[packet_nerd]

I've been text messaging with random Russians a bunch over the last couple weeks and have had conversations with ~100 people, some of them quite extensive. Not once has anyone really condemned the war. A few are cynical about their government, people, and the rest of the world, and sad that this has to happen. But the vast majority weren't even that. Just straight up nationalist, repeatedly saying that they had to do something or they would be destroyed by the west. And insisting that Ukraine belonged to Russia. Absolutely no-one denied the facts as far as the toll on human life or the destruction of Ukraine, and not a single person thought its a "special operation" instead of a war. I heard a lot of what seems to me to be extreme paranoia about NATO, America, and Nazis just waiting for an opportunity to invade and destroy them.

The whole experience has been kind of shocking to me. I went into this believing that Russians where like innocent captives of evil politicians and oligarchs and had no idea what was going on. But based on the conversations I've had, that is not the case at all. They know exactly what is going on as far as the cost in human lives, and believe it's necessary to ensure their own survival.

[AnimalMuppet]

You know, if I lived in Russia right now, and some random person I never heard of started texting me and talking about the war, I'd at least have to consider the possibility that they were FSB, and guard my words accordingly.

Not saying that all the people you texted thought that way, but I'm not sure you can reach a definitive conclusion based on your experiment.

[hckrnrd]

This is a great point! Without verifying the entity on the other end of the line and the risk that my words could be used against me—and my loved ones—I’d toe the line and parrot back the official position of the corrupt gov’t. What’s the upside to speak out with some random SMS?

[packet_nerd]

Yes, of course it's likely there are some who oppose the war but are uneasy about expressing that to a stranger. I was just surprised to get no support at all.

[Moru]

I think you need to watch this one[0], it's an explanation of what you are seeing. In general, that is the propaganda doing it's job. It's similar to all countries, we all have our propaganda and our view of our situation in the world. Russias is the classical "It's us against them! And we are surrounded by our enemies!". I'm sure North Korea is about the same only worse.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF9KretXqJw

[sorokod]

> They know exactly what is going on as far as the cost in human lives

Do they? Do they know how many Russians have been killed so far?

[packet_nerd]

I haven't really talked to anyone who's contested the fact that thousands of Russian soldiers and Russian speaking Ukrainian civilians have been killed.

[sorokod]

That was at trick question, Russian MoD doesn't publish those numbers.

[zoomablemind]

> ...They know exactly what is going on as far as the cost in human lives, and believe it's necessary to ensure their own survival.

Given the propaganda and the extensive coverups by govt, it's not really clear what exactly the people know in terms of counts, but for sure the scale of the war is hard to cover up by now.

However, knowing the actual facts is rather irrelevant for them. The pervious decades of "raising from their knees" in fact gave even more rise to the cynicism - another product of the "developed socialism".

Thus lots of educated citizens of Russia would readily accept and justify any form of twisted falsehood as a given, kind of rules of engagement for their daily act of survival.

Sadly, similar cyncism seems to have its place in lives of may people from the former Soviet republics, Ukraine included. Just in Ukraine, there happened to be a practical succession of government and presidents. This has been powering a hope for changes, better future, access to Europe. Meanwhile, the Russian Federation got clearly stuck "in-progress", same as Belarus, and the Central Asian republics. Sans alternative.

How does one reconcile with such a reality? Well, if unable to leave, then adopting some cynical attitude to anything may perhaps become a choice.