this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2024
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No Stupid Questions

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I’d argue it’s an objectively true statement that, of all the people alive today, Putin has singlehandedly caused more death and suffering than anyone else. The gap between him and whoever is second is likely orders of magnitude. Yet, when I read discussions about him, Russia, or the war in Ukraine, I almost never see the kind of hateful, nasty, and mean comments directed at him that I regularly see aimed at Trump, Elon, or even ordinary Republican politicians. Why is that?

Bonus question: Why be so nasty about it in the first place? There’s nothing wrong with criticism, but I struggle to understand the need for such meanness. Even when I agree with the sentiment, reading comments like that feels toxic. It poisons my mind too. I don’t like being angry, and I avoid it for practical reasons as well. Anger clouds my judgment, and I think it does the same for others and thus should be avoided.

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[–] rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 hour ago

Quality concern trolling. No notes.

These sorts of things can fade into the background over time.

[–] MNByChoice@midwest.social 27 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Pretty sure you are measuring using the wrong indicators.

There is little reason to talk shit of Putin as he is so hated, just as no reason to discuss water being wet.

Don't start "whataboutism". Those other people suck too. No reason to rank them.

[–] Free_Thoughts@feddit.uk 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

There is little reason to talk shit of Putin as he is so hated, just as no reason to discuss water being wet.

Wouldn't the same be true about Elon and Trump though, especially when talking about Lemmy.

[–] AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.world 5 points 2 hours ago

There's a huge contingent, even here, who loves both those guys, but maybe more importantly, they're supposed to be on our side. Hell, Trump is the president! Putin is the dictatorial ruler of an enemy country, we expect that he's going to do and say stuff that's terrible.

[–] recapitated@lemmy.world 10 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

I think most of who you're hearing are Americans. I might hate Putin with all my heart, but he leads a different country. There isn't "chain of command" between me and him.

Edit/more blathering:

I try to avoid the virulent speech (not always successfully I admit) about Americans' choice in leadership. And to a large degree, at home, even that is outside my "sphere of influence", but I at least have an opportunity to be heard by other parts of the electorate here.

And by the way, I think supporting Trump is supporting Putin. I hope I'm wrong, but I do believe that.

We can piss and moan about Putin (and we do, I'm not sure what you're missing TBH), but investing time and emotional energy, it makes sense to start at home, where we at least should have some influence on self-determination.

[–] 14th_cylon@lemm.ee 23 points 5 hours ago

Putin is a fascist dictator and you expect him to act that way. Democratically elected politician in democratic country should behave differently and when he doesn't, it obviously result in some outrage.

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 75 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

I don't hear about what Putin is doing every single day. But I talk shit about his bitch-ass too, when he comes up. Fuck Putin. All my homies hate Putin.

[–] dinckelman@lemmy.world 29 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

This is the correct answer. Putin has been almost universally hated, even within Russia, for years.

Everyone knows of his election fraud, and the assassinations of political opponents, let alone changing the law in his favor.

It’s just hard for people to have a strong response to what he does, because he spends the vast majority of his time controlling his meat puppets in silence. Meanwhile, both Trump and Musk yap their face off on every occasion

[–] Free_Thoughts@feddit.uk 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Wouldn't it also be correct to say that on Lemmy, Trump and Elon are also almost universally hated too? That's why it's so confusing that I mostly see it directed at them when I feel like it should be more towards Putin.

On a second though, the amount of tankies here probably explain this to a some extent.

[–] GrammarPolice@lemmy.world 9 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

The real answer to your question is that Lemmy is probably 70% American. Most of these Americans that shit on Trump and Elon either don't know what's going on in Russia or don't care because it has no direct influence over their livelihoods.

[–] spankinspinach@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 hours ago

I think this is the most accurate answer. Trump and Musk have a direct impact on ppls' day to day, and has the impact of the countries politics to be considered. Putin is just the big bad guy that's always been there for Americans, so maybe a bit of a novelty affect for the other two too.

