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I just want to clear up a few things here at GaG since online trolls are lying about what is actually happening on the ground in Ukraine.
1. Ukraine and Ukrainians have their own separate separate culture, history, traditions, etc. While objectively, you can say they are related to Russia and Russians, you have to understand that outside of the United States, culture is very important. Ethnicity and family history, etc. reign supreme. So every time a troll here claims Russians and Ukrainians are the same people, you now know they are lying. There is traditional Ukrainian clothing, cuisine, even the Ukrainian slightly differs from Russian and the two groups can tell each other apart the minute they open their mouths.
2. This war did not happen because of NATO. This is not about some geopolitical strategy. This is the typical lie you hear online as Russian propagandists and trolls try to drag the United States into the conflict. Because they want all the atrocities committed by Russia in Ukraine to be justified by everything the United States has ever said or done in the past. Putin invaded Ukraine because he does not believe it is a sovereign state. He will not permit the existence of a government in Ukraine that is not friendly to Russia. And it won't stop there. Latvia, Estonia, Georgia, etc. all know that if Ukraine falls they will be next. Because they were all apart of the old Soviet Union. This was is about restoring Russia to its old greatness when it considered itself the equal to the United States. Putin does not see this as a lesson for Russia to learn that oppression under Communist rule is a system that cannot last. He can only see himself as some great change agent in history returning Russia to its glory days.
And to understand just how silly this argument is, just look at the history. The Soviet Union and the United States eventually arose from WWII as the world's only superpowers. The United States built an alliance called NATO in the West. The Soviet Union built the Warsaw Pact in response. Communist China rose to prominence a little later. Luckily China and the Soviet Union never saw eye to eye. Because if they did, we would be the Communist States of America today. But the Soviet Union/Warsaw Pack collapsed. Because they could not compete with the United States economically. And time was on our side, because Communist dictatorships are dictatorships first and foremost. Communism is supposed to about returning power to the people. But the issue is power. Once you give it away, you never get it back. These dictators, once they grabbed power, returned nothing. Because of that the standard of living plummeted in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations. And people began to fight back leading to the complete collapse of many of these governments.
That is not the fault of the United States. That is the fault of a corrupt backwards governmental system. The Warsaw Pact crumbled. NATO didn't. And for all its faults, NATO had the ability to survive. Now Russia seeks to expand its influence through conquest, intimidation and lies. And the trolls here have the nerve to claim it is NATO expansion and not these nations fearing a return to a past as the reason for this war. In the past, they could not practice their culture, speak their language or remember their history. They had to be Russian and Russian only. These nations want their sovereignty and they will fight to the death to secure it. That is the truth.
Now understand, look at this map. Russian wants a return to this picture. They blame their current posture on NATO, when it is because they were a failure. And if they truly wanted the nations on their borders to be sympathetic, they would focus on fostering positive relations with Ukraine, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, etc. But they don't. They try to intimidate and threaten people into submission. Imagine if we tried to make Canada or Mexico more supportive by threatening to invade them. That is nonsense.
3. This leads to another point. Online trolls try to confuse the situation by framing this in terms of the American political argument. This is about conservatives (Russians) vs liberals (Ukrainians). It is a ridiculous argument. But if they can link traditional Ukrainian history and culture to transexual rights in the United States, they figure they are winning. Every traditional Slavic culture is inherently "conservative". Not like the fake conservatives in the United States. Ukrainians women have lower rates out-of-wedlock births than the United States. The women are traditionally conservative. They are nothing like women in Western Europe and America. Slavics are unlike anything in the American trumplican movement. They actually have principles and morals. It is just that because of Russian meddling, they have had corrupt leadership for decades. If anything, they are way more conservative than any group we have in America. But we are talking about actual conservatism. . .not the fake kind.
4. Again these issues go back decades and centuries. Holomodor was a genocide perpetrated by Russia against Ukrainian farmers. As Stalin tried to instill Communist rule, Ukraine resisted and paid the price in a genocide. Trolls rebut this by saying "Stalin wasn't Russian". Just like that makes a difference. That's how ridiculous they are.
Think about this.
We called the Soviets "Russians" for a reason. In Soviet Russia, you had to learn Russian. You had to learn Russian history, Russian traditions, and Russian culture. If you were Ukrainian, Latvia, Estonian, etc. you could not learn or practice your own. So to us, from the outside, they all looked Russian because other cultures were de-emphasized or simply outlawed under Soviet rule.
