The instrumentalization of Ukrainian identity
Since the US-backed coup in Ukraine in 2014, and especially after the start of Russia’s special military operation to liberate the eastern and southern regions, we have seen the Ukrainians’ cultural identity become instrumentalized by both the Zelensky regime and his backers in the broader West as they needlessly prolong NATO’s proxy war with Russia.
The “Stand with Ukraine” propaganda campaigns criticized Russia for President Vladimir Putin’s “war against Ukrainian sovereignty and independence” and ran on, in essence, every news channel, entirely unopposed.
Universities, organizations, and governmental organizations in the West proudly displayed their support for Ukraine and actively silenced dissenting voices. Western liberals then followed in the footsteps of their bourgeois masters, labelling any dissenting voice that somehow cut through as “Russian propaganda.”
Within the region, the Zelensky regime has utilized so-called “de-Russification” to enact policies that actively suppress Russian identity.
This supposed “de-Russification” also seemingly includes the commemoration of Nazis, the erasure of Soviet Great Patriotic War (WWII) history, and turning a blind eye to the neo-Nazi presence in the military.
The instrumentalization of Jewish identity and ethnic minorities in China
The conflict in Ukraine is not the only active instance of the instrumentalization of cultural identity. Due to the “State of Israel’s” countless claims of anti-Semitism to silence criticism of the continued genocide in Palestine, Jewish identity has similarly been instrumentalized.
The collapse of Jewish identity and Judaism into Zionism and “Israeli” national identity has caused many issues and will undoubtedly continue to fuel the neo-Nazis’ rhetoric and conspiratorial claims of a “new world order” led by Jews.
This is also seen in Imperialist America’s pushes against the People’s Republic of China (PRC), especially in Taiwan Province and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
Despite those in Taiwan having diverse views, Western media often makes unfounded claims that all Taiwan residents support so-called “Taiwan independence” separatist forces.
In the case of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Western media deliberately misrepresents the nature of national language and security laws, despite many Uyghur Chinese speaking against these erroneous claims themselves. Those who visit Xinjiang very quickly see that the “reality of Xinjiang [is] different from that portrayed by [the] West.”
Yet as in the case of Ukraine, Western media and liberals further amplify these incorrect narratives.
This co-optation of cultural identities by the imperialist forces is a despicable action that must be staunchly opposed in all its forms.