Title: They are children
Author: Rev Dia
Date: 1 July 2018
Source: Retrieved on 26th January 2022 from a translation of revdia.org

I wonder how far-right ideas could take root in Ukraine. The topic of the Russian-Ukrainian war has become commonplace. But it does not cause the excitement that was before. Everyone is disgusted to see officials say that the Kremlin is to blame for the next tariff increase. I’m tired of hearing odes about fighting the invader and tightening their belts, from people who cold-bloodedly send citizens to slaughter under enemy artillery fire, earning money from it.

And it would seem that now the far right will be able to show their potential? Of course, only in the fight against the “Roma threat”. C14 were the first to start the “holy war”, boldly throwing stones at children and women. Then the initiative was supported by the National Corps by dispersing the camp in Holosiivskyi Park. And in the end, the youth of the National Corps, together with other far-rightists, attacked the Roma camp near Lviv with knives at night. The result: the death of one person and 4 others were hospitalized, including a 10-year-old boy. What can be said in this situation, apart from the fact that the right has finally found an opponent in its weight category? For example, the fact that it is just rubbish to attack people for their nationality is the highest degree of cretinism. Someone will say, “Look, you feel sorry for these gypsies, but a gypsy woman stole my handbag from my mother’s friend.” For some reason, nearby people want to use this argument to justify attacks on Roma. Does the act of an individual mean that it is possible to attack members of this nationality? If you support this, then you should not worry too much if your loved one is stabbed for stealing a handbag from someone’s mother’s friend. Still fair? Justifying the murder of a person based on one’s nationality is the first step in justifying the murder of a person who simply does not like something.

The reaction of the media to this news was especially interesting. It might seem to you a reinforced concrete fact that the far right is a scumbag who has already decided on more than one attack on people. The March 8 pogroms, the attacks on LGBT lectures, the attacks on various activists, and the culmination of the murder of an innocent man. How did the media react to this? If you think that they have begun to cover the arbitrariness of the representatives of far-right ideas, we will disappoint you. Putin’s traditional agents have been blamed for the Roma pogroms. On the one hand, it is ironic that those who tried to appear to be the most consistent fighters against the Kremlin were called his agents, because the whole right-wing struggle with Russia is just cheap populism. The loud closure of Sberbank, which is still successful, or the fight against artists, who were caught and released, even their showy participation in the anti-terrorist operation, is also just PR, because ordinary soldiers are hostages of the intrigues of mercenary politicians and have no influence. Russia is a vital country for the modern political system of Ukraine: if it does not exist, it will not have anyone to blame for all the troubles of society. Most information sources said that the attackers were mostly schoolchildren, so the blame lies with parents who neglected their children, and not on the media themselves, who invested a lot of effort to glorify the image of a right-wing soldier. And it is certainly not that far-right ideology itself encourages attacks and killings of “wrong” people. It’s all just juvenile fools who were neglected by their parents.

The official reaction of the far right was no less interesting. Karas, who organized the entire campaign against the Roma, said that no one in nationalist circles knew the attackers. To see for yourself how much he lied, you can view his article, which compares photos from the marches of the far right and the attackers. And the fact that the people who organized the attacks were simply afraid to take responsibility, because it was their activities that inspired people from their ranks to take up knives, says a lot. Moreover, according to Karas, the nationalists organized their own investigation to find the thieves. I wonder if he will organize rallies in support of the Roma so that everyone understands that he is a cowardly populist? Of course, the motivation of the leaders of the C14 and the National Corps to take part in the pogroms of the camps was quite understandable. They wanted to use cheap PR. But in total, our society has become more tolerant of anti-human far-right ideas and has given them a hand in killing people.

So, what do we have in total? Pogroms based on racial hostility, the media trying not to talk as much as possible about the obvious threat of far-right ideas, people who were sincerely imbued with the spirit of far-right ideas and began to kill. Our society and the media still have a poor understanding of the threat of far-right violence. The eternal principle of “My house is on the edge” is valid again. Everyone ignored the attacks of the right on their opponents, ignored the attacks on LGBT people, ignored when they started beating people in sleeping areas for throwing cigarette butts, ignored when they started attacking random young people, mistakenly identifying them as anarchists, and calmly accepted attacks on Roma. It turns out that far-right violence must affect everyone personally so that society can finally understand the destructive nature of their ideas.