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I am in awe
So, there are SO MANY downsides to living In Interesting Times. But sometimes. Sometimes it's worth it.
Slava Ukraini! ššš This man is a legend.
And it's crazy to think that this is the same man - this music video is from back when he was an actor.
ŠŠ½ŃŠøŃŃŠ»Š° (Antytila) - Lego / Official Video
The band (Antytila) all joined up and are paramedics in the army.
Slava Ukraini! ššš This man is a legend.
And it's crazy to think that this is the same man - this music video is from back when he was an actor.
ŠŠ½ŃŠøŃŃŠ»Š° (Antytila) - Lego / Official Video
The band (Antytila) all joined up and are paramedics in the army.
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You can say that again!
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First of all
(Anonymous) 2025-02-18 10:32 pm (UTC)(link)Translated, without including the many adorable spelling errors:
Dear Ukrainians,
My name is Thaleia and I am 7 years old. Iām from Greece. Iām sorry about the war. This is all the money I have. You can buy sweets for all the children. No to war. Yes to peace.
Because I finally have some time (The Post That Was Promised)
(Anonymous) 2025-02-20 01:04 am (UTC)(link).
.
.
(I donāt like stating the obvious. So hereās something different, for the 5 or so people who are gonna read this, if Iām lucky).
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The good want power, but to weep barren tears.
The powerful goodness want; worse need for them.
The wise want love; and those who love want wisdom;
And all best things are thus confused to ill.
Many are strong and rich, and would be just,
But live among their suffering fellow-men
As if none felt; they know not what they do.
-- Prometheus Unbound, Act I
.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Milica_Raki%C4%87#/media/File:Fotografija_Milice_Raki%C4%87_na_njenom_gorbu_u_Batajnici.JPG
This is Milica RakiÄ. She was killed āalong with 88 other children- at the age of 3 when NATO bombed Yugoslavia in 1999 (And, to be noted, they made my grandpa -who supported the USA his entire life- sad, just before he died too, the bastards). Her death was not reported by most major Western news outlets.
(Check out Bidenās role in said bombing btw).
I saw her photo somewhere on the internet, and I was sad: because she was about the same age I was back then, because in this picture she looks adorable and looks a lot like my younger sister when she was little. Because I tend to be sad when little kids die.
I was told not to post about politics, because these are dangerous times. I agree. Generally speaking, Iām very paranoid, and if it was up to me, I would look out for number one, and Iād basically censor myself 24/7.
But unfortunately for me, it isnāt (up to me, that is), because I care about people and the world, and I canāt stand it when they are this way. If you can do something, no matter how little, you should do it.
Because Iām an artist, and I happen to believe that truth lies somewhere between Brecht and Aristotle: The creator should include catharsis is their work, in order for it to be satisfying. AND the audience, watching that, should be inspired and want to act like those favourite characters, and try to make justice, truth and balance and all those good things prevail in this world too.
(You know, Iām an actor; so at least, sometimes. Because unfortunately, self-censorship, hypocrisy, selfishness, going above and beyond to be pleasant and harmless and useful to the point of disgust to the audience and your employers, to not rock the boat, is often something that goes hand in hand with this job. So you know, thatās probably gonna happen too, unfortunately, Iām only human. You have to become very rich and very famous, before that necessary part of the job āto be seen, to be known for the right reasons, to be liked by people- can become a weapon for good, that the actor himself can use. I wish it happens one day, fingers crossed: but even if it does, I think that oneās logic canāt be ānow Iām just gonna chill, and be a huge egotist, and when Iām 60 and a millionaire, Iām gonna be the new messiahā. So again, at least sometimes, just a bit).
Re: Because I finally have some time (The Post That Was Promised)
(Anonymous) 2025-02-20 01:34 am (UTC)(link)So onwards to those obvious things that I didnāt want to say, because things are not as simple as most people around me seem to think.
Yes, war and imperialism are bad, wrong, no matter who does them. (And no matter where. Because Iām seeing a lot of hand-wringing about āooh, war in Europe!ā aaaaah! And when thereās bombs dropping in the third world, who gives a fuck, thatās what those countries are for. Very mask off, racists, be careful).
This is not only Russiaās and Putinās fault. Russia is doing what it believes it must do to protect its geopolitical interests under this incredibly disgusting and heinous circumstance that history has brought us to. I personally, happen to not care about that in this case:
The invasion would be wrong even if an ideal country, whose political/economic/etc system I supported, did it. Maybe I would justify them a bit more, like the ends justify the means, you want to protect something good that I care about etc. Of course, I happen to believe that the means donāt always justify the ends. I believe that the means sometimes can corrupt the ends. But imagine how much I donāt care about your geopolitical interests, when I believe that both the means and the ends are fucked. You believe that the West is pressuring and encircling you (With good reason, in my opinion). Soā¦ what? Do you think you are better than NATO, at this point in history? Wow, look at that utopia youāre trying to defend.
