A l'entrada del temps clar

I have just found out that one of my favourite Ukrainian comedians was killed by russians.

And in the very same breath — five or so fandom people, my friends included, reposting and promoting a russian artist on Instagram.

Ukrainian artists die every day. It's not really a joke, it is true. Ukrainian lives are cut short every single day just because they're Ukrainian.

And for all I know, one day I might be amongst them. It's a scary thought, one that I usually don't voice and chase away from myself as much as I can. But it's true. One day I, a Ukrainian artist, as mid and inexperienced as I may be, with all my dreams and hopes and ambitions, might cease to exist for the sole reason of me being Ukrainian. Some of us already have.

And the world will move on. No, not just move on — it will continue promoting russian narratives, russian artists, it will watch and praise russian sports, movies and content about russia and russians.

Because it's not political, is it? Because people would rather find a thousand reasons to blame Ukrainians than one reason to boycott russian content. The reason being the genocide of Ukrainians and the collective responsibility over said genocide.

I can't help but think, if I died from a russian attack during the Easter vacation, all those people who smile at me, reblog my art, respond to my comments, would they stop to think that the russians are at fault? From the smallest artist to the politician to the member of the russian army — the people who have built and supported the society where genocide has become an acceptable thing?

I don't think so.

I think it would, like many Ukrainian deaths, exist in a hypothetical vacuum.

Oh, how sad. What a tragedy.

I won't quote this bullshit fully. Of course, they also assumed I understood russian, which I unfortunately do, but that's very telling. Instantly blocked, but I wanted to talk about something here, for those that aren't hopeless and are willing to listen.

What's also telling is the fact that they said "someone died". Not even the impersonal "someone got killed".

"Someone died."

Yeah, because Ukrainians dropping dead all of a sudden has become the norm and russia is definitely not murdering thousands of people in my country.

No, someone did not "die". Your shitty-ass country killed him and many other talented Ukrainians, because you don't believe we have a right to exist as our own, separate, sovereign nation.

Using the US crimes as justification does not make yours in any way justifiable.

There's only one thing I agree with in that comment. We should've done something about the russian culture long before the current russian genocide of Ukrainians.

Probably the moment it suddenly became "great". Because no culture is "great", in a sense of greater than the others, but russian is.

Here is just one example of what russians do to Ukrainian artists.

This Ukrainian artist on Instagram had their house destroyed by russians very recently. Fortunately, they've received support from many Ukrainians and their friends abroad. Unfortunately, many people in such situations don't.

russia has murdered, harmed and tortured so many Ukrainian artists, athletes, writers, teachers, doctors, scientists; it has destroyed Ukrainian printing houses, galleries, museums, churches, hospitals and fucking playing yards; they've stolen art from us, diminishing and ruining the lives of my people for generations. Tell me, why shouldn't we boycott russian culture in order to finally, finally hear the noises of the cultures they've been destroying for centuries?

uh

what the fuck

sexy parrot girls yeah ok

oh look the demon has little babies

YES, I (barely) WON!!!

Oh no, Turandot is unhappy with this result? Okay, new deal: guess my name by the time the sun rises and you’ll get a SECOND chance to kill me.

Well, it’s almost dawn and you haven’t guessed yet. Lol fine, I’ll TELL you my name with absolutely zero pressure. See? Now you WIN! Behead me, step on me, stab me, whatever! I am yours!”

Literally the last thing he says in the opera is "You have won!"

Against all odds, this union is going to be very enjoyable for both of them

As far as I can tell the reasons that this happens are:

The interpretation of disability accommodation as wokeness - a lot of the same people who are shitty about food limitations are also shitty about sign language interpreters and ramp requirements (also building regulations relating to the latter) because they view any accommodation as capitulation to a group they think should "suck it up and deal with it" (quietly exist without named or obvious accommodations). The conversations around peanut-free or milk-free classrooms to accommodate children with allergies are similarly unhinged and possibly more horrifying.

