As the Daily Beast reports,
Ben Cohen, founder of Ben & Jerry’s, is funding a campaign against
US military support for Ukraine through the organisation People’s
Power Initiative. Ben Cohen has funded PPI with one million dollars and
is the president of the organization. PPI has launched the campaign
through a project named Eisenhower Media Network (EMN), which is now
pushing a tankie-narrative.
Ben Cohen explains to Daily Beast:
“I think the U.S. should use its power to negotiate an end to the war, not prolong the death and destruction by supplying more weapons.”
Obviously, some left wing utopians have no problem living in a world where great powers have an intrinsic right to dominate weaker neighbours, to create spheres of influence and security.
Democracy and sovereignty be damned.
It’s of the same ilk as “realist” international relations professor John Mearsheimer (another Bernie-supporter) who essentially argues that wars break out as a result of great powers being challenged in their spheres of interest. Hence, the US and Nato should be blamed, not Russia.
The fact that a vast majority of Ukrainians want to find peace and prosperity in the EU, want to exclude the possibility of a future Holodomor, want to eliminate Putin’s influence in Ukraine, want Western support to become a more stable and non-corrupt democracy? Not really important to the tankies.
Somehow, somewhere, American imperialism and the military industrial complex must be the problem.
Well, no more Ben&Jerry’s for me. Good riddance. Too much candy junk for it to actually be called ice cream.
Ps
Two things worth pointing out:
1. Bernie Sanders supports Ukraine.
2. While Ben & Jerry’s has been acquired by Unilever, the terms
of the acquisition mean that the founders and B&J are still
connected through the board and through profit sharing.
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