#overwhelmingly in russian

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

imagine all the bots were russian and complimenting you on your accordion playing and the pretty lakeside environment. thats the video i just found on youtube

[greencheekconure27]

Another one for the tankie blocklist:

As exemplified by the posts below, @ casanova-lives's mama did indeed raise a stupid fuck. Glad OP is at least aware of this.

And as a bonus, the person I found their blog through (accidentally, because their url raised a red flag), @pattern-recognition

Big Stalin fan this one:

Stalin pictures, holodomor denial, komsomolka, zvaigzdelasas, and pro Russian propaganda: classic combination.

[boeing747]

like listen i dont think russia needs any defending but its amazing to me how "all russians are evil genocide supporting warmongers" mentality so often coexists with "every representative on every political level in my country is actively supporting a genocide in palestine and overwhelmingly anyone speaking out against it is punished and blacklisted and arrested" like ????????????????????????????? are we not on the same page? that our political systems as a whole inherently support the murder and disenfranchisement and ethnic cleansing of vast swathes of population for a nations own political gain?? how is my uncle being pilled by russian propoganda any different than your uncle being pilled by the every single Palestinian is a terrorist and deserves to die narrative being pushed out??? is it not a curse that we must collectively organize and fight against ???

[m3zzamorphic]

I’ve gotten to the point that I literally don’t notice when my playlists shuffle between english and korean/japanese anymore, I sing/rap along regardless unless someone else is around and points it out lol

[soon-palestine]

Hostages tortured to death. Parents executed in front of their children. Doctors beaten. Babies murdered. Sexual assault weaponised. No, not Hamas crimes. This is part of an ever-growing list of documented atrocities committed by Israel in the five months since 7 October – quite separate from the carpet bombing of 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza and a famine induced by Israel’s obstruction of aid. And yet while the western establishment media has been chock full of the most lurid allegations of savagery directed against Hamas, sometimes with little or no supporting evidence, Israeli atrocities are excused or quickly forgotten. Accusations against Hamas are endlessly reheated to paint a picture of a supremely dangerous and bestial militant group, in turn rationalising the slaughter and starvation of Gaza’s population to “eradicate” it as a terrorist organisation. But equally barbarous atrocities committed by Israel – not in the heat of battle, but in cold blood – are treated as unfortunate, isolated incidents that cannot be connected, that paint no picture, that reveal nothing of import about the military that carried them out. If Hamas’ crimes were so savage and sadistic they still need to be reported months after they took place, why does the establishment media never feel the need to express equal horror and indignation at equivalent or worse acts of cruelty and sadism being inflicted by Israel on Gaza – not five months ago, but right now? Israel's torture of doctors, its sexual assaults of Palestinian women, it's leaving premature babies to die after its forces stormed a hospital. Where is the outrage? This is part of a pattern of behaviour by the western media that leads to only one possible deduction: Israel’s five-month-long attack on Gaza is not being reported. Rather, it is being selectively narrated – and for the most obscene of purposes. Through consistent and glaring failures in their coverage, establishment media – including supposedly liberal outlets, from the BBC and CNN to the Guardian and New York Times – have smoothed the way for Israel to carry out mass slaughter in Gaza, what the World Court has assessed as plausibly a genocide. The role of the media has not been to keep us, their audiences, informed about one of the greatest crimes in living memory. It has been to buy time for US President Joe Biden to keep arming his most useful of client states in the oil-rich Middle East, and to do so without damaging his prospects for re-election in November’s US presidential vote. If Russian President Vladimir Putin was a madman and a barbarous war criminal for invading Ukraine, as every western media outlet agrees, what does that make Israeli officials, when every one of them supports far worse atrocities in Gaza, directed overwhelmingly at civilians? And more to the point, what does that make Biden and the US political class for materially backing Israel to the hilt: sending bombs, vetoing demands for a ceasefire at the United Nations, and freezing desperately needed aid? Worrying about the optics, the president expresses his discomfort, but he carries on helping Israel regardless. While western politicians and commentators worry about some imaginary existential threat those brief events of five months ago pose to the nuclear-armed state of Israel, Israel is quite literally wiping Gaza off the map day by day, quite undisturbed.

[fairuzfan]

I think something that also drives me up a wall is that people like don't realize that you don't get fired or blacklisted or ignored for being a zionist or a zionist sympathizer whereas if you so much as wear a palestinian flag pin you get fired or in trouble like no actually i constantly have to watch myself irl to make sure I don't have my words potentially misconstrued because the entire American sociopolitical system will come at me if I so much as accidentally say one word out of place I can't even say "from the river to the sea" without being accused of genocide meanwhile people publish literal thinkpieces about how an overwhelmingly Muslim town famous for their sweets is a center for terrorism like come on. Like there's a levels of fuckery happening right now and we have politicians openly calling Palestine protests as "Russian funded" I'm sorry but Palestinians, Arabs, muslims and people racialized as from these groups are in pretty immediate fucking danger??? Like??? Can you not see the fascism unless it directly happens to you????

