Thread by @MaximEristavi

extremely alienating experience traveling to western european capitals these days. genocide in the middle of europe is often no more than disturbing headlines you can tune out if needed and keep living the same life: work, cafes, clubs, birthdays. but i‘ve seen before. in moscow

the day after putin murdered nemtsov was my last time traveling to moscow. it is been already a year of russian invasion of ukraine, but i found the city 100% unbothered living its usual comfortable life. even anti-war russians were treating it as a small talk convo

one former moscow friend, acutely anti-putin, told me ‘let’s not spend whole day talking about news and politics’ as my people were mass-slaughtered in donbas. i was so disgusted. that trip i realized russia is so blind there’s no point engaging until moscow literally burns down

i see the same blindness in western europe today. i don’t expect everyone to pause their lives — this is not what you do in the face of terrorism anyway. but the way i feel like at home in warsaw, prague or bratislava changes to full alienation in berlin or amsterdam

many people volunteer, donate, show up for rallies both east and west of eu. but for different reasons. in the west it is often about virtue signaling, making themselves feel better about what they see in the news. this is extra so for my generation of young europeans

they show up because this is a ‘trendy’ cause to show up. the same way they showed up for syrians without ever truly showing up for them. they are not ready to put their lives on the line for democracy, equality and freedom. hell they won’t put their own comfort for it there

it is hard to explain for now, but when i look at people’s faces in warsaw or prague you know they know. no matter what they do. we share the same acute awareness of existential threat. we’ve all been colonized before.

i won’t ever find myself here in a situation when we talk about genocide of my people & couple of minutes later the same people laugh about a funny unrelated thing — just to compensate for the awkwardness they feel. or put on the vests we fundraised for ukrainians for a selfie

in the west, comfort of a rich society makes your empathy a little numb. i know what I’m talking about — after 6 years in the eu without watching my back as a queer or journo for the 1st time in my life i know what it does to your willingness to sacrifice. i’m cowardly here

but if evil comes to the doorstep of my new home, i know that putting up my life on the line for my freedoms won’t be a problem. like it never been a problem for me before. the same goes for czechs, or poles, or slovak or estonians, or latvians, or lithuanians

however i know for a fact that if one of those hundreds of missiles russia dropped on ukraine would ever hit a western european capital today — it takes just 3.5 minutes for them to fly to berlin — these people will fold in no time

sometimes i think russia puts on this ukraine mass murder gig for one specific audience only — westerners. ‘you see what happens to comfort when you truly stand up?’ and this message is received here loud and clear.

i hope, though, i am terribly wrong.