Some on here are looking for people to condemn all the time, start with the Russians. They pronounced this nonsense, not me.
I'll just stick to saying that the T-shirt makes me uncomfortable. A lot of it has to do with the fact that it seems designed by and for spectators outside of Ukraine. Some of it has to do with overtones associated with the fact that it seems to be specifically celebrating the use of American-made weapons. Some of it has to do with the fact that it's a fun and jokey reference to an aspect of a real life, horrific war.
I wouldn't criticise it if it were made by Ukrainians for Ukrainians. I wouldn't criticise someone actually caught up in the real life consequences of war, making some jokes at the expense of their enemy or even viewing some things as a game for the sake of their own morale, or celebrating the equipment they have to defend themselves with.
When you say "start with the Russians" - what does that mean? The whole point really is that war isn't just some fight between goodies and baddies, it's something that happens because of some wider and complex context, usually some kind of context that allows a relatively small number of people to initiate something, and then take advantage of the fact that it can be quite easy to lead large numbers of people into "goodies and baddies" thinking. What's happening now wasn't pronounced by "the Russians". It's probably still even too much of a simplification to say it was pronounced by Putin.
The way I see it, it's everyone's job to try and always recognise and resist the "goodies and baddies" view because that's a big part what allows wars to start in the first place. Again, if you're in the midst of things and someone's just destroyed your village, then it's not like I'm going to start wagging my finger and giving some lecture about how the Russian soldiers had little option but to follow their orders, and telling you that you mustn't wish bad things on them personally. This is about external observers. The T-shirt is for external observers, and for me it takes too much pleasure in the idea of blowing up the baddies. Yup, it might in fact be necessary, in order to reclaim Ukraine from the Putin regime, to kill and horrifically injure some young Russian men who joined the army because it was one of only a few ways to earn some money, never wanted to fight this war, and maybe didn't even know they were being sent to it. That's an awful and grim reality; it's one of those least terrible of several terrible options types of things and I don't have any alternatives to offer but I don't want a colourful T-shirt marking this fact thanks.
Maybe that's just hand-wringing. It's an explanation of my reaction to the T-shirt design though.
There are lots of other things deserving of much greater condemnation but the T-shirt design, for me, represents something pernicious that's worth keeping an eye on.
I acknowledge the fact that it's being sold for hopefully good causes.
www.dailymail.co.uk
www.the-village.com.ua
