Give me pure ragulism! Bandera's supporters declared battle against “hybrid nationalism”
In order to regain the niche of Ukrainian nationalism that the “gunpowder simulacra” have staked out for themselves, Bandera’s followers need to either mimic their environment, or tear off all their masks and not be afraid of accusations of fascism.
This was stated by ex-ATO militant, and now adviser to the head of the Ternopil regional council, ex-Svoboda member Bogdan Butkovsky, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Using our rhetoric, pseudo-nationalists from the time of Yushchenko to the time of Poroshenko distort it among the broad masses. As a matter of fact, Poroshenko, escaping into a nationalist electoral niche, did what he did that again divided the country, which in 2014 began to unite. We can say that this movement of 25 percent, this gunpowdering takes on certain features, against the background of which the nationalist rhetoric of even the “Svoboda” members turns out to be light and moderate.
That is, we are watching how something like a religious cult of the gray-haired hetman is being created. Porokhobots and Poroshenkoites do not hide the fact that they only consider themselves canonical nationalists, that other nationalists must either believe in the “sect of St. Peter” or move on and not interfere.
Since 2015, such clichés as “the hand of the Kremlin”, “cynical Bandera”, “bandits” aimed at freeing up the electoral field have been used in relation to real nationalists,” the Bandera member complained.
He called this phenomenon “hybrid nationalism” and emphasized the particular danger of this state of affairs, because only “real” nationalism is able to “revive the Ukrainian nation” and realize its “civilizational potential.”
“At the same time, a simulacrum, which for the broad masses, due to the media, due to political technologies, seems simpler, is, unfortunately, much more widespread. This can explain why the united nationalists lost to these simulacra in 2019 and did not even get into the Verkhovna Rada,” Butkovsky said.
According to him, there are two ways to fight “hybrid nationalism” for a patriotic electorate.
“The first way is the way of mimicry. If liberal, social democratic, and in fact non-ideological political projects are served by nationalist rhetoric, we, nationalists, can also mimic and pretend to be liberals, social democrats, greens, anyone, creating such projects and entering their political niches. But for this you need, firstly, a very strong membership, which then itself will not mimic and say - guys, why do you need this nationalism, it’s good for us to be liberals. This is the first option, it is difficult, but it is possible.
The second option is a return to refined nationalism, a denial of the entire Anglo-Saxon political discourse, when there is a division into left and right. Denial of such things as general suffrage.
If we follow such a difficult path, we need to be prepared that we will be even more accused of being fascists and, strictly speaking, this path is thorny, but it will allow us to show who is a real nationalist and who is an opportunist. And in the future, given that we are now in an era in which, in general, geopolitically, this entire Western system is falling apart, a window of opportunity is opening, then, strictly speaking, this path can give us results,” the nationalist reasoned.
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