Both are pedalling a vicious slander for crass political gain and both are heaping blame on a specific people.
They both enlist the media as well as marshalling their vast government resources to sell the nonsense and finally, both are exacting revenge on the falsely accused.
Again, aside from the physical violence, the playbook is the same.
Fallacious scapegoating is a shop-worn device employed by rogues like Hitler who blamed the Jews for Germany's economic woes and Idi Amin who expelled Asians from Uganda because they purportedly robbed natives of the chance to own businesses. The list of historical scapegoaters is prodigious and by the way, the current onslaught on Ukraine by Russia is the second time around because dictator Josef Stalin inflicted the infamous "Holodomor" (man-made famine) that killed millions of Ukrainians, some ninety years ago.
Here in Quebec, as in practically the entire clear-thinking free world, we remain dumbfounded that the Russian people have largely bought into the myth of the Ukrainian Nazi threat.
It seems so utterly far-fetched that such a patently false idea could be so widely accepted and in fact, embraced by an entire nation.
With no credible evidence to support the Ukrainian Nazi threat myth (because none exists,) we shake our heads in disbelief at the utter gullibility and stupidity of the Russian public. It speaks to the power of state-sponsored propaganda with a lesson for us here in Quebec where Francophone Quebecers have largely bought into a similarly ridiculous myth that describes their language and culture as under attack with Quebec's Anglos cast as the villains whose continued use of English represents an existential threat.
Just like the illusory threat of Ukrainian Nazis to Russia, so too is the English threat to the French majority in Quebec.
Those making the claim that the sky is falling on the French language and of the English threat include politicians, educators and media types who share a militant sovereigntist ideology and so, the scapegoating of Anglos and English is nothing more than a devious and underhanded ploy to promote Quebec independence by sowing fear and discord.
These pot-stirring militants dominate the universities, the government and perhaps most importantly, the media, all promoting the myth of the English threat as skilfully as Russian media dis-informationists attack Ukrainian Nazis.
There was a time when sovereignty was promoted based on the supposed financial disadvantage Quebec faced by remaining in Canada. The mantra was that Canada was oppressing Quebec economically and that independence would bring financial dividends.
Unfortunately for those pedalling the nonsense, the argument was debunked by the economic reality of the billions of dollars in annual equalization payments made to Quebec. Today only the most radical and wilfully-blind sovereigntists cling to the idea that Quebec gets a bad financial deal by remaining in Canada,
So clearly a new angle of attack was needed to sell sovereignty and with the new reality of massive immigration fostered by a declining birthright, a bogeyman was invented, those evil and ungrateful immigrants who came to Quebec and ungratefully integrate into the English community.
The new selling point of sovereignty is that as long as an anglophone community exists in Quebec, no matter how small, immigrants will be attracted to join, thus threatening the long-term viability of French Quebec.
And so more and more laws and regulations are enacted or proposed by a government fostering anti-English sentiment, supported by a biased media and education system.
But the simple truth is that French is not in danger, no more than Russia is threatened by Ukrainian Nazis.
Yes there are some neo-nazis in Ukraine and yes there are English people in Quebec, but neither Russia nor Quebec is threatened.
Simply put, Quebec can offer no viable statistic that points to French in trouble because none exists.
The oft-repeated and ridiculous statistic offered by Chicken Little propagandists like Professor Blowhard" Charles Castonguay notes that French is threatened because those claiming French as their mother tongue in Quebec is falling. This statistic is not only irrelevant but xenophobic as well.
The fact that Quebec is welcoming an unprecedented number of immigrants who naturally have a different mother tongue makes it a certainty that the rate of French as the mother tongue will fall. But how this affects the health of the French language is a question never answered. And by the way, Canada also faces the same phenomenon where immigrants are reducing the percentage of English as a mother tongue.
While the French language isn't in any particular danger of disappearance, what bothers these militants is that the public appearance of the French language is changing from its hitherto lily-white face with a marked increase in brown, black and yellow faces who have gained a larger foothold in Quebec through immigration.
Demands that 'these' people adopt to Quebec 'culture' (which I have dubbed the "poutine & maple syrup challenge") is another gambit by sovereigntists similar to what other persecutors demand.
" 'Russification' is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians, whether involuntarily or voluntarily, give up their culture and language in favour of the Russian culture and the Russian language."
Ha!, sounds worse when others demand that minorities "comply"
But here is the only language statistic that you need to remember. It comes directly from Statscan.
Today 94.45% of Quebecers can carry on a conversation in French as compared to 1971 when only 88.5% could do the same.
So things are actually getting better for the French language!
Statscan also predicts that in 2036 that number will remain stable at around 93-94%
The myth of the imminent demise of French in Quebec is fuelled by furious tales of dastardly immigrants and anglos spitting on the French language through gratuitous anecdotal tales, most of which are made up (Eaton's famous "Speak White" myth) and spread through a media as bent as the Russian commentators who regale TV viewers with horrifying stories of Ukrainian Nazi atrocities.
The Journal de Montreal is full of stories like the poor Asian depanneur owner who disrespects the French language by speaking only pigeon English to customers.
Oh, the burn!
Perhaps working 110 hours a week the poor sod hasn't quite made the time yet for French lessons, but no matter.
Here is another typical whine by a francophone cegep teacher decrying the influence of English
“Many of my students don't know any francophone artists, don't read in French, never watch TV in French, and this in a francophone CEGEP! Imagine, then, what place Quebec culture occupies in the education of Francophones and allophones who study in English."
None of the above is true except the part about Francophone artists who are largely shunned because they are as a group, quite mediocre.
As well, I daresay the vast majority of francophone students don't have the language skills to watch English TV or movies and as
for the assertion that francophone students are actually reading, no less reading in English is complete fantasy.
In fact, most of Quebec francophones who do speak English don't have the proficiency to consume media in English. It is another myth disproved by ratings for francophone TV channels in Quebec which are astronomically high.
“The media bubble linked to the decline of French in Quebec is almost entirely created artificially by a whirlwind of rehashed news and chronicles written by people with an interest in fanning the flames of identity nationalism. Link{fr}
The underlying assertion by militants that any contact with English is dangerous because it leads to assimilation is a pernicious lie.
The assertion that French is under threat is also a pernicious lie.
It is time for us to push back by peeling off the skin of this onion of lies.
