For sure, countries need to look inward and start digesting that many people ate the onion in the first half of the 40s. Not because we need justice for the deaths of local minorities commited by nationals, but because this type of behaviour causes great trauma not just for the victims, but the aggressors. They pass this trauma down and it remains alive in current generations. It usually doesn’t even manifest itself as outright racism, just lots of anger issues in general (I guess this part is anecdotal).
All that being said, fuck Russia for bringing this up now. They went in to Ukraine under the flag of denazification. But Latvia is in Nato, so I don’t really see this as a cassus beli, but more of sowing division in EU.
Maybe the time for mutual understanding has passed.
If you feel nazis are your main baddie, it might be better to understand what makes them tick. If not for empathy, then for hitting where it hurts.
Why do you say I am denying the presence of nazis? They are usually a niche demographic, but present in any country. I am not saying let the bastards speak hate with impunity.
They are usually a niche demographic, but present in any country.
The difference is that in the Baltics and Ukraine this is not a niche demographic anymore. Pro-Nazi views are either the norm or they appear to be because the state has been legitimizing and endorsing pro-Nazi views while suppressing the opposite viewpoint.
You see, most other countries do not officially celebrate SS regiments with parades, they don’t name their streets after or erect monuments to Nazi collaborators who participated in the Holocaust and brutally butchered hundreds of thousands of people, and they don’t teach children in schools to hate people of a certain ethnicity while teaching that Nazi collaborators were actually national heroes and freedom fighters, all while monuments and graves of the real liberators and anti-fascist fighters are destroyed.
If you feel nazis are your main baddie, it might be better to understand what makes them tick.
Are you implying that Nazis are not “baddies”?
What makes Nazis tick is hate and sadism. There is nothing deeper to understand there. And as long as that hate continues to be taught and endorsed by a country’s institutions, from the state to the educational system to media and NGOs, as is happening in Ukraine and the Baltics, the problem will only get worse.
Please don’t get me wrong, I do not know the political climate to such extent in those countries and I do believe fascist memorials should be placed in a dedicated statue park (if not pulled apart in the heat of an event).
Are you implying that Nazis are not “baddies”?
Main baddies. I feel it debases us as it does them, this 2 dimensional thinking. White power. Nazis evil. If that’s the deepest you wanna go, be my guest. Of course we have to stand up against them, I really hope no one is getting that from my writing that nazism OK.
If I can use a very clunky IT support metaphor, we definitely need incident management (firefighting) now, but we should always look at root cause analysis to avoid the problem in the future. This is not an unfamiliar problem we are facing (historically speaking).
"They went in to Ukraine under the flag of denazification. "
You said that as if it wasn’t true and stopping the ethnic cleansing of the large Russian speaking population wasn’t valid enough reason in itself.
The other reason was demilitarisation.
Also a valid reason since NATO expansion right next to them, undoubtably with nukes, is an existential threat.
Russia gave them plenty of chances to prevent war but they didn’t listen.
Never intended to honor the Minsk accords, as Merkel admitted, and only used it to buid up their army.
It was the west that started this with their regime change coup and wanted this to happen.
A proxy to be used and then thrown away.
It is their usual MO.
Everything you say could be true. Just like the Ukranian propaganda. More probably there are kernels of truth, blown up on both sides.
Just from my personal view, I feel a Russian army moving towards Europe gives me more angst than some very problematic Ukranian language laws. I remember the laws being in the news in Hungary waaaay back in the day, maybe even before Maidan, but I wasn’t really paying attention to happenings at the time.
While it’s true both sides would use propaganda it looks like you’re turning around the facts.
It’s NATO that despite their promise has moved further east since the german reunification and are now right on the Russian border.
It’s Russia that should and do feel threathened.
The angst you feel is a result of more red scare/the Russians are coming propaganda.
If anything you should be scared of ‘our’ side risking war.
It’s about more than “very problematic Ukranian language laws”, they literally sent nazis to ethnic cleanse them and they burnt protesters alive in Odessa for protesting. and no that wasn’t before the Maidan coup.
Here are some western reports from before the 2022 war when they didn’t get too much attention in the press and before they started to claim Russia attacked ‘unprovoked’ and there certainly weren’t any fascists in Ukraine.
Anyone who paid attention from 2014 or before would know what happened.
It’s very clear and despite being from the west with all its biased news I still know there is one clear guilty side.
LOL are you really claiming it wouldn’t matter where you place nukes?
So the US was just being silly then when Russia wanted to put them in Cuba as retaliation for them putting them in Turkey?
For sure, countries need to look inward and start digesting that many people ate the onion in the first half of the 40s. Not because we need justice for the deaths of local minorities commited by nationals, but because this type of behaviour causes great trauma not just for the victims, but the aggressors. They pass this trauma down and it remains alive in current generations. It usually doesn’t even manifest itself as outright racism, just lots of anger issues in general (I guess this part is anecdotal).
