Been thinking for the last few years where lies the boundary between personal and collective responsibility for autocratic onslaught. Now that my home country is being invaded, I feel my perspective is complete and am entitled to chime in. So, a thread/ https://twitter.com/WASBAPPIN/status/1299472520504946688

First, it is tempting to perceive political situation as static, while it in fact evolves (in either direction) both for individuals and complete nations.
Take my native Belarus. The first election was fair and democratic. That's when we voted in our current despot.

(Well, *them* voted him in, I was still 17 then)

Now, a generation and a half later, things changed. The country was pro-Lukashenko in 1994, indifferent in 2006 when I left it, and has finally ripened to democracy this year.

Then, let's look at Ukraine, the anti-Russian front of the decade. It had own dynamic, but was never really pro-Western between 2014 to the degree it is now. An inconvenient factoid most Ukrainian activists are shy to mention for obvious reasons.

Much of Ukraine was 'vatniks' to the same degree as contemporary Russians. Drank vodka together to same Russian nationalist songs, cheered for Serbs in 1990s wars and hated on Chechens. The whole Russian gestalt was mirrored in Ukrainian society to dismay of awakening activists.

As late as 2013 I argued with homophobic, jingoist Ukrainians who were 100% on board with Putin policies. When their country got shafted, they suddenly had their awakening moment. Listening to them now, you'd think they were independence minded, anti-Putin fighters at inception.

So it is probably not very surprising that Belarusian revolution found hesitant support in modern Ukraine. A lot of them are Lukashenko sympathisers in "our bastard" canon, and politicking about protecting the flanks. The buffer state rhetoric rephrased. Old habits die hard.

The political evolution curve of Russia is a lot better researched. From few early years of liberalism, through tacitly supported by West authoritarian tendencies and into appointing the dictator for life. Current policies enjoy broad popular support, with a dissenting minority.

Since Russia appears to be the driver of global fascist advance, there's been a lot of bickering on the Internet as to what is proportionate. From nothing to nukes. What I feel is, all of that is morally marginal.

If you take three societies I mentioned in aggregate, these ills are shared and differ mostly in magnitude, timing and capabilities. Had Ukraine not been attacked, it'd be solidly pro-Russian at this point. Same sentiment was strong in Belarus too until very recently.

What I'm coming at, whatever moral inferiority is usually ascribed to Russia is relatively slight. It has better historical conditions for authoritarianism to thrive, more resources to feed it and nukes to guarantee Western non-interference.

That's it, there is no mythical virtue of national dress, ethos, language, climate or whatever else. So my conclusion, a democratic, non-xenophobe activist in Russia deserves as much support as in any other country. Which brings us to (non) question of collective responsibility.

If there is eventually coming a full on war with Russia, conventional or otherwise, these people will bear their share of responsibility: that's just how things are. Arguing about it on Internet is waste of breath. However, it does not seem any kind of war is going to happen.

The old global freedom alliance is weak and rotten. America is not going to war: it would either complete conversion to full fascist state of its own before, or retaliate only so much as to keep the response domestically appropriate. It's a false hope.

The thing spearheading authoritarian success is access to information channels in enemy states unheard before 2010s. Online broadcasting and social networks. Access to the audience not filtered (how ever poorly) by political elites or domestic journalist cadre.

America got its Russian president not by paratroopers from the skies, but via Twitter and Facebook. It will not be able to fight it off unless the online front is thoroughly broken through and the trend is reversed. That's the war to fight, and I have no idea how.

but for the lack of better options in the meantime, https://twitter.com/varjag/status/1062975444809592832