By now, those who are believing whatever Sputnik and RT puts out are pretty isolated from a social standpoint. This war has produced an extraordinarily rare event where nearly everyone, regardless of political and social belief, are on the same page.
As far as I know, the BF’s concern hits a lot closer to home compared to myself (as I sit here watching from over 5000 miles away). This is the closest any intense fighting has been to Amsterdam in nearly 80 years.
Ton,
I inform you that Russia has been murdering Ukrainians, including women and children, bombing cities, schools, hospitals, apartment blocks, offices, infrastructure, etc. etc. for almost two weeks now. Well, but it is good that such a statement appeared at all. Better late than never.
P.S. Today Sony joined the boycott of Russia - the sale of Playstation has been stopped, as well as PS Store.
Good post by Ton, not wanting to go on Totalitarianism so many are bent on but still supporting Ukraine.
The power of societal denial some want creating now will be in turn used against themselves in the future if they just happen to be in another wrong side. This current lubrification of societal denial mechanisms -not only in this conflict- bodes very badly for the future of liberal society.
In a society if those defeated cannot continue to live on it then the only alternative is to fight until death.
Human history tells also that not all wrong sides end up being wrong, and also tell us those persons that start punishing mechanisms like the guillotine ended in it. Are you sure that the level of power you are creating will be waged only by your rules?
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I’ve yet to see times where russian can be stopped from expressing their opinion. Whatever nonsense that might be. EVERYBODY talks trash about their governments from time to time - Putin was never
treated any differently - just check the internet.
And I know it might come out as a surprise, Russia does have internet connection, what the hell… Russians can (and do) read western news. Russians are on Twitter, Facebook and Youtube (even now). What with this whole Iron Curtain silliness?
Russians are mostly brainwashed by propaganda and government media. So much so that they do not even believe their families’ direct reports from Ukraine. I believe that pressure in the form of sanctions, can help them open their eyes. Today it’s not a big problem to get reliable information, despite government blockades. I think any thinking person will ask themselves, “why the hell is the whole world turning away from us, and only China, North Korea and Eritrea are staying with us?”.
Therefore, I strongly believe that the Russians should be cut off from Blender as well. Sure, it’s only a small drop, but drops drill rocks.
I understand where you are coming from, but I like Ton’s choice for this. We don’t want to become like them and cut everyday Russians off. That is too much like the mistakes of WWI with the Treaty of Versailles which enabled WWII. Elon Musk has refused to cut off the Russians from Starlink for the very same reasons, we need to allow those Russians with the means and the will to find western news and data if they can.
Well, closer to our time was demilitarisation and the huge cost that Germany had to pay after the WWII - in this case it worked. We came closer to WWIII because the west allowed Putin to do everything, just as Hitler before WWII.
Ton’s choice is a little boy choice playing Open Source game in a warm quiet office overlooking quiet streets while a war is going on, people are being murdered and one of a European country is being destroyed. Unfortunately this attitude is quite popular: “I am saddened and shocked” and… that’s all it is.
All I’m saying is that we need to keep as many doors open as we can for the Russian people. And there are many ways of helping the Ukrainian people like the choice Ton made.
Personally I think Putin is really weak right now (in Russia) and has done this out of some kind of desperation. I think that the west should put in a no-fly zone and other sanctions to test Putin’s resolve. Because if we let him win this, both him and China will take advantage of it.
come on! a blender sanction would really be important and have a big effect. not. 
…i don’t think russian blender users are the typical putin supporters…
what really needs to happen is a complete oil and gas boycott. but countries like germany made themselves very dependend on russia unfortunately even when it was visible since a long time what kind of criminal putin really is.
Good decision from Blender.
Every Russian artists is not responsible for what is going on on their country about this complex situation.
I’ve wrote up a long-winded reply… but gave up. It’s just… pointless.
As a russian who’ve been following the situation over these years as closely as I could, on account of having a personal interest in the well-being of my ukrainian relatives… I can say that every sentence you (and in several post below) wrote is complete and utter bullshit.
This is what’s called “western propaganda” here and it dehumanizes people. Sure, you free to get a warm fuzzy feeling for sympathizing with poor brainwashed slaves. A lot of russians just get amused or offended. “Do they REALLY see us like that?”. I’m done being amused.
We’re all living in the same space for the most part - watching the same movies, playing games, sharing memes, MAKING all this wonderful stuff here (and someone is definitely developing Blender addons).
I think it’s NOT okay to assume that your fellow artists and coders are zombies just because they have a certain passport. It’s extremely rude and plain disrespectful.
This situation here is how you let nationalistic ideas fly under the radar.
PS. Normally, I refrain from these comments, but this is just too much. I’m done here.
I am Ukrainian. My government can continue to lie, continue to sow hatred towards all Russians, as it has been successfully doing for the past 30 years. It won’t change anything for me. Russians and Ukrainians are brothers and sisters.
Historically, the BF has not been a big proponent in making political statements and in dedicating a substantial amount of time and money to virtue-signaling (like we see in so many other companies with entire departments just for that purpose). They would rather make sure the money went to developing Blender (which in turn leads to an ever more powerful way for everyone to have a voice through art and animation).
Last I checked, BA does not ban you from making a statement on the political and social landscape via an image or an animation, there are plenty of those already.
You shouldn’t go away, make this a teaching moment. I for one would like to know your perspective. This is very much like our civil war here in the US where brother fought brother, the disastrous consequences there after, and the effects that we feel unto this day.
Do know that I put all of the blame on one, and only one person for this, Putin.
Thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts and viewpoints. I’m going to close this topic now, as a lot has already been discussed in this dedicated thread about the subject, and Blender Artists is not the right platform for extensive political discussions.