Slush revokes $1M pitch prize from Russian founders after industry outcry
techcrunch.comPeople: Xenophobia and judging people based on stuff they're not responsible for is always wrong.
Also People: Now let me tell you why every Russian should be removed from every possible venue of society.
Disclaimer: I have close Ukrainian relatives and friends highly affected by the war, and acquaintances renouncing and fleeing Russia.
I thought this was a pretty good article that nicely framed a nuanced situation.
I agree with you that there's a lot of xenophobia out there. It's unfortunate. A lot of it also comes from pretty justified places: A surprising amount of Russians are pro-war, and it is not inappropriate to say "fuck those people, even if they aren't on the frontlines". Another large amount of Russians are, albeit not explicitly pro-war, implicitly support it by refusing to stand against it even when they have the means to do so (in other words, Russians fleeing Russia and claiming "I stay away from politics").
This is the key quote:
> They said the VC judges don’t blame Slush or Immigram for the situation but in light of the information about the bulk of it customers, “it felt inappropriate to invest.”
It's simple: If Immigram has a customer base primarily composed of people who support Russia's war against Ukraine (and consequently, Europe), then yes, why god WHY should Europe invest $1MM into it?
Disclaimer: I have close Ukrainian relatives, used to live in Russia and fled it to a "neutral" country.
The irony here is that this startup helps people relocate to "the land of freedom", while this exact "land of freedom" hates them and tries to find excuses for this hate. B/c sure you cannot bully people for their origin in "the land of freedom", but bullying them b/c they didn't overthrow the dictator and want to escape - yeah, seems legit. Also, putler needs more people to build rockets. Perfect logic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_St._Louis
Also, this:
> implicitly support it by refusing to stand against it even when they have the means to do so (in other words, Russians fleeing Russia and claiming "I stay away from politics").
I explicitly support my relatives from Ukraine after fleeing Russia, but I don't post anything anti-war on my social media. Does this count as pro- or anti-war?
I personally don’t care about what you post on social media. The question is more, are you taking an active stance against this war?
Actively supporting Ukrainians is taking an active stance. As long as you don’t do anything actively pro-war on the side, that is good enough in my book.
Of course others will disagree and say you have to post some bullshit hashtag or donate or whatever. In my opinion it’s about what you CAN do, not about what some internet rando wants you to do.
>If Immigram has a customer base primarily composed of people who support Russia's war against Ukraine
I don't see anything mentioned in the article that would make one think it has such customer base. Do you?
It might be influenced by the buzz from Russian propaganda - they tend to report 146% support based or "research" conducted by VCIOM. Sure, expect representative numbers from state-run company (all others are extinct) in a country where you can get imprisoned (and tortured) for saying "war" out loud. If you call someone a dog for a month one day they might start barking. Western (and Ukrainian) media share that shit stating "80% russians support putin bla-bla-bla"