this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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It's not really surprising. One of the trends consistent for how many centuries is a combination of three things: IDGAF\fatalism attitude or похуй, strong belief in randomness of most things you'd think are pretty clear cause and effect or авось, isolationism\egocentrism\self-distancing from everything not directly concerning their daily life.
Not caring much for it's out of their power + chances are it won't happen so no need to think of it's consequencies + and if it'd happen why would it necessary happen to Them of all people?
It's mentality of people who have never got free from serfdom, but adapted to it's rules. With how corrupted were tsarist regime and then soviet union, that's how laws are usually applied: their harshness is compensated by how rarely they are followed through (waa it coined by Dostoevsky?), and it's not a responsibility but bad luck to be caught. This logic gets so ingrained the life itself is seen through this lense. My fellow russians and ukrainians I know call people with this mindset 'совок', sovokh, a short and humiliating word for soviet sympathisers, also meaning 'shovel' in both languages – that equals 'tаnкiе' but for those living in ex-ussr.
It was documented by many writers and philosophers of the past, and actually became a point of national pride, the unique way things are done there. You are kind of seeing that with everything surrounding current events. The conflict itself couldn't happen like that if government hasn't found the key to support and abuse this line of thought, but it's also why it has these performance and choice of tactics.
I shit on people who talks about a slave gene in ex-soviet people as it sound like some nazi bullshit, but social traditions and material conditions do form this very mentality. Being determines consciousness. And also causes meme absurdities like vacationing three steps from the frontline.
Sorry for being that verbose. All pieces fell into places for me while I was writing this comment. It's rare for a comment to trigger me into reflecting on information and thinking about it for this long, so kudos to you for bringing not only a laughter, but also some food for thoughts.