[probablyasocialecologist]

The flotsam and jetsam of our digital queries and transactions, the flurry of electrons flitting about, warm the medium of air. Heat is the waste product of computation, and if left unchecked, it becomes a foil to the workings of digital civilization. Heat must therefore be relentlessly abated to keep the engine of the digital thrumming in a constant state, 24 hours a day, every day. To quell this thermodynamic threat, data centers overwhelmingly rely on air conditioning, a mechanical process that refrigerates the gaseous medium of air, so that it can displace or lift perilous heat away from computers. Today, power-hungry computer room air conditioners (CRACs) or computer room air handlers (CRAHs) are staples of even the most advanced data centers. In North America, most data centers draw power from “dirty” electricity grids, especially in Virginia’s “data center alley,” the site of 70 percent of the world’s internet traffic in 2019. To cool, the Cloud burns carbon, what Jeffrey Moro calls an “elemental irony.” In most data centers today, cooling accounts for greater than 40 percent of electricity usage.

[...]

The Cloud now has a greater carbon footprint than the airline industry. A single data center can consume the equivalent electricity of 50,000 homes. At 200 terawatt hours (TWh) annually, data centers collectively devour more energy than some nation-states. Today, the electricity utilized by data centers accounts for 0.3 percent of overall carbon emissions, and if we extend our accounting to include networked devices like laptops, smartphones, and tablets, the total shifts to 2 percent of global carbon emissions. Why so much energy? Beyond cooling, the energy requirements of data centers are vast. To meet the pledge to customers that their data and cloud services will be available anytime, anywhere, data centers are designed to be hyper-redundant: If one system fails, another is ready to take its place at a moment’s notice, to prevent a disruption in user experiences. Like Tom’s air conditioners idling in a low-power state, ready to rev up when things get too hot, the data center is a Russian doll of redundancies: redundant power systems like diesel generators, redundant servers ready to take over computational processes should others become unexpectedly unavailable, and so forth. In some cases, only 6 to 12 percent of energy consumed is devoted to active computational processes. The remainder is allocated to cooling and maintaining chains upon chains of redundant fail-safes to prevent costly downtime.

[comeonamericawakeup]

A running cliché in the mainstream media is that the U.S. is "polarized" into two "extreme camps," said Jennifer Rubin.

This is simply untrue. Democrats have some far-left elements, but President Biden and the party's congressional leaders have repeatedly proven they are willing "to move to the center to get bipartisan support." Not so the Republicans, who "have become radicalized and unmovable." Republicans recently buried a tough bipartisan border bill they helped forge because Donald Trump feared it would be effective. They overwhelmingly opposed the Infrastructure Bill and the Chips Act to help fund semiconductor factories in the U.S., and refused to convict an impeached Trump for inciting a violent insurrection.

They are denying military aid critical to Ukraine's survival, and siding with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson "is a Christian nationalist who thinks he was chosen by God and takes direction from the Bible, not the Constitution." Virtually every Republican official now is endorsing Donald Trump, "the most extreme, racist candidate since the Civil War," who warns that immigrants are "poisoning the blood" of the country. That's not polarization. That's "one party going off the deep end."

THE WEEK March 22, 2024

[strangerwheelerthings]

Thinking about the way Robin is the cautious/anxious one, but she's still so overwhelmingly brave. She's not the type to throw herself into dangerous situations like Nancy, but she followed her into the lake anyway. She spit into the face of a Russian soldier on the cusp of torturing her. She never backs down when there's lives on the line. She would unhesitatingly face her greatest fears if it were asked of her.

[mapsontheweb]

NATO in Europe, 2024.

by hunmapper

Hungary’s parliament overwhelmingly approved Sweden’s bid to join NATO on 26th February, clearing the way for the Nordic nation’s accession to the alliance after nearly two years of intense negotiations and dealing a geopolitical blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Getting approval from the Hungarian parliament was the final hurdle for Stockholm joining NATO. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson visited Budapest on Friday to discuss defense and security cooperation with his Hungarian counterpart, Viktor Orban. The two sides appeared to reconcile, agreeing on a deal that would see Hungary acquire four new Swedish-made Gripen fighter jets.

Of the 194 members of parliament who voted, just six rejected Sweden’s accession.

“Today is a historic day,” Kristersson said on X shortly after the vote. “Sweden stands ready to shoulder its responsibility for Euro-Atlantic security.”

[palestinegenocide]

The exquisite choreography of hosting a war criminal at the White House

The grisly farce that is the Biden administration’s support for Israeli war crimes became even more grotesque this week.

