Memes

Being anti-American-imperialism is great, what's suspect is the apparent Soviet ultra-nationalism, which somehow extends to Russia, so the same people who say they are against imperialism and in favor of gay rights end up supporting an imperialist, colonialist, and insanely homophobic empire.

And yes, lots of countries in the West do lots of very bad things. I think the vague, broad, all-encompassing term of "the West" is about creating an out-group boogieman man for the in-group to identify itself against. And that's how you get people supporting a country that represents almost everything against their apparent values. Russia gets a pass for using homophobic conspiracy theories to justify a military invasion, because it's "against the West".

Michael Hudson's "Super Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire" is a good source.

Thank you, I'm grabbing an audiobook version to listen to, I am interested in learning more.