The core problem is this, he doesn’t practice principled anti-imperialism. He practices inversionism: if the U.S. supports something, he reflexively takes the opposite side, no matter how brutal that side is, no matter the evidence.
Replies
True of a lot of “leftists”
aug 4, 2025, 3:04 pm • 0 0 • view
Or he takes payola... Either way, please don't be like Max and fall into the anti-imperialism of fools.
aug 3, 2025, 5:30 pm • 1 0 • view
Didn’t know the term “inversionist” Will use it more and it reflects not only your example, but many people and bots online
aug 3, 2025, 5:26 pm • 0 0 • view
"Tankie" is another word
aug 3, 2025, 5:07 pm • 0 0 • view
Only somewhat related - May I ask what your thoughts regarding Cyprus (and to a slightly lesser extent Malta) are? I became aware of them in the 90s and early 2000s, when corrupt politicians would use their banking system to launder money from the destruction of eastern European industry.
aug 3, 2025, 10:14 pm • 0 0 • view
But it seems that since those days, they've essentially sold themselves fully to Russian "business interests", so to speak. Yet, most westerners are not aware of this fact. I was a bit shocked to hear that in Cyprus in particular, the gentrification caused by the massive influx of Russians
aug 3, 2025, 10:14 pm • 0 0 • view
is very much a real phenomenon, and the money they bring bends just about everything around them, much like a black hole. Nicosia and Limassol in particular have become almost unliveable for natives that do not own their lodgings.
aug 3, 2025, 10:14 pm • 0 0 • view
📌
aug 3, 2025, 10:29 am • 1 0 • view
aug 4, 2025, 7:40 am • 1 0 • view
Bad case of the Chomskies
aug 3, 2025, 7:53 am • 18 0 • view
Many nominally left-wing tankies have added a new layer to their “anti-Americanism” - support (sometimes even explicit) for Trump and MAGA. So it’s inversion against 50% of the US.
aug 3, 2025, 8:12 am • 18 0 • view
They have since about the First Gulf War, if not earlier. If not since about 1929 or 1917.
aug 3, 2025, 8:49 am • 1 0 • view
Trump is destroying America on every level, so it fits.
aug 3, 2025, 8:19 am • 19 2 • view
substack.com/@gavinnewsom...
aug 3, 2025, 7:34 pm • 0 0 • view
📌
aug 3, 2025, 7:41 am • 0 0 • view
I will say this take is much more informative through experience. Does you’re work with bellingcat unravel Israeli misinformation campaigns through?
aug 3, 2025, 11:25 am • 0 0 • view
They mostly covered Hamas propaganda when I last checked. I checked with them over Israeli misinformation and there wasn't much of that. It's easy to check too.
aug 4, 2025, 1:00 am • 0 0 • view
It's not just him.
aug 3, 2025, 10:15 am • 2 0 • view
Fight Fascism With Everything You Have. Freedom, Liberty, and Democracy will Prevail. #Freedom #Liberty #Democracy #Fight #Fascism
aug 3, 2025, 7:43 am • 2 0 • view
did you come up with this yourself or ChatGpt helped you GFY #usa is the imperialist empire today 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
aug 3, 2025, 11:34 pm • 1 0 • view
Thanks for proving my point.
aug 4, 2025, 7:09 am • 3 0 • view
It's a much smaller list to itemise anything that may be still be right about Max.
aug 3, 2025, 12:23 pm • 3 0 • view
It's like operating out of the white space, letting the thing you are against determine your form.
aug 3, 2025, 8:16 am • 4 0 • view
Hence mental illness.
aug 3, 2025, 3:15 pm • 0 0 • view
I have always liked the term "American diabolism", as a contrast to "American exceptionalism".
aug 3, 2025, 11:10 am • 6 0 • view
The only even handed and reasonable critique of Russian and Usraeli military aggression, anti democratic foreign policy and interference & war crimes is to declare a wish for a plague on both their houses.