Netanyahu is coming to Washington in a few days. Democrats believe overwhelmingly that Netanyahu is carrying out a genocide– nearly 39,000 Palestinians deaths with thousands more under the rubble. So some Dems will boycott Netanyahu’s speech to the Congress, but the Democratic Party leadership is rolling out the welcome mat.

Netanyahu is to meet at the White House with the president who has provided Israel with endless munitions to carry out the war. And though many expect Biden to drop out of the presidential race,the New York Times says Biden won’t do so before he meets with Netanyahu, because Biden does not want to give the far-right-wing prime minister who has repeatedly bossed Democratic presidents the “satisfaction” of seeing Biden when he’s a lame duck.

Though if you think Kamala Harris will stand up for human rights and U.S. interests if she becomes president—think again, she is going to meet Netanyahu too, the White House assured the press.

Why meet with this war criminal at all? To answer that, consider who are the most important voters in the Biden debate right now: the donors who are the last shoe to drop on Biden’s reelection hopes, pulling their money to pressure the president to get out of the race.

Many of these donors now in rebellion are big Israel supporters. Michael Moritz the latest billionaire to put it to Biden has been in solidarity with Israel. Reid Hoffman who organized a concerned donors call with Kamala Harris calls Israeli forces a model.

While another group of 75 donors almost all of whom want Biden out is reported by CNBC to include as leaders Ari Emanuel and his brother Zeke. Ari Emanuel said that Israel’s war is “justified” in May 2024, and has said that he loves the country. Of course, there are Dem donors who don’t care about Israel. But the power map is clear.

It’s not like Trump is any different. The top Republican donor is thought to be Miriam Adelson, the Israeli doctor, and she is reportedly spending millions to stake Trump to a promise to allow Israeli annexation of the West Bank.

Just as Adelson’s late husband Sheldon, once the biggest Republican donor, asked Trump to move the embassy to Jerusalem and trash the Iran deal, and Trump followed through, in utter contempt for the Palestinian people and world leaders.

So our Middle East policy is up for bid by billionaire zealots. This is what a liberal democracy looks like.

In any just order, the U.S. would have nothing to do with Israel. The country is committing flagrant war crimes in Gaza, killing journalists and athletes and other civilians with complete impunity.

And the International Court of Justice last week issued (yet another) ruling saying that the settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank are violations of international law.

Back in December 2016 the Obama administration after 8 years of being walked over by Netanyahu allowed the U.N. Security Council to issue the same determination, in a resolution on which Obama abstained, that condemned the occupation. President-elect Trump called the Russians to try and stop the resolution but it went through. And of course nothing came of it. The Biden administration has never followed through on the landgrab, and the ethnic cleansing.

Al Jazeera graphic showing Israeli land seizures at a 25 year high in West Bank.

The Knesset passed a resolution this week saying there must never be a Palestinian state; that would be an “existential threat” to Israel.

Netanyahu repeated the claim of Jewish supremacy in his response to the International Court of Justice.

The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land, including in our eternal capital Jerusalem nor in Judea and Samaria, our historical homeland. No absurd opinion in the Hague can deny this historical truth or the legal right of Israelis to live in their own communities in our ancestoral home.

The Biden administration is incapable of condemning these racists. “It’s like pulling teeth to get you to say something on this,” a reporter complained in the State Department this week after the Knesset’s attack on a Palestinian state.

Antony Blinken was unable to say a critical word about Netanyahu during a fawning interview in Aspen (by NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly) in which he used a football metaphor to claim the U.S. was doing something to stop the genocide. “I believe we’re inside the 10-yard line and driving toward the goal line in getting an agreement that would produce a ceasefire, get the hostages home, and put us on a better track to trying to build lasting peace and stability.”

And keep the bombs flowing, as Israel bombs hospitals and refugee camps…

Netanyahu should be persona non grata in Washington. But he will be welcomed with open arms.

As a former Biden official Tariq Habash said on a webinar this week, our policy is “rooted in anti-Palestinian racism”– in the dehumanization and erasure of Palestinians.

Habash quit the Biden administration in January. Let’s hope that his courage and honesty are infectious.

[kazhanko-art]

People when Russians overwhelmingly support or are aparhetic to the war and genocide their country is engaged in: “well they’re not all like that”

People when a few Ukrainians behave poorly or just not suffciently grateful enough: “how dare they, Ukrainians are terrible, we should stop supporting them, why aren’t they fighting?”

[mariacallous]

Anyone who wants to understand Russian history should ignore Russian President Vladimir Putin. But anyone who wants to understand Putin’s strategic aims should pay close attention to his reading of history. The Russian president’s long lectures and essays on Kyivan Rus and World War II are not random tangents but rather the centerpieces driving his regime’s aggression against Ukraine. The Kremlin’s efforts to impose its reading of history on Ukrainians living under occupation reveal the driving motives of this war, as well as its continued objectives.

