Anyone living in (Western) Europe will know that European “support for Ukraine’s independence” is being used as an excuse for mass austerity and militarisation. Talk about this with the average European though, and they will repeat a bunch of false information about Ukraine and the war:

  • They frame Ukrainian nationalism as a liberation movement instead of the fascist movement that it is at its core and inception
  • Russia is called irrational and unwilling to negotiate, so military domination is the only way out
  • diplomatic solutions are said to have failed because of Russia’s unwillingness, not because of EU/US/UK unwillingness to settle
  • Russia is described as a threat to European “independence”

The EU is spending a lot of money to keep this facade alive, so any internet search engine will direct any critical questions to EU sponsored websites and research to “combat misinformation”.

There is a growing anti war movement that challenges the need for austerity and militarisation, but it still struggles to gain popular support because there have not yet been any successful attempts to challenge the views that I wrote above.

I recognise that any successful funnel to challenge these beliefs will be met with aggressive attempts to be disarmed through accusations of being Russian propaganda, but I still want to pose the question on what you people think are good sources to start deprogramming the European working class on this issue. I know that there are many good sources on the actual situation on the ground, but due to the slander that most of those people and organisations have faced so far it is difficult to convince the average European that they are not Russian paid propagandists. So ideally there would be some place that really take someone by the hand to very carefully dissect what they have been lied about, in a similar way that the website www.decolonizepalestine.com does for Palestine.

Also I wonder if people are aware of any (diaspora) Ukrainian initiatives to challenge the misguided view that most Europeans have about Ukraine?

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[–] 16 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

You might be interested in the work of Marta Havryshko. I've found that there are anti-war voices, but online it's truly futile, forget about it and save your health! You get giga shadow banned and 100+ articles are written to appeal to libs against you. Support the scholars/researches who stand for justice. Truth is going to prevail.

By the way and I'll just let it sit here: Saudi Arabia has a massive military budget. Make it of what you will. clueless

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  • [–] [S] 6 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    Thank you, I mostly talk with people irl about this issue and struggle to deprogram them. I make progress but whenever I don’t see them for a while they’ve digested so much propaganda that it feels like I have to start all over again.

    But I also mean in organizing: most larger anti war movements communicate very awkwardly about Ukraine and I wish there was a better way to do it. They can’t explain every lie that’s been told about Ukraine in a short mobilising flyer, so they have to write that they support Ukraine but want a diplomatic solution instead of a military one. But that just doesn’t work with most people who believe that the diplomatic way has already failed. I just wish there was a clear way to communicate about it without being immediately dismissed as pro russia.

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