I want to explain why I'm more radical in regards to my first nation than I am to everything else.
First of all, while, for the most part, I do agree that generalizing people is not fair and I do think that there's usually more harm than good that comes from it, but there are some exceptions, unfortunately.
From what I've seen from Tumblr and TikTok era SJWs, their desire to lump everybody in has caused more harm than good. This is especially evident in the US and it's clear that Trump took advantage of the more irrational part of the left taking center stage and positioning himself as the messiah of classical liberals and anyone with common sense. However, positioning oneself as something and BEING it are two very different things. And Trump was never that type of person. Anyway, I'm going off track here. My point is that this radical group became the inevitable precursor of an opportunist getting two terms and fucking the US up with his second term.
When it comes to my first nation, on the other hand (I'll try to set my personal experiences aside for this one, even though as someone who is not fully Russian, it's a very hot point topic for me) everyone instantly jumped in to forgive us in spite of all the atrocities our emigrants called us out on back in the day. This later triggered a wave of Westerners, Asians (not all of Asia, ofc), Latinos, Africans, etc being way too lovey dovey with us. All while we kept the same behavior we claimed to have abolished. Our neighbors (including my second country) kept warning (they still do, btw) foreigners that my first nation was nothing but trouble. Just like in the myth of Cassandra, everyone else thought they were crazy, in spite of there being evidence to their statements (and indisputable evidence at that).
Now that there's a spike in almost every type of bigotry, the lovey dovey-ness still persists. Every time someone says anything remotely critical about my first nation, people react as if this person said something insanely offensive about a marginalized group. My first nation represents almost all the things that Tumblr and TikTok's far left called out white people over, and yet, we're treated like some marginalized group in spite of systemically being a part of the problem.
The way the Western left and liberals are approaching the matter is depressing, to say the least. I expected there to be a plethora of call-out posts, but nope, none of that happened. I hoped there would be a Kennedy and Reagan style demand for accountability. I expected that the left and liberals would treat my people the same way global majority Americans treated white ones during desegregation (i.e., following the "guilty until proven innocent" mantra and demanding us to make up for all the shit we did). The exact opposite happened. "Give us an inch and we'll demand a mile" is exactly what's happening as a result. The audacity and nerve intensifies.
Let me be clear, I know that so-called "good Russians" exist. And perhaps someone might view my 75% as one of them. But personally, I think that it's time for the "poisonous berries that look identical to safe berries mixed in with one another in the same basket" analogy. It doesn't matter if I view myself as "one of the good ones". Belonging to centuries of oppression and colonization (which still continue, btw) makes me a cog in the machine, regardless of what I actually think of the machine itself. Generalization and aggressive demands for accountability are the bare minimum my fellow liberals should be exhibiting.
Also, if we're going to throw intersectionality into the mix, myself being a gay woman and quarter Sakartvelian (albeit white because of the very thing I called out, i.e., colonialism) should already show me why this attitude exists in the first place. And it should make me want to support generalization in this specific case even more. To me, Sakartvelo is a hot point topic, so it can make or break a relationship to me. Seeing liberals make excuses for the group that invaded my country three times and are still trying to overthrow democracy there feels like betrayal. Non-Russians like my 25% are held to insanely high standards while my 75% are barely even called out on the homophobia that we cause to this day.
Let me be clear. I don't hate myself for it. I don't feel guilt. I feel responsibility. Guilt would have made ME the focus of the conversation when the spotlight should be given to the people affected by my kind. And I hope that Western liberals wake up before it's too late and understand that this lenience is EXACTLY why Russia is as audacious as it was before.
If, hypothetically, what I wanted from liberals were to actually happen, what would I feel? The short answer is that my feelings are irrelevant in this current context. The long answer is that me being called a colonizer will never amount to even me being disconnected from my second nationality because of the huge wave of anti Caucasian hate back in the day.
TLDR: the reason why I disagree with "not all Russians" and agree with "don't generalize people" in all other cases is because both have resulted in polar opposite results. Lenience didn't work. Infantilization didn't work. Jesus-style forgiveness didn't work. And treating us like a marginalized group when we're literally the cause of said marginalization didn't work, either. We need to be hit in the face with harsh backlash so that those of us who (hopefully) do have some semblance of human decency wake up and start making things better or at least sucking less. This is why I say that "not all Russians" is the "not all white people" of the 21st century. Not only does it fail to make us face justice, but it also fails to show people who the real victims are (and that's not us). Only by forcing us to decenter ourselves, can things get better.