Against the backdrop of the uncounted—and uncountable—civilian deaths, mass deportations, and domicide across the occupied territories of Ukraine, it might seem trivial to focus on historical memory. But while it is difficult to take one’s eyes off the satellite images of mass graves in Mariupol, if we fail to grasp the broader grammar of Russia’s war against Ukraine, then we will also fail to recognize the broader ambition of Russia’s war efforts: the deliberate annihilation of Ukrainian identity.

Russia’s strategic deployment of historical propaganda in occupied Ukraine involves a comprehensive effort to “Russify” the local populace, leveraging educational, cultural, and military instruments to erase narratives of Ukrainian history and culture.

Those who resist this erasure are themselves destroyed, often physically. In all of the occupied territories, Russian forces arrived with a list of reportedly patriotic individuals to be captured; tortured; and, if they did not break, executed. From the very beginning, as Putin made clear in a June 2021 essay titled “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians,” Russia’s full-scale invasion was intended as a genocidal war.

Genocide aims at the annihilation of the identity and existence of a specific group—in this case, Ukrainians. The crucial aspect of identifying genocide is the intent behind these actions, which distinguishes it from other forms of violence. Evidence of the Kremlin’s destructive intent is overwhelming. And it is overwhelmingly delivered in the language of history.

Upon taking control of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in 2022, Russia launched an aggressive cultural propaganda campaign characterized by the declaration of annexation anniversaries as national holidays, the standardization of cultural practices to align with Russian norms, the establishment of historical propaganda museums, and the re-Sovietization of street names and monuments. These endeavors were aimed at rapidly embedding the occupied territories within the broader Russian cultural and legal fabric, a strategy reminiscent of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and unlike the more fragmented methods employed in the so-called Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine after 2014.

In regions where local resistance is more robust, such as Melitopol and Berdyansk, there is an intensified effort toward cultural and educational Russification. The formation of militarized youth groups—including the Yunarmiya (Young Army), a military-patriotic movement for children and youth initiated by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in 2016, and Eaglets of Russia—is widespread, but the scale and visibility of such programs vary in accordance with the strategic military value of each region to Russia. The nature and intensity of the propaganda varies as well, with a pronounced emphasis on Soviet-era narratives in Donetsk and Luhansk, which were likely deliberately crafted to align with the region’s recent historical narratives and multicultural identities.

While the techniques to suppress Ukrainian identity may adapt, the core objectives of Russian informational campaigns are constant. These efforts relentlessly accentuate the regions’ shared historical and cultural roots with Russia, praising Soviet accomplishments and East Slavic heritage.

The Kremlin’s agenda aims to replace Ukrainian identity with something different—something localized—that can then be subsumed into a broader pan-Russian narrative. To do so, it uses culture and education as weapons of war. This strategy includes mobile libraries, guarded by armed militias, that distribute Russian books and educational resources while destroying Ukrainian books.

Amid this evident historical manipulation and cultural destruction, Russian propaganda distributed in the occupied territories positions the Kremlin as a protector of historical truth, using this stance to propagate narratives conducive to its political and ideological ends. It paints Western and Ukrainian histories as distortions that were deliberately aimed at destroying Russian identity—which the Kremlin argues is the true identity of Ukrainians.

The Khersonshchyna cultural project in the occupied Kherson region, for example, claims to expose Ukrainian history as a series of lies and promotes militaristic Russian myths with the aim of “restoring historical justice” and “curbing the spread of lies.”

Through the adoption of Russian curricular materials, educators, and syllabi prioritizing Russian over Ukrainian heritage, occupation authorities seek to transform residents’ identities, downplaying Ukrainian heritage in favor of a Russian outlook. Russian academics have created an Orwellian 98-page glossary of new correct cultural, historical and social terminology to be enforced in Ukrainian schools on the occupied territories. In the Donbas, organizations such as the Russian Center have produced pseudo-historical doctrines to justify Russia’s occupation. The center, which is funded by the Russian World Foundation, has held a number of festivals centered around the idea that the Donbas is Russia and that Russian culture is inherent to the Donbas.

A common thread in the historical propaganda is the idea that an injustice (Russia’s separation from the lands of what it calls the Donbas and Novorossiya—meaning “New Russia”) has been resolved by the invasion. In September 2023, on the anniversary of the pseudo-referendums held in four newly occupied territories in eastern Ukraine, schools in the Zaporizhzhia region held events to celebrate “reunification with the Russian Federation,” which was referred to as a “restoration of historical justice.” In his state of the nation speech in February 2023, Putin declared the “revival” of the cultural sphere in the occupied territories to be a priority for reestablishing peace. He emphasized the importance of restoring cultural objects to forge a connection across time, asserting that this effort would integrate the local population into the “centuries-old and great Russia.”

