Guess Which Country The KKKoch Industries Won't Pull Out Of?
Guess Which Country The KKKoch Industries Won't Pull Out Of?
When funding White Nationalism is your business, you don't cut ties with the movement's global leader.
by Justin Rosario
Over 450 companies have walked away from doing business in and with Russia since Vladimir Putin launched his disastrous war on Ukraine. Some of them, like McDonald's, have been more noticeable than others. Some of them, like Nestle, haven’t really walked away but at least pretended to for the sake of public appearances. A handful of companies, however, have decided to ride or die with Putin. You’ll be stunned, just stunned, to know that Koch Industries is among them.
It’s just about money, right?
Oh, for sure! After all, the Koch brothers Charles, 86, and David, dead and burning in hell, are libertarians. That means the most important thing to them is freedom. The freedom to earn unlimited amounts of money at the expense of the environment, people’s lives, morality, and basic human decency.
That is why Koch Industries has refused to shut down its operations within Russia. Why do the right thing and lose money when you could not do that and keep the cash flowing? Of course, they say they’re doing it to support the workers but…are they really? The Washington Post sheds some light:
Koch, keeping two glass manufacturing plants running in Russia, says it “will not walk away from our employees there or hand over these manufacturing facilities to the Russian government,” arguing that doing so would “do more harm than good.”
[Jeffery] Sonnenfeld called those claims “absolutely ludicrous,” “arrogant” and “such a tortured logic it’s beyond absurd.” Koch’s website indicates that its software business Infor, its electronics business Molex and its industrial products business Koch Engineered Solutions also continue to do business in Russia. Their imports, exports and taxes help prop up the Russian economy, and therefore Putin’s war effort.
So, no, it’s not really about the workers. There is money at stake. And when your ideology is “mo’ money,” that’s really all that matters. But then again, that’s not really what libertarians are all about, are they?
Libertarianism purports to be about freedom from government interference in the market and our lives so the best and brightest will naturally rise to the top. That’s the theory, anyway. In practice, however, libertarianism accrues all of the power and wealth to those who already have power and wealth, which happens to be rich white men. It’s almost like libertarianism is less the ideology based on meritocracy it claims to be and more a trojan horse for white supremacy and feudalism. Amazingly, the most ardent fans of libertarianism are, can you guess?, White men. Surely a coincidence.
Once that can of worms pops open, it’s not particularly surprising that Koch Industries is still operating in Russia, doing its part to help the crumbling Russian economy and contribute to Putin’s war effort. If you’ll recall, the father of the Koch brothers built an oil refinery for the Nazis and was quite enamored of teaching his children to view fascism and ethno-nationalism as laudable:
In 1938, the patriarch wrote that “the only sound countries in the world are Germany, Italy and Japan”. To make sure his children got the right ideas, he hired a German nanny. The nanny was such a fervent Nazi that when France fell in 1940, she resigned and returned to Germany.
Since Putin is currently the global leader of right-wing ethno-nationalist extremism, he’s just the kind of monster Charles Koch simply adores. And it shows.
It’s not just Koch Industries
Ever since the Koch brothers ran for office and failed miserably, they have been quietly pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into a vast network of think tanks and propaganda outlets to seize control of the Republican Party. Miraculously, many of them are on the same page when it comes to Russia:
At the same time, various Koch-funded groups have been arguing against sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States. As Judd Legum and Rebecca Crosby of the newsletter Popular Information reported, Dan Caldwell, vice president for foreign policy at Stand Together, an umbrella group for the Koch network, said the “Stand Together community” believes that “broad-based economic sanctions rarely achieve their desired policy outcomes.” Caldwell previously suggested “neutrality” between Russia and Ukraine. Similar criticism of sanctions came from people affiliated with the American Institute for Economic Research, Defense Priorities and Concerned Veterans for America, all groups with Koch ties.
Translation: Koch-controlled groups received their marching orders and those orders are to support a brutal war launched by a madman. The exact opposite of what libertarians allegedly believe in. The entire idea of seizing land by force is anathema to them. They claim that taxation is literal theft by way of government force. But all of a sudden, territorial expansion through violence is acceptable? How does that work?
Well, it doesn’t if you accept their ideology at face value which they would very much like you do to, please. But if this curious reversal of core values is ringing a bell, you’re probably thinking of our good friends on the far “left” who have also gone from opposing war, oligarchs, and imperialism to magically discovering that imperialist wars launched by oligarchs are A-OK in their book.
So when right wing extremists and ostensibly (but…no) left wing extremists all find themselves in agreement that Russia is the true victim here and we should let them do whatever they want, it’s pretty clear what’s going on.
It’s the white supremacy, stupid.
Putin has been the driving force behind global right wing extremism for years. It’s an excellent way to undermine democracies and that is exactly what you want if you are an authoritarian who wants to rebuild the Soviet empire. Strong democracies are going to stand in your way as you try to conquer your neighbors. Weak ones will humiliate themselves before you in Helsinki.
If you are very much interested in ending democracy in the United States and ensuring rich white men held power forever, why wouldn’t you do everything in your power to help Vladimir Putin along? His goals are your goals. You both want exactly the same thing: a severely weakened American government.
Allow me to take a moment to point out that this only works from the right. There is no left wing version of this. To be sure, you can turn a communist revolution into an authoritarian nightmare. That is what happened in Soviet Russia and Communist China. But that is not a natural outcome of liberal, progressive, or even (real) leftist ideology. That is what happens when you put too much power into the hands of too few men, or one man.
On the other hand, an authoritarian nightmare is always the natural outcome of right wing ideology and white grievance followed to their natural conclusion. This is why Putin funds and fuels right wing extremism all across the globe to undermine democracies. That’s where the hate and violence and fascism lie. It breeds on the right like maggots on rotting meat.
There’s a very real possibility that Putin losing in Ukraine combined with the crushing economic sanctions reducing Russia to a third-world nation could see the autocrat removed from power. The next strongman to replace him might continue his work of fomenting racist hate around the world. But he might not. That’s a huge risk to take if your long-term project relies on well-funded and organized extremism that you, as a billionaire extremist yourself, cannot be seen funding directly. You would be very aggravated about losing such a powerful ally/useful tool in your pursuits.
Crazy, right? But should Putin lose in Ukraine and find his position as uncontested ruler of Russia on shaky ground, pay attention to who howls the loudest here in America. I promise you, a whole lot of them will have the name “Koch” on their paychecks.
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Well we understand what the main threat to our democracy is and it is the ability of a relatively few ultra wealthy people to buy politicians and ultimately government. The answer is to control and limit money in our political system. How this can be done as long as the republican party exists is beyond me.