LeniX

KKKlown empire

PS Apologies to real clowns for comparing you to this - your work is important too.

Yup

@TankieTanuki@hexbear.net Pinging for visibility

Least ignorant lib

A very compacted and somewhat simplified version, but pretty much yeah, that is it. I guess there's no practical way to have deep historical discussions on Twitter.

I'd like to add a few bits here and there: the Cossacks were indeed a hodgepodge of different ethnic groups that for one reason or another decided to, let's say... live a particular lifestyle different from the common peasant one. Both the Polish Commonwealth (see "registered cossacks") and the Russian state employed cossacks to be sort of guardians for the sparsely populated and weakly defended frontiers of their respective territories. It is precisely because of that reason the Russian state gave the Zaporozhian Sich some degree of autonomy.

Modern Ukrainian "historians" love to paint the Cossacks as these "heroic, freedom-loving liberators of the poor Ukrainian peasants", when in reality they 1) weren't necessarily that ethnically related to the Ukrainian peasants and 2) saw themselves more like paramilitary garrisons and military nobility (see "Szlachta"), and acted accordingly - they saw the local peasants exactly like a noble would see them, and they were no strangers to occasional raids, plundering, what have you.

Another funny thing - if you read modern Ukrainian "history" school textbooks (which are nothing short of blatant anti-Russian and anti-Communist state propaganda), you'll see them pointing at the Tsarist/Russian Empire liquidating the Zaporozhian Sich and saying "see? they always hated freedom-loving Ukrainian spirit, they wanted to destroy the Ukrainians!", when in reality the reason they did it was practical - they didn't need Cossack garrisons there anymore, as the frontier regions got secure enough. The Cossacks were then relocated to places where they were actually needed, most prominently Kuban (modern Krasnodar krai), and that is why there's a very specific dialect there closely related to Ukrainian called "balachka" (though it's been dying out for the last 80 years)

That's not to say there never were any repressions of the Ukrainian language or culture. After the Russian Empire started transitioning to capitalism several pieces of legislature were issued (like the Valuyev circulaire and the decree of Ems), placing massive restrictions on the Ukrainian language (at that point not even recognized as a separate language) - you can also read Lenin's works, they have some references to the aforementioned phenomena, as well as Tsarist repression of Ukrainians in general.

Only a Nazi can use such words when referring to their compatriots, or all human beings in general.

I bet the reality is that the 500,000 number is for KIA only, excluding MIA and wounded.

I don't think it's that, really... I think she's been a fraud the entire time, a "Pelosi in gestation", as someone pointed out.

Russia does not have heavy casualties compared to Ukraine. The initial assumption may only be true for equal opponents, which is not the case - Russia has gargantuan advantage in artillery, armored vehicles, total domination of the skies, powerful long-range strike capacity, and now even drones. It has more of everything, including total manpower, and its military industrial base is vastly more powerful than anything the Western empire can muster. If a boxer can only punch once and then gets punched 9 times - that's not "equal".

The other factor is the fact that we're talking about attrition warfare, where there's close to zero big arrow maneuvers, instead the Russian military is methodically grinding down the AFU until its combat capacity is negligible. That helps Russia keep its casualty numbers low, regardless of what Western propaganda press is trying to convince the public of. So it actually gets easier for Russia the longer it goes on - because at some point the AFU will not be able to hold the line, which is going to end up in the general collapse of the front line. If you destroy your opponent's ability faster than they destroy yours and you're more powerful to begin with - the collapse is a mathematical certainty.

Also - Russia does not want to occupy all of Ukraine, that goes directly against their economic interests and it is something they want to avoid if possible.

Both try to do the same thing, there's no conceptual difference. However, as it so happens that the US/NATO are the global aggressors, Russia does not actually need to spin things that much. The Empire's actions speak for themselves, for the Global South to see, all they need to do is perhaps, MAYBE spice up things a bit here and there. Honestly, a lot of the times Russia can just lay back and only give factual information - it would be more than enough.

That's when it comes to the proxy war in Ukraine. In other things, like LGBTQ, climate change or anti-communism - they are definitely using similar patterns of manufacturing consent among the population.

Exactly. The propaganda bubble can never be stronger than reality, and at some point it is bound to crack and burst

This poll is bullshit, with numbers pulled out of CIA's asses. I can tell you without batting an eye - over 90% of Ukrainians want a quick, negotiated end to war, and it's been like this for months. If anything, it may indicate a shift in US empire's pivoting strategy, because they gave a cautious "52%" over a realistic percentage.

In a despotic fascist regime that Ukraine is now, people are extremely wary of revealing their true thoughts and feelings. Many people hide from the kidnapping press gangs and don't go out on the streets, not answering their phone and even removing their SIM cards - I bet no one included this kind of demographics.

We now have multiple instances of vloggers just casually pointing out that the people are very tired, only to end up in SBU's HQ where they "talked" some sense into them. After this sort of "explaining" by Ukronazbara, they usually do a 180 and that's that.