Oct 11, 2026, 10:20 PM@sam @alice people around me in the Netherlands chronically show intrinsic distrust in anyone who is Russian without cause, Dutch people alongside a lot of Europeans rn for some reason have decided that every single Russian civilian is apparently a complicit soldier now. People here have a hilarious lack of comprehension for nuance.
Oct 11, 2026, 10:23 PM
Oct 11, 2026, 10:35 PM@mia@fedi.snuggle.city @sam@shonk.sam.ax i mean i also distrust russians by default, it has nothing to do with citizenship and more that if you grow up in russia you always get indoctrinated with imperialism and need to do work to unlearn that. It will obviously vary per person but like that's kinda inevitable with empires, so I think it's fair
it's same as how women will be cautious around men by default. Same story there, guys tend to absorb patriarchy and have to do work to unlearn that, and not everyone will have done that
Oct 11, 2026, 10:36 PMOct 11, 2026, 10:38 PM@mia@fedi.snuggle.city @sam@shonk.sam.ax sure, but your specific flavor of imperialism isn't a driving force behind a current war, is it? and russian one very much is
Oct 11, 2026, 10:39 PMOct 11, 2026, 10:41 PM@mia@fedi.snuggle.city @sam@shonk.sam.ax define western
the west is a big place
Oct 11, 2026, 10:42 PM@mia@fedi.snuggle.city @sam@shonk.sam.ax and also yes, i wouldn't trust an opinion on gaza from an average european centrist with EU flag in the bio. Would you?
Oct 11, 2026, 10:43 PMOct 11, 2026, 10:43 PMOct 11, 2026, 11:09 PM@mia@fedi.snuggle.city @sam@shonk.sam.ax fair enough
here i don't have enough context because like I'm not from either any nato countries nor middle east tho, so no further comments ^^
Oct 11, 2026, 10:37 PM@sam@shonk.sam.ax @mia@fedi.snuggle.city now, i know europeans can be rather xenophobic and I'm not saying it's not the case, but I've also seen them being xenophobic towards ukrainian refugees for example...
Oct 11, 2026, 10:38 PM
Oct 11, 2026, 10:44 PM@alice @sam @mia that’s, uh. i don’t… think that tracks.
frankly, i’d be very wary of making blanket claims about a group of people based on a shared circumstance of birth or upbringing, especially with regards to something they must have internalized and therefore must unlearn. it isn’t ours to know at a mere glance whether someone has done the work or not
Oct 11, 2026, 10:56 PM@smolcasm@void.lgbt @sam@shonk.sam.ax @mia@fedi.snuggle.city i am russian myself. I haven't seen a single person who hasn't internalized it, and I'm not even from moscow (where this stuff is worse than elsewhere)
it isn’t ours to know at a mere glance whether someone has done the work or noti also didn't say anything about that, did i? but it's obvious when you talk to them
Oct 11, 2026, 10:58 PM@smolcasm@void.lgbt @sam@shonk.sam.ax @mia@fedi.snuggle.city like as a more concrete example. If russian history textbooks extensively rewrite history (which they do. A lot. And even more so since 2022), how would somebody who hasn't done the work to verify it separately not absorb the russian version of it?
Oct 12, 2026, 12:02 AM@smolcasm@void.lgbt @alice@mk.nyaa.place @mia@fedi.snuggle.city hmm, what parts of the history did they rewrite?
Oct 11, 2026, 10:45 PM@mia@fedi.snuggle.city @alice@mk.nyaa.place @sam@shonk.sam.ax I've once had someone tell me that all russians are war supporters and complicit in the ukranian invasion and you cant trust any of them
it was someone i felt like is a friend too :neocat_flop_sleep: