Xiao Xiang: Russia or Ukraine, tell me about my circle of friends
The Russian-Ukrainian war has been going on for more than 50 days. It is the largest humanitarian crisis and disaster in Europe after World War II. 4.5 million Ukrainian civilians were forcibly displaced and fled to other countries. The war has drawn the attention of the world, not only the nerves of the international community are tense, but the Chinese WeChat circle has also responded enthusiastically, with a lot of attention and discussion. Around the cause of the war, right and wrong, and progress, various views and opinions collided, and different information and information conflicted with each other.
The WeChat circle is basically composed of different types of groups such as classmates, colleagues, fellow villagers, colleagues in the industry, and fellow students. In all these groups, except for a few groups, those who support Russia occupy the majority, which is the majority, and those who support Ukraine are the minority. It is quite different from the consensus of the international community to assist Ukraine in general (the United Nations held two emergency special sessions on March 2 and March 24, and both adopted draft resolutions with overwhelming majority, condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its humanitarian consequences). do not.
Regardless of the internal and external differences, based on the observation of current online public opinion and the understanding of the ideological tendencies of social groups, the different views and opinions of the WeChat circle on the Russian-Ukrainian war have certain sample significance and can not be ignored. Reference value. Based on this, the author tries to quote the respective opinions and views of the two WeChat circles on the Russian-Ukrainian war as follows, for the sake of appreciation:
Regarding the cause of the war, the pro-Russian faction quoted Russia’s statement that NATO’s eastward expansion and Ukraine’s attempt to join NATO pose a threat to Russia’s homeland security. Make it a buffer zone between NATO and Russia to prevent the threat of NATO’s eastward expansion and ensure national security. This is a more general statement. In addition, there is a deep view that historically Ukraine and Russia are the same East Slavic race, and Ukraine was originally a part of the Soviet Union. Putin is unwilling to the status quo that Russia has been reduced to a second-rate country after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. He admires Peter the Great, imitates Stalin, and wants to rebuild the territory of the Soviet Union. Ukraine is indispensable and bears the brunt, so Ukraine must be pulled into the sphere of influence and gain control over Ukraine.
The Ukrainian faction does not agree with the idea of NATO’s eastward expansion and Ukraine seeking to join the treaty. It is pointed out that Russia has a land area of 17.09 million square kilometers, which is larger than all other countries in Europe combined. It is the largest country in the world, and has the most nuclear warheads in the world. It is the second land military power. Ukraine has an area of just over 600,000 square kilometers. In front of Russia, Ukraine is just a small country, and it is a joke to say that it poses a threat to Russia.
NATO is a defensive military organization, led by the United States and Britain, to provide military defense and protection for its member states. Therefore, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, some former socialist Eastern European countries such as Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, especially the former Soviet Union countries, such as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and other small countries, in order to get rid of the potential threat from the big powers in the east, have applied to join NATO, reported to the mission to keep warm, and sought asylum and the security of small countries. This is not so much the eastward expansion of NATO as it is the westward expansion of Eastern Europe.
Of course, every country, big or small, has its own security concerns. However, this security concern cannot be expanded into a reason for invading other countries, otherwise, the reason for the Russian Empire’s occupation of large tracts of land in our country in the 19th century can be established. Therefore, launching a war on the basis of NATO’s eastward expansion and Ukraine seeking accession to the treaty, threatening Russia’s security, is just a cover-up excuse, a robber logic of bullying the weak, and is not legitimate or legitimate.
Even from the perspective of historical and cultural origins, the “Kievan Rus”, which is considered to be the predecessor of Russia and Ukraine, originated from Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, and Ukraine has a unique right to speak to the history and culture of the East Slavs. Ukraine used to be attached to the Soviet Union and was a republic of the Soviet Union, but in 1991, it became an independent and sovereign country after the disintegration of the Soviet Union after the referendum decided to become independent. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, especially since 2014, Russia has been intent on bringing Ukraine back under its sphere of influence and preventing it from integrating into the West politically, economically and culturally. Ukraine is located at the intersection of Eastern and Western Europe. Historically, it has accepted the influence of Western civilization more than Eastern civilization. In 1991, it broke away from the Soviet Union and became an independent country, which is the earliest and strongest proof of its inclination to the West. As a result, frictions, contradictions and conflicts between the two sides continue to escalate and deteriorate, leading to war. This overlaps with pro-Russian Putin’s vision of Russian imperial ambitions. However, unlike many supporters of Russia who admire, admire and even admire Putin’s strength and power politics, supporters of Ukraine hold a critical and negative attitude towards Putin’s power and “love stack”. This is also an important difference between the two cognitive concepts.