In addition to promoting claims of historical restoration and Russian greatness, the occupying forces are systematically undermining Ukraine’s historical legacy. Their strategies extend beyond suppression to the outright destruction and appropriation of Ukrainian heritage. In 2022, the Russian government introduced legislation to legitimize the seizure of items related to Ukrainian cultural heritage. This law permits the inclusion of historical artifacts from occupied regions in the Russian Federation’s registry, effectively erasing their Ukrainian provenance.

The scope of this cultural plunder is vast, with the Ukrainian government reporting that more than 15,000 artifacts have been removed from Kherson alone. Other significant looting pertains to Scythian gold dating back to the 4th century B.C., which was stolen from the Melitopol Museum of Local Lore. That museum and the A. I. Kuindzhi Art Museum were also stripped of their valuable collections. A so-called Ministry of Culture of the Kherson Region has facilitated what the Russian occupiers term the “evacuation” of these items to the Crimean city of Sevastopol, disguising acts of looting as preservation. Their actions and justifications draw obvious parallels with previous examples of imperial looting, such as the British plunder of African artifacts, also carried out under the guise of “evacuation.” Ukrainian archives have also been targeted, with significant portions of the holdings at the regional State Archive of Kherson confiscated.

At least 14 memorials commemorating the victims of the Holodomor—a devastating famine lasting from 1932-33 that was induced by Soviet policies and used to pacify Ukrainian national identity—were dismantled in the communities of Oleshky and Ivanivka in Kherson Oblast. The destruction of these monuments is a further illustration of the erasure of Ukrainian history, especially given that this particular historical episode reveals an ongoing pattern of genocide.

The first deputy chairman of the Kherson Regional Council confirmed these reports, but the occupation administration dismissed the memorials as “tools of manipulation” that were fostering hatred toward Russia.

As they obliterate Ukrainian historical memory, Russian forces are actively reinstalling Soviet-era monuments which were previously removed in Ukraine’s decommunization efforts, especially statues of Lenin. In so doing, the Kremlin is trying to restore a (mis)imagined past of Soviet-Russian greatness and ownership over Ukraine. It is a past that nobody asked them to bring back, but one that will have grave consequences for Russia and Ukraine’s future, given that the indoctrination efforts are most targeted at children.

When Izyum came under occupation in 2022, the establishment of children’s education and cultural centers was prioritized, and such institutions were up and running within weeks. Leveraging educational reforms, patriotic education, and youth organizations, the occupation authorities worked quickly and efficiently to instill a sense of Russian identity among young Ukrainians.

These actions are not only aimed at reshaping the cultural landscape, but also at securing future generations’ allegiance to Russia, often with a clearly militarized agenda, as seen in educational initiatives such as the “Lessons of Courage,” special classes held as part of the school curriculum that glorify the military achievements of the Soviet Union and Russia. These programs include interactions with Russian veterans and encourage expressions of support for current soldiers, further integrating military values into the educational experience.

The establishment of cadet schools in the occupied territories, facilitated through agreements with Russian educational and military authorities, has formalized the militarization of youth, preparing them for possible involvement in future conflicts.

Patriotic education extends beyond the classroom and into extracurricular youth movements and thematic events. Since 2022, in the occupied territories of southern Ukraine, branches of national Russian youth organizations such as Yunarmiya have been established alongside regional military patriotic movements such as the Youth of the South.

Participants receive professional military training, supported by veterans of the Russian Armed Forces and members of the military veterans’ organization Combat Brotherhood. The training includes instruction in weaponry and military tactics. Upon completion, Yunarmiya members are often recruited into the Russian military. According to Andrey Orlov, the exiled Ukrainian director of the Center for Strategic Development of Territories, enrollment in this organization is compulsory in the temporarily occupied territories, with special services personnel frequently visiting educational institutions to engage children in military-themed games. The so-called Warrior Club in occupied Zaporizhzhia, which focuses on military indoctrination and preparation for young men nearing conscription age, highlights the extent of Russia’s commitment to this cause.

There is a grisly strategy behind Russia’s militaristic engagement with children in the occupied territories: to indoctrinate them into forsaking their national identity and to groom them to die for their new supposed motherland.

Despite Moscow’s extensive indoctrination efforts, there has been resistance. Officials from the temporarily occupied Luhansk region have reported recruitment difficulties to the Kremlin, noting a significant shortage of teachers in Russian language, literature, and history.

As Ukrainian teachers refuse to teach these subjects, educators are brought in from Russia, often housed in apartments confiscated from local residents. This considerable influx of Russian educators tasked with instilling a Russian-centric curriculum should also be seen as part of Russian demographic engineering efforts, deporting Ukrainians to Siberia and further, while bringing in Russian citizens to take their place.

