“I heard a guy on the radio say he believes Greta is financed by Russia.”
But the BRAINWASHING done by their own governments is incredibly powerful. Think about how Russians, not Russia, not Putin, but ordinary Russians, are now viewed in Europe - as subhuman, very similar to the way Nazis viewed the Jews in the 1930s, so it makes sense that Europeans could be programmed to whatever state the government needs at the time. And you can see that seething hatred towards Russians often on this site.
Well look at how Whites are looked upon in Intelligentsia circles and publicly at Universities/Schools.
You’re not wrong - innocent Russians AND non-Russians are getting targeted in America and Canada (https://time.com/6156582/ukraine-anti-russian-hate/).
However, it’s dehumanizing in BOTH directions, and it’s Nazi-like behavior in both directions.
And whenever there’s a particularly egregious example - for example the same individuals making a career out of doing it to random victims AND posting up on social media - of course that provokes a retaliation.
There’s an insightful write-up of the phenomenon here - the author has a Russian mother and Ukrainian father, and she’s had anti-Ukrainian “negging” from her mother’s side of the family all her life. And now she sees the impact of the war from both sides.
https://globalcomment.com/the-russian-leviathan-of-hatred/
Her article starts off by referencing Eugenia Karlsson, a Russian teacher living in Sweden who harrasses Ukrainians: https://youtu.be/RxqVE80fWZ4, https://twitter.com/Lyla_lilas/status/1518980313740980228?s=20&t=3aA4easscd2I0sUVUBfBtQ - now, she says she was getting that from her own Russian side of the family even before the war.
Her account is not unusual. And not confined to Russia/Ukraine either. You hear this a lot from children whose parents get together despite racial/class-based/nationalist bigotry. But I think what that shows is the dishonesty in the victimhood and persecution complex from Russians - if Russian children with a Ukrainian parent were hearing anti-Ukrainian bigotry on a daily basis years before the conflict, then Russia has a problem. Half of it loves Ukraine and wants unity, the other half just thinks of Ukrainians as an untermensch.
My wife’s family is Irish - her dad’s an Orangeman and Free Presbyterian whose family were pally with Ian Paisley, her mom’s a Belfast catholic. It’s different now, but forty years ago they left Northern Ireland chiefly because her dad was sick of the “Croppies keep breeding like rabbits, fenian bastards” bullshit. They’re only now beginning to reconnect and reconcile.
And it’s not just the older generation of Russians that are doing it. Consider this muppet in Austria who actually has turned the harrassment of Ukrainian refugees in the street into a sport. She’s not doing it because she’s angry at them personally, she just revels in their discomfort and thinks they’re subhuman - and makes quite a bit of money out of doing it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBYqMStZ2-8.
And it’s happening in Ireland as well: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ukrainians-in-ireland-harassed-by-russian-patriots-8g580w3vd
The simple fact is, haters gonna hate in both directions and most of the time the haters are picking on people simply because of their ethnicity or nationality. This isn’t a reflection of wider society; it’s a reflection on two different things:
1. People with deep-seated bigotries and long lasting grudges.
2. Troll scum that you can find anywhere in any society, who just enjoy finding easy targets.