9 ms·
Appeal to Ruby Community from Kharkiv Rubyist
- resettarget 5y agoOnly log in to say I'm with you. I see a noble and brave man who put actions. The donation page on kse.ua, gave me an error 'Donations to this recipient aren't supported in this country'. Yes, I'm a native Chinese raised and living in China mainland. I want to do something for Ukrainian. Sigh... I know, I know some of you are aware of what's happening on Chinese Internet (what a weird and sad word) and there're people there who are advocating for Putin and cheering the invasion while ridiculing Ukrainian. Please don't think they're all of us Chinese. I believe you (HNers) are reasonable enough to know what's happening on Twitter/FB couldn't represent all of you, same for what's happening on Chinese apps/web. Days ago there's a HN submission [0] The new silent majority: People who don't tweet. I guess similar thing is here in China, those who are decent, gentle and nice enough, do not speak out... Heck, actually no not that hopeless, at least in my social circle and the media I keep track of, still plenty of people are sane enough to know, an invasion by no means has any ground and should be condemned undoubtedly. [0] https://www.axios.com/political-polarization-twitter-cable-news-ac9699c6-260d-4141-b511-5c7193566ea1.html https://www.axios.com/political-polarization-twitter-cable-n...
- resettarget 5y agomeant to reply romwell. go strong and be safe.
- mayakovsky_101 5y agoI'd simply like to point out that Western media has been deliberately obfuscating many aspects of this conflict. a few salient examples: the 8+ year war in eastern Ukraine (14k dead, 30k wounded, 500k displaced) the damming of Crimea's fresh water supply from the Dnieper (recently destroyed) the violent seizure of state power by neo-nazis following maidan the reincorporation of WW2 mass murderers into the national identity (postage stamps, statues, school books, parades) I can only lament that in an increasingly interconnected modern world, wealthy globalists and oil barons can wield tech to collectively brainwash entire populations in their own living rooms: That sending weapons and mercenaries to foreign countries is noble and righteous. Strange how interfering in a nation's sovereignty and self-determination has become a hallmark of 'democratic' nations. Apparently, we have forgotten the last 50+ years of conflicts. I expect to be flagged.
- neon_electro 5y agoAvailable on the Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20220303210549/https://zverok.space/blog/2022-03-03-WAR.html https://web.archive.org/web/20220303210549/https://zverok.sp...
- VictorPath 5y ago
- cr__ 5y agoHuh?
- AutumnCurtain 5y agoThe user in question spends an awful lot of time arguing that the West/Ukraine/NATO/insert current scapegoat of Russian propaganda is the reason why dear sweet Russia just had no choice but to invade.
- stavros 5y agoHe's saying the invasion is Ukraine's fault for trying to not get invaded. It's the international politics version of "look what you've done, you made me hit you".
- starkd 5y agoNo that's not what he's saying. They were led with the promise of NATO/EU membership with no intention to back it up. https://mate.substack.com/p/by-using-ukraine-to-fight-russia?s=r https://mate.substack.com/p/by-using-ukraine-to-fight-russia...
- astrange 5y agoAaron Maté's journalism consists of reposting things Konstantin Kilimnik told him which is why he's spent the last few years claiming every political story mentioning Russia is fake, they've never hacked the US, etc. If Russia didn't want Ukraine to turn towards the EU, they shouldn't have annexed the parts of Ukraine containing all the citizens who didn't want to do it.
- ModernMech 5y ago> Konstantin Kilimnik Would this be the very same Konstantin Kilimnik who was the Russian Intelligence Officer found by the Special Counsel, US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and the US Treasury to have worked with Paul Manafort and the Donald Trump campaign during the 2016 election? Gee, I wonder why Aaron Maté would want to minimize Russia's moral culpability here. Snark aside, I think one of the easier things we can stop doing here in America is stop sharing Russian disinformation from not disinterested bloggers, who have proven themselves to be very very wrong about the nature of Vladimir Putin and the allure of autocracy in general. This whole "Democracy and freedom are incompatible" idea circling techno bubbles needs to end asap.
- jpgvm 5y agoStay strong mate.
