I'm no expert on Polish affairs, but there's been some recent turn in events in Poland that seems to be whipping up the internal nationalism vs. Ukraine (around grain exports and stuff) and it's such a huge sea change from a year ago when it was all brotherly support and solidarity. Unclear what the nationalist ruling party in Poland is trying to accomplish with this.
It all just seems ridiculous to me. I think about my wife's maternal grandmother (actually both sides of her family really) whose family was from that area (Galicia) and emigrated dirt poor to Canada pre-WWI. She was able to flip between speaking something-like-Polish and something-like-Ukrainian on a whim without even seeing it as two different languages, really.
Like most of Europe (my own father was born in Alsace during the war, also an ethnic border zone), the lines on the map and the official ethno-nationalisms hide a much more complicated diversity, and I always mistrust the people who have made their political careers out of boosting some tribalism vs another marketing a simplistic vision of language-ethnicity-nation.
Your grandma being "race blind" or whatever does not change the actual atrocities that happened in Galicia. And yeah how dare the polish government not like an ally praising the member of an SS division known for massacring poles and being anti pole. Silly nationalist nonsense!
I get how explosive these issues remain, but please make your substantive points without crossing into flamewar. It's always possible and will make your arguments more effective.
You are right, sorry about that. I just found the thread weird and a bit too sympathetic to an SS soldier, so I took most of the comments in bad faith. As you said though, that does not make for a very productive debate
It all just seems ridiculous to me. I think about my wife's maternal grandmother (actually both sides of her family really) whose family was from that area (Galicia) and emigrated dirt poor to Canada pre-WWI. She was able to flip between speaking something-like-Polish and something-like-Ukrainian on a whim without even seeing it as two different languages, really.
Like most of Europe (my own father was born in Alsace during the war, also an ethnic border zone), the lines on the map and the official ethno-nationalisms hide a much more complicated diversity, and I always mistrust the people who have made their political careers out of boosting some tribalism vs another marketing a simplistic vision of language-ethnicity-nation.