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One comment really nails the problem with this sort of thing: " People in Western countries don't realize how bad the situation on the ground actually is¹; ran
by krunck 3mo ago
One comment really nails the problem with this sort of thing:
" People in Western countries don't realize how bad the situation on the ground actually is¹; random Ukrainian flags showing up on your work monitor can result in severe problems for you (like losing you job, or worse), especially if you work in the government sector. If they show up on your laptop in a random cafe or an airport, you might very well get a beating from one of many "war heroes" that walk around the cities these days.
No, the government sector doesn't just make missiles and bombs, it also covers schools, hospitals, many other things."
- epistasis 3mo agoAnd that's not even so bad compared to what would happen to somebody in occupied Ukraine: they would be sent to "the basement." That's the euphemism for the local torture chamber, outside of which they deposit the dead bodies of the tortured to let everybody in the area know what happens if they do something like speak Ukrainian.
- giancarlostoro 3mo ago> if they do something like speak Ukrainian. Sheesh, how different are the languages? Would it be an honest mistake to say a word in Ukrainian and not realize?
- throw_a_grenade 3mo agoNo it won't.
- epistasis 3mo agoWhen I've looked at academic language comparisons, Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian are all about the same distance from each other. Somewhere in the range of distances of Portuguese/Spanish/Italian, which have lots of very similar words. A single word isn't going to get somebody in trouble, but a sentence? Going to raise eyebrows, and likely capture unless you've got people to vouch for you being a patriotic newly Russian citizen, just trying to catch up to the new reality. The areas that are currently occupied, as well as Russian lands that border Ukraine, have a mixed vernacular called Surzhyk, which uses Ukrainian sounds and grammar but lots of Russian vocabulary and idioms. Early on in the occupation, one form of resistance was simply graffiti with a letter that's in the Ukrainian alphabet that's not in the Russian alphabet, like ї. That sort of symbolic resistance has been replaced entirely by far more strategic resistance these days, according to recent reporting.
- Svoka 3mo agoHonestly, this is like saying that someone who speaks Italian would mistake your for speaking Spanish. That's how it sounds. If you disagree - you clearly don't speak both languages. Just because some words are similar doesn't make them sound same.
- giancarlostoro 3mo agoI speak Spanish so this makes sense. Thank you. I am unfamiliar with both languages and was unsure how they deviated.
- sombragris 3mo agoSlackware-current upgraded xsnow to the latest version in June 20th but applied a patch from ALT Linux that removed the protestware bits just because of this reason. I support this.
- hulitu 3mo agoI use xsnow 1.42 . The new release is crap and according to this post, even more so.
- dgellow 3mo agoThey don’t have to use the software. It’s such a non issue. Xsnow is closer to art than critical software, you can easily ditch it
- JdeBP 3mo agoThe naïveté of that position is that the users are not informed ahead of time that there's a random chance of a political protest popping up on their screen, so do not get to make an informed choice before it is perhaps too late. It's not mentioned in the doco. It's obfuscated in the source code as an 'extra tree' in an array of xpmtrees. The commit that added this had the commit message 'willem'.
- dgellow 3mo agoPlease, tell me, who is ever using xsnow in a place where that would be problematic? It’s such a niche software. Again, complete non-issue.
- LtWorf 3mo ago> who is ever using xsnow We don't know? Debian doesn't spy on users.
- throw_a_grenade 3mo agopopcon shows 302 users as of now: https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=xsnow https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=xsnow
- Arodex 3mo ago[flagged]
- netsharc 3mo agoSo, are you American? What are you doing about your governments funding and supplying of genocide? Your litany of excuses also apply to the average Russian...
- JCattheATM 3mo agoExcept most Russians support their government and believe its lies...
- netsharc 3mo agoI can say that about Americans. What proof do you have, or do you "just know it"? https://nestcentre.org/what-russians-think-about-the-war-against-ukraine/ https://nestcentre.org/what-russians-think-about-the-war-aga... > For most ordinary Russians, the war is not a central concern. This may sound cynical, but it’s the truth. > When they do think about it, they tend to view it much like the weather: something that one may or may not like, but which lies beyond individual control and to which one simply adapts. I admire a friend of mine in London who every weekend went to anti-genocide rallies in London. But at the same time I can imagine it's excruciating work, yelling and protesting and not saving any single Palestinian child's life. Meanwhile in Russia, protesting will get you arrested and probably be sent to the frontline (as a man) or prison (as a woman). Given those choices, would you also not say "Well, I can be angry and depressed about the Ukranians (and my fellow countrymen forced to fight the war) being killed, or I can just go about my day and put this exhausting thought aside"... Meanwhile in America, there's a political party using the Nazi playbook to subvert democracy and succeeding. Are you American? Are you doing everything to stop that, or do you see yourself powerless and so you go about your day and put that exhausting thought aside?
- JCattheATM 3mo ago> I can say that about Americans. Eh, you'd be wrong. It's a different issue in the US, half the population believe and vote for nonsense, the other half are strongly against it. > What proof do you have, or do you "just know it"? Friends with Russians, and try to read useful sources like Meduza. It's absolutely very much the case that most of that population are brainwashed and believe the state propaganda. > Meanwhile in Russia, protesting will get you arrested and probably be sent to the frontline (as a man) or prison (as a woman). Yes, so an armed uprising is necessary if voting is not an option. But if there is no will, there will be no effort. > Meanwhile in America, there's a political party using the Nazi playbook to subvert democracy and succeeding. America will still have elections, and we won't have to deal with our Putin-wannabe again after their term is up.
