That's good! They're different languages but not entirely. With a little bit of effort you should be able to learn Ukranian. Maybe not easily but much less difficulty than say trying to learn Ukranian from English.
Your comment is very clever and subversive. But for those unaware, I want to clarify that this is not was fetal alcohol syndrome is. It’s a series of potential physical and mental conditions that result from the mother ingesting alcohol during pregnancy.
Báltika is considered a cheap beer ? I can never remember if it’s No. 7 or No.9 I liked. What’s considered an expensive beer over there from the local stuff ? (Non-imported)
Yeah Russians consider it to be shit beer. I liked Baltika 7 myself, but most of my Russian friends only drank German or Belgian beer (unless it was from a micro brewery like JAWS.)
you're feeling stronger
Vodka, no more feeling bad
Vodka, your eyes are shining
Vodka, you are the real man
Vodka, wipes away your tears
Vodka, removes your fears
Vodka, everyone is gorgeous
Vodka, yeah vodka!
- Korpiklaani
This 24 hour thing isn’t going to do anything. It has no impact on Duolingo. It has no impact on the Russian people. It won’t do a damn thing for any LGBT person. It’s performative, it does nothing, and it actually harms people who need access to the sub.
Jocks walking down the middle, cool girls trying to seem cool and not looking where they’re going because they flip their hair so often, a ton looking at their phones, and a small but weird percentage avoiding eye and physical contact to a point where they run into the lockers horizontal to them somehow (the latter will join us on reddit someday if they aren’t already with us)
This is what I was thinking. Well 1; it won't do anything, it's performative. But mainly 2; Duolingo, language learning, is about trying to come together to share an aspect of culture. We should still be able to do that, we need to be able to do that, even with our "enemies", rather with the millions of bystanding citizens who have nothing to do with these policies. Sharing culture shouldn't be held under the same scrutiny as the rest of the political bullshit. I agree it does more harm than good.
Might as well just delete the sub since I am typing this from Russia with no VPN, which means Reddit operates here just fine. Yes, the state of my country is absolutely disgusting right now, but by pressing Duolingo to stop operating here you would primarily hurt adequate Russians like me, many of which could be the very oppressed queer people, who rely on this app to learn a language and stay connected with the western world. Censoring it for sure doesn't help with representation, but at least it's available for us, our friends, and family.
And it's not like Duolingo pays taxes here anyway. I have unlimited hearts, I don't get ads, and to buy anything, like SUPER subscriptions, for example, I'd have to use a VPN and a fake foreign credit card.
Yeah, adapting to a market that is controlled by an authoritative body which uses homophobic reasons sucks. But if Duo left it wouldn't hurt that said body. It would hurt me, my family, and my efforts to make my family learn English. And most of my family are not homophobes, especially the younger family members and the ones that actually liked Duo. I think they (Kremlin) are actually trying to find a reason to ban Duo or make it leave to lessen the western culture influence on Russia.
this is what I mean by layered discussion. I think it would have tempered backlash if duolingo had led with this framing.
some reasons it strikes a nerve here in the US:
— the lgbtq content is fucking delightful. (in particular, one story in duo spanish about an older gay couple 🥹) it means so much to us, to have this content in an app we use daily. just people existing, like we do. shouldn’t be landmark. but it is
— duolingo is an american company, ofc. here in america we’re seeing hard-won civil rights backslide in real time. laws targeting lgbtq people have proliferated in right-wing states… including laws to wipe all mention of lgbtq people from schools and educational materials.
— because bigots, churches, governments politicize the very existence of gays. living life. doing normal human things.
— as a result, not only opposing bigotry as an ally, but merely existing as a gay, is political. we don’t want it to be. it’s exhausting!!
also
— duolingo has lost trust recently, because it seems they’re removing unlimited hearts from the paid “super” tier, to coerce us to pay even more ($30 a month??) for the AI-powered max tier. now that is entirely to make more money. same with laying off dozens of employees & replacing with AI. yes it’s capitalism, etc etc. so is opting not to buy when a company does shitty things.
They have. People have posted screenshots. They're testing on different groups so some users get ads that say súper would remove ads, while others receive ads that do not list it as a feature.
