Putin made the remarks during a plenary session of the 18th annual meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi where the topic was "Global Shake-up in the 21st Century." Putin's remarks were translated by an interpreter and that video was uploaded to the Russian government's website.
"We see with bemusement the paralysis unfolding in countries that have grown accustomed to viewing themselves as the flagships of progress," Putin said during an event where he spoke for a few hours. "Of course, it's none of our business what is happening - the social and cultural shocks that are happening in some Western countries. Some believe that aggressive blotting out of whole pages of your own history, the affirmative action in the interest of minorities, and the requirement to renounce the traditional interpretation of such basic values as mother, father, family, and the distinction between sexes are a milestone ... a renewal of society."
Putin said that Western nations had a right to do whatever they wanted to do but that "the overwhelming majority of Russian society" rejected these new ways of thinking.
"The preparedness of so-called social progress believes in bringing a new conscience, a new consciousness to humanity, something that is more correct," Putin said. "But there is one thing I would like to say: The recipes they come up with are nothing new. Paradoxical as it may seem, this is something we saw in Russia. It happened in our country before and after the 1917 revolution, the Bolsheviks followed the dogmas of Marx and Engels. And they also declared that they would change the traditional lifestyle, the political, the economic lifestyle, as well as the very notion of morality, the basic principles for a healthy society. They were trying to destroy age-old and century-long values, revisiting the relationship between the people, they were encouraging informing on one's own beloved, and families. It was hailed as the march of progress. And it was very popular across the world and it was supported by many, as we see, and it is happening right now."
"Incidentally, the Bolsheviks were absolutely intolerant of other opinions, different from their own," Putin continued. "I think this should remind you of something that is happening. And we see what is happening in Western countries, it is with puzzlement that we see the practices Russia used to have and that we left behind in the distant past, the fight for equality and against discrimination turns into an aggressive dogmatism on the brink of absurdity, when great authors of the past such as Shakespeare are no longer taught in schools and universities because they announced as backward classics that did not understand the importance of gender or race."
"In Hollywood there are leaflets reminding what you should do in the cinema, in the films, how many personalities and actors you've got, what kind of color, what sex, and sometimes it's even even tighter and stricter than what the Department of Propaganda of the Soviet Communist Party Central Committee did," he said. "And the fight against racism, which is a lofty goal, turns into a new culture, cancel culture, and into reverse discrimination, racism on the obverse. And it tears people apart, whereas the true fighters for civic rights, they were trying to eliminate those differences. I asked my colleagues to find this quote from Martin Luther King Jr., and he said, 'I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.' That is a true value."
"You know, the Bolsheviks were speaking about nationalizing not just property, but also women," Putin continued. "The proponents of new approaches go so far as wanting to eliminate the whole notions of men and women, and those who dare say that men and women exist and that this is biological fact, they are all but banished. Parent number one, parent number two, or the parent that has given birth, or instead of breast-milk, you say 'human milk'. And you're supposed to say all of that so that those who are not sure of their sexual identity are not unhappy."
"Again I would like to say that this is not something new; in the 1920s and 30s, the Soviets came up with so-called 'Newspeak', and they thought that they were thereby 'building a new consciousness' and coming up with new values, and they went so far that we feel the consequences up until now," he concluded on the matter. "There are some monstrous things when, from a very young age, you teach children that the boy can easily become a girl and you impose on them this selection, this choice. You push the parents aside and make the child take decisions that can destroy their lives. And if we call a spade a spade, this is a crime against humanity, under the banner of progress."
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Comment: Putin is right.
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