Is Love Blind to Neo-Nazis?

Pop culture and the normalization of neo-Nazi organizations.

Since the start of the Russian Operation in 2022, U.S.-based media outlets orchestrated a propaganda campaign to galvanize the country to support Ukraine. Through the campaign, outlets did a complete 180º on how they reported on the country and specifically its militia groups on the eastern front. One militia group in particular that received a rebranding by state media was the Azov Battalion. The neo-Nazi brigade went from being widely recognized for using Nazi symbols, espousing white supremacist beliefs, and organizing with American white supremacists to simply being a militia that just happens to have members with ‘far-right’ beliefs. American media outlets took the route of minimization rather than confronting the ugly truth: The U.S. is funding and training neo-Nazis. Although the United States would not officially lift the weapons and training ban of the Azov Battalion until June 2024, there is mounting evidence that suggests the empire has been supporting the neo-Nazi militia for almost a decade.

In January 2018, the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab confirmed that American weapons were flowing to Ukraine and being used in Azoz's training. The U.S. Department of State has been exporting lethal weapons to Ukraine for at least five years prior to the start of the war, "It is through this process that US-made lethal weapons arrived near Ukraine's frontlines. According to a recent investigation, the Texas-based company AirTronic shipped 100 PSRL-1 (Precision Shoulder-Fired Rocket Launcher) systems to the Ukrainian state-run Spetstechnoexport in April 2017. Some of these rocket-propelled grenade launchers appeared during a training session of the Azov Battalion, a regiment of fighters that has been integrated into the National Guard, based near Mariupol in the summer of 2017."

In September 2021, a resolution was introduced in the United Nations (UN) for "Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance." Although the resolution was adopted, two countries would vote against it. Can you guess which two? The United States and Ukraine. Months later, the war in Ukraine would start, and the public relations campaign to rebrand the neo-Nazis as just "nationalist," or some other minimization term, would begin. 

Since the start of the war, Americans have been watching the normalization of neo-Nazis. One major tool of normalization is the use of pop culture to obscure truth. Through pop culture, the state is able to ensure individuals absorb certain beliefs and understand what is acceptable in mainstream spaces. Pop culture includes things one hears on the radio, in movies, in magazines, and what someone watches on their TV. Recently, the Sundance Festival awarded Mstyslav Chernov for his neo-Nazi propaganda film 2000 Meters to Andriivka with the World Cinema Documentary award. Chernov and Associated Press journalist Alex Benko followed the 3rd Assault Brigade, also referred to as the "Hydra Unit." The founder and former commander of the Azov Battalion created the 3rd Assault Brigade. The Sundance Festival signals the continued normalization and acceptance of neo-Nazis under the guise of fighting Russia.

In contrast, think about the struggle being waged in Palestine by the resistance. Would a documentary following the PFLP, Hamas, Hezbollah, or even Ansarallah be produced by PBS or the Associated Press? Would the documentary following Palestinian resistance even make it to a film festival and be viewed as acceptable?

What is acceptable does not start or stop in terms of cinematic art; it includes the more messy spaces like reality shows. With respect to what people watch on TV, reality shows offer an opportunity to introduce ideas to larger populations. One reality show that has been used to normalize ties to the neo-Nazi brigade, even if that was not the intention, is Love is Blind. 

 During season seven of Love is Blind, audience members watched as singles in the D.C. metro area attempted to find love in the pods. If you are not familiar with the show, Love is Blind is presented as a social experiment where single men and women are put into pods in order to find love and get engaged without seeing one another to prove if love is really blind. During the seventh season, watchers met then-36-year-old Bohdan Olinares, a tech salesman. Audience goers watched as Bohdan tried to find love in the pods. He shared his story of adversity and feeling called to protect his place of birth in the midst of war. His birthplace being Ukraine. Olinares, who also served in the United States Marine Corps, tugged at the heartstrings of viewers who sympathized with his patriotism and love for his country. However, one piece of information that was not included in his story was which regiment he served during his volunteer mission in Ukraine. The regiment Bohdan Olinares served in was the Azov Battalion.