103 points

That’s probably because your president is committing mass genocide of Ukrainians by abducting 700,000 of their children to be raised as Russians.

https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-07-31-23/h_169f15b2ddbb285cc94c1f0e1ee21080

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22 points

Do you think a random Russian citizen who is trying to leave Russia has anything to do with this?

Many of the people trying to leave Russia are against the war. It is idiotic to shame civilians who have little to no power to stop the actions of their oligarch run government.

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43 points

She says:

I can’t stand it anymore because our real nationality is strong

Not sure what to make of this. We only have a video of an upset girl. Is she being treated unfairly? Who the fuck knows. All I know is that it plays perfectly into the Kremlin’s propaganda: We are the good guys and the world hates us for no good reason.

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4 points

I don’t think Kremlin propaganda involves runaways seeking life elsewhere. Particularly their young women. That’s a really bad look for Russia.

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-4 points

The claim is that she is a civilian, not a soldier. The video in no way suggests that soldiers

are the good guys and the world hates us for no good reason.

Disliking the actions of a government is very different from disliking an entire people based on nationality.

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15 points

itt: a bunch of people spoiled by the fortune of not meeting enough actual Russians. They are overwhelmingly supportive of the war as it is fully aligned with the nation’s imperialistic identity, one that existed long before Putin was even born. Russia has amazing, brilliant, heroic opposition activists which are a slim minority, I’ve been told less than 1%. The rest are mostly like this woman (or worse)

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2 points
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You speak as if you believe Russia has freedom of press and right to openly protest. The fact is that the Russian state controls most of the public discourse, and any opposition is crushed. And you would place the blame on the victims of this regime?

EDIT: You seem like the type to believe Putin fairly won the election with 88% of the vote.

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-1 points
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-3 points

I work with several, you are just a bigot.

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6 points
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Do you think a random Russian citizen who is trying to leave Russia has anything to do with this?

No but that’s not a defence for her entitlement. Did she say “look,I totally despise what Russia ia doing in Ukrainians and how its undermining other countires and I don’t supoort that”… No, not once did she say that… Fuck her. I’ll save my empathy for the folks slaughtered in Bucha.

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2 points

I know they’re subject to censorship, misinformation, and propaganda at home, but the Russian people still widely support the violent invasion and illegal war on Ukraine. That’s why the world doesn’t hold a positive view of Russians.

Regardless, this person was simply answering the question and not personally blaming a single Russian immigrant, so why are you shooting the messenger?

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-1 points

the Russian people still widely support the violent invasion and illegal war on Ukraine

How about the person in the video? Did you ask her? She makes no comment on her perspective of the war in the video.

So instead, without any knowledge of her personal views, bigoted people say she deserves to be hated simply because she is Russian, and everyone knows that all Russians love the war and want to eat children.

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-2 points
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I completely agree. Not all people are as open minded. I know an Israeli-American with dual citizenship that protested Netanyahu at NYU. People are absolutely not defined by their government. Russian elections are clearly rigged, so it’s even less likely she’s in favor of Putin. I wouldn’t criticize her unless she personally spoke in support of his actions. Unfortunately, I know enough people to be aware that it’s just not how everyone operates.

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9 points

Her statements in the video suggest otherwise:

“[Russians] have a strong nationality”, which to me means they identify with their country and consequently its government. This statement alone says she should be emotionally responsible for her government’s actions as it indirectly or tacitly supports them.

“We are not an aggressive people”. False. Your nation is currently waging one of a series of aggressive wars in the region of late and there are numerous Russian videos that show how common vehicular accidents have everyone involved (and more) exiting their vehicles armed with melee weapons (crowbars, bats, etc…). Not an aggressive people? Relative to what, the Mongol Horde?

Members of hostile Nations have a burden of proof to show they are willing to play ball with other civilizations. The very fact she’s crying about the unfair treatment instead of asking ‘why all the hate’ and trying to dispel everyone’s very reasonable concerns is another strike against.

If she actually sat down and learned what her country was doing to innocent Ukrainians, and publicly denounced their actions she would have my sympathy. Until then she is a citizen of Orkistan, raised to hate the West and believe her governments lies since birth and cannot be trusted.

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12 points

It’s also sending swarms of kgb assets into western countries to fuck with, media, elections, sabotage etc. There should be a MUCH higher barrier of entry for Russians

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2 points

The killings / rape / torture is not just the president’s deeds.

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90 points
*

I watched it a few times and I think I broke the code. She’s talking like the issue is that she’s suffering all this anti-Russian-person racism everywhere she goes, but it’s pretty unlikely that anything like that is happening. But something made her upset.