Still, in the face of penalties and home raids, a notable segment of the population steadfastly refuses to enroll their children in Russian-administered schools, instead opting for home-schooling. The rejection of Russian educational mandates underscores the enduring spirit of Ukrainian identity and a widespread collective desire to preserve national consciousness. This resilience is also demonstrated by the hundreds of students who, despite the risks of retaliation, use VPNs to pursue their studies with Ukrainian universities and schools online, sustaining vital community ties.

Moreover, Ukrainians are countering attempts to expunge their cultural memory. Last November, residents in occupied areas followed the Ukrainian tradition of lighting candles in their windows to commemorate the Holodomor. Despite the perils, with Russian forces actively dismantling Holodomor memorials, many courageously shared images of these acts of remembrance via Telegram, in commitment to their history and identity.

The Kremlin’s Russification, historical falsification, youth indoctrination, militarization, and cultural manipulation reveal Russia’s true agenda. In keeping with Putin’s rhetoric since 2022, it is clear that Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine is aimed not only at territorial control, but also at the eradication of Ukrainian national identity.

Faced with conquerors that view their national existence as a threat, the cultural resistance of Ukrainians in the occupied territories is not only a refusal to submit to Kremlin propaganda—it is an essential part of Ukraine’s survival.

[ohsalome]

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, discussions emerged about the imperial nature of the war. Scholars who spoke up about it were quickly dismissed in certain Western academic and political circles.

Some, especially the self-professed “anti-imperialists”, claimed Russia was “provoked” and portrayed Ukraine’s resistance as a “Western imperial” plot. Others considered analyses of Russian imperialism as having a pro-war, hawkish agenda or being a reflection of narrow ethno-nationalist sentiments.

But for scholars from the post-Soviet space – from places that have suffered from Russian aggression and imperialism – these reactions were hardly a surprise. They had been ignored and dismissed before.

[...]

Soviet coloniality was dismissed also because knowledge about the Soviet Union in the West was Russocentric. The Soviet Union was often referred to simply as Russia. There was little knowledge about non-Russian people. Non-Russian émigrés who fled to the West and wrote about Soviet coloniality with firsthand experience of Soviet imperialism were dismissed as anti-Soviet conservative ideologues.

Importantly, the Soviet Union also became a space of projections for those who looked for ways to criticise capitalism and Western imperialism. Those who blamed capitalism for oppression believed that eliminating capitalism would end all forms of oppression. For them, the Soviet Union was an internationalist project that brought equality and freedom to formerly subjugated peoples.

Violence against various nations and ethnic groups was either ignored or treated as a necessary evil of the transition to communism.

Western scholarship also overwhelmingly focused on the Soviet metropoles – Moscow and Leningrad. They knew very little, if at all, about the Soviet peripheries, which meant that nobody really understood the uprisings in Central Asia, the Caucasus or the Baltics from the late 1980s onwards or the bloodshed in Tajikistan, Nagorno-Karabakh, Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and later Chechnya.

[...]

In Russia itself, the dominant narrative was one of victimhood. Russians learned to see themselves as a special nation that sacrificed its own wellbeing for the sake of non-Russians in the Soviet Union. “Let us stop feeding them” was the slogan Russians used to explain Moscow’s decision to let the colonies go in 1991.

[...]

This is how late Professor Mark von Hagen recalled in 2016 the political atmosphere back then: “Again, George Bush … was defending Gorbachev until the very last possible moment because he and the United States government at that level, with a few dissenting voices, wanted to keep the Soviet Union together because they were so afraid of the kind of crazy, fascist nationalism that they thought the Ukrainians represented.”

[...]

That is why Western academia and political circles had little to say about the genocidal wars Boris Yeltsin and his successor, Vladimir Putin, led in Chechnya. Rather than seeing people claiming sovereignty and nationhood, the West readily bought into their portrayals of Chechens as bandits, nationalists and terrorists. That is why they also failed to see Russian imperial ambitions in Eastern Europe – the 2008 war on Georgia, the annexation of Crimea, etc – as such.

[amhrosina]

Like Real People Do (Matt Murdock x Reader)

MASTERLIST // TAG LIST REQUEST FORM

A/N: this was requested, and i would do anything for matt murdock, so pls enjoy this nonnie! i couldn't pick between these gifs, so here's two <3

Summary: Matt wakes you up from a nightmare and you have a panic attack. He calms you down and cuddles you until you fall back asleep in his arms.

(Warnings: reader has a panic attack, mentions of past trauma, mentions of potential child abuse, soft!matt being the cutest) 

“Matt, for the last time, I am not taking your bed from you. You’re blind! That would make me, like, the worst person in the world!” 

