The “approved” narrative from the Western elites and the left
“Pro-Western candidate Stevo Pendarovski won the presidency in…” Euronews, May 7, 2019
“The pro-Western candidate won 51.7% of votes….” DW, May 5, 2019
“A pro-western academic has been elected president of…” The Guardian, May 5, 2019
The headlines and the body of the stories contain the exact same content. They all state, in so many words, that Stevo Pendarovski and his party, the Social Democrat Union of Macedonia (SDSM) and their leader, the prime minister of Macedonia, Zoran Zaev, are “pro-Western.”
And yet.
“Comrades!” That’s how Zoran Zaev, prime minister of Macedonia and the leader of the “pro-Western” SDSM, addresses his colleagues.
I don’t know of too many people who are approvingly labeled “pro-Western” and yet call each other “comrades.” That is a term reserved for Communists, Maoists, and other ilk. There’s nothing “pro-Western” about those people (setting aside, of course, the issue of what “the West” is today because increasingly it is rejecting its own Judeo-Christian foundations).
And yet this is the approved narrative among the Western elitist press, the think-tanks, academia, unelected bureaucrats and elected politicians who pontificate on such matters.
Because the party led by Zoran Zaev, SDSM, states that it wants to see Macedonia in NATO and the EU, these people label SDSM as “pro-Western.” But here’s a curious thing: the current opposition party, VMRO-DPMNE, also has as part of its party platform and since its formation, support for Macedonia in NATO and the EU. And yet how do those who follow the “approved narrative” label VMRO-DPMNE? To varying degrees: “far-right,” “far-right nationalists,” and my new favorite, “Macedonian radical nationalists,” that last coming from the so-called “European Leadership Network” (funded, in part, by NATO: you can read about their other donors here).
Who are these people that read off of the same approved narrative and peddle the same story about “pro-Western” comrades and “Macedonian radical nationalists,” the latter being Macedonians who simply wish to keep their name, their identity, their history, their culture, their heritage, and their dignity?
Here are the names of some of these people: academics and think-tankers, Florian Bieber, James Ker-Lindsay, Daniel Serwer, Dimitar Bechev, Jasmin Mujanovic, journalists Valerie Hopkins, and Sinisa Jakov Marusic, and many more. They’re all essentially the same and they all have more or less the same beliefs including: an almost identical far-left worldview; a disdain for religion and tradition; a belief that they are “citizens of the world” (and everyone else should aspire to this as well); an almost fanatical belief in the perfectibility of mankind as long as they are the social engineers, with taxpayer money, doing the social engineering trying to force their worldview on all peoples and all nations; a loathing of the sovereign nation-state and its borders; radical support for abortion; and finally, a definition of the family as whatever someone wants it to be. These are their core beliefs.
Though here’s an interesting fact: Valerie Hopkins told me once in an email exchange because I challenged her on it stating “I wouldn’t describe my worldview as far-left.” Which is true, from her point of view: her beliefs, to her, are mainstream. And yet that is a part of the problem with people like her: they all live in this bubble — they talk to each other and no one else, they attend the same conferences and parties, they read each other’s policy papers, news articles, and blogs — it’s no wonder that they think they are mainstream because they live in a world in which they sit around in a circle furiously stroking each other’s egos.
If you want to know their true views go and spend three minutes looking at their tweets and retweets. Or read what they write (Valerie Hopkins writing in the Financial Times recently about Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s recent visit to Washington, DC: “Visit by far-right prime minister raises concern in Congress”). Or see what conferences they attend and who speaks at them: it’s the same group repeating the same tired phrases, never bothering to invite anyone from the other side to actually make their little confabs interesting or even informative.
These are the same people and groups who constantly mention the 2017 incident in parliament and talk and write about how “Macedonian nationalists” attempted to bring down the government. They bring it up every chance they get. And yet they never bring up the fact that Ali Ahmeti, who is the leader of the Albanian minority party DUI in Macedonia, started out life as a Marxist, then became a “murderous thug” in 2001 according to then-NATO Secretary General George Robertson and then told David Binder in Newsweek on March 22, 2001, “Our aim is solely to remove Slav forces from territory which is historically Albanian.” Or that his uncle, Fazli Veliu, then a member of parliament from DUI and founding ideologue of the NLA and DUI stated on August 13 2004 in Raduša, Macedonia, “NLA’s vision has begun with Kosovo and will end with the Albanians’ unification in the future Greater Albania, which includes Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo and eastern Kosovo…The manifestation in Radusa should celebrate a new victory of the Albanians’ unification next year.”
They never bring this up. Why? Because it is not a part of their approved narrative, their agenda.
I think the number one thing that most Macedonians despise about these people — despise is not too harsh a word here — is the arrogance, the hubris, of these elites who look down on the Macedonians, who tell them, in so many words, that they are backwards, provincial, clinging bitterly to their identity, heritage, culture, and history — essentially awful, deplorable people. And this is what most of these elites actually believe because most of these elites have never actually sat down and talked with a Macedonian from Berovo, Stip, Gostivar, or anywhere else in Macedonia. Most of these elites have never traveled through Macedonia, and some have never set foot in Macedonia.
So, what do we do about this problem? Expose them. Tell the world about their agenda, their bias, and their lies.
And then re-double our efforts to tell the world the truth: that the vast majority of Macedonians simply want to keep their name, Macedonia, along with their faith, history, culture, heritage, language, dignity, and everything else that makes Macedonians unique in the world.
And that Macedonians will continue fighting this battle.
Because that is the truth.
