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Ask HN: What do Russians on HN think about this war?

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Re: Ask HN: What do Russians on HN think about this war?

#21

Post by Klaster_1 »

brodouevencode wrote: post #17
omdv wrote: post #9

I am Ukrainian, living in US, but have plenty of Russian friends and (still) some connections with people living in Russia. My strong believe is that there is pretty high support of Putin in Russia, especially around mainstream population, I'd estimate at least 40-50%. This is related to 20+ years of propaganda and phantom pains of USSR collapse. West people should not be delusional. Of course it is also not black an…

> Finally, I hope you realize that by asking here you will get a _very_ distorted view. This cannot be overstated. It's hard to know what and who to believe anymore.

The point was probably that people who visit HN from Russia bias heavily against the war - mostly young, educated, well off.

Re: Ask HN: What do Russians on HN think about this war?

#22

Post by fgcoppola »

vogre wrote: post #20

Hello! Russian SW developer from Moscow is here. First, it's been a shock for all the society. No one would imagine in a worst dream that this attack would happen. Even when Putin made his speech about acceptance of LNR/DNR we were like "phew, another shitty fake politics, nothing really changes". But then the war started. And no one expected that! I think, even military or economic ministers didn't expect that. Peop…

Thank you for taking the time to share your perspective. I wish you best of luck.

Re: Ask HN: What do Russians on HN think about this war?

#23

Post by mint2 »

Dah00n wrote: post #3

I have friends in Russia but if I relate their thoughts I will be downvoted and flagged to oblivion. There's no room for "the other view" on HN. Look at any old thread about PRC and see how it goes. When it smells a little of politics HN quickly devolve and moderation is needed.

Unless you believe they are accurate you could post along side why they are understandably wrong given the propaganda situation.

If you believe they are accurate youbcan use a throwaway to explain why your view that mass bombing of civilians by Russia is partially nato’s fault.

If the views aren’t something like that, then why hesitate to post?

Re: Ask HN: What do Russians on HN think about this war?

#24

Post by [deleted] »

jakobdabo wrote: post #14
axg11 wrote: post #8

Related question: does anyone have a source for accurate polling in Russia? I'd like to understand the _true_ level of support for the invasion of Ukraine. There is a lot of propaganda flying out on both sides. I think the West/NATO's next steps should carefully consider the true level of support for these actions within Russia. If there is already a modest level of support (e.g. > 25%) then actions such as sanctions…

Here is the dynamics between February 24 and March 3 - https://twitter.com/Kira_Yarmysh/status/1500430882615836674 I tried to translate using OCR, and the first chart's data points are answers to the question to what is the role of Russia in the conflict: "Aggressor", "Freedom", "Peacekeeping", "Don't know". Note, that it's based on an online poll (so not including TV-watchers-only people), but AFAIK they made sure t…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What do Russians on HN think about this war?

#25

Post by kahrl »

Dah00n wrote: post #3

I have friends in Russia but if I relate their thoughts I will be downvoted and flagged to oblivion. There's no room for "the other view" on HN. Look at any old thread about PRC and see how it goes. When it smells a little of politics HN quickly devolve and moderation is needed.

There is certainly room to hear from different perspectives on hacker news. If you're getting downvoted, your version of "the other view" might include whataboutism, false equivalence, propagandized history, and turning a blind eye to the fact that dear leader's magic hands seem to pass through solid objects.

Re: Ask HN: What do Russians on HN think about this war?

#26

Post by crownvic »

On the streets here, almost everyone I hear supports everything in full. Probably, around 70% support this, and the other 30% are not sure/against it.

The local and nationwide TV states that they found 30 Pentagon-funded biowarfare labs in Ukraine, got all the docs, and are preparing some statements for the West.

Obviously, high-level propaganda flows from Russia and the West both. I suspect the truth is somewhere in the middle.

And if you take a look at videos from Feb, people in the Eastern part of Ukraine don't mind the Russian army there, even wave and show high-fives. My highly incorrect calculations suggest that about 80% of people in Eastern Ukraine support Russia. In the middle part, that figure is maybe 30-40%, and in Western Ukraine near zero.

