Comment on Is anyone else not feeling that patriotic for July 4?

• Allero@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  Nope, I’m from Russia.

  But then again, where does that not have its place? Are people in Europe, say, universally welcoming to immigrants? Or maybe Asia is not full of xenophobia? Africa, at least?..

  There are much better factors of unity than being on a certain plot of land.

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  • Valmond@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    Europe is quite accepting to immigration, but if you look for a country where no one dislikes foreigners, good luck!

    What I wanted to say in the beginning is, you band together to form a government, for the people, by the people! The US one is kind of crap, the russian one is an authoritarian hell hole, likewise in china.

    Here in Europe we complain all the time about “the government” but that is to make politicians change their policies, because we’ll vote them in if we like them (the policies) or vote them out if we dislike them. Works half-reasonable well (when the Kremlin doesn’t spew too much disinformation), better than any other system IMO.

    You can’t do that in Russia, so I understand your frustration about “the government”.

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    • Allero@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      Guess that’s why Europe has built defences against immigrants, and many European countries straight up rejected to accept them? And that’s why right-wingers with their anti-immigration policies win over more and more votes?

      My point is, this is one of the consequences that comes with national identity. For some, it’s just unfair preference of “their” people and things, for others, it’s nationalism and xenophobia.

      Blocking “disinformation” is also a slippery slope towards autocracy. Y’know, Russia did the same back in the day. I understand that it feels like a necessity amidst hybrid wars, but it’s bound to be problematic down the road.

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      • Valmond@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Well it’s not all rosy, but today immigration has become a weaponized tool, the Kremlin pays immigrants to ship them over to the Baltic states, uses propaganda in all ways to sway people to vote on bad things etc.

        I’m not saying the EU is some sort of haven, but it’s probably one of the better places.

        I think you are spot on with nationalism etc. It’s a fucking plague. We have enough of everything but no no let’s not share it. Sigh.

        About Russia though, they have always always been the bad ones (except 1991-2000? Maamybee), and we do a very very poor job of blocking their misinformation campaigns. It’s also way more powerful today with social media than it was just ten years ago.

        So today we got what we got, we can’t just “remove” all governments in the EU for example, it would just lead to a disaster. Fighting for a better world? Yes, I’d love that.

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