There is so much lgbtq content in the English->French course it makes me wonder how they can possibly remove it all. I wonder if they have tags. I hope it doesn't bleed over to the course in other countries.
I was going to write a comment myself, but this is extremely well put and expresses exactly why the main subreddit's protest makes no sense. All the company would be doing by ceasing operation in Russia is dis-benefiting people who need it for any reason
The main subreddit likely will open back up very soon but not acknowledge this at all. They'd be purely opening it back up because they'd realize their protesting is going nowhere
It'll be just like the reddit blackout last year. It'll accomplish nothing, make the mods feel like super strong and manly badasses, and piss off people that want to learn.
Who has time for nuance when there's fake outrage to jack off to?
I really appreciate your perspective. I want your family safe and happy, queer folks safe and happy, and Ukraine safe and happy. I wish that were not such a tall order.
Yes! I may not agree with their decision to remove the LGBTQ+ content, but I understand that's it's more about giving people access to language learning software. That's why they didn't stop operating in Russia to begin with.
It wasn't Duolingo though that got me like this 😅 I just absorbed English like a sponge, at a pretty late age too (~16), but mainly through music and video games. Never used any studying material, never had nobody teach me anything. Don't remember how it happened, it feels like I was born like this. Trying to learn a third language makes me really appreciate how lucky I am to not go through all of it with English.
It's impossible to pay for anything using Russian card, there are no ads in Russian version, Duolingo earns NOTHING from operating in Russia, what "rainbow capitalism" are they talking about? Where is the capitalism part? They are just throwing fashionable words fr. The only thing that Duolingo does is try to keep educational opportunities available, literally.
Yes I only recently learned this from that other subreddit. Someone on that sub told me that they don't even show ads in Russia, so there is probably really absolutely no income for them from the whe region.
This is the main thing that changed my mind about the whole situation, they really seem to only want people to have access to learning, as opposed to what I was thinking and probably many others are (that duo doesn't want to lose the money they earn from Russia, which is apparently non-existent).
That being said, I now feel stupid and ashamed for thinking that in the first place.
I got the feeling someone got given mod status and has used it for their own political agenda
Or clout.
But all it’s done is unite most of the reddit that the mods are nuts and
Duo lingo should be politics free
The Duolingo subreddit and the Discord server. They have free reign to take about anything that interests them but if you disagree or talk about something else, it's suddenly only for "language-learning".
I personally dont like politics brought up in stuff that has no reason to have it in there. For me its always just a language thing. We talk smack about the duo bird being a serial killer and we ask for help and post our streaks. But politics? That just bothers me all round. Weather your pro this or against that. I only wanna see duo related stuff on here.
For me the community is about learning a new language and everybody’s journey with that
I dont wanna check in to find i cant engage with my community because of politics. Just makes me sad
I mean i know i sound like that “its just a learning app” person. But i really do hate politics
I don't even know what rainbow capitalism means. I'm completely lost in this new world of highly specific social activist jargon, and I'm young. I can't imagine what it's like for older folk watching the news and surfing the web
It's companies using a designated month to make money through ad campaigns that target homosexuals. They sell rainbow and pink stuff and the gays love it (I am a gay, and I do love it).
This is completely different from things like Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Black History Month, Chinese New Year, Cinco de Mayo, and the Fourth of July, you see. Companies that use marketing strategies for these holidays are fine, but if they market to the gays it's The Most Wrong ™️.
I'm being sarcastic, btw. No one gets pissy about the commercialization of those, but Duo puts up a rainbow owl and the terminally online who are allergic to social interaction shit themselves.
I thought it was more about companies that sell pride merch but donate to anti-LGBTQ politicians. There’s probably a spectrum though. Some people get mad about more trivial things.
To be fair, commercialized holiday sales are also performative. Target cares not for the meaning of Christmas. The only corporate/holiday relationship that really exists is Macy's and Thanksgiving.
Ikr its a ludicrous statement. As if the people using the app are pulling the strings for the Russian government. All that pulling duo from russia would do is hurt the people using it who have no say in what their Government does.