So under no circumstances would I be *for* the invasion. But oh boy, thereās a lot of Big Words and simplified narratives going around, and I donāt like it (The younger generation included; and you sad, silly bastards have hope in them, bless. Good intentions do not make up for naivetĆ©, nihilism, no knowledge of history, lack of education).
Also, I saw a newspaper in the bus yesterday, and it was quoting Churchill on the cover to describe the situation, and even though I think that some of his speeches are legitimately awesome, my patience has limits, Iām gonna puke everywhere, etc.
(Seriously, no matter your opinion on Zelensky āand Iāll get to that later-- donāt compare the poor man to that bitch Churchill, what has he ever done to you. Even if youāre all for the invasion, thatās no reason to insult Zelensky like that, come on).
So no, my loves, you canāt just blame Russia here. A question for NATO, the EU, and everyone: what exactly did you think was gonna happen? Action ---> reaction. (Look at all that expansion since 1997, we didnāt promise nothing,*blows raspberry * etc, etc)
And the Ukrainians are just stuck in the middle, along with the poor aforementioned kids. Truth forever on the scaffold/Wrong forever on the throne, what else is new, etc.
Now, someone will say: ok, yeah, we all love kids, theyāre adorable, thank you Captain Obvious, but, etc. Yes, but I believe that everything is connected. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, that you have the gall to give a speech, Biden, and say that NATO ensures peace and stability, and speak of oligarchs, and violence, and end every speech with āmay God protect our troopsā on top of everything. Weāve heard all this before, and it was revolting the first time.
(https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Joe_Biden%27s_Second_State_of_the_Union_Address )
And I donāt hate you. I try not to hate you, I want you to be happy. And I want the Russians to be happy too, and Zelensky (sweet heaven preserve us), and Putin, and the Ukrainians, and the dumb Americans who kept voting for Trump, and the civilians, and the soldiers, and the children, because I have this idiotic, obsessive belief that in the year 2022, the human race has the capabilities to guarantee the happiness of this entire, poor planet.
Now I sound like a hippie, I know, very cringe, but hey, *you* will go and exalt Martin Luther King, and shhhhhh, he never criticized capitalism, what are you talking about.
Because not everyone is a saint, and at the end of the day, he was assassinated. Because one day people have enough, and they go, yes, the ends do probably justify the means, and aaah, thatās socialism, communism, quick, letās go clone McCarthy.
And the plain, boring, inconveniently obvious truth is that itās good to care about people and to try to act accordingly. And itās also very hard, especially when weāre talking about specific people, and if youāre wondering if itās worth it, think that they were all little kids once.
.
Speaking of which, I think I finally understood what exactly the bible means when it says āfor the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as theseā as it pertains to the aforementioned ones, thanks to the rabbi Tzvi Freeman āon whose quote I will end this:
Speaking of which, I think I finally understood what exactly the bible means when it says āfor the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as theseā as it pertains to the aforementioned ones, thanks to the rabbi Tzvi Freeman āon whose quote I will end this:
āWhat is it that the child has to teach?
The child naively believes that everything should be fair
and everyone should be honest,
that only good should prevail,
that everybody should have what they want
and there should be no pain or sadness.
The child believes the world should be perfect and is outraged to discover it is not.
And the child is right.ā
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Yes, all this did become a Homeric epic, length-wise. Well, that is a you problem, *I* have OCD, *you* chose to read it, etc.
Hereās a fresco in Tresije monastery:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wiki_%C5%A0umadija_IX_Tresije_Monastery_252.jpg
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And now, I'm gonna be the bad guy, and go "nuance! context! *Everyone* is a piece of shit here etc
(Anonymous) 2025-02-20 11:12 pm (UTC)(link)I honestly donāt agree with most of your takes on this war (p.e I found the whole Eurovision thing insulting, hypocritical and ridiculous, and I thought that Kaja Kallas article you had recommended once was frankly, gross etc); but your heart is so obviously in the right place in regards to both this, and many, *many other* issues that I really canāt fault you for it.
Also, I could be wrong. (And I am (much) young(er), so it feels a bit weird to go up to everyone and go āah, you NAĆVE motherfuckersā). Iām not saying Iām sure on this, that I totally know what Iām saying, cause I *could* look into these things more and I havenāt. But many people have pointed out some serious reasons to not trust this narrative too, itās not just me being inherently incredibly suspicious and trusting nobody; so here goes.
Why I am against this whole uncritical lionization of Zelensky, and why I donāt think highly of him at all, let me count the ways (+ some general opinions):
1. He gave a speech in the Greek parliament where he said some *seriously* ahistorical things and brought along a neo-Nazi. And oh my God did you see what happened in the Canadian parliament that other time, (though ok, that was not his fault, he was not the one who invited Yaroslav Hunka, the literal, original Nazi there; but he praised him, didnāt say anything about it, and didnāt apologise afterwards).
