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Comment by RobertRoberts | Hacker News Reader

I was asked "What are we going to do about Ukraine!?" And I said, "It's a civil war that's been going on for almost 10 years, what is different now?" and their response was "what? I'd never heard that." And I added, "In 2014 there was an overthrow of an elected president there and it started the war." Blank stares.

I have a friend who traveled to Europe regularly for tech training, including Ukraine, and he was surprised about how little people know what is going because people's news sources are so limited. (mostly by choice I assume)

No special tech needed to manipulate people, just lack of multiple information sources?

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The president that lost power in 2014, Viktor Yanukovych, was a Russian puppet who refused to sign the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement in favor of closer ties to Russa. The Ukrainian parliament voted to remove him from office by 328 to 0. He then fled to Russia.

It’s hard to fathom believing there’s nothing new or relevant happening with the 2022 invasion, or why if there was a lead-in to the conflict that would be on its own a reason to conclude that there’s nothing to be done now.

See this is the problem. While I follow plenty of international news, I didn't know this.

There is often times just too much to know to fully understand a situation. So how can anyone form a valid opinion?

As a follow up, was the election of Victor Yanukovych lawful? If not, then why not point out he was a puppet from a manipulated election? That would be worth a coupe, but not because you disagree with his politics, that's just insanity. Look what Trump believed and supported, we didn't start civil war because Trump wouldn't sign a treaty and he was accused of being a Russian puppet too. There is just more to this story than you are letting on.

> what is different now?

Um. Is this a serious question?

Yes, I didn't know there was an invasion when asked about Ukraine, but I knew about the past history. (some at least)

So you were asked something about a major current event, you're surprised that they don't know about what happened 10 years ago, and they're surprised you don't know about what's happening now. Blank stares all around, I guess.

Yes, it was the morning after the Russian invasion. I just wasn't on the internet. Before that moment, Russia was just posturing on the border.

This is my point, it's easy to just not know something at any point in time, let alone some things you will only know if you have varying news sources, even if it's many years old.

How many of your friends, family and acquaintances know about the civil war in Ukraine for the nearly past decade?

Everyone I know knew, but we live in Europe. Your mileage may vary depending on where you live.

I live in the US, and so far the only people that knew are the very few news skeptics that follow international news sources online. And even then, we had to share with each other a lot.

But I had watched documentaries about Ukraine years ago, and since most people watch only Fox news, CNN, MSNBC, etc... they knew nothing at all.

So when Russia invaded most people were shocked, where I, and those few others that were information, were not as suprised.

I don’t think that being aware of the history of the conflict had anything to do with being surprised or not by the invasion. I have family in both Russia and Ukraine and nobody expected it.

Even the Russian soldiers who found themselves being sent into Ukraine were surprised.

But did they know there was war in Ukraine for years? I suspect this is common knowledge in Europe, but it's extremely rare knowledge here.

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