so so fucked up how Ukrainians in online spaces are like "I don't want to see anything or anyone ruzzian on my dash ever again, no matter their views" and some foreigners go "oh, you're so racist for this, you can't bring tumblr blogs into this" or "it's just pictures of moscow why are you blocking them for this jesus" or smth like that, and it's like. fellas is it "overreacting" when people don't want to see or hear anything related to a nation who oppressed them for centuries including at least two genocides with one of them going on right now, is it "overreacting" when people want to see literally any other country except the one that is killing Ukrainians every goddamn day. bro imagine living in a country that's not being invaded and arguing with someone who's currently sitting in a bombshelter hiding from ruzzian rockets second time this week about how they shouldn't bring posts about dostoyevsky into this.
Bazillion times THIS.
Like
Ppl just don't understand that while I wake up at night bc of shelling and then all fucking day have to worry about my mother's health that doesn't get significantly better all day even after getting meds, reading how other ppl any age or gender get hurt or killed, remembering that someone dies on the frontline everyday so we all have this chance of living a life here, seeing casual reminders that russians, that either do nothing or actively wish us death, can have a fucking undisturbed casual life out there like nothing happens bc nothing indeed happens to them FUCKING HURTS LIKE A BITCH
And, as for any victim, any reminders of the abuser cause a negative reaction, anxiety, all sorts of sad or angry, disgust even.
And this is just a self-preservation act - to cut out all the things that trigger the trauma. Our daily lives are hard enough, we don't need to spice it up with extra shit. On the contrary, we need to put extra effort into our mental and physical health so we would not break down.
Peer reviewed tags by @tuulikki because this is so real. You get it.
Two thoughts here...
1) I'm German and I know that to this day there are people in the world, who don't want to /can't see or hear or confront themselves with anything German. Because they're either Holocaust survivors or relatives/direct descendants of Holocaust victims (who lost almost their whole family during the Holocaust and grew up with their family's stories about it). I haven't met any in person, but I know them from TV-interviews. Like these people would be asked "Would you ever visit Germany today, a perfectly safe and friendly place in Germany? Talk with a German, a young German who only knows WW2 Germany from history class?" and they would say "Never" and clench their jaw in hatred.
Now from my personal perspective that's 'not fair'. I wasn't even alive, my parents weren't even alive at the time. My grandfather was forcefully drafted into the Wehrmacht (the normal Infantry, cannon fodder, not some SS unit or concentration camp guard thing or the like) when he was 17, sent to the Eastern Front to fight the approaching Red Army, shortly after got literally shot in the ass and sent back home (luckily, otherwise I might never have existed). My family, both sides, lived on some rural farm in Silesia and had nothing to do with politics and concentration camps. You can't blame or hate *me* in particular for anything that happened to you or your family 80 years ago in my country.
But I don't feel personally attacked or 'treated unfairly', because this is a matter of empathy much more than of logic. There's some kinds of trauma that go so deep, can even span generations, that you can't just rationalize them away even with the best arguments. A holocaust survivor who wouldn't want to meet a German knows that I personally am not to blame, but they would still avoid things that trigger a trauma for them. That's two different things. And it's really not that hard to understand and respect that.
If you (not Russian, not posting any tankie content) post pictures of Moscow on your blog and a Ukrainian blocks you for it, it's the same kind of thing. You might genuinely admire Russian architecture, or whatever, simply for its beauty, but for Ukrainians there are different associations with these pictures. And not to respect that, possibly even insult people for it, is denying or even mocking the whole Ukrainian war-trauma, because that's the root of this blocking everything Russian.
I said it many times and I keep saying it: Of course this kind of thing (eg blocking someone simply for posting some picture of some random Russian thing) is coming from a place of 'russophobia' (technically not the right term but you know what I mean). But this isn't 'racism' or anything related, but it's simply logical consequences. If someone killed or is trying to kill your family and everybody you love and know, of course you hate them and don't want to see and hear anything about them. Everybody would feel that way. That's how feelings work. To judge Ukrainians for these feelings is a form of arrogance that's really mind boggling, as it would imply you're somehow a superior human being simply for being non-Ukrainian. You're not. You were simply lucky enough to never have experienced anything that would cause these feelings.
2) Actually I started my second point in the previous paragraph already... What Ukraine is experiencing at the moment is so extraordinary, literally, out of the ordinary, un-normal, that almost nobody in the world can identify with it or understand it. Luckily. Most people don't even know what 'hatred' or 'fear' really feels like, let alone this what's happening here. In the 'normal' world (especially theWest) there aren't many things happening that would cause or justify hatred or this level of hatred that the Ukrainians feel for Russians, because the world is mostly safe and orderly and all is good. So people came to believe these feelings are bad and have no justification. When someone hates, they're mentally weak and can't control their emotions. They're morally inferior.
Only that this logic doesn't work anymore when you're the victim of something that's actually a valid reason for these feelings. And there are valid reasons, otherwise these feelings wouldn't have developed in humans in the first place. You (most people in the world) have just never encountered anything that would trigger them because you're living a good life.
Good for you! Just don't attack people who are not so lucky.
It's really not that difficult is it... Have some respect and some empathy for other people, that's all there is to it.
