Comments by "1midnightfish" (@1midnightfish) on "Interviews from Ukraine"
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Thank you for this video, it's good to hear everyone's point of view but the people I'm most impressed by are the ones who differentiate between phases of the war. I too believe that active, large-scale hostilities could realistically be over by the end of this year - meaning that reconstruction could begin, and at least some displaced people could go back home. But this war has, in many forms, been going on for years / decades / centuries (one of many reasons why I get so angry at those people who make it all about NATO), and it will take a long time to resolve all that. Also, russia will not sort itself out overnight, if ever: the country's heading into various civil conflicts, and since it has nuclear weapons what happens there, like what happens in the US, is everybody's problem. The person whose answer struck me the most is the woman who says "When every Ukrainian wipes out the russian in him." Internalised oppression is truly the hardest thing to eradicate. ❤🖤
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Thank you for this video, it's important to have public conversations about difficult topics. I think a similar video shot in the UK some time before the legalisation of same-sex civil partnerships would have yielded a similar sample: younger people overall more positive than the middle-aged and older - with the odd surprise with an older person who gets it - women much less likely to feel threatened by it than men.
There's someone who worries the children will suffer while completely oblivious to the fact that many children of LGBT parents are othered by society, and that's what hurts them, and there are a few people who are grudgingly "OK" with it as long as "it's not in their faces" - I would have liked those people to be asked follow-up questions (I always wonder what people mean by that, and to have any open manifestation of a sexual orientation or gender identity differing from the norm labelled as "propaganda" makes me nervous) but overall I think the neutral interviewing style really worked. As usual in these interviews, no one seemed afraid to express their opinion.
It does upset me a bit that social acceptance has to be tied to the EU and "moving West" rather than simply progress, the recognition and acceptance of human rights for all. Italy, for example, is still a deeply homophobic country (as well as corrupt, but that's another story), as is Poland, where, incidentally, women of any sexual orientation still have fewer rights than other European women. But I've been watching relevant content dating back to several years before the Revolution of Dignity, and Ukraine is definitely moving on.
Права людина понад усе! 💙💛
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@nebitno6955 Fair point - putin's trolls bring this up a lot but you don't seem to be a troll, I don't think you're using this argument to undermine support for Ukraine. Hence the tone and content of my reply.
When NATO attacks other countries it is not automatically alright, many of us who support Ukraine are not unquestioning fans of NATO and did lose A LOT of sleep over the bombing of Afghanistan and Iraq (I lost my voice too, on a number of occasions, yelling at demonstrations, not that it did much good). Nor do we support the policy of our countries (I'm not American myself) in relation to the occupation of Palestine, for example.
It's not about some people's lives mattering more than others. It's about "never again" (though to me that feels more like "NOT AGAIN...!" these days). The global support for Ukraine is objectively greater than for some of the other countries you mentioned but not because our media is "telling us to support Ukraine": there is simply more information out there, and Ukrainians, who have been living with an incubated version of this horror for years now, have had the time and means to develop their information front in a way that perhaps other countries had not.
Besides, this situation is much more straightforward than some of the others you mentioned: the Ukrainian government is aligned with the vast majority of the people it governs and is not a dictatorship, they have been invaded by a colonial power that refuses to recognise their independence and sovereignty, and this war is an undeniable attempt at genocide - unlike the NATO campaigns against Afhanistan and Iraq, shameful and horrifying as they were. So it's easier for people to be sure who to support even if they're on the outside and not very familiar with the cultures and history in question.
When I watch russian prisoner interviews on Lviv.Media and hear one of those guys say "This 'brotherly war' must be stopped" it makes me so angry... and not only because it's a way of treating Ukrainians as if they were basically russians: all wars are brotherly wars, we all suffer and bleed and grieve the same. That's also how I feel when I hear russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine described by western media as an "illegal war": a phrase I refuse to repeat, as I believe it is only used to protect the imaginary moral high ground over the wars in the Middle East.
Millions if not billions of people support Ukraine, there are bound to be very different viewpoints (some people on YT have passionately objected when I've made similar points in other comments). But I know I'm far from the only person who thinks and feels this way. Happy to continue the conversation if done respectfully.
Glory to Ukraine, death to all dictators! 🖤❤
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@nebitno6955 Thank you for a thoughtful reply, rare in these threads 🙂 I could tell from your original post you've had some really bad experiences, I am sorry about that. I disagree with a lot of what you wrote but that's OK, there are many different viewpoints on this situation.
I make a conscious effort to see this war from a Ukrainian viewpoint, and that shows me countries (and entities like NATO and the EU) that have a bunch of different reasons for wanting to oppose russia, as well as the means to do it. And russia is trying to obliterate Ukraine as a nation, they have tried before, they have made it really clear, there is no question about it. So Ukraine is naturally trying to activate as much motivation as possible from all the countries and entities that make up what we have taken to calling 'the West'. It's self-preservation.
