"Why Do You Always Wear Gloves?"

Flannery O'Connor 🦚

Imagine: decora ranpo

I'm not calling any names and not getting into a personal confrontation. But with this comment under one of my recent posts I wanted to show you what a rare "normal" "good" russian looks like.

Ukrainians online and offline mostly get called slurs by russians, but the stereotypical "you knokhol pigs have no right to exist" shit doesn't evoke any feelings anymore. In me, at least. It's rare comments like this that truly get to me.

Let's set things straight: do I think it's easy being russian now? Do I think all russian people are bloodthirsty monsters who want to kill us all? Do I think all of them are doing absolutely nothing to oppose the regime? No. To all of the above.

But it's with the russian "liberal opposition" that you most often get the "we're sorry and ashamed, but…" You know how in relationships with abusive, manipulative, self-involved people you never get to hear a sincere apology? It's always "sorry but" – either "but I suffer too", "I am not to blame", "I had no bad intentions" etc. That's the same thing with most of the "good" russians.

Do I think it's fair that some of them had to leave their homes and their country behind, when they never voted for putin and didn't "want the war"? No. Things are rarely fair in this world. But you can just say you're ashamed by your nation, or you're devastated by the fact that your countrymen recently killed 20 innocent people, including 9 children, with a ballistic missile, in the middle of the day. You don't have to add your personal struggles commenting on such news, to show that you are also a victim.

Especially when you're commenting on a blog run by a Ukrainian living in Ukraine. You have no idea what most of us have been or are going through, what or who we have lost because of your country. I lost not only my home, but my city, and some other cities near and dear to me, like my grandma's town where I spent all my summer breaks - lie in ruins. Uninhabitable. Nothing but a pile of rubble. Because your country destroyed it.

We don't need to hear how sorry and ashamed you are, when it doesn't come from a place of sincerity and accountability. You can make this about yourself under the posts about russian struggles, or in your own space. Don't come to us with this shit. Our ability to empathise with you gets crippled by each day our people die and our cities get vaporized.

A fully occupied hotel with infinitely many rooms may still accommodate additional guests, even infinitely many of them, and this process may be repeated infinitely often.

📚📖

the Guardian

Ukraine’s clandestine book club defies Russia’s push to rewrite history

Risking discovery and even prison, teenage readers meet in secret to discuss texts that Putin’s troops are trying to erase

rare english article about the reality of russian occupation of ukraine, but of course those who don't hear and don't see won't believe this either. may god protect all ukrainians and the children from this article too

📖Which book do you think has been eaten?

this is the art of nika kozhushko, an 18 year old ukranian artist from kharkiv. she was killed by russia yesterday.

I love this concept with Shuichi-devil and Kokichi-angel because words about truth and lies set good here.

You resign now