I think she wants to come into the US, and US immigration doesn’t want her to, and she identifies that as “hatred” for the Russians because she’s supposed to be able to do whatever she wants because she’s Russian, not have to do some kind of dodge through Mexico and not like these Mexicans and Brazilians that she mentions. She feels humiliated that she has to ask permission, and maybe the answer will be no fuck off get lost.

Honestly, I will be the last person to say that US immigration is always decent and fair. But someone not being nice to you or treating you special is not the same as them hating you. If you want to say US immigration is being a pain in the ass and it’s unfair that it’s gonna fuck up your life, then fine. But saying you need to be exempt from it because you’re Russian specifically, makes you into a special specific kind of person.

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10 points

Granted last time I crossed the border was in 2000, but I think your right and this is basic Karen behavior. She probably expected to cross without even identifying herself. I was allowed to cross with one question, but as I said that was awhile ago.

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7 points

Hm, I interpreted it a little differently – that she was talking about coming into the US to stay and live here (“we lived in Brazil for half a year” “we need to get to the US” “I want a calmer environment”), and that’s a whooole different story.

This is pure guesswork, but it sounds like maybe she knew it would be a problem so she asked the immigration guy to just write her down as British to solve the problem, and he wasn’t friendly about that suggestion and long story short no she can’t come in the country, stay in Mexico, good luck, next in line please. And she interpreted it within this sort of framework appropriate to traveling around in places where she was used to, like a more smekalka system and being able to travel around like she wanted, and thought he was just being a dick about it and about the way he dealt with her in general, because of some personal racism towards her or something.

That would actually be a lot more charitable interpretation towards her than what I originally said “I’m Russian so I should get to do what I want.” It might just be a genuine cultural thing that she ran into that she really doesn’t understand. IDK though; I mean the truth is I’m purely just guessing.

But overall, I definitely think she was trying to come into the US to stay and live here, and having trouble with it (because it’s real real difficult for anyone from almost any country, generally speaking), and that’s why she’s so upset.

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1 point
*

Yeah, I get some similar feeling when she goes into the expected strength of her passport and nation. “Because I’m Russian these things should not be a problem because Russia is strong.” While basically implying that people should ignore all the negatives of carrying a Russian passport.

I’ll offer the caveat that US citizens can face the same issues for the same reasons because we do dumb invasion shit, but there are debatable differences. I’ve been to a couple countries where Russia has moved in and pulled a “West” and built their hotels and resorts, but my experience is while the locals weren’t going to be happy about either west/russia doing it, when the Russians move in you get local corruption coupled with Russian corruption and mafia-like behavior. The US businesses make attempts at appeasing and working with locals, even if it’s mostly lip service. Russians just say fuck you, this is ours now.

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88 points

but we never do aggressive things

Holy snapping duckshit you’re so far removed from reality that you’re in your own separate omniverse and that’s absolutely impossible

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-11 points
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Eh… I mean, she’s talking about Russians, not Russia. Like, how individuals act. I think that there’s probably a case that judging national character based on country policy is kinda frustrating. You go back a couple hundred years, and it was pretty common for Empire A to go take over nearby Country B if it could. I think most people had a national leader somewhere back in time who probably did some fairly unpleasant stuff.

Like, Putin’s running Russia. And Putin’s Russian. And Putin affects a lot of Russians, and has a lot of ability to direct the actions of a lot of Russians. But Putin also isn’t what it means to be Russian.

Like, say you’re German, and Hitler is in power, right? I mean, I’m not saying that there weren’t Germans who didn’t do some pretty unpleasant stuff during that period. Or that people weren’t pretty pissed at Germans at that point. But, like…Hitler also isn’t what it means to be German.

Here are a bunch of Russians that came over to the US or their kids.

Isaac Asimov, Michael Bay, Bernie Sanders. I think that most people aren’t gonna say “Ah, Russia is doing X, so they are bad people”. She didn’t make the call to attack Ukraine. She’s not killing people in Ukraine. She’s not even in Russia…in fact, it sounds like she’s in Mexico because she’s trying to leave Russia, which I imagine isn’t all that easy. Like, she’s upset because she’s being judged on her nationality. I mean, I get that.

Taking out anger at Putin on her doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

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33 points

Your Hitler example is perfect IMO. There were many beyond Hitler in Germany that deserved the hatred directed at them whether directly through horrific acts or indirectly due to their apathy or ignorance. The civilians in the towns directly adjacent to liberated concentration camps were forced by allied forces to aid in the cleanup and recovery of the camps and their victims. Many of these ‘innocent Germans’ expressed outrage at their ‘undeserved’ treatment like as seen in this video. They didn’t deserve sympathy either.

