There are reports of assholes who offer money to the refugee helpers at the train stations to bring woman and their children to them.
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
- Thread starter bhamv3
- Start date
Mass killing of liberals to create a theocracy?
Based on my reading on Tumblr and Reddit, I'm going to guess he's in the progressive wing of the Democratic party but not quite far enough off center to be one of the good ones.
Is he bringing them to a pizza place in DC? I hear that's what they do.
The real sick part of this is even if he's not doing it for sex reasons, he's almost certainly doing it to bring these kids up in the "proper" view of Christianity instead of the Eastern Orthodox, knowing full well that US courts won't return the children to their parents even IF they manage to track down their children in the poorly regulated religious adoption agencies.
Hand him dozens of Syrian war refugees, his Christian heart should definitely treat those the same as the white Ukrainian kids right?
I mean, there's flagrant racism all over (Poland and Hungary opening their borders for tens of thousands of refugees while blocking anyone from Syria or Egypt or...), but for the European nations at least most can make some sort of "it's our neighbour this time" excuse. For America, Ukrain and Syria are literally the same flight duration. There's absolutely no reason to help one and not the other I can think of. None. Nope. Nada.
I mean, there's flagrant racism all over (Poland and Hungary opening their borders for tens of thousands of refugees while blocking anyone from Syria or Egypt or...), but for the European nations at least most can make some sort of "it's our neighbour this time" excuse. For America, Ukrain and Syria are literally the same flight duration. There's absolutely no reason to help one and not the other I can think of. None. Nope. Nada.
8 House Republicans voted against suspending normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus
Gee, I wonder why these particular representatives would hesitate to condemn an egomaniac with obvious authoritarian aspirations?
Gee, I wonder why these particular representatives would hesitate to condemn an egomaniac with obvious authoritarian aspirations?
An egomaniac with obvious authoritarian aspirations? Yes.
One of these eight? Oddly, no.
I recommend Beau of the Fifth Column on YouTube. He does good world affairs coverage. He is ex-US military intelligence. Also he has some of the best predictions about the war in Ukraine from the start. Except of course no one thought Putin would be stupid enough to attack a near-peer.
Are the 2nd and 3rd images for ants?
GasBandit
Staff member
Like I said, they're 25000 pixels tall, so the embed frame resizes them down. You'll have to click-through to actually read.
GasBandit
Staff member
I've been reading in various sources that the Russian people support the invasion of Ukraine to the tune of something like 66% to 72% depending on who you ask. How much of that is political number-fudging and how much of it is scared people saying what will keep them out of the Gulag, I couldn't tell you.
But basically every interview with a Russian I've seen goes like this
But basically every interview with a Russian I've seen goes like this
The Russian propaganda machine is (just like the American right wing and the American left wing ones) quite potent (I'd argue that the European propaganda machines are weaker, partially simply because most Europeans have far more and easier access to outside sources. I can easily double check what my national TV is telling me on CNN, or BBC, or Bejing Today if I feel so inclined, or Fox News).
If you're a young Russian, you get classes in school to learn how to verify (fake) news stories. Check what different trusted government sources are saying. Check with trusted newspapers that aren't government-owned, like Kommersant (which is....Technically not government-owned. And is allowed to be the "liberal" newspaper in Russia. Which means it makes some minor oppositional sounds on occasion...like, "this special military operation was necessary, but regrettable, such a shame we're being forced into it" instead of "this special military operation is patriotic and we should all be in favor!").
Then you go on VKontakte, where plenty of celebrities and "innocent", "normal" people influencers are using the same talking points - some the official literal words (from which you get those funny composite videos of 100 people repeating the same stuff verbatim, much like local news in the USA). Others, who are "individual" and "open" and "different", use different words and give a slightly different look, but of course the base message remains the same - the people don't agree with the SMO are painted as the absolute lunatic fringe. What they differ on and cause a bunch of noise about to keep critics and opposition occupied is side-stories like "this clearly shows we need more/less money spent on our security", "we should have kept our market closed so we'd be much better off, see how much those evil American corporations can hurt our normal everyday people because we've allowed them in and push away Russian companies", "Western aggression is much worse than we ever expected, see how they instrumentalize economics to try and hurt the Motherland",...). Next you go watch TV, and the official channels, of course, all parrot the official points. So you go watch some commercial TV, where professors and specialists come and explain why and how this is Western imperialism and Russian defense - or is it Russian intervention on behalf of the poor Russian-speaking Ukrainians being killed for almost a decade now? It's all geopolitics, Russia was getting too strong, the West is scared and used this humanitarian action to try and bring us back down.