2. Zelenskyās government has used the war to roll back labour rights, crack down on unions, ban political parties, and rights in general. Yeah, war is war, but.
3. His wife was doing photoshoots for Vogue a year and a half ago, how seriously can I take their personal struggle and sufferring. Yeah I know, no such thing as bad publicity, but come on, this is low, even for a world that has social media.
4. Also, the Ukrainian government has thrown its whole support behind two separate ethnic cleansings (Azerbaijan, Israel) while simultaneously bitching about how itās ādistractingā from their war.
5. That whole disgusting thing were they put military targets among civilians, even Amnesty International called them out on it.
6. The whole propaganda had reached ridiculous proportions back then too. āRussia wants to reform the Soviet Union/Russian Empire and take over all of Europe!!!ā is cartoonishly stupid. Ā¾ of Europe are part of NATO, which Russia has made clear they do not want to fight. And oh yeah, Israel was being its usual terrible self even back in 2022, but who cares about that right, they can still come to Eurovision! (Also, because I am pedantic, they are not even in Europe!) Speaking of which, I had found the whole Eurovision thing particularly ludicrous cause even if one believes that Ukraine is 1000% in the right, well itās not like its people are gonna say āgee, oh boy, our country is probably gonna be ruined for like a generation or two, everything is terrible, refugees and stuff and people are dying, but we got this pity-win, so. Worth it!!!!ā
7. (And wow, speaking of, do I hate being a literal prophet about this regarding Biden in the post above, cough Palestine cough).
8. I mean, that doesnāt mean that Russia is a saint here, Iām not saying that. But when thereās this huge propaganda effort from nations that *do* have something to gain from all this, you naturally put me off from the righteous cause, and make me not trust its righteousness, or that youāre doing everything you can to help and stop the war (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z6gWVmmK-g )
9. Btw, China of all people was trying to mediate for peace (which Zelensky himself was open to) and the US and EU did everything in their power to stifle peace talks and keep the war going. Please donāt give modern China the moral high ground, come on, I know, the bar is in Hell, but still, etc.
10. Look into what the people of the Donbass, Lunetck etc who consider themselves Russian have been going through for the last decade. (And though Iām not sure about it, Iāve heard many people in Crimea wanted to secede too). Donāt get me wrong, Iām not saying Putinās motives are altruistic in any way, shape, or form, fuck him and every Russian big politician of the last like 40 years. Iām just saying this attacker/pure, innocent victim dichotomy is not really as clear cut as it is presented.
11. There are indeed Nazis. Is that a reason to invade, or why Russia is doing it? No; Iām just saying that fact is not in question. One might say āmany militaries have Nazisā but that is not an argument; there is a *substantial* presence or a total lack of historical knowledge here if you have large bunches of people white-washing WW2 collaborators (Look up Stepan Bandera etc). And if you, as the government are not doing anything about them, and deny you have them in the first place and pretend you are complete saints, and are collaborating with and using said Nazis, these are the options, you can pick more than one:
a) you donāt mind Nazis, I donāt need to explain why that is a bad thing,
b) you are not as brave as you pretend to be,
c) you think theyāre harmless, which makes me question your intelligence and political savvy, and itās not the first time, so donāt do that,
d) you are someone who is willing to severely compromise their morals by declaring them the lesser evil and having them fight for you,
e) you hate using them but are unable to do anything about it because of their strength and numbers; in which case Russia has a point about the whole denazification thing.
Iām leaning towards C, he has been described as a āuseful idiotā, and god help me, I do want to believe his heart is in the right place for some reason, pfffff.
Re: And now, I'm gonna be the bad guy, and go "nuance! context! *Everyone* is a piece of shit here e
(Anonymous) 2025-02-20 11:40 pm (UTC)(link)13. I believe in a peopleās right of self-determination. So yes, Ukraine has the right to join NATO if it wants and Russia doesnāt get a say (Though, to quote a great tumblr, āsaying you have the right to join NATO is like saying you have the right to join the mafia. Yes, you do, but that isnāt an argumentā). Butā¦ *this* is the hill you literally wanna die on? As in, I donāt believe peace is an absolute good, always, under any terms. There *are* causes that are worth going to war over, there are certain demands you should not accept; see WW2, and like half the history of Greece, which is basically āhey, youāre a tiny country, appease us or we invadeā āāhow dare you, no deal, you will never take OUR FREEDOM!ā (Bravehearts alla over the place). But againā¦ this is the hill you wanna die on? Putin had said he would stop (Now of course, he will say, in for a penny, in for a pound, duh). Youāre willing to turn your country into a wasteland in a proxy-war, destroy its infrastructure for the foreseeable future, fan nationalism, have millions of people be displaced, and god knows how many killed, just to get to join NATO, because hey, when *they* do imperialism, itās good, letās have some military bases in our country, why not? (Ukraine, is a region of "vital strategic concern" to Russia, and as such Russia will be willing to pay almost any price to keep it out of NATO; sanctions will not deter it. Russia's strategy is that, if NATO will not accept the status quo ante and the existence of a neutral Ukraine, Russia will "wreck" the country, rendering it militarily and economically impotent and indefinitely trapped in internal conflict and instability, quoth John Mearsheimer). I mean, you do you. There *are* causes that are worth fighting for, and joining the bane of the Third World, the arm of the most dangerous imperial power that exists right now, that council of the scum of the earth that I promise, doesnāt give a single flying fuck about youā¦ is not one of them.