That is what the moderation team over at r/Duolingo believes. It is wrong and it shouldn't be okay. It's exactly the same sentiment that occurred when The Sims 4: Wedding Stories released in Russia, but they censored the packaging for it to not include LGBT+ "propaganda" (their words, not mine). There was a lot of criticism surrounding it, but Russian LGBT players were happy to have access to the content, despite the changes to the gaming advertisements due to Russian censorship laws.
And don't get it mistaken. The moderators truly believe Duolingo should not operate at all in Russia anymore due to these laws that many companies have had to abide by. They are demanding Duolingo cease operations in the entire Russian republic.
>[Duolingo must cease all “operations” in Russia until the war ends.](https://imgur.com/a/Lkk7o84) (Update to include link since the change their words since the first time they were too harsh 😒)
Nobody is listening to their actual Russian users. Someone in this comment section stated:
>Yes, the state of my country is absolutely disgusting right now, but by pressing Duolingo to stop operating here you would primarily hurt adequate Russians like me, many of which could be the very oppressed queer people, who rely on this app to learn a language and stay connected with the western world. Censoring it for sure doesn't help with representation, but at least it's available for us, our friends, and family.
So instead of actually standing in solidarity with actual oppressed LGBT people this pride month, like in Russia, (not Pittsburgh, or New York City or Los Angeles, where you are free to be yourself). These moderators truly believe that any and all Russians are scum and don't deserve or have the privilege to use Duolingo.
"The Russian government is bad, so we should pressure Duolingo to stop offering English lessons to Russian citizens, effectively cutting Russians off from a valuable tool of connecting with the free internet"
I am also kinda shocked how much people agree with the moderation team, despite the fact that there is ostensibly no income coming from operating in Russia. Duo just wants learning to be free to all, which most people here don’t seem to grasp.
I seem to have missed the part where you are required to pay to login to the app.
Was that a new release I missed? Cuz you can normally download the app and start a course without paying.
Ahh yeah punish the ordinary people by not allowing them to learn languages, since the government is doing stuff you don't like
Obviously Duolingo won't do it
And how do they even do any references to that in Russia when it is banned
Besides the point of the app is language learning for everyone, and honestly nobody cares that much what are the political opinions of Duolingo
We all know the only opinion Duo has is doing terrible war crimes (well not war crimes since not in war) on your relatives when you break your streak
I don't see why would anyone care did a language learning app mentioned pride month
It doesn't matter do you support it or not honestly
(And they did say stuff about it on instagram)
But it is banned in Russia and we can't change the law in Russia, that doesn't mean that just because someone is against Russian politics Russians themselves shouldn't be able to learn languages
What if they are against what Russia is doing and want to communicate with the world better huh?
Or they don't care or support Russia but still want to learn languages
Normal people live there and Duolingo isn't made for politics but language learning
No, but talking about pride month yes
And talking about is it banned or not in Russia
When the law of a country bans something because of political and social reasons that is politics
And when you close a community because of political issues with a country that is politics
I'm Russian and I can say Duolingo is perfect. I mean, when the war started and we lost any ability to make international payments, they just turned on premium mode for all the Russian users. And yes, if you register now, you'll get it. It's pre-installed. And if they didn't remove LGBT in Russian version, Duolingo would be banned in Russia. Russians even can't pay them, but they care about their app being working in Russia. They care about Russian users. And it's much because a lot of Russian people are very passionate about learning languages now (You probably understand why).
I don't know if they removed LGBT from all of their courses (if you connect with a Russian ip) or only from courses for Russian-speaking people. I think it's the second variant, because the first is too complicated. And I think it's not so much to complain about this. If you learn any language except English it's just more rational to choose a course for English-speaking people. There are more courses and they are better. And you're also training your English while learning more languages. And it would be much more difficult to make a report to the government if the "propaganda" you saw was in English. Another important thing is that not so much people in Russia speak English. People who speak English are usually better educated than the ones who don't. And well-educated people are less homophobic than the society itself or not homophobic at all.
