[christophilus]

I wouldn’t feel too guilty. It’s hard to leave friends and family and culture and work and stability behind. I’ve kept my head down and continued to work in the US despite some terrible presidents and plenty of wars and other governmental actions that I completely disagreed with. Do I feel guilty for that? No. I didn’t support it. I didn’t start it. I couldn’t stop it. Leaving would have only destabilized my family and robbed my children of knowing their grandparents.

This isn’t whataboutism. I’m not trying to say Russia is equivalent to the US, etc, etc.

But I think it’s unjust how much guilt and responsibility we put on the shoulders of the average citizen who is just trying to live.

[trevyn]

It’s not about feelings of guilt, it’s about choosing complicity.

Sometimes that’s a perfectly rational choice, but when you are knowingly complicit with an abuser, there is always some kind of cosmic price to pay.

It’s not a threat of arbitrary moral punishment, it’s a warning about real long-term consequences.

[lostmsu]

I think the point was exactly that the author of the parent comment is not just an average citizen. As you grow, you tend to (IMHO, rightly) feel more and more responsibility for people around you.