- miketery 5y ago
- geoka9 5y agoThere are plenty of Russians on Youtube commenting under pleas posted by Ukrainians asking them to help stop the war. And there are plenty of videos taken by people on the ground in Ukraine that show what's going on. Lots of Russians actually believe that the strikes are precision and only aimed at the military targets. There's a video recorded by a woman in Mykolaiv walking among the rubble and cursing at her Russian relatives for not believing her while her city is literally under shelling. But due to the way Youtube works, the Russian users are not very likely to come across those videos. Ukrainian Youtube users are trying to interact with them by replying with links to the videos. If somebody from Youtube is reading this, I understand that you need to curb spammers who post a lot. But if you could somehow help with this effort, it might actually help change the public opinion in Russia. Maybe figure out a way to let the Ukrainians interact with the Russian commenters without getting shadowbanned?
- ukie 5y ago
- trhway 5y ago>Lots of Russians actually believe that the strikes are precision (Speaking as a Russian who was in similar situation back in 198x in USSR) Russians have lost all mental critical thinking capacity when it comes to government propaganda, and the propaganda makers know and use it. For example about precision strikes - the official Russian TV made a glorifying report https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrekdY2FgD0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrekdY2FgD0 on such a strike carried out by a plane loaded only with unguided bombs (FAB-250, 500lbs) calling them "missiles of point-precision" and showing a video of supposed launch of a ground attack missile from that plane. That despite majority of the men in Russia being pretty familiar with weaponry/etc. and able to see the lie if they wanted to, yet they don't. Government can tell these days anything and Russian population just goes with it.
- romwell 5y agoThat's the outcome of the war on truth. Two decades of TV saying one thing today, and the opposite thing the other day, while the internet offers a thousand mutually incompatible (and often, self-contradicting) accounts for any event worth talking about have annihilated people's ability to believe that truth exists. To them, everyone lies, everything is a lie. Putin, in comparison, is therefore honest - because he doesn't pretend he's not lying! Only fools believe. The smart people know that everyone lies. The game is to stick with the better lie. And what lie can be better than the one that makes you feel good and makes "the other side" furious? A grain of truth, a barrel of bullshit, and a complete detachment from reality - and you have the lie du jour. Putin isn't convincing people to believe in what he says. He just offers them better lies.
- sergiotapia 5y agoThe entire western world basically sanctioned the hell out of Russia. Let's see how long that bloodlusted animal lasts.
- sydthrowaway 5y agoWon't work because he's making $1bn/day from energy supply.
- metadat 5y agoNot for long, everyone is getting off the teet of .ru oil.
- astrange 5y agoGas is the harder one to move off for both sides, since Germany needs it for heating and it'll take a while for them to move to selling it to China (which will turn them into China's economic colony). Not sure which one they officially make more from selling though.
- trog 5y agoBeen wondering how the gas situation may change as Europe moves into summer though...? Presumably demand tapers off pretty quickly.
- tguvot 5y agothey already sell it to china but for lower price
- RF_Savage 5y ago60% of exports are to Europe and the pipelines feeding Europe are not connected to the one's used to transport gas to China. So a switch just cannot be flipped. It's a major infrastructure project.
- romwell 5y agoUkrainian Xoogler from Odessa living in the Bay Area checking in. I stand with Ukraine. We are with you. Wrote this song a week before the war started: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdU21AoP https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdU21AoP Now it's time for me to live by these words. Last week, I went to Poland to help my 68 year old mother in law evacuate from Kyiv and cross over the Atlantic to safety. She saw the airport burn from her window. You can read her story here [1]. Today, I'm renewing my Ukrainian passport. Hackernews, I know not everyone here will be comfortable sending money for weapons. But you can donate to direct humanitarian relief efforts here: https://kse.ua/support/donation/ https://kse.ua/support/donation/ The person that helped organize this left his university position in the US to go back to Kyiv days before the war started. He's there now. The war is not abstract to him. To help the army with military supplies (first aid kits, bulletproof vests, etc) — but not weapons — donate here: https://www.comebackalive.in.ua/ https://www.comebackalive.in.ua/ And to support Ukrainian Armed Forces directly, go here: https://bank.gov.ua/en/news/all/natsionalniy-bank-vidkriv-spetsrahunok-dlya-zboru-koshtiv-na-potrebi-armiyi https://bank.gov.ua/en/news/all/natsionalniy-bank-vidkriv-sp... The National Bank has a separate donation drive for humanitarian aid; you can choose here: https://bank.gov.ua/en/ https://bank.gov.ua/en/ Then there's the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders (which, sadly, will be needed more and more in the coming days). And even if you don't have money to spare, I hope you can find a place for yellow and blue for others to see. To us, it's hope. Thank you, and let's stop this war. Together. <3 Odessa — Hayward [1] https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10104889825108244&id=16312882 https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1010488982510824...