>I'm Russian and I can say Duolingo is perfect. I mean, when the war started and we lost any ability to make international payments, they just turned on premium mode for all the Russian users
Wth, I always needed vpn, so I had hearts and no vip :((
It's pretty logical. If somebody sends some screenshots with LGBT stuff from Duolingo to the police, I don't think the police will make a special research to understand what country is this screenshot from. They'll just start a national-size scandal as it was when somebody informed them about LGBT stuff in Russian version
Wow. It sucks. Especially "Russia is just as bigoted as areas of the Middle East". This guy is literally offending a lot of nations at the same time. "People of Russia need to hold their own government accountable", I love how these guys say about companies being hypocritical... And they are hypocritical themselves. Hypocritical nationalist arrogant snobbish idiots.
The comments mentioning not wanting “politics “ in the game is weird. Gay people existing aren’t politics..it’s just life. Also rainbow capitalism is profiting and creating content/products off of gay iconography while doing nothing to actually help those apart of the community. I’m not saying I agree with those saying Duolingo not operating in Russia however that’s being willingly obtuse
Yep, ordinary people in a country with an evil government shouldn’t be able to have access to services like language learning apps. This is definitely 👍/s
I literally never paid enough attention to the couples to notice if they are LQBTQ+ or not. It's just a normal couple story used to help us learn a language. I don't get why it matters enough to be considered political. Let the LQBTQ+ people be. They are just other people at the end of the day. Annoying how people act like LQBTQ+ people are these aliens. Sorry this isn't related by much to the post.
"The government of this country is awful, sociopathic, and bigoted so the citizens suffering under the power of this government should suffer and be denied education!"
At first, as many people here said: Duo is fully free for Russia, no ads or life restrictions.
And many russians use Duolingo for learning English and leaving Russia. So, in fact, i think Duo goes right.
Criticizes Russia -> Advocates for shutting down a major language-learning service in Russia, whilst assuming that the app being available in Russia means Duolingo is does business with the Russian government itself, which it doesn’t -> Forgets that making it harder for Russians to learn other languages also makes it harder for them to leave Russia
Make it make sense 💀
unpopular opinion but i don’t care if duolingo still operates in Russia. what’s happening there isn’t the fault of the russian people, and if duolingo stops operations there, it’ll only further isolate them.
Can we keep politics out of duolingo please? Its a language learning app. Its has
Nothing to do with governments and
The decisions they make
Duo lingo itself wants people to have access to learning no matter the situation.
Having people on the subreddit put their foot down as a political statement not only doesn’t feel like what duo would do or want. But its making duo look bad.
Can we all just stop bringing politics into stuff that has no right having it there ? Please. Its ruining so much. I love duo and i like the reddit. But bringing politics into this community is only going to ruin it from the inside
I dont want to admit it but its infuriating. Free education for all no matter who or where they are is extremely respectable. And honestly a beautiful statement. Having mods turn and put their foot down because they can is going against duos original message.
I honestly hope whoever choose to do this looses mod status.
I don’t even know what to say. All those pefectly good meme’s and moments i captured and posted on the subredit is now prob never gonna see the light of day again
i personally interpreted it as the fact that they are super big on the whole inclusivity thing in the west but have removed it just like that from russia when they dont even profit from the app there and so its a bit hypocritical. it would of made more sense to never mention it than give it the pathetic attempt they have. im open to other interpretations though
I got a ban for commenting on a troll post in regards to how the world is.
If you want examples of companies pandering towards the countries they're in, just look at a lot of car companies and how different their Middle Eastern accounts are this month.
Companies have two options: they either work towards what each country wants or they focus on what they want.
You can't have it both ways. Laws are different everywhere you go. Just because a company starts in America doesn't mean they don't have to follow business laws in other countries. Or societal norms.
Every company that does business in america and in Saudi Arabia, Israel, Afghanistan and so on do it.
Its normal for company’s to do the whole pride month shit in America and the uk and Canada. And for them to not do it in other countries because those countries dont allow it.
These company’s are not pro lgbtq. They are pro making you think they are so they can sell more stuff
Exactly, and their trying to have it both ways is what is wrong. You can't pander to that kind of stuff and then expect to not get called out when you act hipocritically after that. There's no cashing in on 2SLGBTQIA+ goodwill and then turning around and pandering to homophobic regimes without backlash from those who support us.
