Clarissa's Blog

I’m Ukrainian, and everybody has found out these days what we are like. It’s easy to mistake our stoicism for indifference. This happened to me my whole life. We keep on keeping on, and when things get really bad, we make toilet jokes. And everybody thinks, “wow, she’s so cold, she doesn’t even care and just goes and talks about the midterm in a calm, mundane voice.” But how is it going to help if I wail and freak out publicly?

If you read Ukrainian, I highly recommend following Roman Donik on FB. He’s fighting in Ukraine, and he shares crucial information that you can’t find anywhere else. An extremely calm, collected, serious guy.

Exactly. It’s either “you are lying” or “you deserve it anyway.” Don’t believe anybody who says Russian people don’t support the war. They are peeing themselves with delight.

When the corpses of Russian soldiers started streaming back into Russia in 2014, moms lined up for payouts and happily received them. Not a peep against the war from anybody.

People are naive and still don’t understand what they are dealing with here.

I’m also kind of stumped by the people who are going on and on about somebody somewhere reportedly canceling a cartoon with Russian characters.

Have you seen this?

Really? Cartoon characters?

Another group of morons is bleating that Russian speakers in North America are feeling “unsafe.” Seriously, if I never hear the word “unsafe” again, I’ll be very happy. Can we at least retire this COVID rhetoric when we talk about the war in Ukraine? Haven’t Ukrainians demonstrated how pathetic it is to “feel unsafe” over ridiculous stuff?

I was talking Russian on the phone in a store yesterday, and somebody gave me a dirty look. I didn’t “feel unsafe.” I was glad he knew and cared. I feel the same. N sent me a video of some Russian podcaster who is anti-war. I couldn’t watch more than 20 seconds. The accent, the concerned face. I started to heave.

I’ve read a mountain of posts by people in Ukraine who are under bombs. They don’t “feel unsafe.” They feel murderously angry and completely determined.

The number of Russia apologists on social media exploded today. I’ve spent all day unfollowing and banning. But they are coming from every crevice, like cockroaches. Curiously, it’s happening just as things become really bad. I’m thinking that the Westerners’ psychological defenses are paper-thin if they are resorting to such extreme forms of denial.

I don’t think it’s political or a result of propaganda. People are simply so incredibly coddled that they hide their heads in the sand like ostriches. They’ve never experienced any hardship and can’t even see it on TV without freaking out and concocting a fairy tale to self-soothe.

N feels so lonely without us in Florida that he made a friend. This is the first time since I’ve known him that this happened.

The friend is a Floridian named Frank who was born in 1921. No typo. He invited N over to his place and showed him the photos from his heroic times in WWII.

It’s a lot easier to live to be 101 than for N to make a friend, so I’m kind of stunned.

A strong wind started blowing towards Russia, and finally Ukrainian firefighters managed to get access to the burning nuclear plant.

As the nuclear plant burns, Russian troops continue shelling it and are refusing to let firefighters approach.

“But they can’t be so stupid to not understand that a nuclear explosion will wipe them out first,” people keep saying.

It’s weird because everybody has heard of those religious cults that collectively suicide by the hundreds. What was that guy’s name, Jim Jones? Or the suicide bombers. They know they’ll die. But they are fighting evil. They are going towards their reward in heaven! This is the same thing. The Russians aren’t afraid of dying because they’ve been primed for their jihad for their entire lives.

The Zaporozhye nuclear plant with 6 working reactors is on fire at this very moment.