Putin Contrasts Russia’s ‘Conservative Optimism’ and Martin Luther King vs. Western ‘Wokism’ and Blacking Out History

Oct. 22, 2021 (EIRNS)—At the Valdai Discussion Club on Oct. 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a thoughtful explanation as to what a nation and a culture needs to deal with injustice and move forward.

“The fight for equality and against discrimination has turned into aggressive dogmatism bordering on absurdity, when the works of the great authors of the past—such as Shakespeare—are no longer taught at schools or universities, because their ideas are believed to be backward. The classics are declared backward and ignorant of the importance of gender or race. ... Countering acts of racism is a necessary and noble cause, but the new ‘cancel culture’ has turned it into ‘reverse discrimination’ that is, reverse racism. The obsessive emphasis on race is further dividing people, when the real fighters for civil rights dreamed precisely about erasing differences and refusing to divide people by skin color.”

Putin pointed out that the dream of those who truly fought for human rights was to erase distinctions and reject the idea of dividing people on the basis of their skin color.

“I specifically asked my colleagues to find the following quote from Martin Luther King: ‘I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by their character.’ This is the true value. ... Each of us is a human being. This is what matters.”

In contrast, the discussion of gender rights, for example, has turned into a

“phantasmagoria.... Anyone who dares mention that men and women actually exist, which is a biological fact, risk being ostracized. ‘Parent number one’ and ‘parent number two,’ ‘birthing parent’ instead of ‘mother,’ and ‘human milk’ replacing ‘breastmilk’ because it might upset the people who are unsure about their own gender. I repeat, this is nothing new; in the 1920s, the so-called Soviet Kulturträgers also invented some newspeak believing they were creating a new consciousness and changing values that way. And, as I have already said, they made such a mess it still makes one shudder at times.

“Not to mention some truly monstrous things when children are taught from an early age that a boy can easily become a girl and vice versa. That is, the teachers actually impose on them a choice we all supposedly have. They do so while shutting the parents out of the process and forcing the child to make decisions that can upend their entire life.”

Just previously, he had said, “We look in amazement at the processes underway in the countries which have been traditionally looked at as the standard-bearers of progress.” If that is their choice, that is their business, but do not make it ours.

He concluded: “The conservative views we hold are an optimistic conservatism, which is what matters the most. We believe stable, positive development to be possible. It all depends primarily on our own efforts. Of course, we are ready to work with our partners on common noble causes.”