“I thought you didn’t care what people thought.” He smirked, continuing to throw blankets and pillows towards the couch.  

“Call it a concern for my eternal soul, Murdock.”  

“You’re worried about what God thinks?” He scoffed. 

“There’s a lot of things I’ll have to answer for when I die, Devil Man, but making the blind man who’s harboring a mob target in his apartment sleep on his own couch won’t be one of them.”  

Matt smiled, then shook his head. “I think He might let this one slide.”  

He wasn���t budging, and you were beginning to grow tired of arguing with him about it.  

“Fine, fine, whatever. Damn me to hell.” You rolled your eyes as he barked out a laugh. 

The glow of the living room changed colors as the advertisement outside the window started over from the beginning. Red light coated the walls, spilling across the floor like paint. You watched it tiptoe up Matt’s shirtless torso, eyeing the scars littered across his back. You turned away before he could pick up on your increased heartrate.  

Unlike the other person in the room with you, you weren’t blind. Matt was an extremely pretty man. But he knew he was pretty, and you were sure that every person who’d ever met him had told him so, even if it was just with their heartbeat.  

Matt ran his fingers under the couch cushions, securing the sheet in place. He bid you goodnight, and you settled into the silk sheets on his enormous bed. Yes, you decided, I will definitely be purchasing silk sheets as soon as the Russians are dealt with.  

The Russians had become a giant pain in your ass. They knew you were connected to the “man in black”, as they called him, and wanted to get their greasy hands on you to bait Matt into showing himself. Matt had insisted on you staying at his apartment, where he could keep an eye on you while he figured out how to deal with the Russians. You had accepted his offer, grateful that he was willing to harbor you, but you were already feeling stir-crazy, and it was only the first night here.  

You rolled over, sinking into Matt’s pillow, letting the subtle scent of laundry detergent lull you to sleep. 

// 

Your name was being shouted. It echoed around your head, and you felt beads of sweat running down your neck. You were overwhelmingly hot, panting as you fought your way towards consciousness. Hands grasped your cheeks, and you lurched out of bed, throwing the covers off of your body and falling to the floor. Your knees harshly banged against the wood, shooting pain up your legs. Uneven breaths turned into gasps as you felt hands around your shoulders. You yelped, clawing at the floor to get away from whoever was grabbing you. 

Your name rung through the air as hands touched your cheeks. Finally, you looked up, forcing whoever was there to kill you to look you in the eyes before doing it. Instantly, fear turned to regret. Your eyes met Matt’s, who was whispering your name under hushed breaths.  

“Breathe.” His voice was stern, but worry was laced in his tone as he softly stroked your cheeks. He repeated your name again, “Breathe. Deeper. There you go. Can you focus on finding five things you can see right now?”  

You lurched out of his hands, heart still pounding, “I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m sorry for waking you. I’m fine.” You hunched over, hanging your head between your knees as you tried to slow your breathing down.  

“You’re not fine. Your heartbeat just skyrocketed out of nowhere. I thought someone was trying to kill you in here.” Matt followed you, crouching down in front of you.  

He gently took your hand, placing it on his chest where you could feel the steady drum of his heartbeat. His hand covered yours, holding it in place. Your body started to to relax, his heartbeat grounding you. You raised your head, looking into Matt’s concerned face. That’s when you realized Matt was shirtless, and your hand was being pressed into his VeryNakedChest.  

“What? What’s wrong?” 

“What!” You yelped, pulling your hand away and shooting to your feet.  

“Your heartbeat just picked back up again.” He said, confusion evident on his face.  

You began to pace in front of him, ringing your hands together. 

“Was it a nightmare?” He asked, creeping to his full height.  

“Yes.” You answered bluntly, uninterested in continuing the conversation. 

“Do you want to talk about it?”  

“No.” 

“Okay. Okay, that’s fine,” he paused, still speaking in a hushed tone, “but you have to stop pacing. Your heartbeat is still elevated.”  

You halted, staring at the bed that you’d fallen asleep in. The covers were splayed out, soaked in sweat. It looked like a tornado had slept in the bed, rather than a person. Turmoil rolled in your gut. Not only had you ruined Matt’s perfectly soft and well-made bed, but you’d also woken him up, probably giving him a heart attack in the process.  

“I’m sorry,” you mumbled, running your hands over your face. You would not cry in front of him.  

“Don’t apologize. Are you okay?” He met you where you stood in the bedroom, holding out his hands. A request, you supposed, to hold his hands until you were settled. You lightly set your hands on his, focusing on anything except the fact that his thumbs were now brushing over your knuckles.  

“I’m-,” you breath shuddered as you spoke, “I think I’m okay, now.”  

He brought a hand to your cheek, wiping the tears that had begun their descent. You hadn’t even realized you were crying. You barely remembered the nightmare, but it had to be a bad one, or else Matt would still be asleep in the living room.  

