Eh.... I mean, she's talking about Russians, not Russia. Like, how individuals act. I think that there's probably a case that judging national character based on country policy is kinda frustrating. You go back a couple hundred years, and it was pretty common for Empire A to go take over nearby Country B if it could. I think most people had a national leader somewhere back in time who probably did some fairly unpleasant stuff.

Like, Putin's running Russia. And Putin's Russian. And Putin affects a lot of Russians, and has a lot of ability to direct the actions of a lot of Russians. But Putin also isn't what it means to be Russian.

Like, say you're German, and Hitler is in power, right? I mean, I'm not saying that there weren't Germans who didn't do some pretty unpleasant stuff during that period. Or that people weren't pretty pissed at Germans at that point. But, like...Hitler also isn't what it means to be German.

Here are a bunch of Russians that came over to the US or their kids.

Isaac Asimov, Michael Bay, Bernie Sanders. I think that most people aren't gonna say "Ah, Russia is doing X, so they are bad people". She didn't make the call to attack Ukraine. She's not killing people in Ukraine. She's not even in Russia...in fact, it sounds like she's in Mexico because she's trying to leave Russia, which I imagine isn't all that easy. Like, she's upset because she's being judged on her nationality. I mean, I get that.

Taking out anger at Putin on her doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

[–] Burstar@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Your Hitler example is perfect IMO. There were many beyond Hitler in Germany that deserved the hatred directed at them whether directly through horrific acts or indirectly due to their apathy or ignorance. The civilians in the towns directly adjacent to liberated concentration camps were forced by allied forces to aid in the cleanup and recovery of the camps and their victims. Many of these 'innocent Germans' expressed outrage at their 'undeserved' treatment like as seen in this video. They didn't deserve sympathy either.

At a certain point 'I am just an innocent wittle civilian who has done nothing wrong' is a cop-out. "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good [people] should do nothing" -Burke.

To be clear this isn't to justify warcrimes on civilians. It is merely to say her crocodile tears fall on deaf ears.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Fun fact - Hitler was elected.

There's potential evil in everyone, born everywhere. It's hard for most people to swallow, but it's true.

[–] chahk 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Putin was elected too.

...

Bwahahahah! Sorry, almost made it through with a straight face.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 5 months ago

He actually never had a free and fair election, as far as I know. Yeltsin won fair and square the first time around, but rigged his second election and then appointed Putin.

[–] e_t_wright@union.place 0 points 5 months ago

@tal @don True, but there is also the argument (somewhat theoretical) that, if these people had stayed where they were, they might have changed the course of history. Maybe. Or not. We might also have completely lost them and their contributions to the world. Who's to say? And, no, leaving Russia is not easy right now. She's risking not just her life, but that of family left behind. It's brutal to live in Russia now.