Oddbean new post about login | logout Some thoughts from Georgia 🇬🇪 During last 10 days I spent time talking with some people living in Georgia and asking them about its problem. And biggest problem of Georgia is their neighbor #Russia Althought there was war between Georgia and Russia in 2008, Georgia still accepted Russian in their terriotory (Bidzina Ivanishvili, former prime minister, got lot of money in Russia and now he kinda support them). Local people don't want russia citizents to live in Georgia - at streets you can see lot of writting on wall as "Russian go home", "Russia is terrorist state " or "Fuck Russia ". And I also experianced negative behavior towards me when people thought that I am from Russia (blond hair, blue eyes and slavic language). And to be honest I cannot blame these people to do that - after spending some time in Georgia I have started to feel same against #Russia 🥴 I mean if you are from Russia and traveling around with big smile on your face while your country is doing horrible things - you are also one to blame. Your taxes support it - so if you have money to travel you also have money to change your tax residency 🙏 So that is for now, maybe some other thoughts later.
A few days before https://www.yewtu.be/watch?v=Q… NATO admits the war in Ukraine started at 2014 after the US backed coup and that putin was seeking peace at least since 2021 and NATO rejected that and prefered expansion and war. So who is doing nasty things? Russia or NATO?
I wasn't talking only about Ukraine war - but also about other war which Russia started (as Russia-Georgia war). And the purpose of the post was to inform about how people actualy feel about Russia. Do you live in country which has borders with Russia - if yes, than are you not afraid of them?
You said "while your country is doing horrible things" refering to present while you are talking about russians who are in Georgia now. So... I am greek and my country has suffered from the western countries. No i don't afraid of russians, in fact i support them against the Nazis and their supporters
How did Greeks suffer from western countries? From my knowledge your economic situation is in a terrible condition due to which there's a money printing which inflates rest of the Europe.
Do you know where napalm bombs used for the first time? Do you know what Churchill said to the british soldiers after the second world war concerning Greece? These are two examples. And it seems you don't know about the economic By the way where are you from?
I have a certain understanding of the sentiment of the note. Collectivist thinking is not gonna help when it comes to resolving the War. Citizens of a Govt are not to blame for the actions of their Govt. Individual American citizens are not to blame for the American Govt and their Imperialist international policy for the last half a century. Not everyone wants to leave a place they call home. The NYC culture is not the same as their governance. Citizens living in a jurisdiction they dislike are still capable of participating in Civil Disobedience. Freedom loving Californians will not wear masks and will participate in Bitcoin, all in an effort to disobey the unjust authority of local govt. From the outside, California is a state full of libtards who want to take away your children and sterilize them. In reality, there are more Conservative and Religious people in the less urban areas than popular consensus believes. Majority of the geography don't want lunacy, but its the urban centers with high population densities that overwhelm due to Direct Democratic Political infrastructure. The Russian citizens and culture are not the problem its their Govt. Same thing with comparable countries, like China. Centralized Governance corrupts absolutely, and Wars are stroking the egos of political class.
Imho, if those people pretend that nothing bad is happening and still living their happy life, you can blame them for ignoracy. Maybe you do not want to leave the country, but there are some way how to not supported it to much (buying #noKYCbitcoin and donate it to someone who can use it in better way). Actualy before visiting Georgia, I didn'thave this minset. But I saw lot of Russian tourist there who didn't care about nothing - only how to enjoy they life.
I understand what you’re saying about Russia. Georgia survived the Soviet era with their own culture but many occupied countries did not. It’s sad to see the people hurt so badly by many years of oppression. It’s also sad to see them taking it out on you. It’s not ok. I also wonder what we should do here in the USA? Where can I go? No government is any more holy, moral or polite than any other. There are stronger governments, and weaker governments. That is all. There is no reason to leave a strong evil and hurry up and pay taxes to a weak evil. Some people have tried to leave totalitarian places. I think of the beautiful but really sad story of the Lykov family. They left Russia, but they died alone. They died free, but their death made no difference because they didn’t influence anyone around them to be better and to live more and love more. We wonder why people hate us and tell us to go home to the USA. My tax dollars pay for us to be the largest exporter of war in the world (more invasions than Russia in the last hundred years). We have more foreign military bases than anybody else ever (more than the British empire). We drone strike families. We have basically purchased Ukraine with billions of dollars of debt they can never repay us. We occupied many countries in the Mideast simply because some criminal lives in that country and we want to kill him and his family. I say “we.” I live in the USA but the USA isn’t me. I chose to stay here. I am an individual. I don’t want to do any of those things. I want to be nice to everyone I can. There are many people right here that need help. It’s sad that you were discriminated against in Georgia, why? Because of your hair color? 😢 If you hate someone because of their hair color, you are an individual but you are just as bad as the governments of 1940s Europe. They hated people because of their hair color too. We will never change the governments. We can only change ourselves. We start by seeing people, not nationalities l!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. To be honest, I do not know situation in US very well - so I would rather not to comment it. But there are always small things which you can do (even they seems irelevant that maybe can change something - maybe not now, but maybe in future they will). Things like living on your own - to grown your food, homeschooling, supporting local communities and no big comanies, buying BTC, educating others..It always starts with small things. Maybe I rephrase it a bit - I did not feel discriminated, but I feel strong tension when people thought that I am Russian (mostly in Tbilisi where they face problem connecting to Russian) - otherwise Georgia people are super hospitable, friendly and nice.
@Littlepixie You should stop this nasty habit of sticking your nose into other people’s money.
I had the opportunity to spend three months in Georgia 🇬🇪 a couple years ago. The people are so warm and welcoming. I wish I could go back.
Hi, this is hated unwelcome Russian in this thread! Yes, #Russians have a very bad reputation right now because of the insanity of their government, and it's very easy to hate them because the majority does. But I assure you that Russians who live in Tbilisi don't lead an idle lifestyle with a smile on their face and don't support the war or Russian occupation or anything else... And if they smile, it is only because they also want to enjoy life sometimes and have a good time surrounded, despite the hatred of the whole world, discontent of Georgians, far away from their relatives, without friends, in complete loneliness. There are many good and talented people among Russians, they are just broken by the experience of living under dictatorship and powerlessness against their tsar
To be honest I was bit afraid to share it - because as you may notice, it is quite controversial topic here 🙈 But I will share more about it.
Thank you very much for these words 🙏 and overall support.
There is a lot more on that topic than meets the print (as is the case with most topics these days). It's not even really concealed, a little more research, and a little bit of history would find you moving one foot (at minimum) back through the doorway.