Through a Pint Glass

Anglophone reporting on the current Serbian political situation has been a general failure of the ears and eyes. Every report I've seen only elucidates the strength of the reporters' political prescriptions.

One of the worst distortions I've come across was listening to The Rest is Politics - a political podcast, by two educated people, who should have known better than to waffle without looking.

The podcast begins its notes on Serbia by mentioning Trump. He has nothing to do with the collapsed canopy in Novi Sad, but the reporters have Trump on their mind, so they absent-mindedly wonder how he may be involved, before moving on. This is the left wing equivalent of asking 'is this because of woke?'. It never serves to untangle thoughts or suggest new research - it only serves to simplify thinking and give enough of an answer to not ask anything more.

The podcast then shifted to asking whether or not some of the protesters were 'right wing', failed to provide an answer (or source), then promptly moved on again.

But the answer is easy - 'no'. None of the protesters are 'right wing', because Serbians are not 'right wing'.

• "Right wing" means that someone resists public transport, preferring free transport. But Serbian old-school nationalists would support transport, hospitals, and the rest being run as a public service, just as they did in Yugoslavia.
• "Right wing" means that group would tend to be religious, but vehement supporters of old Yugoslavia, were proud Communists.
• "Right wing" means supporting gun rights, but Serbs would barely recognise this as relevant to other political spheres. Gun-ownership is a hot topic, but the conversation does not map to anything in the US, UK, or EU.

While the audience clearly has to understand "right wing" in these standard ways, the only sane interpretation I can give to the podcast presenters is the question of homophobia. Written in clear language, they may have been asking 'among all the Serbians protesting, were any homophobic?'. And we have another easy answer, to another pointless musing.

After the familiar thoughts on Trump, and familiar thoughts on who might be "right wing", they add another familiar, easily-digestible thought; Serbia in the 90's. After a string of irrelevant 'member-berries' about Kosovo, Bosnia, and everything else people associate Serbia with, the 'political reporting' moves onto the next hot-topic (probably more Trump).

The naval-gazing reports don't just produce a nonsensical world-view, it also meant wasted opportunity.

• The podcast might have noted the novel tactics used by the students, and how they've made contact with those living outside of the cities by walking from Belgrade to Novi Sad.
• Reports might have mentioned the politician who left a meeting to put on trainers, knowing he would have to sprint away from an angry crowd.
• They might have mentioned the fist-fights between police and farmers who arrived to protect female students from SNS-supporters running them over.