Feeling very tearful at the thought of ordinary people in Kyiv being given guns

[Flamingo49]

I find it heartbreaking and so sad to think of ordinary families in Kyiv being told to make Molotov cocktails and defend themselves with guns. Can't imagine how terrified I would feel if BoJo was handing out machine guns telling us to protect our nation. Anyone else?

It’s the prepping threads that do my head in, fuck off making it all about you

@MonStylo agree! Please tell me no one has started a prepping thread in response to the situation in Ukraine.

I’m with you though, OP - it is completely heartbreaking. Those poor people.

@MsTSwift

We have been cushioned for the last few decades. The easy life we have can turn on a sixpence. Take nothing for granted. Honestly read your history books - humans fight fight fight. Currently reading about the Anglo Saxons - constant invasion by murderous vikings and bubonic plague. Churchill told our grand parents to prepare to “fight them on the beaches”

Interesting you mention that. It is considered very likely that the angles and Saxons and other northern peoples were rejecting empire (Roman), and the hierarchical organisations that included slavery for some and extreme wealth for others. I’ve seen a few suggestions lately that the Vikings may have been doing the same, fighting against the newly reformed states and particularly Charlemagne’s empire, the re-creation of western Rome in Western Europe. America was founded by people fleeing Europe’s politics and wars. Worth remembering as suspicion grows about the destruction of workers rights and buying power combined with financial corruption through Russian money here. Russia looks like where we’re headed, but they’re already there and expanding.

There will always be men who want to dominate, and there will always be those who resist.

The primary teachers who resent the way their life has changed here can join the rest of us who find themselves living in a very different country from the one we were born into 40 odd years ago.

If I was a primary teacher over there and had no children of my own I would want one of those guns.

They are so astonishingly brave.
I am the person who interferes when I see someone kicking off in the street if I’ve seen the incident. Stops at an accident and gives my details, reports stuff to the police.

However

I don’t think I could be as brave as them. I know I couldn’t. Not with kids to protect. Would you risk being killed or sitting it out hoping you’ll do a better job with them than leaving them orphaned to putin.

The whole thing is utterly heartbreaking, we all saw it coming, but we were told “he’s mad but not that mad”. But he is.
America seem to believe he will be brought down by the inside, so angry oligarchs, dissent in his government, riots on the streets.

I don’t think he will, he must have had their support to do this

How much change did the protests against the Iraq war achieve? What about the massive protests against Johnson and Frost’s particular vision for Brexit? What about all of those who complained, wrote letters and voted against buy-to-let and the slow destruction of working class lives in Britain?

Do you expect Russian people to have more power for change than we do here?

Why is everybody taking a pot shot at the OP for being human. It's so pointless.

I would make a wine bottle bomb. I would rather die defending myself than being crushed by their tanks. It shocks me typing that. God help them.

@TinaYouFatLard

Anyone else??? Of course EVERYONE finds the situation heartbreaking.

This is becoming a revolting opportunity to virtue signal on here. With animal shelter donation and playing Ukrainian music on Alexa in support. It’s grotesque.

I agree with this 100%

War rampages in the world daily, we are all human beings but only some war affects us more than others?

Because it's visible? It's been going on forever but most just turn a blind eye

I wonder if age comes in to it @EvilPea. My DC now at nearly 19 and 16 could fend for themselves if I died. I think my survival instinct would be less than my determination to fight now than it would have been ten years ago. But God knows. How can I know I'd react. I think I would fight. I'd want to live though.

@UserBotLurking9to5

Why is everybody taking a pot shot at the OP for being human. It's so pointless.

I would make a wine bottle bomb. I would rather die defending myself than being crushed by their tanks. It shocks me typing that. God help them.

I don't think it's taking a pot shot at the op.

The ops post comes over as hand wringing as if no one has ever had to consider that others have the reality of war before.

I personally find crass and odd. We will likely never in our lifetime have to think of making petrol bombs and arming ourselves with guns due to our location and status as a country.

We are so privileged in that sense that we just don't feel the same when others face this as a reality every single day and we don't see the same outpouring

Poster after poster attempted to shame the OP for having a human reaction to what's going on. She wanted to share it.

You say that you personally find that ''crass'' and ''odd''. Right.

@TinaYouFatLard
Agree wholeheartedly.
Most of posters here knew nothing about this country, it’s history or people. Yes, the situation is extremely heartbreaking and everyone with a brain understands that. But some of the posters are only giving their attention to the situation because it naturally has a big news coverage at the moment. If it changes in a few weeks time, many will forget and switch to something else.

[quote okthx]@TinaYouFatLard
Agree wholeheartedly.
Most of posters here knew nothing about this country, it’s history or people. Yes, the situation is extremely heartbreaking and everyone with a brain understands that. But some of the posters are only giving their attention to the situation because it naturally has a big news coverage at the moment. If it changes in a few weeks time, many will forget and switch to something else.[/quote]
How arrogant are you? Lots of people are made aware of issues from the news and actually do read about context/history or shock horror, know already about the social and cultural history of certain conflicts. It is possible to be concerned about more than one thing at a time.
When people talk to you about current affairs in person is that your attitude?

The competitive virtue signalling is hilarious on this thread,

'ohhh OP, you only care about this war - I care about them all, all the time 😇'

Humans are ridiculous!

