(Sorry for this question) Are you afraid of WW3 and economical crisis?

[Christy_Oshima]

I strongly believe that it is the beginning of something big and ugly. Certainly, we do live in the 21st century and politicians dont act as they did back in the 1900s, so a 'traditional' World War is not gonna happen but Im pretty sure that things wont get better for any of us. Putin acted exactly like America has for all the past years (declaring a war into a country without caring about the consequences, simply because no one can touch them) and the entire world is against him. He wont forget this and he wont let this go. Im just scared that the future will be much worse and as always the people will pay the price and not those who started it.

[feuersichel]

I think, the preasure was already building up over time. It highly depends what putin will do with his war next... And there are thousend theories about that. I am definitly worried he might snap and go nuclear
But nothing we can really do as a civillian other than presuring our politicans to follow the sanction-plan of the EU (swiss here and this happend now) and stocking up on supplies.

What restored my faith in humanity though is how the refuges are taken in with open arms. Especially poland who took in over 600'000 people as of yesterday! People were offering spare rooms and buying blankets etc.

I just hope, this madness ends soon.

[river121693]

I have no way of knowing what evil politicians will do, but no war is ever good. The only thing we can do is put pressure for peace, and read some Octavia Butler to learn how to survive.

That said, I don't think the world is in decline. It seems pretty par the course for capitalism. America has been annexing and invading countries since its inception. For a lot of these countries, and for many marginalized groups anywhere in the world, things are already near rock bottom.

[Noorie]

So you would say, that Europe and Russia will face a decline, but America will be fine?

[river121693]

I have no idea lol. Outside of personal survival, I don't think it matters which country will or will not decline because A) I don't understand or have much say in any of this and B) power conflicts between global superpower are self-serving. All capitalist governments are terrible to me, and this conflict, like any other conflict, is just a way for a small group (politicians, war profiteers, corporations etc.) to get richer. Everyone else, especially those who are already marginalized, will suffer.

[sc101]

Yes. I'm also weirdly simultaneously dreading and anticipating how it's gonna fuck the area where I live, so do with that what you will.

[BlairFujin]

Greeting form Poland, currently sharing posts on tumblr with legot-looking information and trying to keep myself preoccupied so that I don't get paralized with anxiety.

[Lensing]

I´m afraid of WW3, I´m afraid of even more people dying.
I don´t understand what´s going on and why it happend, all explainations don´t make any
sense to me

[Kelheor]

May the Russian part of the internet say we are scared AF too? Thank you.

[Christy_Oshima]

Russian people are no exception! Anyone who says that even the people of Russia wanted and rooted for this unspeakable act have no idea how the world and capitalism works

[NickRowler]

I do not think there is going to be a world war mostly because I think the way everyone thinks now is very different than how people viewed other countries 100 years ago.

I am somewhat wondering if this might lead to a coup in Russia or another revolution.

[Nada]

The situation on that side of the world is unfortunate, the separation of families, the death of thousands of people. Of those who are forced to participate in something that shouldn't exist and of those who can do something to avoid it but do not. I'm not referring to military solutions, but to definitive measures that, if applied more severely, could be effective. But what is going to happen from now on and what many of us suspect is inevitable.

[darthmongoose]

I think a third world war is relatively unlikely, as much as news sites and social media are relishing talking about it because it gets lots of attention, we're not actually even at the level of tension of how it was when I was born in the Cold War back in the Thatcher era. I'm from a town where they build nuclear submarines (in fact my Dad helped build HMS Vanguard), and even when I was little "It was like the three minute warning" was a local phrase meaning "it was a chaotic rush" because back in the Cold War, the people of my town all knew that if Russia launched a nuke at the town, there would be just a three minute warning for the people to get to safety.

Russia may have put the retaliatory nukes on high alert to ward off attackers, but hasn't yet put the offensive nukes into the position where they'd be ready to launch within 15 minutes like they were in the Cold War. For the time being, his threats are all just baring of teeth to scare NATO nations from intervening in the conflict. The whole war really doesn't seem to be going according to plan. It seems pretty likely Putin wanted to jump into Ukraine, have it taken over and forced into talks very fast to get the territory he wanted and then shrug at the rest of the world and way "well, I already did it, what can you do?" (pretty much like Crimea), But perhaps he overestimated his army (Or his generals maybe exaggerated the strength of their army, not expecting it to ever actually get tested), or the plucky defence by the Ukranians or the absolute balls of steel their President has. Russia is just bleeding money right now. In a matter of maybe as little as a couple of weeks, Putin won't be able to afford to continue the fight in Ukraine, never mind attack another country like Poland. Like he literally won't be able to afford to buy or make the shells or missiles for the tanks to fire, or to pay his soldiers. It's only a world war if there's fighting on multiple continents, and Russia can barely afford to fight on this one and all its "allies" and even potential allies are just standing back going "uhhhh...."
So mostly try not to worry too much about nuclear war, and instead extend your sympathy and care to those in Ukraine and Russia. A lot of Russian people aren't on board with what Putin is doing and the sanctions are hitting ordinary people the most.

