Nathan Ruser Profile picture
Apr 12, 2022 26 tweets 17 min read Read on X
The final state of Ukraine's support mural in @Reddit's 80-hour r/Place art mural experiment. It features Zelenskyy, a Bayraktar, the An-225, tractors dragging tanks, cathedrals, and several cross-over references I'll try to explain below.
@Reddit This experiment allowed every Reddit user to change one pixel on a massive canvas every 5 minutes. Creating murals like this required communities to come together under a common vision to stake out their territory on the canvas and maintain it in the face of other communities.
@Reddit Within 2-hours of the experiment starting, a large Ukraine-flag banner had been drawn across the whole canvas. This lasted for about 10-hours before being encroached by a mixture of generic pro-Ukraine symbols (plus "FUCK PUTIN") and random doodles/graffiti.
@Reddit This was quite a nice part of the original banner before it disintegrated into the mural.
@Reddit The art that endured throughout the mural are:
- the link to r/PlaceUkraine -the subreddit that lead the organisation of the mural;
- a link to comebackalive.in.ua - a crowdfunding website to support the Ukrainian military;
- a sprite of a Cossack warrior;
@Reddit - a Ukraine flag-coloured tractor towing an abandoned tank;
- a peace sign in the Ukrainian-yellow;
- a portrait of Zelenskyy in sunglasses;
- the Tryzub - the Ukrainian tridant/coat of arms;
- the symbol of Crimean Tatars above it;
@Reddit - Slava Ukraini! (Слава Україні!) - Glory to Ukraine;
- the An-225 Mriya cargo plane that was destroyed in Hostomel;
- Glory to Heros! (Героям слава!);
- more tractors dragging tanks amid a field of sunflowers (representing dead Russians);
@Reddit - Saint Michael's Monastery - a Ukrainian Orthodox monastery that was demolished during the Soviet occupation and later rebuilt;
- Saint Sophia Cathedral - Ukraine's first World Herritage site;
- a MiG-29 representing the Ghost of Kyiv legend;
- a Bayraktar armed drone.
@Reddit There are also several cross-references to other communities drawing on the canvas (remember this is peak online):
- The DOTA-2 logo and a character from the video game;
- Na'Vi logo - who is a popular Ukrainian video-game streamer;
- The Beatles' Yellow Submarine;
@Reddit - Flag-hearts of several other country communities on Reddit showing solidarity. Because there was limited space for hearts there was stiff competition between the flags displayed, and they often changed as some communities woke up and others slept;
@Reddit - the "Wings of Freedom" from the anime Attack on Titan coloured in Ukrainian colours;
- the Japanese word for "Freedom" (自由を) referencing these wings;
@Reddit - Nanachi - a girl/critter from the anime Abyss. Her sprite was originally drawn over to make the mural but was permitted to be redrawn in blue, in solidarity to Ukraine;
- a generic sprite from the Ukrainian video game S.T.A.L.K.E.R that is set in Chernobyl.
@Reddit Keep in mind that none of this was 'finished', no one knew when the canvas would be shut down and therefore this was an evolving artwork until the moment that it was finished.
@Reddit There are also several other pieces of 'protest art' on the canvas, showing support for protest movements against authoritarian states. I'll try my best to show them below, but I'm probably missing quite a few. Please let me know what I've missed.
cc @NiaoCollective
@Reddit @NiaoCollective Firstly there is the anti-CCP corner.
It shows:
- a mural in solidarity with trafficked women in China, referencing the Xuzhou chained woman incident
(徐州铁链女事件);
- a drawing of Tank Man standing in front of 3 tanks and the text "Fuck CCP!";
@Reddit @NiaoCollective - a portrait of Zhang Xianzhong (张献忠) a Ming-era leader of a peasant revolt. He represents the cycles of slavery and rebellion in China and currently is the mascot of the CLTV subreddit, a Chinese-language subreddit that critically discusses the CCP;
@Reddit @NiaoCollective - the LIKHG pig in a gas mask and yellow safety helmet, a protest symbol in Hong Kong - flipping off Xi Jinping morphed with Winnie the Pooh - a popular insult-caricature of Xi.
@Reddit @NiaoCollective There is also a map of the Baltics, with Belarus coloured in the red-and-white protest flag that has become popular with the democratic protests last year.
@Reddit @NiaoCollective There is also this extremely odd alliance between pro-ASEAN and pro-Democracy Philippines artwork and then some faction in a popular Grand Theft Auto online roleplaying server. The Tumindig character represents standing up to dictatorship in the Phillipines.
@Reddit @NiaoCollective This block was getting graffiti'd by a streamer for 5-hours trying to write "Freak Squad". Forcing the GTA and pro-Democracy ASEAN subreddits to team up and fend him off. Apparently, the graffiti ended when the streamer saw some GTA roleplayers had raised money for Ukraine.
@Reddit @NiaoCollective This 'alliance' was demonstrated by a drawing of a Tarsier representing r/Phillipines being drawn along with artwork of two dogs belonging to one of the GTA Roleplayers.
@Reddit @NiaoCollective There is also a Taiwan flag that has lasted on the canvas since the very beginning of the experiment, with a Formosan Black Bear and a Taiwan Blue-Magpie drawn on it. Elsewhere there is a Taiwanese independence flag (with a heart made up of the three adjacent community flags).
@Reddit @NiaoCollective There is also a large Black Bauhinia flag and a yellow umbrella both representing the pro-Democracy protest movement in Hong Kong from 2019. It is next to the Australian mural (with a shared solidarity heart) and a large Star Wars Mural that was built simultaneously.
@Reddit @NiaoCollective This led to another surprising alliance between the Star Wars subreddits and the pro-Hong Kong subreddits, with another Star Wars mural on the canvas being endowed with the Bauhinia symbol in solidarity.
@Reddit @NiaoCollective There was also an alliance between the Liverpool FC community and the Algerian community after the Algerian flag-banner and associated Berber flag were regularly defaced by Moroccan users.
Some other cute alliances that popped up:
- one between the Bangladeshi community and a gaming discord called HOMI (also with the Singapore and Malaysian communities);
- one between a Twitch music producer and Armenian communities.

