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Disarm Russia - Blog Posts

kitniavchyt
1 year ago

After seeing Westerners bully a 14-year old boy from Odesa for not wanting to potentially interact with people who are committing genocide of his people on twitter, I felt compelled to return to that hellsite for a while to write a thread to explain why we might feel that way. Here it is, I feel it might be useful for those who don't understand why we're like this when it's "not all russians":

WHY UKRAINIANS DON'T WANT TO SEE ANYTHING RUSSIAN ON THEIR FEEDS: A THREAD What happened with @qiqikinnie highlighted a tremendous gap in understanding between Ukrainians and Westerners and I felt the need to provide some insight on why we feel that way ๐Ÿ‘‡ โ€” ะžะฟะฐะฝะฐั ะžะฟะฐะฝะฐัะพะฒะธั‡ ะžะฟะฐะฝะฐัะตะฝะบะพ ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‰ (@YogiTheWise) February 18, 2024

WHY UKRAINIANS DON'T WANT TO SEE ANYTHING RUSSIAN ON THEIR FEEDS: A THREAD What happened with @qiqikinnie highlighted a tremendous gap in understanding between Ukrainians and Westerners and I felt the need to provide some insight on why we feel that way ๐Ÿ‘‡ Several days ago, @qiqikinnie posted this tweet, which was found by Westerners, who found it necessary to accuse him of racism and xenophobia ๐Ÿ‘‡ (post from @qiqikinnie with the following meme: I see a cool artist (picture of a happy dog), they have "rus/eng" in their bio (picture of an upset dog)"
Putting aside how inappropriate targeting a child from a city under frequent bombardment for it instead of the ones doing, supporting, paying for, and creating fertile ground for the regime that enabled that bombardment through their inaction is, (picture with text saying: ""xenophobia" towards russians from ukraine: some 14 year old not wanting to interact with people from russia xenophobia towards ukrainians from russia: bombing mariupol and other ukrainians cities to dust and selling destroyed buildings to people from russia; bombing the hpp in nova kakhovka, which caused multiple towns and villages to get flooded; russian soldiers raping, torturing and murdering civilians in bucha, irpin and hostomel, civilians in mariupol were forced to stay in shelters 24/7 without access to food, water and medical aid because of bombing outside; kids that live in occupied territories are forced to listen to russian propaganda and support russia (and I'm only talking about what happened after february 24th)")
...it seems to me that those responders who weren't bots or outright malicious genocide supporters view this post through a wholly different lens. A lens, that's informed mostly by American race relations with that whole history, and which is thus not quite applicable here ๐Ÿ‘‡ Hate is a feeling, and so it would make sense to sit with that feeling and reflect upon it to understand where it comes from. I'm sure many Ukrainians feel similarly to me and may relate to what I've said here. I'll readily admit: I feel within me this hatred and I don't want to see anything russian on my feed. And I'm not proud of it. I'd rather I didn't feel that way. That shit eats at your soul. But it is not something you can switch off with your rationality. If it were, I would. ๐Ÿ‘‡ IDK if there's a study about this, but I'm pretty sure this is a trauma response. We are traumatized. We are under constant psychological stress. Being at risk of explosive death everyday when you're sleeping in your bed or going shopping strains you in unimaginable ways ๐Ÿ‘‡ Another factor is the stultifying feeling of betrayal many Ukrainians felt after the invasion started. Despite even the 2014 illegal occupation of Crimea and parts of the Donbas, many Ukrainians remained in the so-called "runet" the russian-speaking sector of the internet ๐Ÿ‘‡ because of the years-long connections they built with people from russia and its other former colonies. But mostly russia๐Ÿ‘‡ We continued staying in russian spaces, listening to russian music, playing CSGO with our russian buddies, all while coming up with excuses as to why we should ignore the nagging feeling of discomfort.
"oh, putin won't be around forever" "oh, the vatniks are just a loud minority" "surely russians have learned about holodomor and crimes of the soviet union and the russian empire at school" "surely they understand how terrible going to war would be" "surely they would stop it" ๐Ÿ‘‡ On 24.02.2022 all of these became unsustainable to maintain. Vatniks were the deafening majority. Jingoism was the norm. And our CSGO mates of many years were too powerless and afraid to stop it. ๐Ÿ‘‡ Protests, in actuality, were too few and far between, and mostly held by soft, bougie urbanites into whom the fear of the nightstick was solidly imprinted. They wouldn't acknowledge that real change would require suffering and inflicting violence. it's important to note that putin's policy was deliberate and effective. The russian protest spirit died with Nemtsov and Novodvorskaya. It was almost as if russians who had both a conscience and a spine were selectively bred out ๐Ÿ‘‡ The conclusion to all of this is that majority of russians are pro-war, the well-intentioned minority of them is too powerless and afraid to stop it, and Ukrainians are too battered & exhausted to look for needles in a haystack of almost 150 mil. people ๐Ÿ‘‡ To those few russians who are genuinely good and supportive I have this to say: when you see something like Sasha's post above, know that it isn't about you. You're not being accused of anything here. You're alright. And Answering to every "even me? ๐Ÿฅบ" post is extremely tiresome There is also the fact that by monetarily supporting a russian taxpayer, however well-intentioned and anti-war they may be, you are contributing, however small that contribution may be, to the russian budget, and thus, to the russian war chest ๐Ÿ‘‡
Thus, there is a set of objective and subjective factors for why many Ukrainians may not wish to interact with russian content on the internet, and why learning that smth one enjoyed was made by a russian or russian supporter often causes a sharp feeling of disappointment ๐Ÿ‘‡ Seeing anything russian hurts, genuinely. It's a venomous brew of the loss of loved ones, centuries of wrongs committed against us, the inability to enjoy the things we once did, not wanting to finance our own destruction, resentment, pain, trauma, betrayal, and it sucks๐Ÿ‘‡ "But how can we make it better?" That requires a massive societal shift in russia, and time. If you as a russian don't want us to feel that way about you, then you need to make sure that russia removes its forces from occupied territories, compensates adequately for the damage... ...they had caused, recognizes the autonomy of its former subjects and wait for at least a couple decades. Time heals all wounds, and I would really love for it to at least start doing so. Meanwhile, russians dni (END) P.S.: I almost didn't want to publish this, because these arguments can easily be misused by bigots in bad faith. "Oh, I can't help it, for, you see, it is a response to *trauma* (seeing a Black guy walk through my rich white suburb once)". This is not it. This doesn't come from a century of white people contorting themselves in mental yoga after losing the economic benefits of white slavery a century ago. WE were hurt, and when we thought we finally overcame that, we were hurt again.
Tags
russia is a terrorist state russia ukraine war russian invasion demilitarize russia disarm russia russia ukraine invasion
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