I have a niece in the middle part (near Cherkasy). It's okay there, and no battles are incoming. So, she doesn't understand what to expect, doesn't support all this clusterfug, but doesn't support the Ukrainian government either.

Re: Ask HN: What do Russians on HN think about this war?

#27

Post by TrapLord_Rhodo »

When i was in the Air Force, I interacted with alot of russians "On the other side" when wee were building FOBs in eastern europe afteer the invasion of crimea. At work, It was all about defeating the russians. After work, it was about out drinking the russians.

We laughed, we joked but at the end of the day we knew our bossees thought eachother enemies. And at the end of the day we knew that we were activeely working to kill eachother.

That didn't seem to bother us. Alot of people in the military believe what the world has taught us not to believe... That we are the greatest nation in the world and use of force is the only thing that is tangible and real in this world. You're right to Life liberty and property is an illusion and at any point i can kill you and take what you've worked hard for to save. Is it Moral? Yes, because it's real life. The only Amoral things in reality is these illusions that morality exist.

Asking what the russians think isn't the right question. The right question is what percentage of nationalist exist in russia. Because i can tell you one thing, Nationalists believe in this war to their core.

The weak don't deserve the products of their labor if they can't defend it. We've seen this as a fact of life since life has been a fact.

Good Luck Comrades, but one day i will have to kill you for your virtuos beliefs.

Re: Ask HN: What do Russians on HN think about this war?

#28

Post by evgeniysharapov »

I am Russian living in the US, but what I can gather from conversations with my college acquaintances and family that is still living there - there's plenty of Russians who are appalled and against and can rationalize what devastation this war is for Russia, not even taking Ukraine into account, where humanitarian catastrophe is obvious. All those reasons are obvious to any person living outside of Russia and, as I said, to some Russian people. But here lies the problem, these are things that are rational. Most of the "deep" Russian populace may seem irrational now. Here are some of the thoughts they express:

- closing and isolating from West is a good thing - no bad influence and we will keep things, s.a. modernism, liberalism, libertine behavior, e.g. homosexuality and transgenderism away.

- closing foreign markets will boost Russian production and development by keeping all the resources and investments inside and protecting domestic market from unfair competition (e.g. agro subsidies)

- closing travel and foreign countries and markets will keep people inside and by extension will EQUALIZE everyone. Essentially, now there's no rich and poor and everyone is sort of equally poor. Remember, that few folks, s.a. oligarchs, various celebs with their conspicuous consumption are eternal target of people's hate.

- There's no freedom and liberty, all west are hypocrites and they always wanted to subjugate us via harsh force or through soft force. Note, that the western (btw, Australia and New Zealand are considered western in this paradigm) governments forcing vaccinations/masks/lockdowns are used against western governments claim that they are for freedom and liberty.

Re: Ask HN: What do Russians on HN think about this war?

#29

Post by gimboland »

TrapLord_Rhodo wrote: post #27

When i was in the Air Force, I interacted with alot of russians "On the other side" when wee were building FOBs in eastern europe afteer the invasion of crimea. At work, It was all about defeating the russians. After work, it was about out drinking the russians. We laughed, we joked but at the end of the day we knew our bossees thought eachother enemies. And at the end of the day we knew that we were activeely workin…

> The weak don't deserve the products of their labor if they can't defend it. We've seen this as a fact of life since life has been a fact.

Amazing how "may not be able to retain" collapses down to "do not deserve" here.

Re: Ask HN: What do Russians on HN think about this war?

#30

Post by marius_k »

crownvic wrote: post #26

On the streets here, almost everyone I hear supports everything in full. Probably, around 70% support this, and the other 30% are not sure/against it. The local and nationwide TV states that they found 30 Pentagon-funded biowarfare labs in Ukraine, got all the docs, and are preparing some statements for the West. Obviously, high-level propaganda flows from Russia and the West both. I suspect the truth is somewhere in…

> 30 Pentagon-funded biowarfare labs in Ukraine.

That just does not make any sense to me. Why should those labs be somewhere in Ukraine rather than in US?

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