Got into a conversation with someone today and I mentioned the Soviets liberated a lot of Nazi camps. They looked at me like I was evil and said "Well they're bombing innocent people today and accusing them of being Nazis"
I said that while I'm not a fan of modern Russia, the Azov Battalion is in fact Nazi, and Ukraine has had a Nazi problem for a while.
They didn't know who Azov are and just said "Well they're probably all gone now. They're just bombing innocent people."
I'm sick of people thinking I'm some kind of evil modern Russian oligarchy stan or crazy conspiracy theorist just because I acknowledge the fact that Nazis exist and are a big problem. If Ukraine wins, those strengthened Nazi groups that are supported by western aid and the Ukraine government are going to go full fascist.
Most people have a two-valued orientation: black & white, good & evil, love & hate. It's an extremely effective propaganda tool, heavily utilized by the Nazi party to paint them as the only party that should exist. It's so effective because of the frustration you feel, it's hard to establish any middle ground, or even discuss it sensibly. What makes matter worse is that Russia is hated, which promotes even more two-valued orientation, and makes them assume you're taking the polar opposite stance of Russia Good.
To combat two-value orientation is to systematically apply multi-value orientation. Statements shouldn't be true or false but truth-valued somewhere between 0-100%. If someone tells you that all labor unions are a racket, saying "No, they aren't" would promote a battle, but saying "Only 1 in 100 unions are a racket, where did you hear they are all rackets?" can promote a more meaningful dialog.
I think an argument would go something like this, anyone is welcome to help, im not great at this & my details are lacking:
Liberals will usually think you are just making excuses to muddy the waters and defend Russia because they assume everyone is as dishonest as they are.