Take a moment to imagine this: In the depths of the coldest winter in years, a neighboring country decides to destroy your country's infrastructure. Why? Your neighbor wants your land, but it's struggling to win on the battlefield. Your neighbor has spent years trying to grind you down to surrender. Every now and then, it strikes an apartment block, a railway line, or a children’s hospital. Now, it focuses on destroying what modern life depends on — and suddenly, electricity, internet, heating,

We love a story where a hero finds strength amid immense adversity, because in our culture, we’re taught that the character who chooses to be resilient always wins, no matter the odds.

Resilience is, at its core, a positive character trait when you have a choice in how to act. When we talk about Ukraine’s resilience, we omit what Ukrainians know very well — that Russia isn’t going to stop its war until Ukrainian independence is crushed. Ukrainians have no choice but to continue and resist Russia’s demands.

  • nykula@piefed.socialEnglish
    2·
    5 hours ago

    Some of us would enjoy it I guess, but I personally see it as a dangerous stereotype similar to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_black_woman. The government commends our resilience and uses it as an excuse to strip worker and student rights, to “study” engineering offline in 5°C rooms for example. EU countries are cutting support for migrants because we’re too resilient in their eyes, spreading welfare queen stereotypes that even our our media, which is quite right-wing, is quick to quote without a grain of salt.