“Useful idiot”: Someone who propagandises for a cause without fully comprehending the cause’s goals and who is cynically used by the cause’s leaders.
The phrase has been credited to Vladimir Lenin – but there’s no proof he actually came up with it – and gained ground during the Cold War when it was used to describe non-Communists who willingly and unthinkingly spread Communist propaganda.
Replace “Communist propaganda” with “ Putin’s agenda ” and you’ll fast see we’re up to our knees in them in the West today.
From the very top, in the shape of former US president Donald Trump, right down to the bottom, in the unlikely shape of your crazy auntie on Facebook, we’re drowning in Vladimir Putin apologists.
Trump famously kissed Putin’s ancient, spotty behind at every given opportunity, right up to publicly siding with him over his own intelligence chiefs when it came to the question of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“I don’t see why it would be [Russia],” Trump said. After the global howl of outrage that followed, he claimed he’d misspoken and had meant to say: “I don’t see why it WOULDN’T be.” Right. Sure. Yeah.
Trump also called repeatedly for an end to Nato – a major Putin goal – and all indications are he would have pulled America out of the organisation had he won a second term. “No one was tougher on Putin than me,” Trump now says. OK. Sure.
Then there are the useful idiots lining up below Trump – like Fox news presenter Tucker Carlson, a man so deranged he has the most-watched opinion show in America... And only in America – no other country would broadcast it.
Before the crisis even began, Carlson said: “Why should I root for Ukraine? Why shouldn’t I root for Russia? Which I am, by the way.”
Obviously after the entire world began to see Putin as the utter monster he has always been, Carlson changed his tune, simply lying and saying: “No one is rooting for Putin.” BUT (and it is a big but) “the West and Nato caused this conflict”.
Carlson’s monologues so precisely echo Putin’s talking points that, in a memo leaked last week, the Kremlin issued a directive to Russian state TV to feature as much of Carlson on their news shows as possible.
Why does Carlson spout these lies? Perhaps up to a point he believes them – he has displayed a long, public love of strongmen “leaders” like Hungary’s Viktor Orban.
And while he’s vicious, nasty and amoral, he’s not stupid. He knows these views bait the liberals and play well with the MAGA mouth-breathers who watch his show.
In the current climate it’s not only a miracle he still has a TV show but also a miracle he hasn’t been arrested for treason yet. Over here we have our own Poundland version of Carlson – Nigel Farage, who has spoken openly about his admiration for Putin over the years.
Why would he do this? Well, like Carlson, he’s an admirer of the right wing and, again like Carlson, there’s cash to be had.
In the run-up to Brexit, Farage became a regular contributor on Russia Today, Putin’s state TV channel. His income from media appearances duly increased from less than £10,000 in 2012 to more than £500,000 by May 2018.
The agenda is clear enough for the likes of Farage and Carlson – there’s gold in them there shills.
But, what’s even sadder than the amoral and greedy? The stupid. Which brings us to your auntie on Facebook. Via, of course, Russell Brand.
Over the last few years Brand has reinvented himself from a wacky Sex-Catweazle TV comic into a kind of freewheeling, free-thinking radical and conspiracy theorist.
He peddles his nonsense on his YouTube channel, where he’s gradually morphed from an anti-masker and anti-vaxxer into, you guessed it, promoting Kremlin talking points.
How?
By equating Canada’s treatment of the moronic Trucker Freedom Convoy to the invasion of Ukraine.
It was a classic piece of Putin-style “whataboutery” – you can’t criticise Putin while you’re behaving like this in your own country.
These are the views that make their way to your mad auntie.
Early on in the pandemic, I noticed a couple of people I was distant Facebook friends with had gradually become full-on anti-mask and anti-vaccine lunatics.
“Where are you getting all this stuff?” I asked one. “Oh, you need to watch Russell Brand,” they told me. I tried. I really did – for about 15 seconds.
I checked in on one of their accounts again a few days ago. Sure enough, there she was, saying stuff like, “Nato and the West must share some of the blame for Ukraine,” and, “We don’t know the full story of what’s happening over there” and so on.
She had become a useful idiot.
I’m not sure how useful she is to Putin. She’s only got something like 200 Facebook friends. It’s not the biggest mouthpiece in the world, certainly not the platforms Farage and Carlson have.
But if the situation continues to worsen in Ukraine, if the entire world does end up effectively at war with Putin, a part of me thinks we need to take a good look at allowing traitors to freely spread enemy propaganda.
What do you do with such people during wartime? Maybe it’s time to dust off one of Trump’s old catchphrases – lock them up.
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