Keep in mind that up until Maidan the border between Russia and Ukraine was basically a formality, and huge numbers of people had family on both sides of the border, crossed it regularly for work, etc. The president overthrown in the Maidan coup was elected in free and fair elections, in so far as Ukraine is capable of such a thing. Literally the first thing the coup Rada did was ban Russian language for official use and begin suppressing dissent by ethnic Russians.
Also, look at how they're doing the camera. work - Low angles of the front of the crowd. Then they only show the whole march when it's largely obscured by smoke. I don't think this march is actually very big and they were using camera trickery to hide that.
There are lots and lots of people in Ukraine who aren't frothing at the mouth fascists. Plenty of people got out when it became clear what was going to happen. Zelensky wouldn't have had to ban all opposition parties, hamstring unions, seize control of the media, and send the SBU around torturing and terrorizing people if there was no dissent. There was significant opposition to the Maidan coup - It was largely supported by people in Western Ukraine and opposed by people in the East.
I did not know it was basically a formality. It sounds like it used to be a good arrangement (seeing as borders ought to be just a formality anyways).
You are right. Fascism is rarely if ever a popular movement. They rely on terror. They need to make the consequences of being good worse than the revulsion one feels for a hateful ideology. By hating in response I risk becoming more like them.
I appreciate the effort taken to help me snap-back from my reaction to seeing yet another public demonstration of anti-lgbt bigotry and Russophobia.
Keep in mind that up until Maidan the border between Russia and Ukraine was basically a formality, and huge numbers of people had family on both sides of the border, crossed it regularly for work, etc. The president overthrown in the Maidan coup was elected in free and fair elections, in so far as Ukraine is capable of such a thing. Literally the first thing the coup Rada did was ban Russian language for official use and begin suppressing dissent by ethnic Russians.
Also, look at how they're doing the camera. work - Low angles of the front of the crowd. Then they only show the whole march when it's largely obscured by smoke. I don't think this march is actually very big and they were using camera trickery to hide that.
There are lots and lots of people in Ukraine who aren't frothing at the mouth fascists. Plenty of people got out when it became clear what was going to happen. Zelensky wouldn't have had to ban all opposition parties, hamstring unions, seize control of the media, and send the SBU around torturing and terrorizing people if there was no dissent. There was significant opposition to the Maidan coup - It was largely supported by people in Western Ukraine and opposed by people in the East.
I did not know it was basically a formality. It sounds like it used to be a good arrangement (seeing as borders ought to be just a formality anyways).
You are right. Fascism is rarely if ever a popular movement. They rely on terror. They need to make the consequences of being good worse than the revulsion one feels for a hateful ideology. By hating in response I risk becoming more like them.
I appreciate the effort taken to help me snap-back from my reaction to seeing yet another public demonstration of anti-lgbt bigotry and Russophobia.