[–] ma1w4re@lemm.ee 4 points 7 hours ago

Same but about every single American politician

[–] khapyman@sopuli.xyz 9 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

It kinda depends on on distance. I live in a country with a long shared border with Russia. Putin, putinists, Ukraine and whatthefuckcanwedoaboutit are regular and well researched debate in here.

In here American politics/elections are not in daily discussions but they surely are a thing to follow/be aware.

So here on Fediverse it is what most active users see and do. It's pretty American (and German). Far away from the war and Putin.

[–] Free_Thoughts@feddit.uk 1 points 4 hours ago

To be fair. In my experience I see much more hate directed towards Trump and Elon here in Finland too. Putin is rarely the subject of discussion among my friends.

[–] Ziggurat@sh.itjust.works 51 points 8 hours ago (3 children)

Pretty sure that if you're Russian expressing your hate to Putin would at best put you in trouble, and at worst lead to a slow and painful death in a labour camp.

Don't under-estimate how privileged we are in the West to express our hate for Biden, Macron, Trudeau, Von der Leyen and who ever is the British PM it's changes so fast that I stopped to follow. Without any legal repercussion

[–] Skua@kbin.earth 11 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

For what it's worth, the UK's current PM is Keir Starmer. We had an election in the summer and fucking finally kicked out the last lot that had been, amongst their many other efforts to make everything worse, churning through leaders like 3rd century Rome. The new lot have their issues too and it is of course too early at the moment to see if they have actually restored some measure of stability, but there's hope.

[–] naught101@lemmy.world 5 points 6 hours ago

Labour in the UK haven't offered anything new since Tony Blair, and even then it wasn't new in a good way. It almost looked like they might with Corbyn, but they destroyed him themselves.

[–] ma1w4re@lemm.ee -4 points 7 hours ago

I talk mad shit about Putin daily in vkontakte and yet I'm alive and well. Continue eating that propaganda raw.

[–] DragonsInARoom@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago

Because he's playing trump and the USA so they take the heat, god knows if people hated Putin it would cause people to unite against him. As long as he keeps the USA divided on every ground, it'll give him breathing room to conquer. First it'll be Ukraine, then Moldova, then western Europe. And with the USA distracted it's allies will fall. Because the muller report, and the public comments of Putin calling trump his friend aren't telling enough that having trump as the president isn't in Russia's best interest. All we can hope for is that elons "department of efficiency" stops government waste and lethargy. (A small ask for such derisive people)

[–] sir_pronoun@lemmy.world 4 points 5 hours ago (3 children)

Another fascinating question is why Netanjahu is receiving more hate in the West when they're basically doing the same thing, only Putin has even less of a reason and is killing more people. (Ukrainians didn't massacre Russian civilians or take them hostage, either)

[–] moonlight@fedia.io 3 points 3 hours ago

It's because the US is supporting Ukraine in fighting against Putin. In Israel, the US is supporting Netanyahu.

If we were funding Putin's war, you would see a different reaction. There's just less of a reason to complain if we're already against Russia as a country.

[–] Eiri@lemmy.ca 4 points 4 hours ago

Expectations.

People don't expect a country that's supposed to be a close ally to do actual pure evil.

Russia has always been in a different category. It's oscillated between being an outright enemy and being a distant, somewhat-ally the West is suspicious of. Either way, Putin was never someone you trust.

When someone betrays your expectations, you have a stronger emotional response.

When you feel like your country is actually helping with evil acts, that's another layer of emotional response.

But if someone you feel like you can't do anything about and has always been bad anyway is being evil, again... Well it's a bit of a "no shit, Sherlock" moment. Doesn't spark anger in quite the same way.

[–] sailingbythelee@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

Recency bias. Also anti-semitism. I don't mean that in the sense that any criticism of Israel is necessarily or logically anti-semitic. I mean it in the historical sense. Any time Western societies starts hating on Jews, we really, really need to reflect hard on why.

