Careful Whose Voices You Amplify

“careful whose voices you amplify” 🤡

So many Armys during the past days posting tweet after tweet about how you should stay out of it,educate yourself first,should not spread carrds or information,don’t have to donate unless you “understand” the situation...

...

Is putin paying you or what...?

I have not seen any other war where it was so ok not only to say you don’t care,but to actively urge others to not care.

Why? You could just have posted a flag,a “thoughts and prayers” and moved on. I wouldn’t have judged you for it. Or you could have said nothing at all. YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO SAY ANYTHING. 

But everyone chose exactly THIS war to talk about “performative activism” and about how you don’t have to make carrds for clout,or you don’t have to care if you’re a minor. Urging people to “just go check official sources”,but rarely actually linking any. And making sure to “educate” others to not donate,because! you might be donating to neo-nazis!

I thought you said to not spread misinfo. I’m pretty sure the links that show up even on official government twitter are legit. Also maybe if it’s the same link and you saw like 10 official journalists posting it too,you can trust it?

Also,you don’t have to donate,but there is some weird motivation in discrediting legitimate requests for help. War is happening. You don’t have to “support it” if you find the idea too barbaric. I mean,I understand the repulsion. Ukrainians would also rather be at home instead of shooting down aircrafts. But war is happening and they have no choice except to fight for their right to remain an independent state. They are not equally matched with Russia’s much bigger military. They received no international help so they are asking for donations in order to be able to defend themselves. They have done so,bravely,for three days already. Kyiv is still standing because they have put up a hell of a fight until now.

If no one seems believable in the sea of comments made by people with foreign unpronounceable names,it’s good to know Ukrainian and Russian don’t even look the same. In the first place,Ukrainian has the “i” letter which Russian doesn’t use. For obvious reasons you won’t even see much russian on the ukrainian side of social media right now.

You keep saying “don’t spread misinformation” and then your next tweet is by some rando who blatantly lies about history,or tries to make it all about America. But he doesn’t have a russian-sounding name,so it’s ok,his version must be the objective unbiased one. Is this how you think it works? How you protect yourself from propaganda? Congrats,you just fell for it,and spread it to the 2000 others who follow your big account.

Or does simply seeing tweets in the scary Russian alphabet make you uncomfy? 80% of those lists of “verified” people to get “unbiased” info from,are just English-speaking blue checkmark journalists or diplomats who cover Moscow. Moscow is not Kyiv.

Why does it always have to be “US says_” for a fact related to a foreign country to be credible?

Kyiv Independent’s twitter has constant updates in English,that’s a good place to start. You can figure it out from there. You won’t die if you follow Ukrainian journalists who also tweet in Ukrainian once in a while. It won’t be sterilized bias-free information,because everyone is human,and emotions are high now,but it won’t be the onslaught of propaganda you’re afraid of. Not anymore that at any other war or protest. But I get the feeling those journalists are too patriotic and too proud of their army for you. They make Ukraine look too good,too strong and too inspiring,and you can’t have that. It’s not “unbiased” enough. It’s not how you were taught Eastern Europe is like.

Does Russia,seen though official Ukraine news,look too much like a cartoon villain? So you feel the need to look for what “the other side” is saying? Maybe Putin is exactly that evil. Maybe you have to accept this is actual reality for any ex-USSR country. There is no “both sides are wrong,we need to be more cautious when talking about this crisis”. Russia is a colonizer. We don’t fucking want to go under them ever again. Hope this helps. Are you looking for your familiar “unbiased”,dictated by those blue checkmarks who don’t even live here, or for Ukraine’s actual history?

Would you say “stay out of it,it’s too complicated” about any other mad dictator trying to kill people because they are a certain ethnicity or nationality? Your problem is that Ukrainians are white,so it surely has to be some other reason. Like that they are neo-nazis (putin lie),that the “separatists” must want independence from the rest of Ukraine (putin lie) or that Russia is just afraid of the US and NATO (true,but not the entire story). You create the misinformation now because the actual reality doesn’t match your neat established worldview. Who gives you the right?

Also about the part where “you can’t do anything”. Maybe your protests could have done something. #WhatUkraineNeeds is a good hashtag to start with to get an idea.

Fuck you,really.

I just wanted to laugh at some BTS thirst tweets.

jungkook showing us that he took off his eyebrow piercing

jhope MORE (2022)

IT WAS ON MY BINGO CARD!!

this has been sitting in my drafts since december or january

o_O

thought I imagined him singing rather than rapping cause soop j-hope’s random singing was just so good I still can’t forget it

thank you T.T

dream BTS album part 11/18: Hoseok

im sorry jhope but you really shine in 1. harder hitting songs 2. embracing your more dark side 3. anything rock (festa,black gomusin song etc)

pls pls

pls

This is someone you should NOT reblog from. Look at their entire blog please. IDK is they are really a westerner(in which case they should shut up) or not but “assuming you can do anything to help in a complex situation smacks of imperialism” is,at this particular moment in time,a troll move. People in Ukraine are currently begging for help right now. There are no situations that are not complex,but this one is even pretty straightforward. Westerners can take their philosophy and teatime debates on whether we should be allowed our own countries or not to their private chats,Eastern Europe does not need to see them. And trolls should go straight to hell,I fucking loathe you.

SOME of those links were neo-nazis because someone compiled the list in a hurry. MOST of the other sources are legit and you will find them on any Ukrainian post asking for help. You are spreading disinformation yourself.

“But when I don’t support states existing in general, I’m not going to suddenly throw the weight of my opinion behind the Ukrainian state. I’d argue that’s a consistent anarchist position”

I argue that you should shut up entirely. You are not being neutral but doing putin’s bidding by saying you don’t care about states. People are dying and will fucking die,good to know you don’t care about ‘states existing’ on your cozy little island.

“I’m trying to equally advocate for Ukrainian refugees, and will actively offer them my support if/when I am able to. “

The best way to support is to PREVENT them from becoming refugees,by helping them defend their country.

If there are donation links that are sketchy,cause there always are,and you want to help with the disinformation war,debunk them. But someone else did that already.

Get your troll posts out of here. I bet you wouldn’t talk philosophy about whether your own country should exist or not,when you are the one who is being invaded.

I think, over the coming days, it's really important to be careful and think critically about what we post and reblog. I think it's important to remember that just as the average person in Ukraine didn't want this, neither did your average, ordinary russian. It's important to consider that some of the paramilitary groups in Ukraine are neo-nazi organisations, so giving them money probably isn't a good idea.

Assuming you can do anything to help or intervene in a very complex situation smacks of imperialism.

Be aware there's going to be a lot of propaganda from both sides.

The one thing that is almost certainly true is that people will be displaced from this conflict, and countries who are posing as supportive of Ukraine will no doubt not be welcoming to Ukrainian refugees (let alone Russian refugees). So if you're looking at this and thinking "I must do something" that might be a good place to start.