Western ‘culture of hatred’ fuels East-West strife

By Dave Harrison

Photo: AP photo

For citizens of the West, a 'culture of hatred' toward East Europeans and Russians has been ongoing for almost a century. Since the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the West immediately aligned themselves with the oppressive czar and the aristocracy of Russia. It did not matter that the people of Russia were starving and that their uprising, and resultant revolution, was just.

During Russia's Civil War (1918-20), the 'Whites' were supported with money, arms, and political encouragement from the West sincerely hoping that the revolution would fail. In fact, most of the aristocracy fled to London in hopes of returning once the revolution was put down, but that didn't happen.

Since then the Western 'Culture of Hatred' has continued toward Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, other Soviet and Russian leaders, and particularly against the Russian people even today. Although people of many nations have been made to feel welcome in the West, immigrants from Russia, Ukraine and other East European countries have always been treated as third-class citizens.

During WWI, Ukrainians were rounded up, labelled as 'enemy aliens', sent to work camps and used as slave labourers in many parts of Canada including the internationally famous town of Banff, Alberta where tourists today use sidewalks and bridges made by Ukrainian, slave labour.

This 'Culture of Hatred' did not begin there. When East Europeans arrived in Canada in the 1890s, they were given the poorest farming lands one can imagine. They were given no tools, no livestock, no seeds, no housing, no expert help, and not even stoves to keep themselves warm in the brutal, Canadian winters. Yet, they survived not'because of the Canadian government' but 'in spite of the Canadian government' which would easily have watched them perish without any federal help.

Even today, Western newspapers, magazines and television spew a steady stream of venom toward Putin, Russia, and its allies, to whoever will listen to their propaganda. All television 'news' reports on Russia are always laced with prejudice and bias and drip with hatred. Nothing positive is ever reported and every positive event involving Russia is twisted into a 'negative'. This tactic has been used since the end of WWII and shows no signs of abatement.     

During WWII, when Stalin begged for the opening of a 'second front' in Europe, the West was content to watch Russians be slaughtered by the millions while they dragged their feet for another three years. Meanwhile they reluctantly provided small amounts of materiel through Murmansk to establish basic rapport and good will, but the delayed second front to alleviate the devastating calamity against Russia was nothing less than Western punishment for a people they unnecessarily feared and hated.

As a result, Russian soldiers did most of the dying - more than 20 million - while Americans arrived at the end and claimed victory and glory as 'their' own. No sooner WWII ended, Russia became the West's new enemy in aCold War which lasted the next half-century.

This hatred has manifested itself in other newsworthy events. When Malaysia Flight 17 was downed over Ukraine (July, 2014) by a missile from unknown sources, Western media spewed their hatred against Russia for weeks on end. Even today, the event is repeatedly brought up, but when the USS Vincennes shot down Iranian Air Flight 655 with 290 passengers and crew on board (July 3rd, 1988), it was simply brushed aside as a 'tragic accident' which was hardly worthy of mention.

With the recent ISIL attacks in Paris and Brussels, the outpouring of grief and outrage filled front pages in Western newspapers for a full week, but when 224 passengers (men, women and children) and crew of Metrojet Flight 9268 were murdered by a terrorist bomb in Northern Sinai they were hardly given a mention in Western newspaper and television.

No messages of sympathy or condolences from the West were sent to the Russian people and there was no outpouring of grief or outrage. Instead, Charlie Hebdo Magazine made jokes and mocked the air crash as well as the 224 deaths which included seventeen children.

The Western 'Culture of Hatred' for people of the Mid-East, East Europe and Russia runs deep and is continually nourished by Western media.

Dave Harrison