aug 3, 2025, 10:58 am • 0 0 • view
I believe you are incorrect, because he seems (without fail) to support the Kremlin's stance first, which isn't "AntiAmerican" as much as it's "Pro Putin"
aug 4, 2025, 2:50 pm • 0 0 • view
Great thread. Everyone could also read his Wikipedia page in French to get additionnal information about #MaxBlumenthal (and read the sources of course) fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Blumenthal @wikipediafr.bsky.social
aug 3, 2025, 6:33 pm • 0 0 • view
The name for this is "campism"
aug 4, 2025, 10:20 am • 0 0 • view
📌
aug 3, 2025, 8:59 am • 0 0 • view
And yet he lives in America 🇺🇸😂👍🥳
aug 4, 2025, 8:30 pm • 0 0 • view
I used to follow him back in the GWB days, but you explain a lot of what has puzzled me for years.
aug 3, 2025, 1:36 pm • 2 0 • view
Ahh, I appreciate this thoughtful response. Seriously.
aug 3, 2025, 12:07 pm • 11 0 • view
📌
aug 3, 2025, 7:44 am • 0 0 • view
I don't know how Max Blumenthal is still a thing after saying what I think is the most embarrassingly stupid take on COVID vaccines in the whole pandemic, which is saying a whole lot! youtu.be/tW6O3NGv4Ck?...
aug 3, 2025, 10:30 am • 17 1 • view
Perfect analysis. I recognise this as a typical principle for many South Americans whose countries were plunged into oppressive dictatorships backed by the US. Their uncritical stance is: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. My older brother is one of them 😊
aug 3, 2025, 9:34 am • 8 0 • view
Given that thread on Max Blumenthal it is evident that he is surely a Russian asset.
aug 3, 2025, 8:26 am • 2 0 • view
sabotage
aug 3, 2025, 5:19 pm • 0 0 • view
Because he's a Russian asset. His entire team are Russian assets. His only task is to destroy America and its allies and his reward is all the loot he can carry.
aug 3, 2025, 8:54 am • 12 0 • view
The West isn't an Empire, nor an authoritarian state. We tore down our Empires. So it's not inversionism, it's colonialism. Just with the "correct" race this time.
aug 3, 2025, 8:41 pm • 2 0 • view
📌
aug 3, 2025, 11:42 am • 0 0 • view
I wouldn't even make it that complicated. Any time an ideology, however plausible in some context, makes you forgo your innate empathy for others, it's simply shite.
aug 3, 2025, 7:49 am • 3 0 • view
If your geopolitics trump your commitment to human rights, you’re a bad guy. Simple rule for life
aug 3, 2025, 7:52 am • 5 1 • view
That “inversionism” diagnosis of Blumenthal is spot on. It leads to some sociopathic joking about civilian victims, for example - x.com/maxblumentha...
aug 3, 2025, 4:30 pm • 1 0 • view
I’ve been looking for a term to capture the ‘tankie’ mindset forever, so thank you. What’s terrifying is that inversionism often leads to inversionist imperialism — that is, a political worldview that supports imperialism, as long as it’s not Westerners doing the imperialism.
aug 3, 2025, 7:43 pm • 49 4 • view
See attitudes towards BRI-linked projects vs USAID development grants, for example.
aug 3, 2025, 7:43 pm • 11 2 • view
This is the core ideology of the anti-anti-Trump left.
aug 3, 2025, 3:35 pm • 1 0 • view
Heh, when all I saw was your reply I thought you were talking about Chomsky.
aug 3, 2025, 11:54 am • 1 0 • view
His position must be pretty damn uncomfortable in Rusamerican era? How does he handle 🇷🇺 fascists being best pals with 🇺🇸 fascists running 🇺🇸 foreign policy? Does that in any way interfere with his fanboyism for Russian imperialism? His spinning could supply renewable (if not clean) power to a city.
aug 3, 2025, 12:31 pm • 1 0 • view
Blumenthal. Chomsky. Sachs. When I'm feeling charitable, Gabbard. Inversionism (thank you for telling me what the name is) is a popular view, and it's intellectually lazy.
aug 3, 2025, 8:39 am • 6 0 • view
This also results in absurdities such as, if a country "switches sides" from being pro-West to pro-Ru they immediately forget any criticism they made of said country and back them to the hilt. Like when "anti-imperialists" warmed towards KSA over their recent move towards BRICS.
