i really hoped that post wonât be necessary, but apparently it is necessary.
at this point i donât even know what words to use to make people understand i as a ukrainian donât want to:
1) see anything russia related in media i consume. (yes, including russian language, its triggering after what theyâve done to my city; narrative about how fucked up and evil russia is, i already know it, donât need obvious statement repeated one million time for someone who arenât from here to get it)
2) any contact with anybody from russia. (obvious reasons, theyâre genociding us, why would i want to contact them? to hear slurs theyâre using for ukrainians and hatecrime 101?)
3) any contact with anybody who sympathizes with them AND ignores politics, including ethic cleansing of ukrainians, bombing, kidnapping of kids from occupied regions and absence of any statement about crimes committed by russia.
if youâre not ukrainian or lived in ukraine during full scale invasion â please, donât speak on a behalf of ukrainians about what we want or donât want to see in media. itâs not a thing you can lecture people about. have some respect.
i donât care if youâre ethically russian, because ethnicity has nothing to do with this, and never had. political stance on the other hand is what matters.
some people here donât care about politics, or they pretend they do, because they have such privilege. they treat every war as their personal interest or fandom, disregarding any opinion of people of war and their struggles.
we live during times when things like crimes committed by some countries are finally being recorded, spread and noted, yet still there are people who treat that all like a joke or competition.
my only request is: if you donât wake up from sound of explosions at night and run to closest bomb shelter, if you donât donate money to any military aid and if you donât kneel and mourn on the street during funeral procession when thereâs another killed soldier who died defending your country â please, respect these who do. have some humanity to not joke about that, have some humanity to walk away if you genuinely couldnât care less about our suffering.
i donât see a point in explaining why joking about war â any war â is not funny, i donât see a point in genocide olympics some of people here really love to participate in, i honestly couldnât care less if you really believe russophobia exists (interesting that every time people mention it they donât even try to think why it exists since 2014 in the first place, the same year russia attacked ukraine), but what i genuinely care for â is prioritizing mental state of people who are being killed over mental state of people offended by me personally disliking some show. thatâs all.
ukrainians canât have such thing as neutrality, otherwise they end up dead. our daily life depends on our military system, on our soldiers and political climate. if you donât understand that â just leave and love your russian culture all you want, just donât include me in this psychosis.
itâs up to you: to stay and respect my choice to prioritize my own safety and sanity, or leave. in any case some people on this platform clearly need a honest talk about how to respect others, not even including how to treat victims of genocide.
and if mentions of russians during ongoing war in mass media is harmless to you â my request will be lighter than a feather.
at the end of the day â youâre either trying to hear somebody who tries to genuinely ask you for something that matters to them, or you donât. itâs up to you to decide, and up to you to carry the weight of your decision on your shoulders â doesnât matter was it right or wrong.
and a note to people who donât really read things because fury and denial is your first response bc you like that one russian character: no, no one stops you from watching the show, we just canât like it due to obvious trauma. no, not all russians are bad, but theyâre responsible for their country invading other countries. no, our lives arenât less valid, and we have all rights to be unhappy with one piece of media that ignores very valid historical aspect for our lives. yes, cherry-picking history to write a book is tone deaf, not once mentioning the conflict in a book, movie or making it clear during public campaign that you and your cast members acknowledge and support ukraine is a serious issue, and itâs valid to address it and be vocal about it. switching attention focus from victims of russian aggression to âhelplessâ aggressors is counterproductive, it's only silencing ukrainians and excluding them from the discourse. yes, sometimes ukrainians can be very emotional and stressed, nevertheless it doesnât mean you have to send us death threats over russian character.
if you care about us and this ongoing war â be respectful and listen to valid criticism without calling us ethnic slurs at least.
gummygunk
jbbartram-illu
prguitarman
pixelskylines
theartofmadeline
