There is no question that Putin is vile, a war criminal, a kleptocrat and a threat to the planet. That said, in recent days, we have been reminded again and again that a broad array of powerful figures in the world support him, his agenda, defend him, amplify his views.
The rising right in Europe does, from Orban to members of the new ruling coalition in Italy. OPEC does and is willing to do so at the expense of a relationship it once valued, with the United States. Leaders like Brazil's Bolsonaro do and have substantial support for doing so.
Elon Musk does. Tucker Carlson and many of the other Fox News talking heads do. Clearly, despite being rightly and severely criticized for it for the better part of the last decade, Donald Trump still does and many in the MAGA GOP leadership and many of their supporters do too.
Now, this is not, clearly, because there is one redeeming feature to Putin, who is undoubtedly one of modern history's true villains, despicable in every respect. So, why is it? Is it because these diverse figures (& I have not included many others worldwide like the Chinese)...
...are all evil themselves? While clearly some are and while the consequences of their support are undoubtedly evil, no one embraces evil for its own sake. Rather they do it out of self-interest. Now some, clearly, support Putin because they can do business with him.
That business can be trading oil or of a less savory sort, given Putin's role as perhaps the leading figure in global organized crime. That business can include campaign donations in the U.S. or in Europe or it can include providing other kinds of political support...
...via Russia's intelligence organizations. But it is also more than that. Support for Putin means participation in a global movement to weaken institutions and institutionalized values that Putinists see as a threat. Autocrats want help pushing back on democratic institutions.
The corrupt and the criminal want assistance undermining the rule of law. Ethno-nationalists want support in vilifying the other and condemning tolerance and basic human rights--because these things, open societies, fairness, decency, threaten their narrow self-interests.
Putinism, like the MAGA Republicanism that is closely linked to it, is largely about what it is against and not what it is for. It is against progress. It is against science and history when understanding them, respecting them, appreciating their lessons, threatens them.
It is against tolerance if that means weakening their hold on power or the technique and tools they use to hold on to power. It is against regulation if regulation is an impediment to their accumulating more power. In fact, we should be especially conscious of that word "power."
Putinism is a movement that seeks to maintain the power of groups who are threatened by progress, who don't want to accept change, who want to preserve or restore an old order because it is their order, their ticket to wealth or comfort.
Putinism is fundamentally reactionary. It is about those who feel more comfortable in the past--whether it is Putin in an empire he incorrectly imagines once existed or MAGA Republicans in America's white supremacist past or OPEC in a world that was not rejecting fossil fuels.
It employs old approaches (fascism, brute force) and old ideologies to battle to preserve the past or to reject changes that must come--a more democratic, greener world that thrives on integrated, interconnected, open systems.
Every society throughout history has had such groups. And indeed, the story of history is often one of battles between those whose power and mindsets and belief systems are entrenched in the past and those who recognize change must come because it is better or more just.
We have seen such struggles throughout history as battles between rising and falling powers--from the ancient world to the 30 Years War, from the battle of fiefdoms and a dominant church against nation states and Reformation to the revolutions of the 18th & 19th Centuries...
...from the American Civil War to the rejection of colonialism. Demagogues have often gained or maintained power by using the lure of the familiar to draw in supporters made uncomfortable by looming changes.
This is that old familiar story. How you might ask is a "technologist" like Elon Musk anti-progress? Well, some people, like him, are all for progress if they can use it to maintain other aspects of the status quo. Elon Musk is an old school robber baron.
He wants change to serve him and will use the riches it brings him to support the power of those who will serve his agenda, preserve and build his wealth, push back on those who would force him to regulate...or who might simply have views with which he does not agree.
For Trump and the MAGA GOP, they are willing to support Putinism even though it is traitorous and not in our interest because it can empower and enrich them and give them tools by which to weaken their perceived enemies.
Because of the grave threat posed by Putin, the extreme right worldwide, ethno-nationalism, corruption, fascism, the disregard for the rule of law, the desire to resist addressing climate change, it is important we understand the roots and attractions that drive it.
And as we recognize what is familiar in this story from the past, we should also understand that this reactionary movement is not only on the wrong side of history but threatens our futures...because that is at their essence what they are organized and intend to do.
This is a necessary step toward their ultimate defeat, one that history also suggests is inevitable, the only question being the toll these enemies of progress will take before they are...as they always are...consigned to history's dustbin.
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