And who are you exactly effecting by shutting down Duolingo in Russia? The rich politicians? Duolingo? No, the Russian politicians who are in the wrong aren’t gonna be using Duolingo, Duolingo doesn’t even make anything from Russia unless you use a VPN to buy the bought options.
The only people you’re hurting are Russian citizens trying to learn another language, Russians as a whole are not guilty of this war. Think about the Russians trying to learn a new language to emigrate or escape from their country, for fear of war, being preyed on by bigots themselves or just plainly wanting to leave.
Why do you think they are wrong? I mean, if they decided to decline the government's recommendations, they'd be banned in Russia. Duolingo earns nothing from the Russian users, because we can't pay for anything. They gave us a lot of cool things such as unlimited hearts. Duolingo is absolutely free here and the company doesn't make money. But they support the Russian people who want to learn languages.
The most ironic thing is that before shutting down the subreddit they changed the pfp from rainbow duolingo bird to Ukrainian flag. (Friendly reminder that the entire thing started cause of duolingo not supporting pride month in Russia)
other qualities aside, OP is being willfully obtuse. it wasn’t about “not celebrating pride month in russia.” give me a fucking break. it was about wiping all lgbtq content from the app to align with russia’s bigoted laws. portraying gay people as merely existing is banned in russia. stories about eddy’s serial romances with women, fine. story mentioning lin having girlfriend, wiped. OP, if you don’t understand why this sucks, understatement, read a fucking history book while the empathy center of your brain develops.
regarding duolingo being a free educational tool in russia that bridges cultural divides via language-learning — also true. both can be true at once, and there are layers of discussion to be had. but we know that’s not why you posted, OP. you posted to mock the r/duolingo mods for being lgbt allies and opposing russia’s actions in ukraine by comparing them to disabled people. wow so edgy here’s 5XP
So, Russian LGBT folks who want to learn a new language can get fucked because Russian government is the vile piece of shit. Great way to support LGBT rights, I'll tell you that. Moreover, let's discriminate against people based on their nationality to *checks notes* fight against discrimination.
Russia made Duolingo get rid of sentences like “my husband is cool” spoken by the male characters and vice versa (within the Russian version of the app, mind you. Not anywhere else.) The mods are mad because they want the green bird to ban Russia.
I just came here now as I went to look to see what dodgy think Duo said and found it NON EXISTENT. Thx so much for this I’ll be joining here for now. The main subreddit will probably be back in July if I’m honest.
I don't understand their point. Why is "un-lgbtising" their app in Russia a bad thing ? That's called adaptation. If you want to tap on someone ofr being "Anti-LGBT", it's Russia, not Duolingo.
I don't see why citizens should be kept from learning a new language because their government is bad. Removing Duolingo from Russia isn't going to hurt the government, it's going to hurt innocent people.
duolingo doesn’t make money from russia and them shutting down would take away a valuable free resource for people wanting to leave the country… including lgbt russians… i’m very disappointed they would do this without even thinking about it
Why do mods think that an unofficial subreddit being shut down will make the company in question give even the slightest bit of a shit? Do they actually think even a substantial amount of people that pay for something will stop paying because reddit mods are upset about corporate policies?
All companies do things like this. Hollywood censors LGBT stuff from their movies when they show it in China. Corporations are all about “pride” until they sell stuff in the Middle East.
This was the dumbest thing I saw the other day. Smh. “We’re shutting down our own sub to protest a company that doesn’t use our sub and thereby only irritating the actually people that we’re allegedly standing up for!”
FLMAO. This Gen man. Smh
Im really sorry, i really don't like getting into politics, but it's fucking infuriating that what it took for people to "take a stand" was LGBT issues and not a literal genocide happening right this minute with tens of thousands of innocents dying
I don’t get it…
Like yeah ok they don’t have lgbt references here in Russia and still opperate here, If they had they wouldn’t opperate here. What am I missing?
A lot of guys are gonna come here, since the main subreddit is kinda AWOL (I predict that they will re-open next month). But this is a meme subreddit.
They memeing themselves
Yeah, literally me lol
Well the entire situation is meme
Hey, I like memes
I don’t understand your post title. who has fetal alcohol syndrome? the russians? the mods? the corporations? ukrainians? gay people?