- exdsq 5y agoIs there any point of making these donations seeing so many billions are being sent by nation states? Is there a bottleneck where the Ukrainian Armed Forces need first aid kits but are unable to get them because of a lack of funds? I've thought about donating to these sorts of organisations but I question the actual efficiencies of doing so. Edit: I also worry that funding the continuation of this war will increase the probabilities of a nuclear war, so I'm unsure from that perspective too.
- tmpz22 5y ago
- Joking_Phantom 5y agoThe only reason why this travesty persists is because Putin still holds the world hostage with Russia's nuclear arsenal. The only future for the world lies in cooperation, peace, and prosperity. Not this campaign of self-destruction that Putin has forced on us.
- onlyrealcuzzo 5y agoRussian emperors have a long tradition of being assassinated brutally. Putin's time might be coming due.
- indyfob2008 5y agoHope you are safe. May peace & safety come to your people soon.
- vmception 5y agoI've been thinking about how to get through to more Russian people, and its something I've had a lot of success doing with many people that live in an alternate reality, where we cannot even agree on perception. Censorship and speech restrictions aside, many Russians really think this is a peacekeeping mission that has no bloodshed. Adding to frustration of Ukrainian residents calling their own family members in Russia about whats going on, and still get denial in response. One thing I've been thinking about doing is... agreeing with them? Call it a "special military operation", and then tell them it's not working. The world is reacting to the special military operation. The timing of the special military operation is not in Russia's favor and its causing more harm than benefit, in both Russia and in Ukraine. The semantics are designed to derail the conversation at the beginning. "Ah we're being bombed indiscriminately in this war of russian aggression", the Russian's immediate reaction is "wait, no that's CGI, that's the Ukrainians bombing themselves, its exactly why you need help", instead just play along! "Everything's A-OK but you still need ...... to dismantle your leadership for failing to get more allies in this operation or putting it off until more support was achieved."
- dylan604 5y agohttps://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2022/03/09/russia-propaganda-ukraine-war-vladimir-putin-newday-vpx.cnn https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2022/03/09/russia-propagand... Hearing how a dad trusts the state TV vs what his own son is telling him is actually going on is pretty telling.
- vmception 5y agoInteresting, he says a lot of words I used. Thanks for sharing that. Its the same with my friends in America with family in Russia. It must be a cultural thing to immediately go to "okay we're never talking again" because I'm seeing that a lot too. Its interesting that the guy in this video was saying he thought of going that way but now thinks to get smart about how to get the message across.
- hamstergene 5y agoAfter 2011 protests, even before Crimea and this war, I already gave up talking politics with my parents because of unfair difference in amount of exposure: you spend maybe 30 minutes per week dismantling the nonsense in their heads, then the TV spends 6+ hours per week refilling the vessel back full. Propaganda's arguments are not holding because they are credible, in my experience they are easy and take under 3-5 exchanges until the person wiggles and tries to change the topic. Propaganda is holding because quantity beats quality, and in this case by a lot. Real people eventually give up while full-time paid astroturfers stay. But even now, when talking to my parents, one snarky question is often enough to break the confidence. I can't emphasize the word question enough, people never start thinking unless they are asked a question. No need for any lectures, proof links, it does not even have to be a particularly smart question, if you just get them thinking they do all the bullshit-clearing job themselves. That is, until they turn on TV again :( I'm not gonna pretend that I understand how things work, but I have a strong feeling the key is exposure and asking questions, rather than better rhetorics.
- sp332 5y ago@TProphet and his company, AwardCat, has offered to link up your airline miles and credit card rewards points with Ukrainian refugees who need flights out of Europe. https://twitter.com/sep332/status/1500563022842114066 https://twitter.com/sep332/status/1500563022842114066
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]