Hmm [none/use name]

Iirc I read complaints that the Pixel 8 had a screen glass with curves at the edges which made it difficult to apply a tempered glass screen protector. If protecting the screen from damage with a tempered glass screen protector is important to you then I’d recommend double-checking whether the model you’re looking at works fine with such protection. (I don’t think I’ve seen anything about the newer Pixel models having that issue, but it doesn’t hurt to double-check.)

Sorry for replying late, but I think there is a misinterpretation of terms here stemming from differing definitions of “independent” which I wouldn’t fault you for.

The 17 March 1991 preservation referendum did in fact have an additional question on the Ukrainian SSR ballot about being a sovereign state within the union, which amounted to remaining in the USSR but on the condition that Ukrainian SSR laws would supersede laws of the overall USSR. The voters also overwhelmingly voted yes for it.

The 1 December 1991 referendum, however, was for secession from the union since the declaration of independence in question stated “only the Constitution and laws of Ukraine are valid on the territory of Ukraine.” The secessionist declaration of independence was put forward in response to the attempted August Coup, and had an even larger yes vote percentage than the ballot question I was discussing in the previous paragraph.

As it is, with all this discussion we’re getting into the weeds with legalist proceduralism. Fundamentally, the vestiges of proletarian rule were being destroyed in the member states of the USSR. The successor states were and still are crafted by bourgeois forces overwhelmingly, with their politics primarily being the contest of different bourgeois and petty bourgeois factions. I don’t know enough to say how legitimate the vote counts in 1991 referendums even were really, given the bourgeois banditry that was rotting both the USSR and the CPSU. At this point in time we’re left dealing with the consequences of the international bourgeoisie and those within the USSR who wanted to be bourgeoisie seizing the opportunity they saw, with some help from nationalist discontent along the way. For communists, delving deeper into this question of referendums would just affirm, in potentially different ways, the non-insight that the bourgeoisie are willing to break the law if they think they can get away with it. We’d be better off investigating more systemically the collapse overall rather than over-focusing on the legal maneuvers constructed to veil its bourgeois core, and I think that’s also what you’re getting at with your emphasis on population attitudes, demographics, etc. instead of the legality. I think we’re largely on the same page regarding this.

Edit: Fixed alt-text

I think a ‘How we got here’ that mentions the referendum on preserving the USSR and calls the dissolution “illegal and undemocratic” but alao doesn’t mention the subsequent Ukrainian referendum on gaining independence is poorly done. This is what I was warning about in my other comment becase one is working backward from a conclusion. Everything in this post can be true but still not paint an accurate enough picture of the situation because of what it might be omitting, and the omission early on in the post throws the rest of it into doubt.

I’ll focus on the referendum part because that’s early on and an easy example. (Apologies in advance for playing Devil’s Advocate for a bit.)

It can both be true that the USSR was illegally dissolved and that Ukraine left the USSR legally.

Citizens of the Ukrainian SSR voted overwhelmingly (except in Crimea, but there it was still a majority) to declare independence from the USSR on 1 December 1991. The referendum on preservation was earlier that year in March. Even if the dissolution of the USSR on 26 December 1991 was illegal, that’s not relevant. If you exercise your legal right to leave an organization and then a few weeks later the organization illegally self-dissolves that has no bearing on you.

The wordiness of the preservation referendum question arguably makes the whole resolution contingent. It’s not hard to say “The citizens of the Ukrainian SSR saw in the months after the preservation referendum that the USSR wasn’t heading in the direction laid out in the language of the referendum, so they voted to leave.”

The two referendums don’t necessarily contradict each other. Mentioning one without addressing the other is cherry-picking and lying by omission. (At best it’s a regurgitation of a point made about the fall of the USSR without knowing the specific bearing that has on Ukraine in particular, jn which case someone is speaking more confidently about the history than they have any right to.)

We need to do better than this.

If you’re having trouble justifying your views, you should be trying to investigate the premeses and evidence to challenge and elaborate your own understanding. Starting with a conclusion you like and then asking for reasons to justify it is intellectually impoverished; leave that kind of investigation to the talking heads on the payroll of various countries’ state departments.

By doing a proper investigation, you’ll have a much better understanding and be able to approach the conversation in a way that’s tailored to your audience. Your views may even change, and that’s not a bad thing!

(As an aside, in the left-Lemmyverse “Ukraine bad” positions can range everywhere from “The Ukrainian government is corrupt and throwing its citizenry into a meatgrinder” all the way to “Ukraine is a fake country composed of Nazis that should be wholly annexed into Russia”. I’ve seen this whole spectrum over the past few years on Hexbear and Lemmygrad.)

For good places to start with interrogating liberal “pro-Ukraine” support, I have some decent articles I can point you towards:

• Here’s an article from last year that interrogates the war’s justifications (I’ll note that this article is also critical of Russian war justifications): https://cosmonautmag.com/2024/11/ukraine-will-be-a-war-without-victors/
• Another more recent article which attempts to tackle the question “[W]hat to say to an idealistic leftwing friend who has become wracked by the idea of flying to Kyiv and fighting the good fight in Ukraine?”: https://eventsinukraine.substack.com/p/why-you-shouldnt-fight-in-ukraine