• charlytune@mander.xyz
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    1 year ago

    I used to lurk on r/AskRussia, and in the run up to the invasion most of the Russians there (who may or may not be representative of Russians in general, I dunno) were confidently saying that there was no way Russia was going to invade Ukraine, it was unthinkable they’d do that to their brothers and neighbours, and it was just Western propaganda. When the invasion happened they were in complete shock, you could tell that many of them felt completely ashamed of their government, at the lies, and that they’d believed them.

    • uint32@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      As an ethnic russian living in Germany this was exactly the way I felt. But afaik this sadly does not reflect the general russian population. I think people have always less problems to accept more lies than to accept that they have been fooled.

    • ICE_WALRUS@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      We all need to remember online spaces like reddit generally lean younger and more liberal. We never really get a holistic view of any situation. Just as people on reddit would say “we didn’t want trump” and the response was “clearly over half of you did” from europeans, this is another example of how we have to realize we are in our own little bubble in these online communities.

    • SkyeStarfall
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      1 year ago

      Except at the time it was a shock to most people. The consensus before the invasion was that Russia was just posturing. But then they went for it.

      • Ryumast3r@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        A surprise to everyone except anybody who listened to American intelligence agencies who were broadcasting (very loudly I might add) exactly when and how it would happen.

        • charlytune@mander.xyz
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          1 year ago

          It just demonstrates how little a lot of the world trusts the American government and it’s agencies.

          • WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            It’s also the conservatives kicking the boots of fascists and the liberal bias toward “reason will prevail” - in spite of all evidence to the contrary.

            A distrust of the government and its agencies is healthy, but you need to consider what they have to gain/lose before dismissing them - there’s a reason the US doesn’t have healthcare.

        • MrBusinessMan@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          For like 6 months they were broadcasting that it would happen any day, in the meantime they knew Ukranian artillery barrages were increasing exponentially, almost like they were trying to provoke a response

    • AppaYipYip@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This article from Jun. 2022 states Ukraine hoped they could descalte with sanctions: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/11/biden-zelensky-russia-invasion-warnings-putin/

      This article from Aug. 2022 states Ukraine knew it was going to happen but they down played it to prevent a financial crisis: https://www.newsweek.com/zelensky-reveals-why-he-didnt-warn-his-citizens-russian-invasion-1734268

      I’m not sure if both are versions of the truth, where they were hoping to descalte and prevent a financial crisis. I’m sure either way they were hoping it wouldn’t happen.

  • LazyBane@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Americans always seem to think that there is some kind of pan-ethinc bond between people in completely different counties, as if we weren’t all killing each other until that whole “world wars” thing.

    • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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      1 year ago

      For a lot of us, Russia and Ukraine were literally parts of the same country when we were growing up, and we used the terms Russia and the USSR pretty much interchangeably. I wasn’t aware until pretty recently that places like Baikonur, Minsk, and Chernobyl are not in Russia. Actual misdeeds committed by Russia in the Soviet era were described in vague terms and were very hard to separate from exaggerated fear mongering about communism, so I ended up knowing very little about that era. Even big things like the Holomodor were just not part of the public consciousness.

      So yeah, we were very ignorant of the situation, and in many of our minds Ukraine may as well have been southwestern Russia. But those of us who aren’t idiots do at least know that the possibility of going to war with a neighboring country is inherent in the existence of separate countries, and we know from our own civil war that people of the same or similar ethnicities will absolutely go to war with each other.

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        For people in America who aren’t racialized it’s hard to maintain a separate cultural identity after a few generations. You wind up with a few trinkets of the culture your family came from if you don’t wind up so thoroughly blended it’s impossible to care. Like my grandpa was an immigrant and while that culture is important to me I make no mistake that if I went back to his home country I’d just be some stupid American who barely even speaks the language. What did I get from his culture? Some comfort foods, a handful of holiday traditions, and the branch of Christianity I was raised in.

        And the cultures that try to have their cake and eat it too like Irish-American and Italian-American are looked at as weirdos by the countries they came from.

        • archiotterpup@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          That’s because of how hard your family assimilated, like many from Western Europe. All those cultures, being predominantly Catholic and Protestant easily blended. There isn’t this kind of problem in the Greek American community.

  • RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This tweet was cottage cheese when it was posted.

    Russians have a slur specifically for Ukrainians. They couldn’t even tell half of the countries in Europe. But they’ll go out of their way to go after Ukraine.

    • Firestorm Druid@lemmy.zip
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      1 year ago

      I’m Ukrainian myself and know Russian and I don’t know of any slur. TIL, I guess

      Edit: *didn’t. I have since been informed

        • Firestorm Druid@lemmy.zip
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          1 year ago

          Actually the first time I heard that. Then again, I live in Germany and haven’t been exposed to cursing too much. Damn.

          • meowgenau@programming.dev
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            1 year ago

            I’m German of Russian descent and I’ve been hearing this slur since I was a child, but I only understood the meaning once the Russians invaded. It’s very commonly used among Russians, unfortunately. Fuck em.

  • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    When will tankies learn that there’s no brotherhood amongst facsists… It’s like “Thanks for killing the dissenters, now back in the salt mines!”

    • Krackalot@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      At the same time that they always learn, when the leopards are feasting on their faces. Sometimes, not even then, honestly.

      • Queen HawlSera@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        They call them “Pickmes”, but personally I prefer the term “Ernst Rohms”, it puts into historical context how this kind of thing tends to go…

        For those who don’t know - Ernst Rohm was a gay Nazi who was considered to be one of Hitler’s closest friends. He believed he would be spared even as the Nazis were gathering up homosexuals and burning research centers, because Hitler was his homie ya see.

        To make a long story short he was gassed to death in a concentration camp…

        • hagelslager@feddit.nl
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          1 year ago

          Minor correction: Rohm was visited by two high ranking nazi’s “encouraging” him to commit suicide in his cell, but he refused and was shot by them.

  • M0oP0o@mander.xyz
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    1 year ago

    We need more of this sort of dreading up of the recent past. I remember this was not an uncommon statement at the time, but all of a sudden its like everyone is trying to gaslight us into a different past.

  • Zoidberg@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    They obviously never learned the three things in life you don’t fuck with:

    • Mother Nature
    • Mother-in-laws
    • Motherfucking Ukrainians

    (The Italian job)

    • TwistedTurtle@monero.town
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      1 year ago

      Always bugged the shit out of me that he actually says “mother freaking” in that scene

      Completely ruined my suspension of disbelief and I still cringe when remembering it.

      • Raiderkev@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I feel like it was overdubbed to get to PG-13 rating. His lips don’t line up with it, and it sounds off.

      • Zoidberg@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        IIRC this is only in the pg13 version. I’m almost sure I saw the original one.

  • catfish@programming.dev
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    1 year ago

    This reads like one of those simpbears seeking to be relevant on lemmy lately, the whiff of perceived superiority, the condescending dribble, strangely similar…

  • Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Well, from what I can tell there might be a bit of a logic error in here as well. Unless the person is assuming Ukraine considers Russia a brother but Russia doesn’t think of Ukraine as a brother?