I know, we all think we are objective enough to separate the Jewish identity from the Israeli identity, but I'm not so sure. Jews are definitely not so sure. It would be interesting to see a study on the correlation between having general anti-semitic views and having negative opinions about Israel.

[–] serpineslair@lemmy.world 21 points 8 hours ago

Can't say for sure, but my theory is that people sorta accept that Putin is a hated person. Most people in Western countries - or rather people not in Russia - hate the guy, therefore people don't necessarily feel the need to elaborate on their dislike of him. Whereas people like Trump, after all, he got voted in so clearly some people must like the guy. Therefore people push back harder against him to convice others to do the same.

[–] LambdaRX@sh.itjust.works 6 points 7 hours ago

Because Lemmy is dominated by USA demographic, and Putin is ruling on another continent, so his actions are less impactful for average Americans' lives.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 5 points 7 hours ago

Maybe because we don't get the psyop that putin is not an evil bastard, so we do not feel wronged when we hear about him.

[–] remon@ani.social 13 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Pretty sure that's because of what kind of communities you're following (or not following). He absolutly get's that level of hate. Arguable even more as people regularly want him dead and mean it.

[–] Free_Thoughts@feddit.uk 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

I follow plenty of news communities as well as Ukraine and NoCredibleDefence communities but I still rarely see comments like that. Not never but it seems way disproportionate compared to what I see of these right-wing political figures.

[–] remon@ani.social 7 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Oh, if you're only talking about lemmy then totally. Lemmy is extremly biased. There is serveral big instances where criticising Putin will literally get you banned. And a lot of the bigger communites have tanky or tanky-leaning mods, too.

Also NoCredibleDefence is a rather lighthearted meme community, not a lot of hateful people there.

[–] cleverusername@lemm.ee 6 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

You'd accidentally fall out a 10th floor window.

[–] hungryphrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

That happens all the time, it's always purely an accident, trust me bro.

[–] erusuoyera@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

After accidentally shooting yourself twice in the back of your head.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 1 points 4 hours ago

Wait That's Boeing but we don't that around heren

[–] cleverusername@lemm.ee 2 points 6 hours ago

Also the window was a fixed pane window.

[–] small44@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

The majority of people hate Putin, just like anything else you will find people justifying terrible stuffs. Putin is a war criminal and caused a ton of suffering but Israel caused more death and suffering than Russia

[–] Free_Thoughts@feddit.uk 3 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Israel caused more death and suffering than Russia

Irrelevant and not true.

As of 5 November 2024, over 45,000 people (43,391 Palestinian[1] and 1,706 Israeli)[19] have been reported killed in the Israel–Hamas war

Source

Russia’s military casualties, the officials said, are approaching 300,000. The number includes as many as 120,000 deaths and 170,000 to 180,000 injured troops. The Russian numbers dwarf the Ukrainian figures, which the officials put at close to 70,000 killed and 100,000 to 120,000 wounded.

Source

And that doesn't even include civilians.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 2 points 5 hours ago

Agree that it's irrelevant here, but conservative estimates put the number of dead in Gaza at 200k+. It's definitely not just 45k for a few reasons.

[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 5 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Found on Lemmy.

But also, Trump and Musk have a much larger following in the western world. And they spout so much idiotic shit that it's hard to believe anyone would actually like them. So it's more fun to dunk on them because your goal isn't to insult them but their followers.

Putin has always been an asshole dictator and everyone always knew him to be an asshole dictator. Hardly anybody likes him in the western world. And if people do like him it's easier to understand because he doesn't show the idiocy we've come to expect from Trump.

[–] Freefall@lemmy.world 3 points 5 hours ago

Russia has been a world bad guy for as long as we have been alive and have spent some time now displaying their impotence to the world. USA joining the New Axis Powers as the last superpower makes trump far more dangerous.

[–] someguy3@lemmy.ca 3 points 8 hours ago

Putin's ability to directly impact American lives is limited. And what he does do (inflation on food, gas) is too far removed for most to understand.

[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

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