If a big country invades and forces another sovereign country that was once subordinate to itself but is now independent on the grounds of its past subordination, it is contempt for the justice of the world today and a violation of the peaceful and stable international order. destroy. If we let it go, the world will be in chaos, because, due to historical changes and changes in geopolitical relations, there are still many such situations in the world. The Ukrainian faction therefore believes that Russia’s bullying, violating justice, launching wars, and destroying peace should be condemned.
The pro-Russian faction disagreed, believing that Russia was compelled to do so, and that the division was famous and could not be considered an aggression. Some people also cited internal polls in Russia as a reason to believe that the majority of the Russian people supported the opening of Ukraine. After the war, the polls showed that Putin’s approval rate rose by more than 10 percentage points to more than 73%, indicating that Russia’s use of troops in Ukraine is reasonable and justified.
The Ting-Ukraine faction asked back, that without authorization and permission, the army was sent into the territory of another country and was counterattacked. This is not an aggression, what is an aggression? From the perspective of narrow self-interested nationalism, it is not surprising and understandable that the Russian people support the opening of Ukraine, but it cannot be used as a justification, nor can it be used to justify the war. If launching a war has the support of the majority of domestic public opinion, it is justified. Then Hitler launched World War II and Japan invaded China, which also received the support of the majority of the domestic people. Is it also legitimate and not considered aggression?
The pro-Russian faction feels that it is unfair to blindly condemn Russia, and leads the United States. They believe that the United States is behind the scenes by inciting the flames and provoking the war. They also mentioned the Iraq war and questioned the pro-Ukraine faction: You condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, why don’t you condemn the United States’ invasion Iraq?
Those who support Ukraine ask those who support Russia, how do you know that you have not condemned the United States? Taking a step back, even if we did not condemn the US invasion of Iraq back then, we cannot think that we cannot condemn Russia today! He further pointed out that to say that the United States is fanning the flames and provoking wars is to confuse the public and make no distinction between right and wrong. Since the second half of last year, the United States has judged based on intelligence analysis that Russia has gathered troops on the Russian-Ukrainian border and is preparing to invade Ukraine, and war is likely to break out. Therefore, the intelligence was disclosed to the outside world, the Russian conspiracy was exposed to the media, and a representative was sent to warn Moscow to stop its conspiracy, and the relevant information was passed on to my country more than once. Don’t you see, before the war, CCTV had ridiculed the US’s big-mouthed intelligence more than once, and even satirically criticized the US for creating war panic and spreading war rumors everywhere. Are there such idiots in the world who use this method to provoke and manipulate wars?
There are also obvious differences in the attitudes of the two sides in treating and adopting various information about the war. Generally speaking, any information that is beneficial to the Russian army will be used immediately by the pro-Russian faction, and will be sent as soon as it is seen. As for the news that is good for the Ukrainian side, the Ukrainian faction also likes it, but it is more cautious and conservative when forwarding it. In this way, in the initial stage of the war, there was a lot of information in the WeChat circle that was beneficial to the Russian army, but many were false and untrue.
The most typical is the rumor that NATO commander Claudier was captured by Russian forces in Mariupol. The NATO commander was captured. This is of course amazing news. It means that the Russian army has achieved a great victory, which is enough to increase Russia’s ambition and destroy the prestige of Ukraine. For a time, supporters of Russia were reposting everywhere in the WeChat circle, and it lasted for several days until NATO He came forward to clarify, saying that the NATO commander had not been to Ukraine since July last year, and the rumors were self-defeating and put to an end.
Another representative is the Butcha event. Ukrainian supporters forwarded the news: After the Russian army evacuated the town of Butcha, a large number of civilian bodies were found in the town. Ukraine condemned the Russian army for violating international conventions and committing war crimes of killing civilians. Supporters of Russia refuted it, denying that the Russian army killed civilians, citing a statement from Moscow, saying that the Buccha incident was deliberately fabricated by Ukraine to frame the Russian army. Afterwards, third parties—the New York Times, Washington Post, BBC and other world major newspapers and media followed up and launched independent investigations. There is evidence (satellite images and dates) that the massacre was committed during the Russian occupation. The pro-Russian faction remained unmoved and insisted on their own opinions, accusing the Western media of smearing and discrediting them.
