I really do think Lemmygrad is one of the kindest and most relaxed spaces in social media.

I can really relate to a lot of the things said in your post and I feel the same very often. I’m not from Russia, but from a different eastern european country. I also have dual-citizenship. Yet, I feel that people like us are in a very unique situation, because it does not really matter, where we go, we won’t fit anyway in the nationalist picture.

After finishing my Abitur here, I wanted to try out something and I moved to the country of my parents to go to uni there. I was never part of the same team here (being german), but really quickly I found out, that it’s the same on the other side. There I was just the german guy. Although I wouldn’t say, that I show it off in anyway. I don’t even have an accent in both languages.

I’m happy for you, that you found a place, where you feel welcomed and not judged.

Lemmygrad has been good for me too. It’s such a kind place, an example of what a social network should be. I’ve never posted about it, but it has helped me when I’m in a doom spiral, just reading everyone’s posts and comments can help to ground me. When I tell people in my life (who are not ML) about it they mostly don’t get it.

I feel very much the same way. I was also born in eastern Europe and live in Germany. I am not Russian so i haven’t experienced the same level of racism as you but i still experienced (and especially witnessed) it to some degree. You talk about Germans not being “willing to forgive” but what do they have to forgive you for?! They should be the ones asking you for forgiveness, for the crimes their country has and continues to perpetrate against Russians.

And i could also point to what Germans have done to my own home country after 1989 that has had devastating effects on the country forcing so many to emigrate, but i don’t want to make it about me.

What really bothers me most of all is the self-righteousness and the conceit of moral superiority that many Germans have where they look down on anyone who is not a western European. They love to pat themselves on the back about how enlightened and progressive they are, how not-racist they are, how democratic they are, but all of that is surface level and just beneath that surface you can always sense what they really think.

(It even bothers me how they look down on Americans, even though everyone here knows i am pretty much as far from pro-American as you can get, but when Germans act like they are so superior to the “uncivilized” Americans when America itself is a product of European colonialism and racism, i just find that so hypocritical and such an insufferable attitude; no, you are not superior just because you have a bigger welfare state, when deep down you share the same worldview and values)

And as soon as they feel scratched they quickly turn all that liberal patronizing into very hostile cultural supremacism and racism. And this isn’t exclusive to Germans, nor does it apply to all Germans. But it is indicative of a broader problem with the culture of the imperial core, which is extremely pronounced in the most prosperous parts of Europe, especially Germany, Scandinavia (they are far from the “progressive social democratic paradise” they are often portrayed as in the US…some of the most racist people i’ve ever met were Scandinavians), France and Britain.

Anyway, the point is that this makes it hard to find like-minded people where i live, which is why i appreciate Lemmygrad so much for the contrast it offers to that. There are things that i know that i don’t agree with this community 100% on, but i always feel that at least there is a sense of comradeship and tolerance as long as you come with good intentions. And i do think that Marxism-Leninism has a lot to do with that, because of its emphasis on critical, materialist analysis and scientific thinking.

I’ve been dehumanized here before by ableists. It’s not perfect but I think it is getting better.

Lemmygrad has been great for my mental health as well. Just being able to interact with people who broadly share your world view is incredibly helpful. You can disagree, but you have a shared framework where you can talk through these disagreements and come to an understanding. When you’re talking to people in the liberal mainstream, the world view is so divergent that you just end up talking past each other. I find there’s a mental taxing to living in a society where your views significantly diverge from the mainstream. While I don’t feel personally discriminated against, I have to run a constant mental filter in social situations whenever a political topic comes up. It’s incredibly exhausting because you end up feeling like you’re an alien. You’re speaking the same language, but have a completely different understanding of the world. I can only imagine how much worse it is living in a society like Germany that’s now hysterical in regards to Russia.

The Nazis are still bitter for failing to ethnically cleanse all Slavs in the 20th century.

I’m really glad you feel safe here, comrade. I feel safe here, too. Thanks so much for sharing with us. ♥️🫂

As a fellow German I can attest that we do suck balls. We do however still have communists here and I hope they treat you better comrade.

The absence of blatant racism / supremacism really does help ground myself when I’m feeling stressed. I’m white passing, and while everyone but my grandfather learned german as a second language, my german is abhorent being born here. English became my primary language rather effortlessly.

I became somewhat misanthrophic after peers of mine consistently wanted to bond over their racism, not knowing my background. I grew up not knowing much german, using a mix of my both parents languages, making learning german culture undesirable for me.

High german and german culture feels foreign and forced upon me personally, but I didn’t have a single culture and community I could completely call my own, which posed a set of problems I would encounter every other time I was trying to socialize.

I see that many people like me don’t really learn their parents language, nor the local one, but get drawn to english as their primary one (Especially if they’re born after the millenium). Being a third culture kid isn’t easy.

That being said, I am really grateful to have this space to breathe on the web, which isn’t primitively tribalistic, but focused on human values. I want to thank you for bringing this thought up.

Indeed, it’s a breath of fresh air to find a community in here.

Europeans often laugh about the US, because of racism. You know, stupid racist Americans which are talking about black, latin and white the whole time. Funny, right? That’s so stupid! The European mind cannot understand that. Not, because they are anti-racist, but why being racist only because of skin colour? Germans can be great racist towards Poles, Greeks and god forbid Turks! They are and will stay Turks forever, all foreigners you know. For me it is not comparable how as example someone from Syria is treated here. It is way worse for them, I know that. But still, being talked about, like I am not a human or a foreign entity, feels not good.

Especially with cfgaussian, here to expose the fraud that is Europe, while US overshadows it.