14. And I say this as Greek person; we worry about Turkey like all the time. And if I had the power, I would have us leave NATO tomorrow because a) fuck those murdering shitheads, donāt be part of imperialism kids, b) itās not like they actually do anything whenever Turkey threatens to invade, trespasses on our borders etc, and itās entirely possible they *still* wouldnāt in case of a full scale war either, and c) I believe *there are* other ways to be safe in this case; they may not be as easy, but still.
15. And oh yeah, surprise, surprise, The US Congressional delegation in Munich just offered Zelensky to sign a document on the transfer of 50% of Ukraine's future mineral resources, which he, credit where itās due, very reasonably refused, because what the fuck, and now Trump is blaming him for the war and calling him a dictator
(https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/02/17/revealed-trump-confidential-plan-ukraine-stranglehold/ ). Remember a couple years ago when every communist on tumblr was getting called a Putin-loving fascist for pointing out that this was very obviously going to happen, oh the unbearable weight of being right all the time
(Ok, no, *I* was not right about Rowling, wooooow, has the transphobia gone through the roof, Jesus Christ Superstar, thereās the benefit of the doubt, and then thereās 5 years of this; can discuss that at some other point, Iām sure sheāll do/say something else in two weeks, so no rush.)
16. And if anyone brings up Crimea as it pertains to everything discussed in the previous points, well, youāre not getting that back either. It sucks, I know, but if you could, you would have already. That ship has sailed since 2014, don't fight for that. And NATO doesnāt care if you do, because the point is to put you in a debt trap, turn the country into a permanent warzone and bleed Russia so a handful of US energy oligarchs can keep selling oil to the EU, and create the Red Scare 2.1 so they get the excuse to keep expanding and look good in comparison. Besides, know when to fold them, you could have just given up Crimea, now they want to annex even more.)
17. Also also, for anyone not convinced of the evil after Palestine, or that Russia has a point to not want a nuclear armed NATO member on its doorstep, look into NATO meddling in elections and basically facilitating regime change in Ukraine back in the 2010s, Euromaidan etc.
18. Now one might say āaaah, propaganda!ā What, everything? All of it? And what do you think is more likely to reach an average European, Russian propaganda, or EU/NATO propaganda?
19. And one might say aaah, Whataboutism! No, because I am not *for* the invasion (and shame to those parties who are, see CPRF etc). Iām just saying, itās not black and white, Putin didnāt just wake up one day and go āaah, time to do a Hitlerā, the US has been meddling in Ukraine since like 2011 and has rejected diplomatic solutions despite it being the only feasible way this war ends, a horrific conflict has been artificially prolonged, and I *hope* Zelensky is what they call a āuseful idiotā, because I wanna be generous with him. Look into Roger Waters, and the aforementioned John Mearsheimer, and others.
20. All this LITERALLY DOES NOT MATTER because as I said in the original post, modern Russia is not worth defending either, Iām too much of a communist to care about any imperialist state, and kids and innocent people are dying. At the end of the day wars are really waged over raw materials, mineral wealth, commodity transport routes, geopolitical pillars, and market shares. And the people of Ukraine will not benefit from those if the Russian government and corporations control them, and they will not benefit if *their* government and corporations control them either. So who cares? So, *everyone* get over yourselves and do a peace now.
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Did I have to write all this? Does it matter if Iām wrong, since I am the most average of Joes, especially at this point? Most importantly, do we have to agree on everything?
No, I just like it when we do.
(dies)
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Re: First of all
Re: First of all
(Anonymous) 2025-12-28 05:19 pm (UTC)(link)But hey, peace can't be a bad thing here, everybody get over yourselves and sit down and talk; that's what you're gonna do in the end anyway, and I'd rather people not die in the meantime for your security interests/imperial profits/market shares,(nor have World War III start for that matter).
Treasure your spoons, no worries.
Re: First of all
Hear hear! [insert Twelve's Zygon Inversion Speech]
And here's to all of us managing our spoons in 2026.