Also sparking the debate between the two sides is an accusation from Moscow against Washington that the United States has secretly set up chemical or biological laboratories in Ukraine to develop biological and chemical weapons. In fact, this is not today’s news. It appeared more than 10 years ago, and the United States denied it at the time. At the very moment of the war, Russia repeated the prelude and made another accusation. The spillover effect of the spread expanded exponentially, and the WeChat circle was full of shocking people. The United States had to make another public statement, calling it false information. It is reported that the United States and Ukraine signed an agreement in 2005 to help establish biological laboratories for monitoring and preventing new epidemics. The laboratory is owned and operated by Ukraine, not the United States, as Russia claims, and it is public rather than “secret”, which the United States claims “has absolutely nothing to do with biological weapons.”
On the one hand is the Russian accusation and on the other the US denies it. The WeChat circle also insists on their own opinions and ignores each other. So, what is true and false, what is right and wrong?
This involves a basic and important issue of judging information. It should be pointed out that any individual, group, institution, or even political party or national government may not tell the truth, deliberately lie, or fabricate lies and fabricate facts out of consideration of various factors such as morality, interests, economy, and politics. In the Internet age where information is highly developed, the rise of self-media has broken the traditional media method, enabling the massive growth and instant dissemination of information, and at the same time all kinds of false, false, false and harmful information are also mixed in a large amount, which is popular and greatly increased. identification difficulty. This is especially true during the war, when all kinds of information are full of falsehoods and falsehoods, making it difficult to distinguish the true from the false, and it is hard to prevent. This especially requires people to be cautious and discriminate when faced with the dazzling information under the dazzling mix of fish and dragons.
First, look at the source of the information to see if it is authoritatively published or has credibility, and secondly, cross-comparison with multiple sources, verify by multiple parties, and then make a judgment. Important news, especially. For example, the rumor that the NATO commander has been captured is big news, and the international community will definitely report it. Just check the world’s major media—the domestic Xinhua News Agency, the International New York Times, the Washington Post, the BBC, etc., to determine the authenticity of the information.
Of course, issues like the Ukrainian biological laboratory involve countries and are highly specialized, making it more difficult to identify authenticity. However, it does not mean that a basic preliminary judgment cannot be made on such information. As mentioned earlier, any country can lie about certain issues at some point in time. The United States and Russia are no exception. America has lied, and Russia has lied. When the two countries accuse each other of lying, who should they trust? See who has the lower cost of lying, and see who has told more lies in history.
In a democratic society, freedom of the press, and multi-party competition, those in power are relatively risky, difficult to cover up, and costly. Nixon Watergate lied, was exposed, was impeached, and lost all political life. In a non-democratic society, there is a lack of power restriction and supervision mechanisms, and those in power lie relatively unscrupulously and easily cover up. Russia is a democratic transition, stuck in the middle of the process, in the middle of democracy and non-democratic. Therefore, if the two countries confront each other and accuse each other of lying, whoever lies has a lower cost, and whoever has lied more in history, will be more suspicious of whoever lied.
The differences and debates between the two factions of the Russian-Ukrainian war in the WeChat circle reflect the different attitudes and views, ideological cognitions and value orientations of some groups towards major international events. To a certain extent, it is also a reflection of the whole society’s recognition and orientation of the two different social civilizations of the United States and Russia.
Finally, it is necessary to mention the recent reaction of the WeChat circle to major domestic events, and to see the behavior of those who support Russia and Ukraine from a domestic perspective. The Fengxian incident, which occurred shortly before the Russian-Ukrainian war, and the overwhelming anti-epidemic incident in Shanghai, which is currently touching the heart of the whole country, provide us with observations and comparisons in this regard. In the two major incidents, the WeChat circle is also no less willing, and more concerned. But it is a pity that only one party is involved, and it is carried out unilaterally. All those who support Ukraine are singing a one-man show – forwarding relevant information, issuing rescue appeals, expressing humanitarian concerns, making positive suggestions, and of course, angry criticism. During the whole process, it is rare to see the participation of Russian supporters, especially the Fengxian incident, which can be said to be all absent, at least in the author’s WeChat circle.
This can not help but make people stunned. Those who support Russia have the courage to express their positions on international events, dare to argue, and even show their swords. When domestic incidents occur, they are silent, silent, and stand by. Intriguing. Is it because of some kind of fear, or out of some consideration, or really think that all the years are peaceful and that you can let Er be free?
It is difficult to give a definite answer to this phenomenon in a few words, but if it is summed up in one sentence, the traditional domestic “left and right” can be used to refer to those who support Russia and Ukraine, and summarize their appearance. That is, those who support Russia are on the left, and those who support Ukraine are on the right, that is, the leftists support Russia, and the rightists support Ukraine, with a few exceptions, which is basically the case.
In the final analysis, the international support for Russia and Ukraine is just an extension and reflection of domestic problems. The so-called distinction between the two factions is really the difference between left and right.
2022/4/18
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