Also, please look up the definition of genocide... russia is doing all those things in Ukraine right now, intentionally, deliberately. We all need to stop being coy about it. putin wants as few Ukrainians as possible on that territory, he wants the language, the culture, the nation gone. Some people have trouble seeing this - some people I know personally, even, mostly from the old protest movements - and I think it's because it interferes with the proxy war narrative they are committed to.
If this were primarily a proxy war, for all the reasons you describe, it would have started back in 2014 - the conditions were perfect for it then. But no, all these governments carried on doing business with putin, our politicians were seduced by the obscene wealth and power of these disgusting guys, and it was so much easier to decide that Ukrainians must brought it upon themselves or whatever.
I hope that most if not all of Ukraine's war debt will be repaid by russia, or what's left of it by the end of the war (I don't have an opinion on whether the rf should break up or not, but putin is doing a really good job of destroying his country). I really dislike to see western companies big and small salivate at the prospect of lucrative contracts - I got into a big YT comments fight about it only yesterday - but at least this time it's not their own governments reducing the country to rubble in the first place so they can make money rebuilding, as happened with the wars in the Middle East 😡
One more thing before I go: I really don't think Zelensky is a warmonger. I don't worship him at all - I try not to worship anyone and certainly not politicians - but he is the elected leader of a country under attack, and he is literally 'sticking to his guns' and doing everything he can to make sure that Ukraine gets out of this situation in one piece with a lasting prospect of peace, freedom and independence. Ukraine literally cannot lose this war: it can either win, or stop existing.
Take care mate, I wish you the best ☺
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@jgreen2015 Actually the Italian language has three single words for different shades of blue: 'blu' is a catch-all for a darker blue, 'azzurro' as you have described (a word much more commonly used than 'azure' in English), and 'celeste' for a paler shade, 'baby-blue' I suppose, also works when the sky is not so bright but still clear. My English is more fluent than my Italian and is definitely my dominant language, but whenever I hear people say 'sky-blue' part of my brain is always confused about which 'blue' they mean: azzurro? Celeste? Speaking of which, like everyone else I've seen lots of Ukraine flags over the past year, some new, some old and weathered, on my screen, irl... and the shade of blue seems to vary. Sometimes 'blu', other times 'azzurro' or even 'celeste': I haven't come across this variation with other national flags, I'm intrigued.
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@jgreen2015 Yes, I would say 'celeste' has a pastel quality, like one of those baby blankets 'for boys', or a clear sky at the end of the day, when it's still light but the brightness of the 'azzurro' has faded. I translate Italian into English, and translating colour can be tricky, so one thing I tend to do when not sure how to render something like this is an internet search of the word: if you want to see the difference between the hues defined by those three Italian words, just type them into a search engine, one at a time, and compare what comes up (I've just done that, adding the word 'colore' to narrow it down to colour-related results) ☺
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@gregtriplex5878 The mental gymnastics involved in writing this convoluted, ridiculous comment is the only impressive thing about it. Other than that, it's absolute drivel from start to finish.
Ukraine was colonised by the soviet union, just as it (and many other territories) had been colonised by the muscovite empire before it. Ukraine has always had its own distinct culture, history and LANGUAGE, that the muscovites in their various incarnations have tried again and again to suppress. These are basic historical facts.
"Divide and rule" is indeed a powerful weapon that's been employed by empires throughout history, all over the world, and it's exactly what putin has been trying to do to Ukraine since 2014. And considering how good he and his gang are at psyops, it is testament to the underlying strength of Ukrainian identity that they have not yet succeeded.
Finally, if the russian federation is, as you say, not "sovyet", why did it automatically inherit the soviet union's seat in the UN Security Council? putin himself has said repeatedly that he sees the end of the soviet union as the greatest tragedy of the 20th century, and is undeniably trying to bring back some sort of monstrous hybrid of the soviet union and muscovite empire. One of the ways he has got to this point has been to reinvent history to suit his rhetoric, and in that, he's been getting help from people like yourself.
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@devansa125 The funny thing is that nobody needs you to tell them that some Ukrainian soldiers often communicate in russian - we know . I've seen some battlefields videos, and also follow a number a number of military bloggers who do sometimes talk about language - some have Ukrainian as a first language, some russian, some habitually speak surzhyk, and switch from one to the other as the situation requires. In a crisis it makes sense to use one's easiest language, and which language that is depends on the person at that particular moment (for me, for example, my easiest language is my second, not my first).
You don't actually deserve this much typing - I'm writing this for anyone else who may come across this thread at some point. And in that spirit, I'll mention a language-related fact that happened in Ukraine a month or so ago: a well-know university lecturer, blogger and TV personality (Iryna Farion) lost her job after stating in an interview that any Ukrainian who still speaks russian, she does not consider to be Ukrainian; she singled out russian speakers in the armed forces. And while she did get some public support, overall Ukrainians didn't like that at all, and nor did the authorities and her employer. So much for the persecution of russian speakers in Ukraine.