“Do you get nightmares a lot?”  

You furrowed your brow, trying to find any words that could explain your recurring dreams. More tears pricked at your eyes, willing themselves to fall.  

“Sometimes, I guess. My childhood was...rough. I don’t remember much of it. I think there’s probably some trauma I need to deal with.” You choked out a laugh. There was definitely some trauma you needed to deal with, but you weren’t going to admit that to Matt tonight.  

Matt slowly nodded, but you saw a streak of the devil in his eyes. He was going to ask questions, but not right now. Not tonight.  

“Let’s try to go back to sleep, okay?” He tugged on your hands, leading you to the other side of the bed, where you hadn’t sweated through the sheets. Your hands grew clammy thinking about being left alone in the dark again. There was no way you’d fall back asleep tonight.  

“Hey, don’t worry, okay?” Matt climbed onto the bed, resting his back against the headboard. “I’ll stay with you until you fall asleep. No one can hurt you here. I promise. Come here.”  

His tone was warm and inviting – lighthearted, even, like he didn’t want you to overthink the situation. His arms opened up, wrapping around you as you climbed into his lap. He had you cradled against his chest, resting his chin on your head. Your ear was directly next to his heart, something Matt probably orchestrated on purpose. He was giving you something to focus on so that you didn’t focus too hard on trying to fall asleep.  

The last thing you remember is Matt’s lips brushing over your hair, kissing you so lightly you thought you might’ve imagined it.  

// 

Soft light filtered through the window. A morning haze coated the bedroom walls, condensation built up on the windows. The early morning sounds of New York buzzed in your ears. Taxi’s honking, bodegas opening their grates, life happening just beyond the glass.  

Your eyes homed in on the mug of tea sitting on the bedside table, still steaming. You could vaguely hear Matt moving around in the kitchen. The scent of bacon wafted into your nose, sending your stomach grumbling. There was a noteworthy pause in the noise coming from outside the room. It returned soon after. Matt knew you were awake.  

You carefully grabbed the tea, gravitating towards the smell of freshly cooked food. Matt was hunched over the stove, shirt thankfully on. You sat at the island, watching him gracefully move around. Even seeing, you were convinced you couldn’t move as gracefully as Matt did. He was constantly surprising you.  

“Did you sleep alright? After the, uh, incident?” His voice echoed across the room. 

“Yes, but I think you knew that.” You smiled, sipping your tea.  

He set a plate of food in front of you and handed you a fork.  

“You don’t have to talk about it to me, but I think you should talk about it to someone. Eventually.”  

His face held a soft glow. He wasn’t being judgmental, and he didn’t seem to mind that you had woken him up in the middle of the night. You tilted your head, trying to think of the words you could say to express your gratitude, but your brain still felt foggy from sleep, so you just settled on, “Thank you, Matty,” and that was just fine with you. For now, at least.

End Note: I think I'm incapable of writing fics that tell a story from start to finish. There's so much room for more in this story, so don't be surprised if this turns into a multi-parter. Thank you for reading and requesting! I hope you enjoyed Matt being an absolute doll.

Requests are open!

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@alexxavicry @xleiaorgana

[loving-n0t-heyting]

the idea that the Germans overwhelmingly supported the nazis is a perversely fascinating tool of propaganda tbh bc it was and is used by so many people with different goals and in different ways. The nazis obv just tried to legitimize themselves by faking the results of eg the 1934 referendum; the various German governments of the post-war period in turn use this referendum to show that referendums are bad and everything should be left up to qualified politicians bc the people would just elect another Hitler (who was, in fact, empowered primarily by so-called qualified politicians). Various far-right groups uphold it to claim that modern democracy is a sham. The allies used it to tell theri soldiers "see? They chose this! You can kill them without second thought, men, women, and children, and it's totally justified bc they unanimously stand behind their dictator", and lastly (afaik, at least) there's the cult of guilt in Germany as well as internationally condemning every German who was born after the whole thing as guilty by association. Like practically zero people of influence have any interest at all in being honest about this, and if you do, somehow, it's nazi apologia to say that the NSDAP were oppressors who did not care about what the population actually wanted.

If you for some reason are in need of upping yr blood pressure you can try reading this obscene Jason stanley article in which inherent german blood guilt for Hitler is used to justify treating all future generations of Russians as analogously guilty of the invasion of ukraine by way of their national identity

Even so, my first thought when meeting another German is that their grandparents most likely would have enthusiastically supported murdering me and my family. […] [T]here is still fear and shame in their eyes whenever they attempt to steer the conversation away from their country’s dark legacy. There always will be, because genocide will not and cannot be forgotten – ever.

Imagine just saying this, in print, on purpose! I cannot, as the saying goes, fucking even