Kroger

Kroger Begins Virtue Signaling Along With All the Lefties

Stores and bars across the country are proudly advertising the fact that they are pouring out vodka they have already paid for. The campaign to change the name of French fries to “freedom fries” after France refused to support the invasion of Iraq in 2003 has always looked pretty absurd in hindsight, but if anyone thought that the American public has become any less prone to hysterical performances like this in the intervening years they can now safely abandon that optimism.

Kroger joins impotent protest

Kroger has hopped on the trend and is removing all Russian vodka from its shelves. No one is helped by Kroger throwing out vodka it’s already bought, but apparently it makes someone at the company feel good about themselves.

Reactions in the United States and Europe have rapidly developed from anti-Putin to anti-Russian sentiments and xenophobia because every institution and company has been incentivized to outdo their competitors in showing outrage.

The Glasgow Film Festival announced a ban on all of the Russian films that were to be featured, including one made by a known anti-Putin filmmaker. The statement specified that this decision was based exclusively on their nationality, rather than their views.

Most vodka sold in the United States is not even made in Russia, but Russian-Americans and Russians at home are getting the intended message, which is that all things Russian are becoming anti-American.

The first reliable independent polling done in Russia since Vladimir Putin announced the invasion shows that the Russian president’s approval ratings have risen significantly. This would be in line with what we know about historical trends in Putin’s Russia.

Aggressive sanctions and ostentations anti-vodka performances are ostensibly supposed to convince the Russian people to turn against Putin and overthrow his government, in addition to offering moral support to Ukraine.

Russians increasingly targeted for being Russian

In reality, ordinary Russians are more likely to blame the West for any economic troubles which result from this. Putin sells himself to his country and the world as the man who can stand up to NATO and the United States.

Collective punishment aimed at the Russian people will reinforce that image for many people. Russians are stereotypically stubborn and perceived insults to their country as a whole will only benefit Putin.

Russians living abroad, in particular, are more likely than most to be opposed to Putin’s government. Calling for Russian students and artists to be expelled might very well persuade even liberal Russian expats that Putin was right about Western Russophobia.

One university in Italy even tried to ban classes teaching Fyodor Dostoevsky before a public outcry forced them to backtrack and restore the Russian literary giant to his rightful place.

We’re witnessing a social media cancel culture crusade directed against an entire country and its culture. Vodka and Dostoevsky are no more responsible for our current geopolitical situation than bourbon and Mark Twain were responsible for the Iraq war.

Western liberals are seeing their strategies tested against an enemy that can’t be rapidly defeated with a Twitter ban and few protest signs, but Kroger and others certainly haven’t given up on trying.

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