About a month ago I hitchhiked again because I missed the transfer stop between two small towns and thought this way it would be faster to get home. As usual, the conversation turned to Ukraine. After all, hitchhiking is another great opportunity to educate people a little bit.

I had a conversation with two drivers. Note that my spoken German is slightly above average, so we spoke in simple phrases. But on the other hand, this allows us to listen and understand each other better.

The first, a German man 40+, starts with a standard phrase like:
– Things are bad over there, right?
– Yeah, very bad.
– Is the east already occupied?
– Yes, it is. And the russians have to get out of there. Sie mussen raus.
– But it’s occupied. Aber es ist schon besetzt.
– Ja, und? So what? Hitler also occupied a lot of land.
– Ja, das stimmt… yeah, true.. – he answered thoughtfully.
Here I had to get out, so I thanked him for the ride and wished a good evening.

The second was a young Arab man, a manager of a large family business that exploits and kills animals (the so-called meat and dairy industry). A very nice guy, intelligent. I was struck by how much he could read me. He noticed, for example, that I squirmed a little when he said “meat”, so he guessed that I didn’t eat meat. And then when it came to Ukraine, he noticed that I became more tense.

The guy said he was not interested in politics at all. He doesn’t believe in the news either. Which surprised me, given that he runs such a big business. In such cases, I usually say “but our life is politics”. But here I didn’t argue – there was little time and little language. He shared with me that he’s had no personal friends because he’s been worried about his safety. He said that especially in Berlin there is a large Arab and Turkish mafia. I somehow felt sorry for him, that the person had no personal life at all.

Then we started talking about refugees. He compared of our refugees to Syrians. He said, for example, that they also had a good life there, cars and stuff, but they couldn’t take it all with them because of the river. I didn’t know about the river. I know almost nothing about that part of the world. Of course, he was comparing in a negative way, because we Ukrainians indeed have more privileges than they do. Hard to disagree here.

And he has rather distant views on the war in Ukraine, to put it mildly. His argument was “the russians are at war with the US”. It makes me want to slap my hand across my face.
– Well, they’re a bit wrong… The US is actually not in the west, but in the north-east, you know.
– Yeah, indeed… You know, I hate war in general.
– Who doesn’t? Perhaps just russians do. Over these 2+ years, I’ve realised one thing very clearly: some people only understand physical force (this applies to narratives about peace talks, about not pissing off Putin. Just remember that the all previous agreements have been broken by russia or the conditions were impossible for us to agree with – like demilitarizing and giving up territories). The russians have been at war with everyone.
And here he himself listed russian wars after the ww2.

It still amazes me – how can one believe what they believe? “Once a thing you own is taken from you by force, it’s not yours anymore and forget it.” “Russia is at war with the US, but in Ukraine” Perhaps they just needed to express this to someone outside their bubble to realise that something was not adding up.

In general, I can say that I talk to Germans every day, pushing Ukrainian narratives. And if I’m not talking, I’m reading/listening to arguments about it, or writing about it, like I’m doing here. I enjoy it – communicating with them, a little adrenaline in my blood, a little feeling of being better (sorry, I’m not a saint). I think that for 2+ years I’ve already learned all the arguments they’ve picked up from ruschist propaganda. I’m gradually compiling a post with typical mistakes of people who fully support Ukraine. So, don’t switch, subscribe.

I also often post on Slate. This is a promising new Ukrainian social network. You can even trade crypto here. The cool thing is that you don’t have to register to subscribe to pages and comment on posts. You just download the app and you’re good to go. You do need to register to get crypto coins, which you then use to pay for the posts you like. So, follow the link to follow me more often and support Ukrainian business. https://sl8.online/invite/VhdSVX .
Disclaimer about Sl8. A lot of people when they hear “trading crypto” think it’s something like gambling. But no, for me it’s just currency of the platform. You can’t really make money having 100 followers and following 80 people because you pay for their posts too.