All that being said, fuck Russia for bringing this up now. They went in to Ukraine under the flag of denazification. But Latvia is in Nato, so I don’t really see this as a cassus beli, but more of sowing division in EU.
How is that sewing division? We also glorify nazism here in western europe
Trauma? They honor their nazis there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiQVVUL6iZA&t=10s
Same in the other Baltic countries.
And most of all Ukraine.
You can deny that all you want.
Maybe the time for mutual understanding has passed.
If you feel nazis are your main baddie, it might be better to understand what makes them tick. If not for empathy, then for hitting where it hurts.
Why do you say I am denying the presence of nazis? They are usually a niche demographic, but present in any country. I am not saying let the bastards speak hate with impunity.
The difference is that in the Baltics and Ukraine this is not a niche demographic anymore. Pro-Nazi views are either the norm or they appear to be because the state has been legitimizing and endorsing pro-Nazi views while suppressing the opposite viewpoint.
You see, most other countries do not officially celebrate SS regiments with parades, they don’t name their streets after or erect monuments to Nazi collaborators who participated in the Holocaust and brutally butchered hundreds of thousands of people, and they don’t teach children in schools to hate people of a certain ethnicity while teaching that Nazi collaborators were actually national heroes and freedom fighters, all while monuments and graves of the real liberators and anti-fascist fighters are destroyed.
Are you implying that Nazis are not “baddies”?
What makes Nazis tick is hate and sadism. There is nothing deeper to understand there. And as long as that hate continues to be taught and endorsed by a country’s institutions, from the state to the educational system to media and NGOs, as is happening in Ukraine and the Baltics, the problem will only get worse.
Please don’t get me wrong, I do not know the political climate to such extent in those countries and I do believe fascist memorials should be placed in a dedicated statue park (if not pulled apart in the heat of an event).
Main baddies. I feel it debases us as it does them, this 2 dimensional thinking. White power. Nazis evil. If that’s the deepest you wanna go, be my guest. Of course we have to stand up against them, I really hope no one is getting that from my writing that nazism OK.
If I can use a very clunky IT support metaphor, we definitely need incident management (firefighting) now, but we should always look at root cause analysis to avoid the problem in the future. This is not an unfamiliar problem we are facing (historically speaking).
"They went in to Ukraine under the flag of denazification. "
You said that as if it wasn’t true and stopping the ethnic cleansing of the large Russian speaking population wasn’t valid enough reason in itself.
The other reason was demilitarisation.
Also a valid reason since NATO expansion right next to them, undoubtably with nukes, is an existential threat.
Russia gave them plenty of chances to prevent war but they didn’t listen.
Never intended to honor the Minsk accords, as Merkel admitted, and only used it to buid up their army.
It was the west that started this with their regime change coup and wanted this to happen.
A proxy to be used and then thrown away.
It is their usual MO.
Everything you say could be true. Just like the Ukranian propaganda. More probably there are kernels of truth, blown up on both sides.
Just from my personal view, I feel a Russian army moving towards Europe gives me more angst than some very problematic Ukranian language laws. I remember the laws being in the news in Hungary waaaay back in the day, maybe even before Maidan, but I wasn’t really paying attention to happenings at the time.
While it’s true both sides would use propaganda it looks like you’re turning around the facts.
It’s NATO that despite their promise has moved further east since the german reunification and are now right on the Russian border.
It’s Russia that should and do feel threathened.
The angst you feel is a result of more red scare/the Russians are coming propaganda.
If anything you should be scared of ‘our’ side risking war.
It’s about more than “very problematic Ukranian language laws”, they literally sent nazis to ethnic cleanse them and they burnt protesters alive in Odessa for protesting. and no that wasn’t before the Maidan coup.
Here are some western reports from before the 2022 war when they didn’t get too much attention in the press and before they started to claim Russia attacked ‘unprovoked’ and there certainly weren’t any fascists in Ukraine.
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2019/07/16/ukrainian-far-right-extremists-receive-state-funds-to-teach-patriotism/ https://apimagesblog.com/blog/2018/11/12/training-kids-to-kill-at-ukrainian-nationalist-camp
Anyone who paid attention from 2014 or before would know what happened.
It’s very clear and despite being from the west with all its biased news I still know there is one clear guilty side.
The nukes have been an existential that since the 50s…
Has Russia even attempted to make a public case for Ukrainians perpetrating genocide at the UN?
LOL are you really claiming it wouldn’t matter where you place nukes?
So the US was just being silly then when Russia wanted to put them in Cuba as retaliation for them putting them in Turkey?