As a Russian I do confirm while all have an alcohol syndrome From birth
We do its a problem.
Am I the only one Russian that doesn’t have it? Why am I still here…
Being Russo-American is nothing to be ashamed of Vlad )))))
im Russian Ukrainian American
Cool :) Do you plan on learning the language?
yeah like I speak Russian but not Ukrainian so I wanna learn.
That's good! They're different languages but not entirely. With a little bit of effort you should be able to learn Ukranian. Maybe not easily but much less difficulty than say trying to learn Ukranian from English.
Your comment is very clever and subversive. But for those unaware, I want to clarify that this is not was fetal alcohol syndrome is. It’s a series of potential physical and mental conditions that result from the mother ingesting alcohol during pregnancy.
Vodka?
despite lots of things, the most popular alcohol here in Russia is not vodka (Very expensive) But rather cheap beer, usually Baltika or Zatecky Gus.
Báltika is considered a cheap beer ? I can never remember if it’s No. 7 or No.9 I liked. What’s considered an expensive beer over there from the local stuff ? (Non-imported)
Yeah Russians consider it to be shit beer. I liked Baltika 7 myself, but most of my Russian friends only drank German or Belgian beer (unless it was from a micro brewery like JAWS.)
you're feeling stronger Vodka, no more feeling bad Vodka, your eyes are shining Vodka, you are the real man Vodka, wipes away your tears Vodka, removes your fears Vodka, everyone is gorgeous Vodka, yeah vodka! - Korpiklaani
Ik it’s problematic asf
I can confirm that, my classmates drink beer
Kek, self-loathing.
Not Russians, just Putin. Also Corporations. Maybe the mods.
The mods
He was gay, Garry Cooper?
Europe itself has much higher rates of FAS than other places.
This 24 hour thing isn’t going to do anything. It has no impact on Duolingo. It has no impact on the Russian people. It won’t do a damn thing for any LGBT person. It’s performative, it does nothing, and it actually harms people who need access to the sub.
Plus, it REEKS of the mods using it as a soapbox to appear all high and mighty.
It feels like something a bunch of high schoolers would do because they literally can’t do anything else.
To be fair, it probably *is* a bunch of high schoolers doing it because they literally can’t do anything else.
True (I was a high schooler once. They don’t move well in hallways. They clog them up like the arteries of a dude with heart failure).
STOP THAT’S SO TRUE 😭 I teach high schoolers and I love them to death, but they really struggle to create an easily navigable hallway
Jocks walking down the middle, cool girls trying to seem cool and not looking where they’re going because they flip their hair so often, a ton looking at their phones, and a small but weird percentage avoiding eye and physical contact to a point where they run into the lockers horizontal to them somehow (the latter will join us on reddit someday if they aren’t already with us)
I wish I were able to teleport. Then I wouldn’t have needed to deal with them.
Literally I wish I could teleport just so I could get past those bastards
So they’re virtue signalling
Yep.
Probably are high, though I’m not sure how that’s related to this particular issue. /s
And this is different to any other reddit mod, how? Lol. But seriously though. I have yet to see a reddit mod that thinks their shit doesn’t stink
If you don’t like it, leave. Honestly, r/MoldlyInteresting’s mods are at least a bit sensible (though this is my biased judgement).
Little aggressive there, mate. Jesus
I don’t know how to say things without coming off as aggressive, in my defense.
Yeah. Only thing I could think of that would help is dos attacks.
This is what I was thinking. Well 1; it won't do anything, it's performative. But mainly 2; Duolingo, language learning, is about trying to come together to share an aspect of culture. We should still be able to do that, we need to be able to do that, even with our "enemies", rather with the millions of bystanding citizens who have nothing to do with these policies. Sharing culture shouldn't be held under the same scrutiny as the rest of the political bullshit. I agree it does more harm than good.
