Was talking with a friend about the peacenotwar thing. I think its pretty interesting to view so many of the decisions like this through the “we have to do something” mindset so many people have, especially on social media.

All of these companies shutting down in Russia, people pressuring others to take a stand or shut down their services, upset the population. On HN I remember the namecheap thing and the service that allows westerners to call random Russians and inform them. On paper these seem like solid moves, but I cant help but feel like its only harming the citizens, and potentially irresponsible in a place where someone faces consequences for speaking out. I dont think anyone is going to risk their lives and take notable action because they need to find another service for their website, or some random foreigner telling them their government is lying. Of course these issues are more complicated, and taking these actions isnt a bad thing necessarily, namecheap has offices in Ukraine so they are going to take it personally, but there have been many cases where the company does it out of nowhere. These actions are inconveniencing the population, and when taken to the extreme like with peacenotwar, potentially very harmful. And I dont know if its doing much else. Yet too many people are acting like inaction is unacceptable.

I understand, you feel powerless in situations like these, but that shouldn’t stand in the way of making smart decisions. The need to do something has been pressuring people to take actions without considering the actual consequences vs the intent.