u/Grazhke

So this popped up in r/lithuania today. A guy posted about growing up half Lithuanian, half Russian/Ukrainian (never really knew his Ukrainian dad), raised in the UK, speaking Russian with his family growing up. Pretty vulnerable post, just genuinely trying to figure out his identity.

The "you're not really Lithuanian" comments I kind of get, even if I don't fully agree. The part that stood out was people telling him not to "spread Russian language" to his own future kids, and one comment saying Russian "is cancer" and needs to "stop spreading." Like full on telling a random stranger what language he's allowed to use with his own family, and calling a whole language cancer.

A few people did push back in the thread and called it toxic, and there were also some genuinely kind replies mixed in, so it wasn't a total pile-on. But the "don't spread the language" stuff got a lot of upvotes.

I tried posting about this exact thing in r/lithuania and it got removed within like a minute, not really sure why (although I have a strong suspicion of course).

I get the anger toward Russia right now given, you know, everything. And I'm not trying to erase that context or act like feelings on this aren't legitimate. Telling someone what language they can speak with their own kids, or calling a language "cancer," just feels like a different thing entirely from being critical of Russia as a state.