JANXXT

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.

hullo hullo o/ thank you for a very relatable ask

unfortunately, i don't have some "one fit all" solution for this, but there are some methods, each a bit more time consuming than the last

Check their blog. See "ru" in there? Become sus. If it's stated first, i just block and move on to not waste my time. if it's stated later on - up to you; i'd block still, but if you have time/nerves/energy you can dig deeper and see if it's just a language someone knows or ruzzian who doesn't want to be called out

Example:

2. Check if there are links to other soc.med or other things. Most of the time, you'll either see places somewhere: x, bluesky, insta, wherever. Youtube is a good test if they have it, you can check the country there. If it's not stated, become sus and check the oldest videos. See/hear ru? Block.

Example:

Translation from ru:

3. Speaking of links you may see. See boosty? Block. It's ru parteon, in essense.

4. Same for vk aka vkontakte. Ru attempt of facebook, afaik. Block.

5. Same for yandex email. Block and move on.

6. Another more niche thing is ficbook. Aka "ru try to steal ao3 as well". Block and move on.

7. Check if there are things in pinned posts. Maybe they mention where they are from (people are insane like that nowadays because internet security knowledge is shit), and it can be useful. See a geographic name, check where it is. Ru? Block and move on

8. This one requires some time (and why i usually am so hesitant to like any new artists without checking and cross checking them...) but you can also check their art. Especially older art. They might have ru text in the art itself that you can spot and use to identify them, altho I understand that reading cursive can be challenging

Example:

This one is easier for me, as I know the language, but if you are relying only on google translate, check a few times as it loves lumping other languages into ru for some reason. ы, э (not є) and ё can be telling, tho - but again, they are used in other languages too, and it's better to double check if you're not sure.

9. If you see a combination of "Z" *and* russian language, congratulatons, you found a genocide supporter as Z is how ru soldiers mark themselves. Consider it nazi's swastika if you will, they're the same.

10. This one is more of an observation than a rule, but if you see someone who is a fan of Pathologic (or "Мор. Утопия" in ru) become suspicious. In my experience, 7 times out of 10, they do turn out to be ru. But this is more of a personal experience

Addendum to points 3-6: duckduckgo/google/search by other method of your preference their nickname. People usually reuse those, and you can see same people in vk or on boosty. If you're afraid of unrightfully blocking someone with the same nickname, you can try opening those and check if the same art/pfp/posts are there. I usually just block. But maybe you'll have more energy than me.

The artworks often lack bright colors and tend toward a darker palette. The coloring style frequently resembles painterly strokes. In some cases, there can also be many sharp angles, especially if it’s a sketch. Bright, strong highlights are relatively rare.

There is often a depressive tone, with a tendency to romanticize abuse and toxic relationships (everyone has their own preferences when it comes to shipping and character dynamics, but Russians often add heavier elements even where there isn’t much angst to begin with; there is even a general term for this tendency in their culture—chernukha, etc.). Overall, there is more despair than optimism or resilience, or a desire to overcome something.

There is little to no presence of non-white characters. At most, you might see ethnic minority groups within Russia itself depicted in national costumes; rarely Kazakhs as well (Kazakhstan also has a sad, complicated history with Russia, but is often seen as a “friendly” country toward Russia by Russians), though this is usually also tied to cultural elements. Outside of that, it is rare to see non-white characters portrayed as ordinary people. I would also add that characters who do not fit Eurocentric beauty standards are quite rare too.

Frequent use of the term “slavic”. Many other nations and cultures, which are already tired of fighting for proper representation, tend to specify who they are exactly and where they are from. It also comes from an unspoken pattern: anything labeled under the broad term “slavic” can later easily be absorbed as part of “russian culture,” as this has historically been one of the imperial practices of appropriating other cultures. Additionally, many people still perceive Russia as the primary or “default” representative of slavic identity, so the term often automatically brings Russia to mind. A similar issue exists with language: people often see cyrillic and assume it is Russian.

In addition to the word "Slavic" I have also seen them use "Eastern European" and even "Baltic" in very broad terms without mentioning a specific country. In my experience, that's a warning sign.

female dave ⋆

i really hope she looks like him, at least for me

I REALLY love how this turned out, definitely one of my top 3 Dave procreate drawings‼️

⋆˚꩜｡⋆.