For those of you that don’t know, there’s this weird trend going around on Twitter where someone says “I’m [nationality] and I hated Russians before it was cool.” I don’t know how it started or who started it, but unfortunately it’s been making the rounds.
While terrible, it is also a bit funny that the people doing this are the nationalities that had associations with Nazis (Germany, Japan, Finland, etc.); like, yeah you would hate Russians considering they dog walked your grandpa. But then again, it wasn’t just Russian people, the USSR was more than just them that defeated the Nazis.
Anyway, it’s just awful Russophobia being completely normalized.
This animosity that was always present gained prominence as an acceptable sentiment when war propaganda ramped up. This allowed the hatred to grow at an accelerated pace, which is now out of control. Even people who are generally decent got swept up in this fervor. However, The pendulum always swings in the opposite direction before reaching equilibrium, and it will be intriguing to observe the consequences when this occurs. Bear in mind that the internet leaves a permanent record, as it serves as an indelible archive.
For real, I’m sick of how many calls for genociding/nuking/deporting Russians I’ve heard since the war started… in real life, not on the internet… where people aren’t even that close to each other, and who would scorn other types of discrimination (at least for show)
It’s a disturbing trend I’ve noticed where people seem to just be looking for a group that’s socially acceptable to discriminate against. Every time there’s a designated enemy of the empire, the mask falls off and we get glimpse of how people in the west really feel about the rest of the world.
It has been incredibly distressing to see so many bleeding hearts become blood thirsty monsters. I was always aware of the dislike and hatred for Russians, its hard to miss with all the movies and games where the Russians are villains, but it always seemed like it was relegated to the screen, I never encountered that animosity in real life. But the second this war kicked off it was like the floodgates were opened. I’m honestly surprised as to how quickly this all devolved. I mean, even the Russian cultural centre in my city got some weird reviews and NAFO grew incredibly quickly. I couldn’t (and still can’t) even mention something Russian related without people around me cringing or getting uncomfortable. It makes me really sad and angry at the same time. I’m just hoping this all comes to an end soon and maybe people will realize how terrible they were being, but I honestly don’t know, people over here tend to be incredibly stubborn…
Indeed, it was very revealing to see what people in the west actually think once the taboo on hate was lifted. I do think that this kind of behavior stems from the feeling of superiority. Liberal democracy’s portrayal as the sole legitimate form of governance as a way to sell modern-day colonialism. It serves to justify might is right approach that the west takes geopolitically with western invasions and global atrocities being masqueraded as benevolent civilizing missions. A natural extension of such propaganda is that any culture that resists western domination is painted as inherently evil. We see this applied to Russia, China, and anybody else who dares to stand up to the west.
I’m hoping that the crumbling of the liberal hegemony will force people in the west to do a bit of introspection. It’s going to have to be a similar moment to the one Germans experienced at the end of WW2.