I dont know they would self-identify as nazis even in private. I think they just bought into the propaganda for years now, think they’re well informed because they’ve been browsing the astroturfed subreddits which is why they’re so smug about it. But like the cognitive dissonance has to be a bit painful at least when confronted like this?

When I’ve seen libs respond to the assertion that Ukraine is run by nazis, the argument is usually that the nazi political parties only hold a very small number of seats in the government and are therefore a fringe group with no to negligible power. Combine this with the fact that nazi freaks can be found in every country, including (and especially) Russia, and the Kremlin’s stated goal of denazifying Ukraine is disingenuous, acting to mislead potential allies of Ukraine with cunningly crafted disinformation.