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> It's just infuriating how they insult us thinking most people will be taken in by it. Not just thinking. They are being taken in. Front page of Reddit today

> It's just infuriating how they insult us thinking most people will be taken in by it. Not just thinking. They are being taken in. Front page of Reddit today was a completely nonsense story from three old women talking about Russian soldiers stole their toilet seats to take home because they could not imagine the magic of flush toilets. Absolute propaganda.

bartekrutkowski 5y ago
I don't dare to speak about what is or isn't propaganda these days, but when I was a teen I had a chance to witness Russian army leaving their base in Borne Sulinowo, Poland in early 90's. They did in fact took toilets with them, along with things like radiators and, in some places, even bathroom tiles.
- SV_BubbleTime 5y ago
  Ok. Except the video had “anecdotes” that they literally could not imagine and have never seen the concept of a flush toilet. Understood it so little that they wouldn’t believe Ukrainians would defecate inside their houses and then stole the toilet seat alone to make the same system work in their homes. It was absolute propaganda. https://old.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/u192o3/babushkas_from_a_liberated_village_near_kyiv_tell/ https://old.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/u192o3/babushkas_f...
  - orwin 5y ago
    Man, it's just old people rambling and exagerating. Don't take it too seriously.
    - SV_BubbleTime 5y ago
      Ok, but look at the thousands of comments by young people taking it seriously. This is what propaganda is.
      - orwin 5y ago
        It isn't hurting anyone. Yes, it's a bit disparaging of rural Russians who are not as cut off civilization as this video implies, but tbh, if you know anyone who took the transsibérien after 2000, you'll see that this story isn't as outrageous as it sounds sadly.
        SV_BubbleTime 5y ago
        > It isn't hurting anyone. Ok, interesting take. Cool how it only took you one post to completely reverse your position from “oh no one would believe that obvious garbage” to “oh it’s okay people believe that”. Good luck with all that goal post moving.
inglor_cz 5y ago
Ever been to rural Russia? The places that many Russian professional soldiers come from, because being in the army is a nice professional career compared to the crushing poverty around, even though the pay is actually low? Not a flushing toilet in sight. Russia has horrible levels of income inequality. A lot of the oil and gas money flows into the hands of the oligarchs and is thus concentrated either abroad, or in a few elite places like Sochi. Of course, the largest cities such as Sankt Peterburg and Moscow do reasonably well, too. But a random village in Siberia has unpaved roads, wooden shacks and outhouses. Fully comparable to poor parts of India or Africa. This is where many of the soldiers come from, and where time has stopped, because the Russian state does not give a f*ck about living standards of rural people. We had the same experience with them in 1945 and 1968 in former Czechoslovakia. And when they withdrew their forces in 1991, they bargained guns and grenades for stuff like toilets as well.
- dagw 5y ago
  There is a huge difference between growing up in a village that doesn't have flush toilets and never having heard of the concept of a flush toilet and believing that bringing home the toilet seat will magically turn your toilet into flush toilet.
  - federoccco 5y ago
    It is not about "flush toilet", is about having a nice, expensive ceramic toilet, which could upgrade a typical "hole in the floor" style lavatory, common to many villages.
    - dagw 5y ago
      about having a nice, expensive ceramic toilet, which could upgrade a typical "hole in the floor" Obviously that is perfectly reasonable and no doubt happens. However the original comment was about "soldiers stole their toilet seats to take home because they could not imagine the magic of flush toilets." That I do not believe.
      - 5y ago

bartekrutkowski 5y ago

I don't dare to speak about what is or isn't propaganda these days, but when I was a teen I had a chance to witness Russian army leaving their base in Borne Sulinowo, Poland in early 90's. They did in fact took toilets with them, along with things like radiators and, in some places, even bathroom tiles.

SV_BubbleTime 5y ago
Ok. Except the video had “anecdotes” that they literally could not imagine and have never seen the concept of a flush toilet. Understood it so little that they wouldn’t believe Ukrainians would defecate inside their houses and then stole the toilet seat alone to make the same system work in their homes. It was absolute propaganda. https://old.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/u192o3/babushkas_from_a_liberated_village_near_kyiv_tell/ https://old.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/u192o3/babushkas_f...
- orwin 5y ago
  Man, it's just old people rambling and exagerating. Don't take it too seriously.
  - SV_BubbleTime 5y ago
    Ok, but look at the thousands of comments by young people taking it seriously. This is what propaganda is.
    - orwin 5y ago
      It isn't hurting anyone. Yes, it's a bit disparaging of rural Russians who are not as cut off civilization as this video implies, but tbh, if you know anyone who took the transsibérien after 2000, you'll see that this story isn't as outrageous as it sounds sadly.
      - SV_BubbleTime 5y ago
        > It isn't hurting anyone. Ok, interesting take. Cool how it only took you one post to completely reverse your position from “oh no one would believe that obvious garbage” to “oh it’s okay people believe that”. Good luck with all that goal post moving.

inglor_cz 5y ago

Ever been to rural Russia? The places that many Russian professional soldiers come from, because being in the army is a nice professional career compared to the crushing poverty around, even though the pay is actually low? Not a flushing toilet in sight. Russia has horrible levels of income inequality. A lot of the oil and gas money flows into the hands of the oligarchs and is thus concentrated either abroad, or in a few elite places like Sochi. Of course, the largest cities such as Sankt Peterburg and Moscow do reasonably well, too. But a random village in Siberia has unpaved roads, wooden shacks and outhouses. Fully comparable to poor parts of India or Africa. This is where many of the soldiers come from, and where time has stopped, because the Russian state does not give a f*ck about living standards of rural people. We had the same experience with them in 1945 and 1968 in former Czechoslovakia. And when they withdrew their forces in 1991, they bargained guns and grenades for stuff like toilets as well.

dagw 5y ago
There is a huge difference between growing up in a village that doesn't have flush toilets and never having heard of the concept of a flush toilet and believing that bringing home the toilet seat will magically turn your toilet into flush toilet.
- federoccco 5y ago
  It is not about "flush toilet", is about having a nice, expensive ceramic toilet, which could upgrade a typical "hole in the floor" style lavatory, common to many villages.
  - dagw 5y ago
    about having a nice, expensive ceramic toilet, which could upgrade a typical "hole in the floor" Obviously that is perfectly reasonable and no doubt happens. However the original comment was about "soldiers stole their toilet seats to take home because they could not imagine the magic of flush toilets." That I do not believe.
    - 5y ago