Conflating specialty diets as a result of proximity in the popular consciousness - you're a lot more likely to see something described as "vegan + gluten free" or to see vegan/vegetarian/g-free options grouped on menus than you are to see keto/vegan/gfree options so the "lefty" animal-free diets get grouped with gluten-free (it's also interesting that there are right-wing diets, and I wonder how many of these people remember when you used to be able to find "atkins-friendly" symbols on casual dining restaurant menus)

Gluten free diets became a fad fifteen years ago; tons of people read "Wheat Belly" and stopped eating wheat as a weight loss hack and when they went back to eating wheat because it's actually pretty difficult to get around a major staple grain they didn't experience any negative consequences; people saw this and basically think that it's a trend, that people are faking medically necessary diets as part of a fad. When questioned about this they always go "but, I mean, it's okay if you REALLY need to skip the wheat because you have a condition but most people are doing it because it's popular" when g-free diets haven't been a major trend for quite a while now. TO BE QUITE FAIR, I think that things like "Gluten Aware" cookies and beer and such, which contain a little gluten but not NO gluten contribute to this perception (these have annoyed me forever for two reasons: 1. They make people without celiac think that a little gluten is fine for people with celiac, which it is not; 2. fucking commit, companies. *I* want the cookies and beer and it's deeply annoying that these business will go to the lengths to create products with minimal gluten but won't actually make g-free foods - this is often because of the risk of cross contamination, they won't claim to make g-free things because they won't work with a dedicated g-free facility)

Anyway, in conclusion: it sucks, I'm sorry.

US specific:

Is your ham made with vinegar? Does your ham have the generic word "spices" on the ingredient list? Does your ham include "smoke flavoring"? Does your ham include caramel coloring?

Because malt vinegar has gluten in it. "Spices" may include wheat products in a mix. Smoke flavoring may be made with barley flour. Caramel coloring may be made with wheat or barley syrup.

If the label says "gluten free" that means that the "spices," caramel coloring, vinegar, and smoke flavor are certified to contain 20ppm or less of gluten.

If the ham is cured in any way, it may include gluten. If the ham was marinated, it probably includes gluten. If the ham was prepared in a facility that processes wheat in any way, it might be cross contaminated with gluten.

There's a company out there called "Gluten Free Water" that makes water in plastic bottles, poking fun at the idea that too many things have a gluten free label. I fucking hate that company. Because that company is functionally saying "lol, people are so sensitive and over the top about this, let's be a little silly and laugh about how crazy people can be with their 'gluten free' nonsense."

Did you know that there are sustainable food containers and straws that contain wheat? And that you don't have to label them? There are definitely people with celiac who have been sickened by biodegradable plastic straws in their "obviously water is gluten free there's no risk here" water.

"It's over-labeled so it looks trendy" just means you don't know how foods are made or what foods contain gluten. Gluten is ridiculously common in foods in general, and also in packaged meats.

Your ham has to say gluten free because it distinguishes it from the hams that do contain gluten, which is a fucking lot of them. And you're annoyed that your ham has to say gluten free and I'm annoyed that I'm standing in the grocery store calling a ham company to figure out where they source their caramel coloring so I can figure out if the damned ham is safe to eat.

"lol, oats don't have wheat in them, are people so stupid that they have to be told what is and isn't wheat? why does this oatmeal have a gluten free label?" Cross contamination; gluten free oats are not grown near wheat and are not processed in facilities that process wheat.

"lol, rice doesn't have wheat in it, why is this rice labeled gluten free, all rice is gluten free" Cross contamination; the rice isn't processed on equipment that processes wheat.

"lol why does this turkey breast say gluten free, it's just fucking turkey" read the ingredients on your "just" turkey, lots of packaged meat is packed in broth, some of which contains modified food starch, which may contain wheat.

"lol why are these strawberries labeled gluten free? they're fucking strawberries" WAX, BUDDY. SOME FRUITS ARE COATED IN PRESERVATIVE WAX FILMS BY THE MANUFACTURER AND SOME OF THOSE FUCKING FILMS CONTAIN GLUTEN.

I think that part of the reason that people are so irritated by g-free labels is because it exposes them to just how vast and alienating their food systems are.

