Cancel culture as foreign policy

When your stated enemies act the way you were told they would, your government’s propaganda is no longer propaganda.

From Cartographer

“The most noteworthy Western response to the war has been to ‘cancel’ Russia. Reportedly in the Czech Republic Russian university students have been expelled, a Russian orchestra conductor was forced to either denounce Putin or be fired (he was fired), a university in Italy suspended literature courses on Dostoevsky, and several Russian restaurants have been vandalized and attacked in Europe and America. This behavior is akin to the Red Guards during Chinese Cultural Revolution. All of this will have an entirely predictable effect. It gives the average Russian the impression that the West really is anti-Russian, not only against Putin and government, but against Russian culture and the Russian people as a whole. And frankly they would be correct to think this. Others before me have pointed this out, that Slavs in general and Russians in particular are the only people you are allowed to be racist against in the modern West. What will naturally occur is a greater sense of ‘asabiyyah’ among Russian people, while pro-Western elements will be increasingly marginalized. The “cancelling” of Russia is not only idiotic, but it will have entirely counterproductive results.”

https://cartographer.substack.com/p/russias-invasion-of-ukraine-day-12?s=r