We had an economic crisis back in the Cold War where I was born too. People always talk about the eighties based on how they were in America or in London; big hair, big money etc. But where I'm from, the North of England, all memories I have of my home town being on TV as a kid was redundancies and strikes. Everything was horribly run down back then and nobody had any money. There's an entire genre of British films nicknamed "It's grim up North" about the North of England in the 80s and how awful it was, with titles like Brassed Off, The Full Monty and Billy Elliot to name but a few well-known ones. It was hard. I recommend learning to batch cook food and darn your own clothes, and try to join community groups for cheap socialising.

Look after each other. Be kind. Take breaks and treat yourself to small comforts; a hot shower, a cup of your favourite tea, watching some of your favourite funny show. Get on and make your comics and novels; to many people we're providing much needed escapism.
There may be a week or two of this still to come, but hopefully peace talks will progress. Worrying about it constantly won't change anything.

[masi]

“For a lot of these countries, and for many marginalized groups anywhere in the world, things are already near rock bottom.” This. I’ve been kinda stressed out about the ww3 because I believe anything can happen post 2020 since no one ever predicted that pandemic would really happen, but it did, and then every moment in following year was like a big awful historic moment happened. On the other hand, I’ve been a minority as an atheist, asexual bi in a deeply conservative country who takes a more rightwing turn each year. That makes my perspective a bit skewed, since I see everything in the worst case scenario because of my own situation, thus I fully recognize the real possibility of war now, regardless of Biden’s promise of not putting troops in Ukraine. I wish peace would prevail, but I know that Ukraine people deserve the right to defend themselves, and it’s kinda irrelevant what the world wants especially people who thinks Russia is in the right here. Us has invaded multiple countries and we condemn them when they do, atleast the progressive side do. So it’s only right to condemn putin and his imperialist government.

[Noorie]

This I know for sure

[Noorie]

I really hope you are right, it's probably the best option

[AmandaJ-art]

I am afraid of it as our borders with Belarus and Russia are being strengthened. Not to mention we have American and Canadian soldiers here just in case Putin tries anything.

It is scary, but I know no other country wants this war. Our countries are isolating Russia and due to that their ruble value is dropping. Our country took out Russian products from stores. They cancelled swift. They cancelled all of the Russian channels. Cancelled all of the Russian flights. Their economic state can't be good with EU disagreeing with Putin.

I'm sure their people will start to rebel even more than they are doing now. People are sick and tired of his games. There is always a chance of a major war happening as if Russia decides to go after a post soviet country in NATO all other NATO countries will be dragged in. We can never know what this man will plan next.

[MarMarTche]

I feel like (or at least I hope that) the general appetite for larger scale war is lower with the rise of social media access. We can see what's going on with both sides from the perspective of anyone with a camera and access to youtube or tiktok. Both sides are full of young people dying in another needless war. It's not as glorified as it used to be.

[Zhengo]

As long as NATO doesn't put it's own troops to fight the war and Russia doesn't attack an official NATO country, then I think a world war is unlikely. Though I guess I am hoping that the nuclear button in Russia is still managed by multiple people and not one person.

Though, the refugee response has made me a bit cynical towards the world's progress on racial relations. People still have the time to be racist and identify citizens by skin color during a crisis at the borders. And that is not to mention the hypocritical justification of news outlets trying to say why some countries were somehow justified in not accepting Afghan and Syrian refugees while they welcome ones from Ukraine with no strings attached (not saying they should be refusing refugees, but I was hoping some people would be more self reflective on their poor response to refugees in the past). At this point, I think there's still a long way to go before the concept of race is broken down entirely, and conflicts like this will continue to happen

[rajillustration]

oh I am absolutely pooping my pants over here in the US, and like if anyone's not, I'll take what they're having. Like OMG my nerves are freakin done. This effects everyone world wide, and it's been horrible to watch happen on the level of how many people have died and lost their homes and basically everything, and it's been horrible to see the effects go into pretty much every part of the economic chain, especially in vulnerable places.

And like it sucks because you feel so hopeless because you can't do much to change world leaders. We can protest and we can argue but that's like about it. It's a real feeling of no control.