aug 3, 2025, 6:03 pm • 51 1 • view
American conservatives did that in the run-up to the Iraq War. They extolled the virtues of the "New Europe" (central and eastern European countries with pro-Bush governments) and pretended to believe that Bulgarian wine was better than French wine.
aug 3, 2025, 8:00 pm • 2 0 • view
Ah, campism. The refuge of idiots.
aug 4, 2025, 10:59 am • 0 0 • view
Would you put Greenwald in the same bucket?
aug 3, 2025, 7:52 am • 5 0 • view
Came here to say the same. I read a lot of Greenwald's blog back in the early GWB years, but somehow *now* an imperial Presidency unconstitutionally jailing people is... Not so bad, because they're friends with Russia or something?
aug 3, 2025, 8:43 am • 11 0 • view
Yeah. Also that Australian astrology woman who's inexplicably popular on here
aug 3, 2025, 11:08 am • 1 0 • view
Yes
aug 3, 2025, 8:32 am • 6 0 • view
Bit like Corbyn then
aug 4, 2025, 7:52 am • 0 0 • view
And it pays nicely
aug 3, 2025, 8:21 am • 32 0 • view
Great thread. I've been encountering Inversionists, one w/ some regularity, as kind of incoherent and chaotic. It's so helpful to name this and understand there is a form of ideological coherence here. It's fascinating to me that anti-western zealotry so often seems to equate to MAGA curious.
aug 3, 2025, 4:39 pm • 1 0 • view
Yup
aug 3, 2025, 8:42 am • 1 0 • view
Maybe he's just bought, like it was in Soviet times?
aug 3, 2025, 7:44 am • 14 0 • view
This too. He totally flipped 180 on Syria after visiting Moscow in 2015.
aug 3, 2025, 8:59 am • 18 0 • view
I completely agree. The "anti-Americanism is justice" stance isn't based on principle at all, but rather a reflexive shift in stance. True anti-imperialism should be based on an understanding of the structures of oppression, not blindly supporting anyone opposed to the United States.
aug 3, 2025, 6:54 pm • 1 0 • view
Sounds rather like Jeremy Corbyn!
aug 3, 2025, 12:20 pm • 11 0 • view
Yes. Or Glenn Greenwald.
aug 3, 2025, 5:20 pm • 2 0 • view
Also thinking of Oliver Stone and Roger Waters.
aug 3, 2025, 6:14 pm • 3 0 • view
Because, he wants to openly practice, his own psychopathic, and sadistic tendencies. I've long wondered if Max is receiving underage sex slaves from Ukraine and North Korea much like the pleasure squad. Which makes him a stump jumping kiddy f*cker.
aug 3, 2025, 11:58 am • 0 0 • view
I hadn't heard the term inversionism till now but I've explained this concept so many times. It's wild how popular it is, especially amongst younger left leaning people.
aug 3, 2025, 7:54 am • 26 0 • view
Inversionism, see also cuntrarianism - the practice of holding opinions or taking actions that are opposite to those of the majority whilst also being a total c*nt.
aug 3, 2025, 8:13 am • 33 1 • view
Well, that does break it down for the class, thanks. 😭
aug 3, 2025, 7:38 pm • 0 0 • view
Campism is another term.
aug 3, 2025, 8:58 am • 14 0 • view
Indeed, but I gotta say that cuntrarianism sums it all up pretty neatly 😄
aug 3, 2025, 9:49 am • 9 0 • view
And older ones, like Chomsky or Corbyn.
aug 3, 2025, 8:03 am • 8 0 • view
Hates Walmart and Faygo trash culture= supports elitist murderous authoritarian ideologues. What we have here people, is what we call a 'Hipster Douchebag'.
aug 3, 2025, 4:02 pm • 1 0 • view
He's a latter-day version of Ramsey Clark, in other words.
aug 3, 2025, 4:32 pm • 0 0 • view
Max Blumenthal sold out to Russia years ago. Pure sleaze. Always wrong politically. Total failure as a comedian too. Well, his father was an early racist Obama birther, so...
aug 3, 2025, 12:59 pm • 2 0 • view
This anti-imperialist inversionism leads him to defend authoritarian regimes, not because they’re good, but because they oppose the West. Assad, Putin, Maduro, Xi, he minimises or denies their crimes while attacking those who expose them.
