Every month some new Russian slop starts trending, and far too many left-leaning Westerners happily jump in. It's always "not about politics", "just appreciating Russian culture" and so on.
The overwhelming majority of them never seem to listen to Ukrainian voices. Or, if they do, it's always: "We understand you're at war and going through a lot, but that's not what this is about".
I've noticed that these trends always become especially active whenever Ukraine is not only defending itself but also fighting back. Russia suddenly needs to restore cultural empathy towards "uwu poor ordinary Russians" — who, in most cases, were perfectly fine with what their fellow citizens were doing or simply didn't care. Now they're crying over the packages they lost from Wildberries while we've been burying our people for years.
But every single time I still can't get used to this level of indifference and hypocrisy. These same people would defend their favorite artist even if they walked out wearing an "I love Russia" t-shirt, insisting that it somehow wasn't support for Russia and that Ukrainians were just overreacting. Or they'll passionately defend a fictional Russian character while bullying real Ukrainians.
Since 2022, I've only become more disappointed in much of the Western left. We simply don't fit into their understanding of war, genocide, discrimination, or the victims of centuries of imperialism and colonialism. So, to them, we're just annoying people from an uninteresting country.
Their feminists don't care about Ukrainian women.
Their LGBT activists don't care about Ukrainian LGBT people.
And I don't even want to start talking about the Crimean Tatars. They're an Indigenous Muslim people who were forcibly deported from their homeland by the Soviet Union and have now, once again, almost completely lost their home in Crimea, where Russians are being settled instead. Many of those who remain are abducted or sentenced to impossibly long prison terms under horrific conditions. You would think this is exactly the kind of story this political camp always claims to stand for — but you almost never hear them mention the Crimean Tatars at all.
I used to believe that Ukraine's history and struggle naturally aligned with the values many on the Western left claim to defend. But with every passing year, I believe that less and less. At this point, I'm starting to doubt that even with enough time, our story will ever become something they genuinely care about.
I'm trying to see the good in people. I really am.
But I don't know.
Today is the Day of Remembrance of Ukrainian defenders and civilians who were executed or tortured in Russian captivity.