"Ham should just be meat from a pig, maybe with sugar and salt; what on earth is happening that there might be wheat in that process? Nothing in that process should involve wheat." And then you might have to think about it for a second, might have to wonder what "sugar" and "salt" mean when someone is producing a million hams to be delivered thousands of miles away. It's not just sugar and salt; it's preservatives and nitrates and batch cooking and getting corn syrup instead of sugar and getting smoke flavoring instead of smoking the ham and turning your "whole food" into all the ingredients that make up the ingredients that make up the ingredients.

A "gluten free" label says "you can eat this" to somebody with celiac disease, who has already pounded their skull against the shittiness of the medical system and the food system.

But to someone who doesn't have to worry that their food is going to disable them, a "gluten free" sticker on ham takes a known quantity and turns their sandwich into a hyperobject that contains animal agriculture and industrial additive production and shipping pollution and the ongoing assault on regulation.

If it doesn't have the label, you can just eat your lunch. If it does have the label, you are haunted by the specter of RFK junior imploding the FDA.

I can tell when companies are cost cutting because they start using corn sugar or maize starch as a bulking sweetener and it makes me incredibly fucking ill. Are they kind enough to put a "new recipe" label on it? Sometimes! Only fucking sometimes. A bunch of times I discover it when my stomach is trying to exist my body in aggressive, stabby maneuvers. It sucks.

And people will literally laugh at it and pretend it's no problem that they don't know why every yoghurt in the shop has cornflour in it rather than real fruit. Or their meat is all preserved with corn to make it look good for longer.

People have no idea what is in their food unless they have to have.

She literally clocked the change in the label — it wasn't marked as changed, she just noticed that the "gf" label was gone — and that was enough for her to flip the jar over and check.

I gotta say that the most infuriating recipe change I've had to deal with was when a company started using "barley syrup" instead of their previous HFCS, which is how I suddenly started sweating and whimpering from drinking frozen lemonade.

"Lemonade is always gluten-free, it's stupid for them to label that shit!"

lmao ok bud

Wheat is commonly used in adhesives, it would not be at all surprising for an eyepatch to contain wheat depending on how the fabric has adhered to the form.

oh the sighing and the suing

when a jester goes a-wooing

This is a true masterclass in historical gaslighting

Oh, ruzzia preserved cultures all right...

Only by aggressively trying to pave national cultures with a monolithic ruzzian identity.

Language Replacement: They loved native languages so much they outright banned them. Under the Russian Empire, decrees like the Valuev Circular (1863) and the Ems Ukaz (1876) literally banned the publication of books, religious texts, and even sheet music in the Ukrainian language. During the Soviet era, ruzzian was strictly enforced as the language of success, administration, and "brotherhood." If you wanted a career, you abandoned your mother tongue.

The Surname Makeover: To help non-ruzzians feel more "included" in the empire, authorities frequently altered indigenous surnames. Across Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Siberia, traditional names were forcefully modified to include Russian suffixes like -ov, -ev, and -in. It was administrative erasure disguised as clerical standardization.

"Nurturing" the Cultural Elites

You claimed the empire developed these nations. Indeed, they developed a highly efficient system for murdering anyone who remembered they were a distinct nation.

The Executed Renaissance: In the 1930s, Stalin's regime systematically arrested, deported, and executed a whole generation of Ukrainian writers, artists, and intellectuals because their vibrant cultural revival threatened moscow's control.

Katyn and Beyond: When the Soviets invaded Poland in 1939, they didn't develop the Polish intelligentsia; they took over 20,000 Polish officers and intellectuals into the forest of Katyn and shot them in the back of the head. Similar purges decimated the intellectual elites of the Baltic states, Belarus, and the Tatar populations. If you were a local leader, a poet, or a thinker who didn't enthusiastically bow to moscow, you were given a one-way ticket to a Gulag or a mass grave.

They Are "Still Doing It"

And that this isn't just history, it is current geopolitical policy.

In the occupied territories of Ukraine today, the ruzzian state is systematically burning Ukrainian history books, forcing schools to switch entirely to the ruzzian curriculum, and dismantling monuments of local cultural figures.

They are actively deporting thousands of Ukrainian children to ruzziia to be "re-educated" and given ruzzian passports—a textbook tactic of cultural genocide meant to sever the next generation from their heritage.