aug 3, 2025, 7:36 am • 391 23 • view
9ilylph
aug 3, 2025, 2:34 pm • 0 0 • view
In Blumenthal’s world, truth is a function of geopolitics: if a claim embarrasses an enemy of the U.S., it’s dismissed as propaganda, even if backed by hard evidence. If it embarrasses the US or its allies, it’s amplified, even if false.
aug 3, 2025, 7:37 am • 336 27 • view
That’s why he’s spent years trying to discredit evidence of chemical weapons attacks in Syria, calling them “false flags” staged by rebels or the White Helmets, even as multiple investigations confirmed regime culpability.
aug 3, 2025, 7:37 am • 328 23 • view
It’s why he denied Russia’s bombing of a Mariupol theatre sheltering civilians, instead suggesting Ukrainian forces blew it up themselves, a claim rejected by survivors, investigators, and satellite evidence.
aug 3, 2025, 7:38 am • 314 20 • view
The pattern: if human rights groups report abuses by anti-Western regimes, Blumenthal attacks the messenger. He’s smeared Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, the OPCW, Syrian rights monitors, and myself and Bellingcat.
aug 3, 2025, 7:39 am • 290 21 • view
Blumenthal doesn’t just argue, he delegitimises. He casts journalists as CIA agents, NGOs as Western fronts, and war crime witnesses as liars. It’s a strategy of epistemic destruction: if the facts don’t serve the narrative, destroy the facts.
aug 3, 2025, 7:39 am • 307 21 • view
This isn’t principled scepticism. It’s ideological selection bias. He doesn’t apply the same scrutiny to claims made by Russia, Syria, or China, only to those that challenge them. His bar for evidence shifts depending on political alignment.
aug 3, 2025, 7:40 am • 291 18 • view
He claims to fight propaganda, but frequently appears on Russian and Chinese state media, speaks at events hosted by the Russian UN delegation, and spreads narratives those regimes then use to deflect scrutiny.
aug 3, 2025, 7:40 am • 256 14 • view
This sounds a lot like how American journalists have treated Israel. Do you believe we should discount people who did this same thing for them too (like discrediting the Health ministry as "run by Hamas")?
aug 3, 2025, 10:28 am • 0 0 • view
Exactly, he is an op
aug 3, 2025, 4:39 pm • 0 1 • view
The result is a body of work that functions not as journalism, but as narrative laundering: taking authoritarian disinfo, wrapping it in leftist language, and feeding it back into Western discourse as “independent” critique.
aug 3, 2025, 7:40 am • 323 32 • view
Reminds me of Caitlin Johnstone, now gets quoted a lot by the pro-Palestinian side... completely forgetting/ignoring the fact that she was an Assad-apologist who denied his war crimes.
aug 3, 2025, 8:37 am • 12 0 • view
This is precisely what @realbaddiel.bsky.social called out about nine years ago now, aiming specifically at Trump (and acolytes) and Farage:
aug 4, 2025, 5:43 am • 5 0 • view
His framing appeals to people disillusioned with US foreign policy, understandably, but it replaces one distortion with another. It doesn’t expose power. It shields it, as long as that power wears the right uniform.
aug 3, 2025, 7:41 am • 289 18 • view
Why cant people just be against all tyrants? It reminds me of a book my partner red where an african feminist thinks african misogyny is better because it’s not western.
aug 3, 2025, 4:29 pm • 1 0 • view
Isn’t this basically Assange’s original political philosophy as well.
aug 3, 2025, 6:10 pm • 5 0 • view
🎯
aug 3, 2025, 6:56 pm • 0 0 • view
Aren’t they both just russian propaganda assets?
aug 3, 2025, 6:57 pm • 3 0 • view
@skyview.social unroll
aug 3, 2025, 5:21 pm • 0 0 • view
Is inversionism the same as contrarianism?
aug 3, 2025, 8:23 pm • 0 0 • view
Not quite. Contrarianism rejects popular views for the sake of being different. Inversionism goes further: it reflexively opposes dominant power (e.g. the West), treating that opposition as a moral and epistemic rule, regardless of the facts.
aug 3, 2025, 8:34 pm • 1 0 • view
Ahhh! Thank you!
aug 3, 2025, 8:35 pm • 0 0 • view