[coolhoody]

(I'm Russian). This war was started by a single madman. If not him, it would never happen. Even his spy chief was fucked up [0] when he realized what's going to happen.

Yes — at least 70% support whatever he does — and I tried hard to disprove this painful fact to myself. But couldn't.

The only excuse is the 20 years of hardcore TV brainwashing — but it's not too great of an excuse. Better than in nazi Germany, but not enough.

All that cultural banter the article mentions never caused any actual sense of war — it was more like a Texan joking about a Canadian.

I don't know how to live with this shame. Can't even post in Russian, at local forums. All those stupid faces in the 'do you support the war' Youtube steet interviews… Yes, there are others — Navalny was poisoned, and is now behind the bars. Nemtsov was murdered in front of Kremlin long before the war. Kasparov, Nevzorov condemned this crime. Hundreds of thousands of IT left the country — unable to fight unarmed. But still…

Trying to drown myself in English, jokes, work to keep the sanity. Doesn't work half of the times. Jokes clumsy, work fucked.

Ukraine is now a moral leader of Europe. It will be restored — every single broken window. And people will live free and proud. It's my only bright cloud now.

[0] Fucked up spy chief — https://youtu.be/ucEs0nBuowE

[inglor_cz]

Keep your head up, people like you are the only chance for Russia to improve itself.

But I wouldn't blame you if you decided to move away, sometimes the evil is too strong for individuals to bear.

[cft]

Unfortunately people like him have been leaving Russia in droves since 1917, then in 1990, etc. The popular support for the war is arguably the result of this negative selection.

[bayesian_horse]

"Braindrain" is often significant enough to cause damage to a country, but rarely enough to shape public opinion by "selection".

[Pet_Ant]

I blame Poland's right-ward lurch due to similar brain drain.

[bayesian_horse]

If you look at the numbers, you probably won't see enough people leaving, even if you assume none of those are "right".

[coolhoody]

In Latvia.

[watwut]

Imho, it is not just Putin. It is too easy and comfortable of an answer. It is more that Russia never really got rid of old communist structures in secret service, police, courts, you name it. So, the exact same old ways slipped back, although with new ideology. Russia in general never really denounced crimes of communism, it seems to be rehabilitating the regime instead. That despite a lot of Russian victims of communism being there too.

90ties meant more crime and poverty in post-communist countries. But, some countries managed to build democratic societies, even if often imperfect. Russia instead slipped back, because the old acts were more of forgotten then actually talked about and dealt with.

> Even his spy chief was fucked up [0] when he realized what's going to happen.

His spy chief was perfectly fine with quite a lot of things previously. His spy chief likely facilitated both some of the murders you mention and crackdown on political opposition going on for years. His spy chief must knew Russia army behavior (say deliberate bombing of hospitals) in Syria before, with war going on from 2014, with a lot of things you mentioned.

[krzyk]

It is deeper than that (as shown in the story), it was like that during the Tzars also.

[eecc]

s/communist/Russian imperialist/g

git add .

git commit -m “there FIFY”

got push

[nazgulsenpai]

The world is only getting more complicated every day and feeling responsible for its ills is an impossible weight for those with little power to change it. We can only take care of ourselves and be a positive force to those around us. Don't let the weight of problems you didn't cause, or have no direct ability to impact, crush you.

I wish you the best.

[johnthescott]

> I don't know how to live with this shame. Can't even post in Russian, at local forums.

i would trade 1 million nutty tweets from americans with one honest expression of your opinion on a russian forum. the voice via the spirit is the boundary between the material and the ephemeral.

apparently the race to the nuclear apocolyse is being lead by the russian orthodoxy, a dark horse. i pray i am wrong.

[coolhoody]

On a local platform a post like that would live for a couple of seconds. But it's not even the issue.

You simply do not realize the depth of this brainfuckery. I good friend of mine, an objectively smart, logical and rational guy — believed that Malaysia Flight 17 was shot down by Ukraine in 2014. I tried to convince him for hours. Haven't spoke to him since, but have heard which side he's on.

I can accept that old dumbfucked babushkas with iron teeth and 3 brain cells support it — they'd support a war on Alpha Centauri if the magic box would say so.

I can even accept — and I'm really stretching it here — a common working guy being fooled by TV — after all, it's 24/7 on all channels, without breaks.

But interacting with anyone who has both means and capacity to see the real picture is physically painful. It's like you are in some sort of literal… nightmare, where things are out of control, and have no fucking logical explanation.

You talk to a guy. You show this picture. You use this argument. You pause. You breath. You repeat. You look at his face — and see your nightmare.

There are those who are talking to people every day. Nevzorov [0] alone has 1M+ Telegram subs, and growing. But even he — the best Russian journalist — is not trying to convince anyone anymore. He is just laughing at them — at their stupidity, their military fuckups, their slave mindset.

There are others — with different approaches. I support them as much as I can — as people would more likely listen to them than a random guy who could be an American spy.

[0] https://t.me/s/nevzorovtv

[mbakke]

Putin is an egotistical maniac and started this war with no regard to his own people. I hope he will come to realize his massive fuck-up, but don't think it will happen unless his own trusted friends starts to talk common sense into him.

Ukraine has taken a beating before, and I am optimistic that she'll bounce back, stronger and more connected than ever.