Links

[selenak]

This weekend I had two antivaxxers trying to enlist/convert me, one of whom was also a Putin defender going on abouto how the "mainstream media" was reporting it all wrong. But at least I'm related to neither of them; a friend of mine has to put up with his own daughter insisting that covid does not exist. Meanwhile, I, alas, had it (with symptoms) last month, despite having been vaccinated because of the new Ommicron variant, and I can tell you, fun this was not. Have some Ukraine related links:

Ukrainian demonstrations in Russia-occupied Kherson

Article about Natalya Sindeya, the founder of Dozhd, one of the last independent Russian media which was just shut down.

Profile of Volodymyr Zelensky, one of several to be published in the last ten days; this one in the New Yorker

Comments

[davetheanalyzer]

Hope you're doing well. If possible, maybe limit news consumption to an hour a day. I heard that advice from author NK Jemisin and I found it helped improve my mental health a lot.

It can be frustrating trying to find reliable news on Ukraine from the lefty outlets. I can find it hard to tell if they focus on the U.S. potentially contributing or causing problems because U.S. citizens have more theoretical power to stop their government or they fall into the "If U.S. bad, rival/enemy country good" trap, failing to realize that multiple countries can suck in varying and different degrees simultaneously.

[selenak]

You and NK Jemisin are probably right, but I don't think I can manage that right now, alas.

We have thankfully a great many outlets who do report on Ukraine covering the entire spectrum between (old school) conservative, moderate left and old school left, and even the last one have stopped with the "but Nato/the US!" for now. However, social media are something else...

[davetheanalyzer]

It's alright. I understand managing news intake mightn't be always be possible for certain reasons. If you can, make time for distraction and breaks from negative news (If you already know this advice, sorry if it's annoying).

Fortunately, the lefty news source I watch is actually bringing on Russian and Ukrainian people to interview to give their perspective. They started doing it somewhat before for Russia and a few others but I like this change. Some of the guests might disagree a bit about details or what to do but it's much more informative about what's going on in those two countries (Now I wish this news source does more for countries like North and South Korea, Cuba, Taiwan, etc.).