2. I have to say, I find the aggressive handling of this by Freeland's office more troubling than the original offense (the tweet was deleted, after all, and could be chalked up as a mistake.) Instead of apologizing, they've gone on offense.
-
-
Show this thread
-
3. Freeland's office: the controversy is "a classic KGB disinformation smear ... accusing Ukrainians and Ukrainian Canadians of being far-right extremists or fascists or Nazis." Not good. It assumes the only people who object to symbols of fascist paramilitaries are KGB agents.
Show this thread -
4. Is it true that KGB in past and Putin now try to smear all Ukrainian nationalism as fascistic. Yes, absolutely. But are all attempts to investigate and marginalize Ukrainian fascism driven by KGB/Putin. No. Lots driven by Ukrainian anti-fascists (both Jews & gentile).
Show this thread -
5. There were in fact historically Ukrainians who were fascists, some of whom aligned with Nazis. (One of those was Freeland's maternal grandfather). Recording the deeds of this faction & keeping them marginalized remains politically imperative. That's not a KGB agenda.
Show this thread -
6. Right now, Putin is smearing the whole of Ukrainian nationalism as being fascistic, arguing he's "de-nazifying" country. That's cynical and vile propaganda. But Freeland by posing with UPA colors & her office tweeting out image, is feeding into propaganda.
Show this thread -
7. To put it another way, the very fact that Putin is engaged in smearing Ukrainian nationalism (and denying Ukraine's right to exist) makes it more imperative, not less, that prominent Canadian politician Freeland to make clear distance from fascist group.
Show this thread -
8. More broadly, the whole story shows how the claim of Russian disinformation (sometimes real, sometimes not) is used as a smokescreen to hide real problems that deserve scrutiny & criticism.
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
This Tweet is unavailable.
-
And it just so happens that guy whose lecture they interrupted is Freeland's uncle.
- Show replies
-
-
-
The crap that was put in this report as 'balance' is exactly what makes it apologia. Describing those concerned as primarily 'right-wing' is inaccurate and providing unchallenged claims that the episode is Russian disinformation and/or insignificant is unwarranted.
-
"unchallenged claims". Except for the whole RU embassy shopping the story around the day after she became minister of foreign affairs in an attempt to launder the narrative through reputable sources thingy...pic.twitter.com/qxdbDSSfkE
- Show replies
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.