• GenderIsOpSec [she/her]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Mine have been pretty ambivalent about it all, I've expressed my dislike for NATO a few times and my brother's wife seems to agree. My brother is the standard: "Well how can it be threatening to russia when we join a DEFENSIVE alliance, eh?"

    Curious indeed. :thonk:

    Sorry about your family though :meow-hug:

    • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Even the left-wing ones have been glued to Ukraine news and believe Putler is dying from 10 different terminal diseases and wants to recreate the Russian Soviet Empire and become Premier Czar before he dies from ligma

      Early on I tried to talk about the origins of the civil war and the West's involvement in it, pointed out the Black Sun patches, etc but they looked at me like I was talking about QAnon

      • ElHexo
        ·
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        deleted by creator

      • GenderIsOpSec [she/her]
        ·
        2 years ago

        :yea: I overheard some pretty standard liberals talking about how the slav brainpan is just terminally locked into the murder & pillage pathway because of the MONGOLS, and I just about flipped a table

        • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Russian Revolution, Stalin's purges, Winter War, Continuation War, Finlandisation, glasnost, perestroika, Berlin Wall is mainly what I remember from school

          • DoubleShot [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Berlin Wall gets talked about a lot in US schools, too. It's supposed to be this thing that's representative of everything that's bad about communism but the reality is that more innocent people have died in one month of US drone strikes than were killed trying to climb the wall over four decades (the number is about 140).

            • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
              ·
              edit-2
              2 years ago

              Yes

              Edit: it's not a Texas-level situation though. Pretty sure the origins of the Winter War, the proposed land trades etc were all explained in high school

              Don't remember much about the concentration camps, though that might be on my part

              Teenage me "whatever, the Russians started it :vivian-shrug: "

              Finnish culture loves their mythologised WW2 narratives and their veterans though which might stick in your mind more than history lessons

              • GenderIsOpSec [she/her]
                ·
                2 years ago

                Also, the civil war discussion is tainted by this too. The reds were horrible looters and ill-disciplined raiders and the magnificent whites were pure and noble heroes.

            • invanity [none/use name]
              ·
              edit-2
              2 years ago

              There was a recent Finnish movie called Sisu about the Nazi occupation of Finland during WW2. It was an amazing example of whitewashing propaganda that the Finnish position was neutrality/independence and that the Finns hated both Soviets and Nazis. The basic story follows a Finnish character in Lapland who's being chased by Nazi soldiers who want to steal his gold. It's mentioned in passing that he is a loose cannon solo soldier with dozens of confirmed kills of Russians, and so the Nazis better run if they're smart.

              Maybe ironically the story is ripped from the Russian character Koschei the Immortal (Кощей Бессмертный).

              Sisu, by the way, is a Finnish word that refers to the fighting spirit, grit and perseverance of Finns during the winter war.

      • invanity [none/use name]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I recently read a Finnish conspiracy is that the Putin surname comes from Poutiainen and his ancestors are from Oulu :thonk:

    • Aryuproudomenowdaddy [comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I always like to ask if people have ever played strategy games where neighboring players can start ringing your border with bases and units and what that usually means.

    • Quaxamilliom [comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      my brother’s sister

      Doesn't that just make her your sister too? lol ive been thinking about this way too much.

      • GenderIsOpSec [she/her]
        ·
        2 years ago

        no that's just me being dumb and mixing up sister-in-law with my brother's wife :blob-no-thoughts: