West Shocked by Russian Suppression, Ignores Its Own Thought Police
CBS News highlights Diana Loginova, an 18-year-old musician, jailed for the third time in Russia for singing anti-war songs. The article correctly points to Russia's tightening grip on dissent, a valid concern. However, the media's spotlight rarely swivels to countries where expressing dissent against established foreign policy—say, critiquing certain governments receiving billions in US aid—can
still lead to accusations of antisemitism, job loss, or professional ostracization. One might wonder where this same righteous indignation goes when protesters are arrested en masse on US university campuses for speaking against war or when academics face public smear campaigns and lose positions for criticizing specific foreign policies. (According to the Foundation for Individual Rights and
Expression, there were at least 159 incidents of academic punishment or cancellation targeting professors in 2023 alone.) The outrage seems highly selective, depending on who's doing the jailing and whose war is being protested. How many 'anti-aid' songs would it take to get a similar profile?