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More from @Nrg8000

Jun 10
The craziest thing is that the LA protests are remarkably normal, dare I say pedestrian. Theres no significant or widespread destruction, barely any meaningful resistance to law enforcement.

It's so transparently obvious that the Trump admin wants to fabricate a crisis.
There is absolutely zero tactical or strategic need for any federal support to control what we've seen this weekend. Yet the admin has been able to completely dominate and distort the conversation with barely any pushback from the democratic establishment or even the media.
By the way, when I say 'barely any meaningful resistance' I don't mean no skirmishes, I mean that at NO point have the police not been able to quickly and effectively perform whatever crowd control action they deem necessary.
Which is absolutely credit to the protesters.
Read 12 tweets
May 7
🧵Geolocations of ALL sites that the Indian Army has claimed to have hit in Pakistan and Kashmir.
1. Masjid Syedna Bilal/Hazrat Bilal
34.385846°N 73.456974°E
It appears to have been a direct hit, according to after-strike ground photos.
google.com/maps/place/34%…Image
Image
2. Reported training camp in Gulpur, Kotli
33.402328°N 73.876957°E
No post-strike imagery yet.
google.com/maps/place/33%…Image
3. Masjid Ahl-e-Hadis in Barnala, Bhimber.
32.867802°N 74.256469°E

Quadcopter-dropped munition appear to miss the target building and strike a courtyard around 50m away. google.com/maps/place/32%…Image
Image
Read 14 tweets
Mar 8
There's a horrendous amount of violence happening over the past few days in Syria, and a tremendous amount of uncertainty in numbers, details & actors. Yet it's astounding just how few people (including mainstream journalists) are engaging with these incidents in any good faith.
So many people are visibly giddy at the idea that the new Syrian government is committing atrocities. And as a result, absolutely misrepresenting the violence that is occurring. It's pulling in the pro-SDF crowd (biji!biji!) the Assadist crowd (counter-revolution!), the pro-Israel crowd (only the IDF can protect minorities!), the idiot Westerners (Assad was the thin blue line!) and even mainstream journalism (finally some spice to report).

And as a result, its the most counter-productive information environment I've seen around Syria since the chemical attack information ops.
It's imperative we find the details of these atrocities, who is involved and hold them accountable. It's crucial this is prevented from becoming a wider sectarian conflict.
And it's wild that most reporting and commentary is acting as a barrier to this, not a help.
Read 4 tweets
Dec 11, 2024
🧵Look towards the light.
As Rebel forces in Syria advanced across Syria & never stopped a key question was why the Regime evaporated. Syria by night provides some clues on how the Regime's social contract collapsed.
Read my analysis here
& read onaspistrategist.org.au/just-look-at-t…Image
Image
There are three pillars to why the Regime collapsed so suddenly and drastically:
1. Complete lack of foreign firepower and air support
2. Increased professionalism and good governance in Opposition territory
3. Economic stagnation and the collapse of Assad's social contract. Image
I'm sure lots will be written on that first pillar, @azelin recently wrote a detailed and helpful article on the 2nd (warontherocks.com/2024/12/the-pa…), and @E_of_Justice's thread here is helpful too x.com/E_of_Justice/s…
Read 26 tweets
Nov 6, 2024
I think the rest of the world just has to realise the US we thought we all knew probably just doesn't exist and hasn't for a while. We need to shift our assumptions and look at the US in the same way we look at India.
Harris didn't lose this race, and post mortems are useless. America made an informed and considered choice and picked the man they did. There's probably not much a reasonable democratic campaign could've done to change that. America saw Trump. And they liked him.
This also isn't a slight on India, it's a remarkable (and deeply flawed) country that we work with productively and well, it's just an entirely different ballgame (and sense of exceptionalism), and honestly the lens we will need to look at the States through imo.
Read 4 tweets
Jun 13, 2024
🧵On May 17, fire swept through Rohingya neighbourhoods in Buthidaung.
Satellites show what burnt and when, and my new investigation reveals an arson campaign against 50-60 villages & demonstates who carried it out.

Read it in full ⬆️ and follow along ⬇️ aspistrategist.org.au/they-left-a-tr…

Image
Image
Through April and May, arson attacks burnt around 900 acres and over 10,000 homes across Buthidaung township in the most concerning and dangerous bout of sectarian and communal violence since the 2017 pogrom that expelled Rohingyas from much of northern Arakan state.
As flames rose above Buthidaung town on the night of May 17th, the activist community and eyewitnesses pointed the finger at the Arakan Army, an ultra-nationalist Ethnic Resistance Organisation rapidly capturing that part of Burma. Something the AA viciously denied. Image
Read 19 tweets

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