In the USA there are different people. Good and bad. There are states that are very conservative and there is California. There are some basic values that everyone agrees upon. I think nobody can claim that everyone is bad or good in the US. Same goes for any other democratic society. Same goes for Ukraine. There are a lot of people that I don't like in Ukraine.
In Russia there are some good people but they are in extreme minority. Extreme. Even the liberals in Russia are supporting the annexation of Crimea. Maybe the dictatorship is the reason, maybe the propaganda. I don't know and I don't care. This is how it is and I do what I can to exclude them from my life.
There's different people in Russia too. No one is blocking US citizens because they dropped bombs killing 300 people shopping in markets or 200k civilians in Iraq or for the many abuses like Abu Grahib.
Actually america has been by far the biggest aggressor on the planrt in tge last decades, and it killed the most civilians outside Africa.
That's my problem with this massive anti russian hysteria in software.
You only appear careless, racist and naive. It's better to avoid politics in software and business, because if you don't you have to basically ban anyone.
I am sorry for that situation but my opinion does not change.
OS and politics should not be mixed. Your actions do nothing but say that you will "weaponize" an open source library to match one goal "punishing Russians" but not punishing other perpetrators.
If every software maintainer started to apply its own political views and ban some users the entire ecosystem would implode.
Should muslim developers ban all chinese users for the uighur concentration camps, and myanmaris for their treatment of Rohingya?
Should I, a Polish developer, ban Ukrainians because they hail as a hero and title streets to a criminal like Bandera that killed my own polish family in eastern galicia during world war two?
Where and when would this hysteria end?
I have sympathy for your situation, but not for such solutions. They damage everyone, including OSS.
"Even the liberals in Russia are supporting the annexation of Crimea"
- Supporting an annexation that has already happened is not the same as supporting a war.
- That being said, even the liberals in the US supported the various invasions and occupations. Don't forget that Libya happened under Obama.
- Even the liberals in Turkey are supporting the annexation of northern Cyprus, even the liberals in China support the annexation of Tibet, etc. It is not something unique to Russia.
"In Russia there are some good people but they are in extreme minority"
Bush's approval rating was the highest when he declared the invasion of Afghanistan (90%) and when he declared the invasion of Iraq (70%).
In addition to that this is typical racist rhetoric, I have heard exactly the same thing about Mexicans, Blacks, Albanians, Jews, Roma, etc.
Racist rhetoric? Don't be ridiculous. There is no Russian race. I don't block Russians if they leave Russia. I have many Russian friends in Ukraine. Only Russians that live in Russia are blocked. Russians that pay tax to a government that is waging war against my country.
Maybe "racist" was not the best choice. Feel free to replace it with "discriminatory" instead.
Anyway, this does not explain your plan to keep the restriction permanently. After all they will not be paying taxes that fund the war effort after the war is be over.
As someone who lives in the USA and is a USA citizen, I'm frequently surprised by how much people don't hold US voters responsible for the actions of the government.
The US has and continues to do some pretty awful things around the world. Turning some parts of Pakistan into hellscapes where an invisible drone could kill you from the sky at any time and regularly does kill women and children with no warning, would be one example.
The vast majority of citizens in the US either pay no attention to this at all, or think it's a a good thing. There is a minority who think it's awful. (I suspect these proportions are pretty similar in Russia).
Since the US is theoretically a democracy, we citizens could, one would think, easily stop these things by voting for different people, you'd think people would hold us more accountable and be really mad at us. But somehow they don't, they're like, eh, most people in the US are good people I don't blame them for their government!
And to be fair, I wish I knew how to get my government to do something different -- or how to get more people in the country to pay attention to the really catastrophically criminal things my goverment does, I don't feel like I have much control over it either. (Although surely more than Russians do, in the really not a democracy of Russia?) I do what I can, I am politically involved where I can find the energy to be. It doesn't feel like enough. I'm not sure I or my country-mates deserve the dispensation to not be held responsible.
I think most governments do awful -- really horrendous, murderous -- things. I think tmost people are fundamentally good people, but many citizens of powerful countries doing bad things have these days been hoodwinked to ignore them or support them.
I wish I knew what to do about it. One thing I am personally sure of is that it starts from not judging people by their ethnicity or nationality -- that kind of thinking is what helps governments convince their residents that the violent things they are doing to someone else are ok. That's the problem not the solution.
But I'm not opposed to boycotting as a tactic. I do support BDS against Israel. The BDS organizers have been very careful (and learning from experience) at trying to figure out how to do it in a way that is ethical and maximizes effectiveness. (I think the BDS campaign has been effective, relative to anything else done to try to support Palestinians, although not nearly as effective as one would like, which goes without saying as Israel continues it's decades-long occupation). But reading what they have to say on the topic of boycotts against invaders, Israel, and Russia, is in my opinion worthwhile: https://bdsmovement.net/Hypocrisy
> it starts from not judging people by their ethnicity or nationality
Russians that leave Russia are not blocked.
I am Hungarian by ethnicity. I will be probably also judged for the terrible policy of Orban. I feel deep shame for it. So I understand (a little) in what situation those "good" Russians are. And I know that those Russians support my decision and understand it.
> Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, all within the very recent history, plus countless more US-backed color revolutions - including the one in your very own country, which realistically is the very reason for the current state of affairs in there.
Oh God! You and your conspiracy theories are annoying. If the U.S. is so powerful, why hasn't it organized a color revolution in Russia or at least in Serbia, maybe in pro-Russian Hungary? I was at both revolutions in Ukraine and I know why they arose, they were supported by the Ukrainian people, self-organized. And it's been like that all through our history. You don't know shit about the political situation in Ukraine and its history, but you think you have it all figured out. I'm sure you don't even know your own history. So don't talk bullshit!
yeah, things like McCain hanging out with the Euromaidan crowd in 2013 is not enough of a smoking gun. he just did it as a private citizen, same as he did with Syrian rebels. he was just quirky like that, right?
>If the U.S. is so powerful, why hasn't it organized a color revolution in Russia or at least in Serbia, maybe in pro-Russian Hungary?
you conveniently left out Belarus and Kazakhstan, who had attempts to do that literally the last year. both crushed with Russian help, which is probably the reason why Loukashenko is so friendly with Putin now
as for why they don't do that in Russia, why, they did manage to do that before. they even bragged about getting Yeltsin reelected on the cover of the Time magazine. the guy who oversaw a default, a defeat against Chechnya, and selling away the Soviet wealth to the emerging oligarch class for pennies on the dollar. not sure if the Russians are thankful for that help though
>I was at both revolutions in Ukraine and I know why they arose, they were supported by the Ukrainian people, self-organized. And it's been like that all through our history. You don't know shit about the political situation in Ukraine and its history, but you think you have it all figured out.
I know enough. you've had an equivalent of Jan 6, funded and armed from across the Atlantic. we just don't call that an insurrection when its convenient to us, just like we don't call the guys with swastika tattoos and flags "nazis" when they serve our interests
yeah sure, 90% of 50% of eligible voters in the US are gun-crazed maniacs. and still, his record is minus one war, unlike every other president all the way back to... shit, I can't even tell without looking it up. I wasn't even around the last time there was one.
In Russia there are some good people but they are in extreme minority. Extreme. Even the liberals in Russia are supporting the annexation of Crimea. Maybe the dictatorship is the reason, maybe the propaganda. I don't know and I don't care. This is how it is and I do what I can to exclude them from my life.