agreement.
Because criticism apparently means persecution and
that's something that crosses borders how beautiful.
>> Emma, you're absolutely right.
This is the most right wing thing I've ever seen.
You go in obliterated country, you destroy people's homes and
hospitals and schools and you murdered thousands of their civilians.
And then when you're criticized program, now you're trying to cancel me.
You're literally trying to cancel Ukraine by swallowing it up and
making part of Russia.
It doesn't get any more cancel culture than that.
You're trying to cancel an entire country.
But my feelings have been hurt.
I am aggrieved.
I mean, poor right winger trying to murder you all.
I am the real victim.
So there's a really fascinating development here that now
right wing has basically abandoned patriotism.
And we showed you the pictures, the right wing wearing shirts saying,
I'd rather be Russian than a democrat.
You see tucker Carlson supporting Putin on a nightly basis, steve Bannon, etc.
We told you about this philosophy that they've adopted Dugan is from
a radical fascist Russian philosopher,
both Putin and Bannon, and Tucker Carlson have praised this guy.
And he believes in violence and going back to traditionalism through violence.
And so there's like a global right wing merger where they're saying score
our own countries, we don't care about our own countries at all.
We hate the Libs so much that we're willing to
betray anything for the right wing cause.
And yes, and in our case, that means betraying democracy, and
that's what they did on January 6.
And now one of the guys who did January 6 that was brought up on charges went and
is hiding in Belarus.
So, it's an amazing readjusting of global politics at large,
where nations not matter less than ideologies.
And so Fox news and Putin, birds of a feather flocking together in this case.
And it's just amazing.
That's a talking point he took straight off of Fox news.
And by the way, I mean, of all the absurdity is in this story.
He says, yeah, can you believe these progressives that are for gender rights?
What one, what does that mean, two if that means we're in favor of both
genders having rights, or people having the right to choose their gender.
And then have human rights associated with that and being equal to everyone else,
no matter what their gender is.
Yeah, guilty as charged.
We believe in equality obviously, Vladimir Putin doesn't.
And he's trying to appeal to right wingers in America saying,
you got to lift these sanctions, you gotta make sure that America betrays itself.
And supports us because the Ukrainians and the West are woke.
>> Yeah, I mean, just to piggyback really quickly off what you said their Junk.
It is the abandonment of nationalism in favor of authoritarianism and
that is widespread among the right wing at this point.
>> Yeah, I think that Putin mentioning J.K. Rowling, it seems ridiculous.
It's hilarious and horrifying, but it's really deliberate.
We have to imagine what happened in this meeting where they decided, yeah,
we're going to talk about Harry Potter in a speech like people probably sat down.
And I like Emma you imagining Putin arriving at this idea.
I did the same thing and I picture Putin and his, cabinet just around the table and
they've got a white board up and they're like, okay, what do Americans like?
And it says Harry Potter, Star Wars cheeseburgers, they're like,
what can we attack?
And they're like, okay, my enemy's enemy wrote the beloved Harry potter series.
So let's leverage that and in the same speech, we'll talk about burning books,
it's like almost as if he's trying to scare people into thinking they're burning
the Harry Potter books.
And that folks in America will try and protect these books inside with Russia.
But it's exactly that they're trying to appeal to the right wing and
splinter America's support of Ukraine's defense against Russia.
>> Well, it's he's trying to evoke the imagery from World War II.
And the Nazi imagery there,
which is obviously creates a lot of painful memories for Russian.
So this is a way for him to show up at the domestic front.
They lost over 20 million people in World War II.
That's why he pretends like this is the denazification project and
also it hides the ball because his government is currently arresting
people who are protesting against the war.
Talk about cancel culture, talk about suppression of free speech.
Russian, police forces and
authorities are literally stifling down on dissent in the news.
And in the streets of the many Russian people who we should not conflate
what Putin is doing with the Russian people here,
of the many Russian people who are speaking out against this.
It's very difficult to do so in Russia.
>> Yeah, I mean there's a great irony here when he was,
they're burning books like the Nazis.
Who is burning books including very literally Harry Potter the right wing in
Tennessee, we covered that story a couple of weeks ago.
So the right wing or like, can you believe cancel culture and
Dave Rubin even wrote a book that had a title don't burn this book.
And then the right wing goes and has a book burning party.
We showed you it looked exactly like the Nazi Burn book burning.
And they actually literally burned Harry Potter.
And so and and look, Emma mentioned Barry White's like the queen of cancel culture,
meaning like complaining about cancel culture.
She started her career and got famous by trying to get
Palestinian professors fired arguing for Palestinian human rights.
The right wing just doesn't mind hypocrisy.
So Putin is saying now remember everybody were against the Nazis, that's why
we're an authoritarian government that invades sovereign countries in Europe.
And takes away their sovereignty and then takes them as part of our glorious
homeland and then we will continue to expand until we have 1000 year empire.
Right wingers, look at that, whether it's in Russia or in America and
they're like yeah, it makes sense to me.
>> Yeah, if there's one thing that Putin and the American right have in common,
it's cognitive dissonance.
And that's why they get along so well, that's why they agree on so much.
That's why we have tucker Carlson backing up Putin on the daily, it's insane.
>> And we should say that despite J.K. Rowling vicious transphobia.
And I mean honestly, again, I grew up reading these books,
it's painful to look back on how, honestly her politics,
her bad politics are reflected in the books in hindsight.
But they come way more to the forefront when she's essentially bought into
a right wing propaganda project that Murdoch has undergone in the UK.
The way that the CRT is being currently pushed as this existential,
scary threat on right wing news stations like Fox News in the United States.
They've been doing that for a long time with trans people.
Men are going to dress up as women and sexually assault other women just vicious
stuff that someone like J.K. Rowling has bought into.
And by the way, be prepared they're starting an all out blitz to do that here
in the United States as well.
But here she is, she did disavow what Putin said, critiques of Western cancel
culture are probably not best made by those currently slaughtering civilians for
the crime of resistance.
Or who jail and poisoned their critics hashtag I stand with Ukraine.
So, that's something at least in
the context of of Ukraine and Russia.
>> Yeah, no, it's good to see her putting on a great statement even if we disagree
on some things if she comes on the right side on this, that's good.
And most importantly because it basically pushes
back against Russian propaganda and makes it less effective.
So Rowling now significantly better than Fox news where
they do Russian propaganda 24 7.