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@devansa125 What rubbish. It is obvious to anyone paying even passing attention that there is no civil war in Ukraine, not even the one that putin & co have been trying to fuel for years. And no russian-speaking person is or ever will be a second class citizen of Ukraine, as long as they follow the law and use Ukrainian when required, i.e. when providing a service to others. Which they will be able to do, because most Ukrainians are bilingual. I myself have a russophone Ukrainian relative, who is really happy to see Ukrainian gaining more and more traction in the country.
The current aversion to the russian language in the wider population is completely understandable, considering it's the language of the attempted genocide. Reintegration of the occupied territories will be a challenge, but there are already people working on how to do this in whatever way is best for the country and the population.
No one - NO ONE - will miss the occupiers once they're gone. The collaborators will just follow them when they go, unless SBU gets to them first. It will take a while, but Ukraine will emerge from this latest attempt to destroy it, and transition into the bright future it is now fighting so hard for.
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@rgbforever4561 Again: I brought up 1420 because of the initial statement I was replying to, which was "If democracy was only 50/50 you would not have the courage to conduct these interviews" (it is at the top of the thread, but at this point I despair of people's ability to scroll up and down and read through comments before replying).
I used 1420 to show that some people do have the courage to conduct street interviews in a place like russia, where the balance of democracy - to borrow the language of many of these Ukrainian interviewees and picked up by the original commenter - must be hovering close to 0%. Basically, whether street interviews are conducted in any one country shouldn't be used as a measure of how democratic that country is. How people respond may be a more reliable indicator, but still anectodal.
I love 1420, as I do this channel, and I do draw inferences from these interviews, but I try to keep in mind that I can only trust those inferences to a point. When 1420 interviewed people in the streets of Minsk, the tone and content of many of those interviews was strikingly different, but still ... Belarus...
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@iamoo Having experienced two languages switching place in my brain, I'm very interested in that process (I wonder if anyone has written anything about it but not having a name for it, it's hard to do a proper search). Ukrainian bilingualism seems to me even more interesting, because there are so many elements to it.
I understand your wish that russian were simply not a part of your heritage, but I think growing up with more than one language is always a potential advantage, because it creates space and specific tools in the brain that can then be devoted to other languages. Being fluent in both a syllable-timed and a stress-timed language, as you and I both are, is a particular advantage in further language learning.
I'm not interested in learning to speak russian but I've realised that if I want to one day be able to translate expressive text from Ukrainian, I'll need to have some understanding of it, and also of surzhyk. For now I just want to concentrate on Ukrainian, then once I've reached a decent intermediate stage I'll see how much russian I have.
I must admit I also quite like the idea of picking up a colonial language through the prism of the colonised language it's been attempting to wipe out for centuries... when I thought about it I realised how rare a situation this is, since most empires (British, French, Spanish, Portuguese, even Italian and German to a lesser extent) have been maritime empires, meaning that the colonised languages were very far from the European language that was imposed on them.
So sorry, I'm going on and on... I keep getting interrupted by other things and when I come back to this comment I write some more!! It's just really nice to correspond with you.
About switching to Ukrainian, I recently came across this YT video: ЯК ЛЕГКО ПЕРЕЙТИ НА УКРАЇНСЬКУ? Історії і поради тих, хто зміг which I haven't been able to watch yet because... it's not subtitled, and my Ukrainian just isn't there yet. Have you watched it? Or taken part in it? And have you read anything by Володимир Рафєєнко? I haven't yet but really want to - I heard Timothy Snyder talk about this author's decision to completely switch to Ukrainian (which had never been his writing language) during one of his Yale lectures last year: apparently when the author spoke at Yale he said "Не володієш мовою, мова володіє тобою" and those words took my breath away. That's exactly what English did to me when I was a child, and what Ukrainian is doing to me now.
YT comments section conversations can end at any moment, so if this is our last exchange I want to thank you again for taking the time to communicate with me. I'll always think of you when I come across those words you taught me 😊 I wish you and your country the very best. I can just begin to imagine how hard it must be right now but never forget that countless millions all over the world are with you - we won't forget, we won't get bored, we are with you all the way. 💙💛
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@qwazse4 Arabic is indeed an imperialist language, no one has at any point in this thread claimed that English is the only one in existence. And English does spread by way of arts and culture, but in reality it is anglophone arts and culture that spread on the back of the imperialist English language - often, historically, at the expense of the cultural output of other nations and languages. Which is, incidentallly, what has been done to the Ukrainian language and cultural output over the centuries, through the russophone cultural output of "the temporary misunderstanding currently known as the russian federation" (to quote Sternenko, a prominent ukrainian blogger).
It will never bee too late to decolonise anglophone literature and arts, but more importantly, an automatically defensive stance about the imperialist function of the English language is holding many of us back from dissecting and neutralising the role of russian language and culture in enabling, promoting and to an extent foreshadowing the horrors currently being perpetrated by russia in Ukraine, with the overwhelmingly negative effects on the rest of the world.
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