Thread by @mtracey

While I like a number of people associated with the @RageAgainstWar_ rally, it has to be said: the fact that the organizers have chosen to feature participants who are avowedly NOT "anti-war" -- but rather *explicitly pro-war* -- undermines the entire stated purpose of the event

The truth is that a significant faction of speakers -- who aren't just incidentally taking part, but have been elevated in the promotional material and cast as public faces of the cause -- are unambiguous, crystal-clear supporters of the Russian war effort. It's not disputable

The event is officially billed as an "anti-war rally." But a glaringly obvious portion of the speakers are declared, outright partisans of the Russian state and its war aims. There is no coherent way to reconcile their stated position with any concept of "anti-war" advocacy

It's really straightforward: if someone explicitly declares themselves to be a supporter of a belligerent party's war effort, they are not espousing an "anti-war" position. Rather, the opposite. This is an inherent contradiction that casts doubt on the very premise of the event

I'm not "naming names" because I'm not interested in overly personalizing this, or ginning up drama. That's not why I'm commenting. I'm commenting because the organizers have perversely *legitimated* a central attack line used against those espousing a genuine anti-war view

The attack line is as follows: "You're saying this because you support Putin, or you support Russia." Variations of this get repeated ten million times everyday. But in the case of central figures associated with this event, it happens to be true. They've validated the attack

Yes I have "receipts." No I am not "cherry-picking." I am also not saying anyone who participates is irrevocably tarnished. I'm simply evaluating the stated purpose of the event, as per the organizers themselves, and noticing it cannot possibly be an "anti-war" event as described

Embarrassingly, there is at least one featured participant who has a direct affiliation with the Russian state propaganda apparatus, and whose declared objective is to vindicate Putin's war aims. Another smear, usually deployed as a scurrilous attack line, perversely vindicated

There is also one participant who is truly one of the most brazen and unrepentant con artists I have ever personally witnessed in American life, who has similarly declared overt affinity for Putin -- even fantasizing sexually, in public, about his shirtless physique. Really

Any rally like this is inevitably going to attract outliers and oddballs, some with extreme views, and there would inevitably be disagreement among the participants on other issues. That's not the point. The point is about the *very organizational premise of the event itself*

The claimed purpose of the event is to promote an "anti-war" position. But given the irrefutable evidence to the contrary, it's unclear what the real purpose is. Because if the purpose was to besmirch and discredit any cognizable "anti-war" position, they're doing a great job

Please note: retorts that go something like "But but it's actually somehow anti-war to support Russia's war effort" are just the mirror image of the standard propaganda refrain from pro-Ukraine war supporters, who insist that deploying battle tanks is the real "anti-war" position

If you're shocked by this thread because you think you ordinarily agree with me on this topic, OK. I will not kowtow. If you wonder whether I might be personally offending people I'm otherwise friendly with, it's possible. But this is just my substantive view. For better or worse