- WD-42 3mo agoHow is this an issue? Xsnow is a novelty. You have to make two decisions: the first to still be using Xorg at all, the second to install the application itself which is essentially a gag screensaver. The idea that some govt employee would get fired for this is extremely far fetched.
- simion314 3mo agoYeah, but is open source so if some of the extra rare "good Russians" do not like this super small chance of getting hurt then they diserve their regime, they will finally protest when the regime will affect their own lives but stay silent while other people get genocided. I do not own any popular software to put anti Zed/Putin shit in it so sorry I can inconvinience those super rare good Russians.
- LtWorf 3mo agoAre you currently located in DC protesting about the war in Iran? If not, rules for thee but not for me?
- simion314 3mo agoI am from Romania, we have experience with dictators and with Moscowites screwing our lives. As things go I tink Russians will start protesting soon, not for the reason that they are against genociding their brothers in Ukraine but because they are starving.
- netsharc 3mo agoWhen the war started, Europeans were forcing famous Russians living in Europe to denounce their government's evils. For example an opera house demanded a Russian opera singer to say something against the regime or be "blacklisted". As if it's so fucking easy to denounce a dictator who has murderous tendencies and who rules your homeland, as if it's so easy to insult him, and then what, not be able to return home and see your friends and family until that dictator is defeated? I found those demands so unthinkingly heartless, it's responding to tyranny with your own tyranny...
- fer 3mo agoI mean, it's easy to be apolitical and stay in russia. They can always do that and not break the russian social contract. Молчание - знак согласия
- giancarlostoro 3mo ago> not be able to return home and see your friends and family until that dictator is defeated? Assuming they're still alive.
- Svoka 3mo agoOh, russians re-elected same govenment for past 35 years cheering invading neighbors every couple years since inception of russain federation. Problem is not in dictator. Problem is imperialistic russia and every russian citizen who does nothing about it. They should be denied every service from civilized world until they stop their fascism. And before you ask, yes, I did protest and depose dictator.
- tpm 3mo agoWell the voting is heavily manipulated since more than 10-15 years already, and many candidates are banned from running too (not to forget many opposition and critical figures were killed). Of course they should change the government but I don't think it's possible to achieve that through elections.
- 3mo ago
- JoshTriplett 3mo agoNote that xsnow already displayed such flags randomly, and this just changes the probability. So, if you're in a location where displaying the Ukraine flag will get you shot, 1) it was already not safe to run xsnow, and 2) much more importantly, I genuinely hope you can successfully escape your situation.
- mopsi 3mo agoThat's also a good argument for completely removing rainbow flags from everything, in more countries than one. Will we see that happening?
- michaelmrose 3mo agoThis sounds like a you problem. Suppose you have software that shows famous faces and quotes as a screensaver would you make it by default not show anyone of color so it would be acceptable in rural Oklahoma or make it show no women so it would be acceptable in Iran?
- trollbridge 3mo agoIn rural Oklahoma, it is entirely acceptable to have “anyone of colour” portrayed in something like a screensaver. I don’t know much about Iran, but depictions of women seem common in advertising there.
- michaelmrose 3mo agoMost women whom one would display inspirational quotes wouldn't be displayed in a head scarf as they would come from a range of cultures most of which don't have the same restrictions. I think that the point is that political moral and cultural norms aren't neutral and many are just morally deficient and free software shouldn't be in the business of pretending that Nazis and Jews are 2 different groups with equally valid rights not to be offended. This is a corporate mindset we adopt because we want everyone's business not a useful or correct attitude for individuals who aren't the beneficiaries of the publics money in the first place. The Russian aggression is evil, the Russian culture as a whole is abhorrent. We shouldn't be afraid to call it out and fight back. I would be ok if every Debian terminal printed a message raising donations for the defense of Ukraine. Its free software so Russians worried about political correctness herein meaning defense of mass murder torture and genocide can run a fork which boots up to Russian military propaganda if they like.
- trollbridge 3mo agoI would hesitate to say “Russian culture is evil”. I don’t dehumanise people or denounce entire ethnic groups.
- michaelmrose 3mo ago
- pluc 3mo agoWouldn't that be.. acceptable, if not entirely the point? Raising awareness? Some rando getting arrested for a screensaver they didn't know contained a flag is pretty efficient propaganda and would likely turn at least the involved people and their inner circles? It might not be the point but I doubt they'd be disappointed
- pooploop64 3mo agoI really really really hope the point of stuff of like this is NOT to make martyrs of randomly selected people in a foreign country. That would be an absolutely demented thing to try for. Not to mention the arrogance of thinking you need to show foreign people what their country is like. They know that better than you.
- pibaker 3mo agoI'd understand it if the flag is added by someone from Ukraine or another country invaded by Russia. But it looks like it was added by someone with a Dutch name. Westerner putting random people's lives at risk just so he can give himself a justice boner doing some cheap virtue signaling. Classic.