The competitive virtue signalling is hilarious on this thread

Agreed. And the ones who rush on to accuse others of virtue signalling are as guilty of it as anyone!

@lemmein

The competitive virtue signalling is hilarious on this thread,

'ohhh OP, you only care about this war - I care about them all, all the time 😇'

Humans are ridiculous!

It's not competitive virtue signalling.

Nor it is lack implying that anyone has lack of concern not arrogance.

It's the particular posts that make the situation about them in a grief tourism way.

Not " I care about all conflicts"

I just find it hypocritical and ignorant to wring hands and be in tears all day - as some people have posted -

@Polyanthus2

Also it doesnt' feel as this is it! Putin wants Ukraine back and then he's happy. It looks like he will move on to Estonia or any other of these bordering countries. So sad. What's worst imv is we need to save the environment and instead the world is focused on war.

I thought Putin looked a bit hamsterish with puffy face on tv yesterday - I wonder if he is on medication for something. My neighbour has parkinsons and looked a bit like that. Putin is 70.

I thought exactly the same …said to a friend yesterday that his face looks like a boozers puffy face !

I just find it hypocritical and ignorant to wring hands and be in tears all day - as some people have posted -

As previous posters have highlighted, some people have no one to discuss their worries with in RL, why can't they do it here without being mocked?

MN used to be a supportive space, now it's just full of posters wanting to be 'oh so clever' rinsing the OP for no good reason. You have zero idea the motives for people posting - you have no idea the state of their mental health, or if they're going through personal crisis, yet posters mock anyway, for what? I don't understand it - the OP didn't say anything particularly offensive, she just shared her thoughts about a really shit situation, why ridicule her?

Most of posters here knew nothing about this country, it’s history or people. Yes, the situation is extremely heartbreaking and everyone with a brain understands that. But some of the posters are only giving their attention to the situation because it naturally has a big news coverage at the moment. If it changes in a few weeks time, many will forget and switch to something else.

And this, most definitely is, competitive virtue signalling!

@showmethegin
Does OP also feel tearful about ALL the people suffering in the world right now? There are so many.
I mean, we could be genuinely tearful every day of every year. Or is it all about us?
People who involved in this conflict directly are suffering. There’s no need to be publicly tearful. OP is safe at the moment, unless she’s in Ukraine.

Does OP also feel tearful about ALL the people suffering in the world right now?

Does she have to before you'll allow her to post without being mocked? For the last 2 years MN has been hysterical about a virus 99-odd % of people would survive, yet every day around the world people die of viruses/poverty/famine - didn't make people STFU about covid though did it?

[quote ANameChangeAgain]A practical way to help
donate.redcross.org.uk/appeal/ukraine-crisis-appeal[/quote]
The Ukrainian Institute and Global Citizen sites also have ideas for practical help. Even if you can't do anything time consuming it's a proactive way getting involved.

@lemmein
Do you not see how offensive it is?
“I’m tearful about how 1 person in 2 will get cancer in their lifetime, I’m so scared” says the person to the actual cancer sufferer. This is my line of thinking.
People “hysterical” about covid are clear about the way the virus directly affects them. Maybe they/family are CEV, maybe they have lost their business due restrictions etc etc.
OP is safe at the moment. Maybe she can stop being tearful and think how to practically help those people. Is she going to do that?

@WhiteJellycat

Objectively having a gun there right now is a sure recipe to get killed fast. Fleeing is the safest option. They dont stand a chance of winning out. God have mercy on them right now

Men aren't allowed to flee.

Op is talking about the specifics of people living life relatively normally one day the next instructed how to make petrol bomb's on national TV.

It's a specific element that has moved her in this crisis.
It's that detail.

That doesn't mean that op hasn't or isn't moved, upset etc about ,"anything else" in her life or world, nor anyone else agreeing that it's that detail that brings it home to us here in the UK.

I can't fathom how this is so hard to understand ,I really can't.

It's a little like the footage of the old Man being pulled from the wreckage of his car after being squashed by the tank
Or the lady with the baby surrounded and pushed around by heavily armed Russian police in st Petersburg for protesting about the war.

Commenting on the Man or the lady with the baby doesn't mean the commentator doesn't care about other world atrocities.

What is so difficult to grasp????

No, I don't think it's offensive at all. She's not saying to the person with cancer in your hypothetical scenario 'I know exactly how you feel!' In fact, she's not saying anything to the 'cancer sufferer' at all. This is an anonymous forum, in the UK! You can feel upset about a situation without taking ownership of that persons experience - we all do it, everyday - it's just become the thing to whip posters about on MN.

She simply posted saying 'I feel tearful that ordinary families are being given guns and instructions of how to make bombs by their government'. It's normal to empathise more strongly with those you can relate to. Seeing a normal, everyday looking young teacher being armed with a gun at her window is shocking - whether that teacher is in Ukraine or Afghanistan. Seeing the leader of a country in military gear, on the street, ready to defend his country - I don't think I've ever seen that? The optics are just wrong and something we luckily haven't experienced in the UK in any of our lifetimes - of course it's going to unnerve some people. It's there in bold, bloody colours how fragile our privilege is.

Allow her to have her feelings FFS and stop making her post about you* and your ability to empathise better!

• you as in all the pps who have ridiculed her, not you personally, I don't know if you have!