This is why the Baltic States, Ukraine, etc. are all fiercely independent of Russia. For decades, they could not even remember their own history and traditions.
5. Another argument trolls use is that this is about the United States beating up on their "chief" rival.
Russia is not our chief rival. China is. Russia can't even beat Ukraine. If Russia tried to invade Finland. . .little bitty Finland. . .Finland would crush them. When Germany rearms, it will build the largest military in Europe again. Something we never wanted. Europe is alarmed because Russia did this so blatantly, callously and with no provocation. And if they can attack Ukraine like this, Putin certainly possess the will to attack any of his old Warsaw Pact satellite nations, under the guise of reuniting the old Russian empire. Because the current Russian economy is no bigger than Italy's. Russia is a house of cards, which has been showed repeatedly throughout this war. Not only is their military weak, the government is basically just a big oil company that Putin is the owner of. They don't have a real economy. They just sell gas/oil.
7. Every single one of these trolls, if they were old enough, were Republicans who supported all the invasions they criticize today. Every troll you speak to would never had marched with "liberals" like I did, when Bush invaded Iraq. I loved Bush and supported his campaign. But the invasion of Iraq was one of the biggest foreign policy mistakes in American history. The trolls here pretend they are peaceniks, which is hilarious.
8. Support for Ukraine is an escalation. Another big giant lie. When Russia invaded Ukraine. . .I mean understand, Russia actually invaded eight years ago. But Europe being in the appeasement mode, looked away. Putin invaded Crimea and the Donbas region. Please understand that for eight years, Russia and Ukraine were fighting in Donbas. I went near the front to Dnipro, just to see the Ukrainian military perform some exercises. Seeing a tank up and close was kind of surreal. But all this time, people were dying in that one part of the nation. We looked the other way because we thought that if Putin took Donbas and Crimea which had high levels of Russian sympathizers, he would simply annex them and go about his business. Then he announced he would move on Kiev and "de-nazify" it. Once he made that announcement it was apparent nothing would sate his appetite except a total return to Russian dominance in the region. Russia is the one escalating this. Russia is the one killing civilians and threatening nuclear war over land that is not theirs and over a people who will never willingly be conquered.
9. EVEN RUSSIANS DO NOT WANT THIS WAR!!! I have a number of Russian friends scattered all over Moscow, St. Petersburg, Crimea, etc. No one supports the invasion of Ukraine. My Russian friend here in the United States regularly inquires about Ukraine about how my people are doing. I have an interpreter friend and her husband who are from Murmansk relocated to Moscow. They are thinking of leaving the country because of Putin.
Russian are protesting this war. Indeed, they were even protesting almost a decade ago when Putin first invaded Crimea. I don't post this second hand. I was there in Red Square while the protest was happening. There were tens of thousands of people gathered. And I thought this was because they wanted to show support. My interpreter corrected me. . .and explained, they were there to protest. Because Russia had sworn and signed an agreement not to attack Ukraine.
But many Russians are against this war. Eligible men are fleeing to other nations. Mothers are organizing movements to fight Putin. Even Russian legislators and military officers are beginning to question the logic. Now is not the time to take our foot off the gas. Because so many are ready for this to end. Trolls would have you believe otherwise. That we would acquiesce for the feelings of one insane crazy dictator, even as his own citizens are against him on this.
This discussion is important, because online trolls make believe this is a video game. One where Ukrainians are not like real people, they are just numbers you tally up for your score. I know Russians who are terrified of being sent to the front lines. I know Ukrainians who are refugees. No one supports this war. Yet Putin is allowed to wage it through fear and intimidation while online trolls support him. And let's speak truthfully. It is because a lot of these xenophobic incels think Putin is some leader in this nonsensical worldwide American fake conservative movement.
Putin is simply using the American political divide to find ways to cut into the support of Ukraine. But funny thing is, his trolls do not realize Europe is the problem. Not the U.S. Europe buys Russian gas. It is their dollars that allowed Russia to build this military. Europe looked the other way when Russia invaded Georgia and Ukraine initially, hoping Putin would be satisfied. Putin thought that Europe would not be a big problem since he could just cut the gas and bring a lot of pain to European citizens.
But it didn't work. And why Putin and these online trolls did not foresee that is baffling. 80 million people died in WWII. The vast majority of those people were Europeans. They are terrified now that war has returned. And that even appeasement could not head it off. Now, they are ride or die. They will not back down, even under the threat of nuclear war. They will respond to Putin and hope for the best.
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