Every nation is a social construct

2014 tumblr called, they want their arguments back. Calling something a social construct does NOT mean it's bad, fake, or invalid. Math is a social construct, time is a social construct, language is a social construct... yet these are all good things that describe things that are very real, and their existence is very much valid. The idea of a nation state falls under this category.

States tend to equalize the people living on it’s territory by introducing things like law, language, traditions or education. And they are actively trying to tell this story of “the people” to legitimate themselves.

And this is a bad thing, because? I don't see an issue with a state trying to unite people through their commonalities. If you want a large group of people to be involved and coordinated then you have to make them feel included, and this is the way to do it.

But the people are not the same. Look at your own country, wherever you live. There are always vast differences between places in different cardinal directions or at the borders vs. inland, between richer and poorer regions or between urban and rural areas.

So? There is always going to be a degree of diversity among people, geography, and economies. That doesn't mean that nations don't exist. A Chinese person is Chinese regardless of whether or not they're rich or poor, live near the border or not, or live in the city or a farm. They're Chinese by ancestry, by language, and by culture. You could make an argument that some states occupy other nations, and that's a bad thing, and I would agree with you. China is a good example of that as they occupy Tibet, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia... however, the Chinese nation still exists and it deserves it's own state even if the borders need to redrawn.

In Russia, that becomes very obvious, but it is the same everywhere.

The reason why I called Russia an empire is because it is one by definition. It checks every single check mark required to consider it an empire and then some. They can call themselves whatever they want, it doesn't mean anything in reality. It's like North Korea calling itself a democracy when it's clearly not. Unlike Russia, Ukraine is a true nation state, or at least a lot closer to one than Russia is.

Nationalism is the root of everything, I described. Nothing of that would have existed without a strong nationalist movement.

That's such a myopic view of history that it's actually ignorant. If you unironically think that you can boil down most of history down to an ideology a concept you barely understand and then consider this singular ideology to be the root cause of everything bad in history then you simply don't understand history.

Sure, there can be more or less extreme forms of nationalism, but this ideoligy is always dividing territory and people into the inside and outside.

But have you ever thought about why nations and states exist in the first place? From the start of civilization 10,000 years ago to today, countries and border have always existed regardless of culture, geography, or era. What makes so persistent throughout history? Could it be that because it's an essential part of civilization and it's an inherently useful concept even if it's not perfect? The answer is yes.

Every Ukrainian fighting against Russian imperialism is fine. But at the end, I hope there are more people left to rebuilt the country, who fought for their freedom and not for some fucking glorious Father/Motherland.

These two things are intertwined. They're fighting for their father/motherland, aka their nation, against imperialist conquest because it's where their roots are. The nation is where their families are, where their culture is, where the history of their people took place, and where their freedoms and rights are.

Also, people like you annoy me because you complain without providing any alternatives. You hate nationalism as a concept? Fine, what do you propose as an alternative? If you have a realistic, practical option then let's hear it. Otherwise, if you have nothing other than vague ideological complaints then you critiques don't hold as much weight.