At a certain point ‘I am just an innocent wittle civilian who has done nothing wrong’ is a cop-out. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good [people] should do nothing” -Burke.

To be clear this isn’t to justify warcrimes on civilians. It is merely to say her crocodile tears fall on deaf ears.

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3 points
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All those Hitler comparisons hit very close, as I’m German, born long after the war. It was. my grandparent generation that allowed things to happen.

I have utmost respect for people who speak out against atrocities their country does, but in sucj a case - Hitler or Putin - being silent is agreeing.

The woman in this video just whines how everyone treats her badly. If she had said one time, she understands because of what her country does - and then say, how it makes her life bad, I could somehow sympathize. This way - I can not.

I have a Russian coworker who started business meetings with a minute of silence for the Ukrainian victims during the full invasion. That is something I can respect.

I never got any details, but I have reason to believe my own grandfather arranged himself with the Nazis, some say he was a party member. Others say, he and my grandma hid someone from them. Nevertheless he managed to own a soft drink factory (and quickly got a Coca Cola contract after the war)

I’m fucking fed up with people who arrange themselves with dictators and are just opportunists. As this woman obviously is.

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-5 points
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Fun fact - Hitler was elected.

There’s potential evil in everyone, born everywhere. It’s hard for most people to swallow, but it’s true.

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12 points

If Germany had a nazi problem for a full century and different political powers, damn right that would represent Germans

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3 points

@iarigby @tal and there is good reason for it. This Lady proves it. Total lack of empathy. Somebody explain to her that murderers, terrorists and assassins are not well liked. At least outside Russia.
…and lots of russians are like this Lady. She is the rule, not the exception.

#RussiaIsATerroristState

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1 point

@tal @don True, but there is also the argument (somewhat theoretical) that, if these people had stayed where they were, they might have changed the course of history. Maybe. Or not. We might also have completely lost them and their contributions to the world. Who’s to say? And, no, leaving Russia is not easy right now. She’s risking not just her life, but that of family left behind. It’s brutal to live in Russia now.

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58 points

When the people do not know what their government is doing they cannot understand why others hate them. Nationality can be a badge of honor and a hood over your eyes.

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8 points

About 20 years ago I read this:

Americans say, “I don’t know why people hate us”, and that is why people hate Americans.

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1 point

The Chinese government are enabling and committing horrors of their own. Yet everyone would be crying racism if there was general hatred of Chinese people

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6 points

Tepid take: there’s probably more racism against Chinese people in America than Russians.

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-30 points

Exactly! See how Americans behave, exactly like this girl.

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34 points

You won’t find many places on the internet where Americans are as critical of America as on Lemmy.

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9 points

Many of us vote and write Congress too.

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2 points

Oh the good ol whataboutism.

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-15 points
*

Never a truer word spoken

“Y’all hade us cuz y’aint us”

No, that would be your terrorist government who has destabilised the entire planet to line their own greedy evil pockets

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50 points

it’s the invading of soverign nations… multiple times…

oh and all the war crimes

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-6 points

That this lady had no part in it and is actually trying to leave their country because of it, even leaving their families behind. Notice how she says Russians in Russia are always angry and she’s looking for a calmer place to live in. The main reason for their complaint is that even though they left all the angry Russians behind, they are now facing a not-so-much bigoted and racist behaviour in a place they hoped to find less aggressive life.

And here we have these guys in the comments foaming “FAFO” in their mouths without any indicator that this Russian person has anything to do with the Russian government or ultranationalist populace, where she left behind, any more than the peace-loving U…S. citizens’ being complicit in the mess their military-industry run government’s actions.

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4 points
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Yes, riiiiiiight - as well as my grandparent generation had noooothing to do with the things that happened here in Germany during WW2.

I would get it if she’d acknowledge what her country does and state that she doesn’t agree with Russia invading other countries. But this tearful “everyone treats us soooo bad”, blaming everyone else… fuck, no.

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1 point

IDK. Where was he during WW2? Mexico?

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-3 points
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It is one thing to make an enemy in a state power, it is another to disagree and try to put it behind yourself. You can say many of the Russians in Russia are complicit in this war even if they are not directly supporting it, but many more are just some people making a living where they are born and where they usually have no easy access to leave or not be a part of.

Don’t make this topic more harmful nationalistic one more than it already is. Warring states, propaganda brainwashing and violent bigots are one thing and should not be given the benefit of the doubt. The civilians that have no overt or willing part in it but caught in the literal or political/social crossfire are another thing and what makes war worse than hell because you one can’t separate the two easily, but one must try.

Edit: Also your rhetoric is the same one Putin has been using for a decade in the annexed and occupied eastern Ukraine. “They are all Nazis over there” is one easy step towards the horrors of war.

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