I used to do business and travel to the Ukraine and Russia, and have maintained a dozen friendships with the Ukrainian side. Since a month before the war started, I've been in pretty constant and daily communication with my friends, mainly on WhatsApp. Some were adamant that nothing would happen, that Putin wouldn't be that stupid, while others went to stay with friends throughout Europe. Everyone was shocked at the brutality when it finally arrived.

I've decided to share a text that I got yesterday from one of my friends who hadn't responded to any of my messages for weeks, and I was really quite nervous. The reason I'm sharing this in particular is because it echoes what many others have expressed to me, but also this person is in every way an extremely gentle and kind soul, teaches small children, and for her to express this anger and rage is very telling.

I believe one of the keys to the next 20 years of humanity will be to learn how to educate people to recognize propaganda and disinformation.

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M1 2020 Mac mini (16G 2T) • Monterey 12.x • Dual 25" Acer 1440p LCDs • M1 2020 13" MBAir (256G 8G) •

Now you know how my parents, and my wife's parents, and countless other Latvians who fled Latvia during World War 2 and were refugees, felt about all Russians.

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The arts are not luxuries but assets that give way more than they cost.
--Ronald Tucker on YouTube

A mind is like a parachute. It doesn't work if it is not open.
--Frank Zappa

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Sam3
Now you know how my parents, and my wife's parents, and countless other Latvians who fled Latvia during World War 2 and were refugees, felt about all Russians.

Painful. Even after Putin is removed, it will take decades, generations, for Russia to be trusted again on the world stage. What a crime, what a waste.

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M1 2020 Mac mini (16G 2T) • Monterey 12.x • Dual 25" Acer 1440p LCDs • M1 2020 13" MBAir (256G 8G) •

The effects of Stalin's purges? Generations of those who might think critically about government wiped out or driven away. Their DNA removed from the nation's gene pool. Eugenics of a sort.

Thanks, tuqqer.

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Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.

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Acer
The effects of Stalin's purges? Generations of those who might think critically about government wiped out or driven away. Their DNA removed from the nation's gene pool. Eugenics of a sort.

I was going to say the same thing... Russia's been purging dissidents' for over 100 years. Pretty sure that anyone who was inclined to disagree has left since 1990. Just look at the population declines... although they're even more dramatic in some former soviet nations.

I was pretty surprised to see that the population of the USSR in the early 1990s was 290 million while the US was only 250... but if you add up all the former soviet states today they haven't even reached 300 million, while the US has added over 80 million in that time. So a LOT of people left... all the population growth is in the -stan region northwest of China and Azerbaijan (northeast of Turkey.)

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g=

I would never have thought they could be so blind and dumb, I always believed in humans. But obviously there is no chance for russians, they will always be just a group of sheep...

Turns out Russians and Americans are not so different after all.

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It is what it is.

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N-OS X-tasy!
I would never have thought they could be so blind and dumb, I always believed in humans. But obviously there is no chance for russians, they will always be just a group of sheep...

Turns out Russians and Americans are not so different after all.

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=wr=