Nah, son.

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.

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?

romani people are not white. we’re south asian (from northern india), and each subgroup has a unique racial makeup of asian/white/etc, in different amounts. this is also why we vary wildly in physical appearance/skintone

we still face oppression. what we face, especially in europe, can still be constituted as attempted genocide, as we’re forced to live in hazardous conditions or to give away our children, be sterilized, etc just for the crime of being roma

the ‘g slur’ isn’t just an american issue. the reason some european roma prefer the slur is because, in many countries, there is no term for roma that isn’t a slur, and it’s either the g slur or the literal translation of the n word. i’m romanian, and if you used the slur in my hometown, you’d get slapped, since we just use ‘roma’.

we live in every continent across the world. some of the largest romani populations exist in south america, predominantly in brazil. they are no more and no less roma than their european counterparts, and they, like romani in asia, africa, etc all face unique challenges and oppression.

It’s not just them. It is them, but it’s not just them. Gorja want every excuse to forget us and our pain. Please show them the numbers, because we can’t show them their names. Remember them, the 2,897, but don’t ever let the 200,000-500,000 estimated people who were also murdered be forgotten.

Today marks the 78th anniversary of the liquidation of the Zigeunerlager (Gypsy Camp) at Auschwitz. A day when 2,897 Roma and Sinti men, women and children were murdered in the gas chambers of the Auschwitz extermination camp.

It is also a day when we remember the hundreds of thousands of Roma who were murdered or died of starvation or disease in other concentration camps across Europe. Many more were imprisoned, used as forced labour or subject to forced sterilisation and medical experimentation.

…

The murder of the Roma is often described as Nazi Germany’s “forgotten” genocide, that is why it is important that we acknowledge that as many as half the Roma population of Europe was erased from existence.

(Bolded emphasis mine)

tw: mentions of rape

I have not seen the musical yet, but

The Tammy Faye marketing talks on about how Tammy Faye was about love and how she was the first evangelist to feature an HIV-positive gay minister on tv and so she's a gay icon.

Jay Bakker has said he wants audiences to see this show and realize his parents were humans trying their best and used as scapegoats for the conservatives. The conservative is the next big character they've advertised. He's the villain, and rightfully so, but Jim isn't so clean either.

They did cast the woman who accuses Jim of rape, hopefully not just for her involvement in the church. I don't see how they can get around Jim going to jail for all the money fraud they built their empire on. He's there for 5 out of a 45-year sentence. Jay was a big deal in getting his dad out of prison.

That's where I had read up to until an interview dropped of the cast talking about their characters and Chrisitan really dislikes Jim, especially current Jim.

Jim came out of prison as a right-wing conspiracy theorist. He's been on these things since before I'm aware of them becoming mainstream, and he's only gotten worse as time went on.

I get why they wanted to tell Tammy Faye, but maybe Jim could have been left at home. I really hope he's not told as sympathetic as Jay seems to want him to be.

This clip of Christian talking about Jim was recorded on October 2nd. I've twice posted the clip of Chrisitan during Falsettos getting angry about the election, and now I'm wondering if he's going to snap during this show.

Day 125 — Smash <3