Wherever you turn, you see the official version. If you don't buy into that and go looking for counter-voices, you'll find them....but they're still actually government-controlled or influenced, and they'll "disagree" on specific aspects while ignoring the baseline.
I read a story about a Russian refugee in the Netherlands. She complained that her parents had been completely indoctrinated in the Soviet era and still couldn't properly think for themselves, and how her children are now being subjected to the same approach and she can see it take hold of her daughter. The daughter was asked to find info on some war-related story, and it took her 8 pages to find real info; everything before was skewed or faked in one way or another.
Having to go to page 8 of search results to find some foreign weird page proclaiming"we're telling the truth and all the rest is lying!", that's....well, conspiracy theorist levels of "searching" for the "right" answer. Young Russians will feel they've done their duty and tried to find the truth after two or three attempts, and they'll still believe the Russian story - even if they're vehemently anti-Putin and pro-democratic!
If you're a young Russian, you get classes in school to learn how to verify (fake) news stories. Check what different trusted government sources are saying. Check with trusted newspapers that aren't government-owned, like Kommersant (which is....Technically not government-owned. And is allowed to be the "liberal" newspaper in Russia. Which means it makes some minor oppositional sounds on occasion...like, "this special military operation was necessary, but regrettable, such a shame we're being forced into it" instead of "this special military operation is patriotic and we should all be in favor!").
Then you go on VKontakte, where plenty of celebrities and "innocent", "normal" people influencers are using the same talking points - some the official literal words (from which you get those funny composite videos of 100 people repeating the same stuff verbatim, much like local news in the USA). Others, who are "individual" and "open" and "different", use different words and give a slightly different look, but of course the base message remains the same - the people don't agree with the SMO are painted as the absolute lunatic fringe. What they differ on and cause a bunch of noise about to keep critics and opposition occupied is side-stories like "this clearly shows we need more/less money spent on our security", "we should have kept our market closed so we'd be much better off, see how much those evil American corporations can hurt our normal everyday people because we've allowed them in and push away Russian companies", "Western aggression is much worse than we ever expected, see how they instrumentalize economics to try and hurt the Motherland",...). Next you go watch TV, and the official channels, of course, all parrot the official points. So you go watch some commercial TV, where professors and specialists come and explain why and how this is Western imperialism and Russian defense - or is it Russian intervention on behalf of the poor Russian-speaking Ukrainians being killed for almost a decade now? It's all geopolitics, Russia was getting too strong, the West is scared and used this humanitarian action to try and bring us back down.
Wherever you turn, you see the official version. If you don't buy into that and go looking for counter-voices, you'll find them....but they're still actually government-controlled or influenced, and they'll "disagree" on specific aspects while ignoring the baseline.
I read a story about a Russian refugee in the Netherlands. She complained that her parents had been completely indoctrinated in the Soviet era and still couldn't properly think for themselves, and how her children are now being subjected to the same approach and she can see it take hold of her daughter. The daughter was asked to find info on some war-related story, and it took her 8 pages to find real info; everything before was skewed or faked in one way or another.
Having to go to page 8 of search results to find some foreign weird page proclaiming"we're telling the truth and all the rest is lying!", that's....well, conspiracy theorist levels of "searching" for the "right" answer. Young Russians will feel they've done their duty and tried to find the truth after two or three attempts, and they'll still believe the Russian story - even if they're vehemently anti-Putin and pro-democratic!
GasBandit
Staff member
I thought Russia had already basically blocked the world on their firewall?
The access to Facebook was blocked but not illegal. Today a Russian court decleared both Facebook and Instagram illegal and Meta as an extremist company working against Russia. WhatsApp is still legal however.
It's also worth mentioning that even small slights against the government that get reported can and will be investigated, leading to potential consequences against you and your family.
When you have nearly every source you can easily access telling you one thing and a government willing to make your life hell if you question it, there really isn't much incentive to question state propoganda. It's not like YOU can just leave right now, even if you know the truth... and even if you support revolutionaries at home, even being part of the winning team has been no guarantee of safety in Russia (historically speaking).