I grew up in a family with a history of resistance during the German occupation of the Netherlands in WW2. I lived with and discussed for many days with people that were in the resistance against the East German regime while studying in Dresden. I spent time with people fighting for #ArabSpring at Tahrir square in Cairo. One lesson is universal. Avoid risk by never having a central collection of information that could be found. Be it paper, audio recording or digital data outside of your control

@Npars01 @mike

Once upon a time, #socialmedia was mostly stupid (it still is), and mostly harmless

Then the #ArabSpring happened

#Autocracy around the world leaped to attention

13 years later, they have figured out how to coopt it with #troll farms and #plutocracy, #corruption

And now they wield it against #democracy instead

BTW
i'd love to hear the take from other historians: when did this conflict start.

i've read some folks trace it back to 2014 and Russia's invasion and illegal annexation of #Crimea.

yet, am kinda on the fence on that: that invasion came about after the #Euromadian protests that were an off-shoot of the #ArabSpring #Acampadas and #Syntagma protests happening all over Europe and Northern Africa.

i's say the assassination of Gaddaffi may have started it all:
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2022/03/libya-russia-ukraine-putin/626571/