Liberalism is wed to imperialist hegemony and imperialist hegemony demands that they do not sympathize with the imperialized for that status, whether it’s the wider imperialist system extracting from them and controlling their lives or the imperialist militarily violence that maintains or creates that status.

They are propagandized to support Ukraine using liberal buzzwords and their masters to whom they cleave parrot them, too. So consent to support Ukraine is created. The song and dance matches their expectations, what they’ve been told since they were born, the way the world supposedly works, including the liberal versions of racism (that they would cry about if called on). Ukraine will be more obviously imperialized soon and they will be told it’s Russia’s fault indefinitely but will not be reminded of Ukraine’s existence unless they are a constant source of violence against Russia.

The targets of imperialism call for a different playbook. It must be made acceptable to deprive them and kill them, because that’s what the imperialists are doing. Their deprivation must be made into a natural occurrence, a default status they have inherited, not historically contingent, not an active process created by imperialism. It must be made into something that is the fault of the imperialized. This is where you will get some of the excuse-making about dictatorships or not being “democratic”. It is just an attempt to justify deprivation and violence. The same applies for the naked violence, the bombings, invasions.

This kind of propaganda is not unique to imperialism or capitalism, it just takes on a form that must be embedded in liberalism. Under imperialism, liberalism is the ruling class’ primary expression in the state. It claims a lot of things, some of them are even true, but all attempt to serve imperialist interests. Under Eurocentric colonialism, with monarchies and the transition from Euro feudalism to capitalism and peoples living under various systems into colonized systems, the exact same need emerged: the deprivations and violences must be made palatable to the public, to functionaries, to members of the military. This is why there were “civilizing” missions, particularly religious ones. This rationalized the wider system of theft and deprivation and murder as one that was justified not only because it was “helping” but also because, on the flip side, the “uncivilized” were deserving victims. I mention this particular example because, while it is also an example of how these rationalizations function historically in other contexts, there is actually a direct line because colonial Eurocentrism proto national chauvinism and modem imperialist chauvinism. Replace “barbarian” with “savage” with “uncivilized” with “backwards” with “undemocratic”, they all serve the same purpose and primarily demonstrate the advance of liberalism and imperialism rather than a change in what imperial power needs from the lexicon.

Under this system, yes, the lives of those imperialized are meant to be considered forfeit, yes. That’s the point: they don’t want you to care about them, the violence is being done, don’t understand it, don’t care about it, don’t organize against it. Tell each other how it’s normal and expected and really kind of their fault and if you think about if we’re actually helping them. This is the liberal political discourse on imperialism.