Fellow traveller
A fellow traveller (also fellow traveler) is a person who is intellectually sympathetic to the ideology of a political organization, and who co-operates in the organization's politics, without being a formal member. In the early history of the Soviet Union, the Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet statesman Anatoly Lunacharsky coined the term poputchik ("one who travels the same path"); it was later popularized by Leon Trotsky to identify the vacillating intellectual supporters of the Bolshevik government led by Vladimir Lenin (1917–1924). Historically, it was the political characterization of the Russian intelligentsiya (writers, academics, philosophers, and artists) who were philosophically sympathetic to the political, social, and economic goals of the Russian Revolution (1917) but who did not join the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). The usage of the term poputchik disappeared from political discourse in the Soviet Union during the Stalinist era, but the Western world adopted the English term fellow traveller to identify people who sympathised with communism and the Soviets.
Read the full Wikipedia article ↗ 12,018 reads in 60 days
Check the claims
Search independent fact-checkers for this topic:
Action items
- Read the article's evidence and "investigation" or "reception" sections, and open its cited sources.
- Before sharing anything on this topic, run it through the fact-checkers above.
- If someone you know believes it, ask what evidence would change their mind, and share one good source, not ten.
Prevention steps
- StopNotice a strong emotion (anger, fear, 'they don't want you to know') before you share. Pause first.
- Investigate the sourceWho is making the claim, what's their expertise, and what do they gain if you believe it?
- Find better coverageRead laterally: open new tabs and see what independent outlets and fact-checkers say.
- Trace claims to the originFind the original study, video or document. Check dates and whether quotes are cut.
- Ask what would change your mindReal theories can be tested. If every piece of counter-evidence 'proves' the cover-up, it can't be.
- Count the peopleBig secret plots need thousands of people to stay silent for years. That rarely happens.
- Talk, don't mockWith friends or family, ask questions, listen, share your own sources calmly. Shame backfires.
- PrebunkLearn the common tricks (cherry-picking, fake experts, false dilemmas) so you spot them early.