Authorizing sending arms/aid to Ukraine is not the same as voting for war in Ukraine. No one wanted Russia to invade Ukraine either time but it did. Russia chose to start a war Ukraine decided to defend itself.
It's hard to believe so many peoples heads can fit up Putin's asshole while simultaneously sucking him off.
My favorite part of the Dominion lawsuit was all of the internal messages showing Fox News hosts willfully lying to their viewers. Nearly all of the conservative ragebait is people being facetious with reality for political purposes.
He vehemently claimed Russia wasn't going to invade Ukraine when US intelligence came out and said it in advance. And then when Russia invaded, he shifted to all new bullshit, instead of having any self reflection.
What actually happened to Greenwald? I mean, he's obviously lost his mind, and he's been going down the right-wing conspiracy rabbit hole for years, but how did he get there? What bizarre side-tunnel on the left took him to the right?
It's very simple. Catering to the right wing nut jobs brings a lot of attention, which for someone like Greenwald, means money. Especially for a former "lefty". It's a naked grift.
It's an easy, successful grift. Look at someone similar like Dave "why I left the left" Rubin. He's not half as smart nor is he half as talented as Greenwald, and yet even he can pull it off. It does have pitfalls, though. Rubin has been struggling since he and his husband had those two children via surrogacy.
I mostly just feel sad watching Dave Rubin talk to people who clearly afford him 0 actual respect.
The look on his face when he just has to casually pretend that it's just a "difference of opinion" when people treat him like garbage to his face is hard to stomach.
He's getting paid and serving their purposes. He's actively harming his own community, so I know I shouldn't afford him much sympathy. Still feels bad to watch though.
Many reasons, including deciding that Trans folks are delusional and fake and taking up more than their fair share of attention. But at the core of it I suspect that it's a desire to stay relevant and make money in the media world, and the easiest way to do that is to buddy up to the far right assholes of the world. Just a guess though.
It's kinda straight forward. Want to know why someone has made a big change to what you thought were their core values? the answer is probably going to be money.
I remember reading True Believer by Eric Hoffer ages ago and for some reason that book comes to mind when I think of people that were seemingly on the left, but somewhere, they took a dark turn and/or they become unwitting (or witting?) agents of outfits like Russia. Let's see:
Wow, I just realized that each of those people give me the same impression: They all remind me of the various types of Russian trolls one might meet online.
You've got the "Fox News favorites," the Democrats who constantly appear on right-wing media to denigrate other Democrats and reassure their viewers that everything Fox says is true.
Then there's the "Pac-Man right-wingers," the ones who present themselves as so far to the left that they've done the Pac-Man thing and looped from the left side of the screen to the right.
And finally there's the "Look at me, I'm crazy" types, the ones who pretend to be absurd caricatures of the left, expressing exaggerated, straw-man versions Democratic positions as if they're the real thing.
Most Russian trolls online are designed to convince conservatives in America of various insane "facts" about Democrats, and they use various tactics to do it. The majority of the troll accounts pretend to be American conservatives and spread intentional disinformation and misinformation, but some try to play the role of people on the left, to convince conservatives that the left is insane.
And every name on your list reminds me of those trolls.
Like some leftists on Lemmy, he doesn’t hold typical conservative views but criticizes and hates American liberals and the Democratic Party more than he does US conservatives.
He is certainly friendly with conservative beliefs...
From his Wikipedia page:
In his 2006 book How Would a Patriot Act?, Greenwald wrote that he was politically apathetic at the time of the Iraq War and accepted the Bush administration's judgement that "American security really would be enhanced by the invasion of this sovereign country."
Greenwald said that Bolsonaro could be a "good partner" for President Trump "If you think that the U.S. should go back to kind of the Monroe Doctrine as [National Security Adviser] John Bolton talked openly about, and ruling Latin America, and U.S. interests"
In an appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Greenwald expressed support for the Ukraine biolabs conspiracy theory.
And some quotes:
"If you think the real power centers in the US are the Proud Boys, 4chan, & Boogaloos rather than the CIA, FBI, NSA, Wall Street and Silicon Valley, and spend most of your time battling the former while serving the latter as stenographers, your journalism is definitionally shit."
"The cultural left (meaning the part of the left focused on cultural issues rather than imperialism or corporatism) ... has become increasingly censorious, moralising, controlling, repressive, petulant, joyless, self-victimising, trivial and status-quo-perpetuating."
You know…. I’m usually all for legalization of drugs…
…. And I don’t know what greenwald is smoking here… but I think maybe I’d be okay with banning that one. It seems to have made him stupid. And not like temporarily.
I still listen to Matt Taibbi's old podcast (that he's no longer on) but IIRC, they still carry a torch for Greenwald, maybe even had him on in recent years. I definitely heard him on some podcast that seemed overly friendly to him.
What's amusing to me is when Taibbi, Greenwald, etc., pretend to be somehow so very principled and above the fray and so on...it is rather amusing to watch.
It's so weird to see how far we've fallen in this country. Whether good or bad, we used to proudly stand with nations fighting for their right to independence and democracy. We used to be proud fighters of freedom. Now the party that's all about freedoms and war, want to hide like the cowards they really are. I guess it just hits different when it's your Nazi buddies trying to invade a country....
Having read a bit about Greenwald, it seems he was always a bit of a contrarian, kind of "both sides are equally bad" sort of mindset. But since his partner passed away, hes gone right down the rabbit hole.