In spite of all of those decades of conditioning to hate Russia, American reactionaries admire Putin and are willing to acquiesce to his territorial claims. Why? Because he’s not woke, of course! He’s an unapologetic straight white man! He oppresses gay and trans people! He swaggers! He’s a Christian! His army is committing war crimes in Ukraine! How admirably unwoke is that?
(Remember, Jesus drove a huge SUV, hated gay people and anyone who didn’t look like him, and carried an AR-15 everywhere he went. That’s why Christian nationalists do the same.)
You might be interjecting at this point that the reactionaries hate Xi, who is also an anti-woke warrior, as evidenced by his Uighur camps and his actions in Hong Kong. Yes, but Xi isn’t a Christian, and he’s Chinese. Fighting wokeness has a huge racial and cultural dimension; it isn’t just about being a swaggering, brutal authoritarian, although it certainly helps.
The problem for the reactionaries is that, if Putin wins in Ukraine, he is likely to be looking for territorial gains in Poland next. The Polish government is every bit as militantly anti-woke as Putin. What will they say then?