When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the political-media establishment went wild with its virtue signalling; opposing Vladimir Putin’s government as a pariah and offering unrestrained moral support to the plucky underdog Ukrainians. When Israel accelerated its genocide of Palestinians in October, the same establishment did a 180. Instead of calling for international law to be upheld, or offering moral and military support to the victims of a decades-long occupation and siege, establishment figures went from virtue signalling to sin signalling. For Ukraine, there was one audience, for Palestine, another. One audience required virtue, the other something very different.

Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine triggered a full-spectrum psychological operation against the minds of the British population. A clean sweep of politicians, commentators and public figures demanded that we uphold human rights and support the Ukrainians at any cost short of direct British military confrontation with Russia.

The psy-op sought to block out any application of reason or historical understanding of the situation in eastern Ukraine. Emotional language tapped into our deepest fears and best human responses to suffering. Ukrainians were just like us while Russia was reduced to one man – Vladimir Putin – who himself was reduced to the level of a cartoon monster, at least in the minds of those creating the narrative, and those naïve enough to believe it.

Discussion of the context – the 14,000 Russian speaking Ukrainian citizens killed by the Nazi-influenced Ukrainian state since 2014 or NATO’s encroachment on Russia’s borders – was punishable by ejection from their party for elected politicians. Silly phrases like ‘Putin Puppet’ were applied to people with no connection to Russia who simply wanted to understand the world and question the ubiquitous ‘Ukraine Good – Putin Hitler’ narrative.

Blinken

Atop their moral high horse, western leaders parroted lines that contrasted western liberal values with Russian barbarity. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared “We can never let the crimes Russia’s committing become our new normal…bombing schools and hospitals and apartment buildings to rubble is not normal.”

Buchan

Closer to home, Kensington’s MP Felicity Buchan, dressed in the colours of Ukraine’s flag, put it simply to a group of Ukrainian refugee children: Ukraine’s huge sacrifice “isn’t just about Ukraine. It’s about western values, good values.” 

Lammy

Across the benches in parliament, Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy was at his most hysterical, telling the House of Commons the Ukraine invasion is “an ugly attempt to restore the Russian empire.”

Cranking his virtue signalling to 11, Lammy went on (and on): “under the cowardly shield of the night, sent in tanks and soldiers to enforce his diktat…Putin’s crimes against peace…we need to stand up to Putinism…Putinism is ethno-nationalism…fundamental geopolitical threat…it happened in Hungary in 1956…the logic of democracy is why Putin will never win in the end…”

Lammy tried to sell the public a civilisational battle of democracy versus autocracy, claiming that China would be watching “as it plots its next moves. So we must be strong.” The precise threat that China poses to British citizens is never identified by the propagandists.

Žižek

Meanwhile, famed Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek was unphilosophical about the crisis in Ukraine, railing against pacifism, calling for a stronger NATO and decrying the illegality of Russia’s invasion. 

Western moral superiority was hitched to jingoistic militarism and a glaring absence of any concern or respect for Russia or Russians. Recent events in occupied Palestine have shown that the morality-military marriage was all about convenience, not conviction. In early 2022 we were the audience as the establishment hurriedly generated public consent for the militarisation of Ukraine and rejection of diplomacy.

For Israel’s war on Gaza (and Jerusalem, the West Bank, Syria and Lebanon – news of these Israeli crimes is currently suppressed) the primary audience is different. Our hearts and minds are now an afterthought and the primary audience is Israel itself, and by extension the powerful organisations that lobby for it. The same people who in unison signalled their virtue to the public last year now have to signal their corruption and malleability to a small but immensely powerful audience.

The statesman

Blinken was on safe ground in 2022 when he opposed the bombing of civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. Now he enables the same thing on a massive scale in Palestine. One phone call from Blinken would stop the genocide, but he works for powerful interests that want the killing to go on, for the government of Gaza to be overthrown, and for the Israelis to expand their war across the region.

The MP

Felicity Buchan’s “good values, western values” of 2022 disintegrated in 2023. Buchan’s approach reflects the profound bias and racism of the establishment. As Israel kills tens of thousands of Palestinians, Buchan’s focus has been Israeli suffering. She refers to “the tragic loss of civilian lives” in Gaza, as if a natural disaster had struck; it is typical of the passive language used by powerful people to avoid naming the criminal. Acts of resistance by the Palestinians, in contrast, are usually described “terrorism” and the active voice is applied.

The opposition

David Lammy told the nation that we would have to be strong in 2022. But how strong is David Lammy? In 2023, he deployed his emotionally-charged rhetorical style to absurd and dangerous new heights, telling Sky News that Hamas fighters had raped babies – an entirely false claim used by pro-war propagandists.

Lammy seeks to block out discussion or questioning through his ranting, emotional style, but it has all the credibility of a crisis actor. Lammy needn’t have worried that Sky News would challenge his Hamas lie; the presenter, Labour Party member Trevor Phillips, accepted it at face value. Like many of his senior Labour colleagues, Lammy benefits from significant funding from the Israel lobby. Is this who he ultimately works for?

Lammy’s recent priorities do not align with those of the British people, who faced precisely zero threat from the Russian state. And the people in his Tottenham constituency are among those hardest hit by the trashing of the European economy by sanctioning Russia and blowing up the Nord Stream Pipeline.

The philosopher

With Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Slavoj Žižek rediscovered and deployed his philosophical talents in the service of Zionism. Calling Palestinian violence “barbarism” he repeated the lies about rape, calling the October 7^th attack “a pogrom.”

Žižek’s logic is one shared by most of the establishment: they insist there is equivalence between aggressor and victim in Israel’s colonial project. While Ukrainian victims deserve military intervention, Palestinian victims must forego their right to resist occupation, which is enshrined under UN General Assembly Resolution 37/43.

Narcissistically-driven politicians and celebrity commentators internalised the normality of their bias years ago. Maintaining their establishment positions means they must find ways to blame victims for western-backed crimes. This prevarication and cognitive dissonance shows up when Žižek and other celebrity opinion-givers provide intellectual cover for war crimes. They wrap it in the language of virtue, but they are signalling their intellectual corruption.  

The sinners can also be identified by what they do not say: occupation, siege, concentration camp, right to resist, right of return….such language is conspicuous by its absence. 

A niche pursuit among the general population, sin signalling is profoundly present in our media/political establishment.

Who are they working for?

by Tom Charles @tomhcharles