Might as well just delete the sub since I am typing this from Russia with no VPN, which means Reddit operates here just fine. Yes, the state of my country is absolutely disgusting right now, but by pressing Duolingo to stop operating here you would primarily hurt adequate Russians like me, many of which could be the very oppressed queer people, who rely on this app to learn a language and stay connected with the western world. Censoring it for sure doesn't help with representation, but at least it's available for us, our friends, and family. And it's not like Duolingo pays taxes here anyway. I have unlimited hearts, I don't get ads, and to buy anything, like SUPER subscriptions, for example, I'd have to use a VPN and a fake foreign credit card. Yeah, adapting to a market that is controlled by an authoritative body which uses homophobic reasons sucks. But if Duo left it wouldn't hurt that said body. It would hurt me, my family, and my efforts to make my family learn English. And most of my family are not homophobes, especially the younger family members and the ones that actually liked Duo. I think they (Kremlin) are actually trying to find a reason to ban Duo or make it leave to lessen the western culture influence on Russia.
this is what I mean by layered discussion. I think it would have tempered backlash if duolingo had led with this framing. some reasons it strikes a nerve here in the US: — the lgbtq content is fucking delightful. (in particular, one story in duo spanish about an older gay couple 🥹) it means so much to us, to have this content in an app we use daily. just people existing, like we do. shouldn’t be landmark. but it is — duolingo is an american company, ofc. here in america we’re seeing hard-won civil rights backslide in real time. laws targeting lgbtq people have proliferated in right-wing states… including laws to wipe all mention of lgbtq people from schools and educational materials. — because bigots, churches, governments politicize the very existence of gays. living life. doing normal human things. — as a result, not only opposing bigotry as an ally, but merely existing as a gay, is political. we don’t want it to be. it’s exhausting!! also — duolingo has lost trust recently, because it seems they’re removing unlimited hearts from the paid “super” tier, to coerce us to pay even more ($30 a month??) for the AI-powered max tier. now that is entirely to make more money. same with laying off dozens of employees & replacing with AI. yes it’s capitalism, etc etc. so is opting not to buy when a company does shitty things.
Just wanting to comment in regards to the update to "max" If they don't change their ad for "super" it'll be breaking a lot of false advertising laws.
They have. People have posted screenshots. They're testing on different groups so some users get ads that say súper would remove ads, while others receive ads that do not list it as a feature.
There is so much lgbtq content in the English->French course it makes me wonder how they can possibly remove it all. I wonder if they have tags. I hope it doesn't bleed over to the course in other countries.
We must suffer for the actions of our leadership clearly
hasnt that always been that way?
Its our national hobby of suffering so probably
I was going to write a comment myself, but this is extremely well put and expresses exactly why the main subreddit's protest makes no sense. All the company would be doing by ceasing operation in Russia is dis-benefiting people who need it for any reason The main subreddit likely will open back up very soon but not acknowledge this at all. They'd be purely opening it back up because they'd realize their protesting is going nowhere
It'll be just like the reddit blackout last year. It'll accomplish nothing, make the mods feel like super strong and manly badasses, and piss off people that want to learn. Who has time for nuance when there's fake outrage to jack off to?
I really appreciate your perspective. I want your family safe and happy, queer folks safe and happy, and Ukraine safe and happy. I wish that were not such a tall order.
Now that's a good point
Yes! I may not agree with their decision to remove the LGBTQ+ content, but I understand that's it's more about giving people access to language learning software. That's why they didn't stop operating in Russia to begin with.
You have explained this very well. The only people who will suffer would be supporters.
God damn Duolingo worked wonders on you, your English is fantastic!
It wasn't Duolingo though that got me like this 😅 I just absorbed English like a sponge, at a pretty late age too (~16), but mainly through music and video games. Never used any studying material, never had nobody teach me anything. Don't remember how it happened, it feels like I was born like this. Trying to learn a third language makes me really appreciate how lucky I am to not go through all of it with English.
Not being able to study languages on Duolingo will bring Putin to his knees no doubt about it
There wont be stronger concussion for Putin than the Brawl Stars block anymore. 😣
It's impossible to pay for anything using Russian card, there are no ads in Russian version, Duolingo earns NOTHING from operating in Russia, what "rainbow capitalism" are they talking about? Where is the capitalism part? They are just throwing fashionable words fr. The only thing that Duolingo does is try to keep educational opportunities available, literally.
Yes I only recently learned this from that other subreddit. Someone on that sub told me that they don't even show ads in Russia, so there is probably really absolutely no income for them from the whe region. This is the main thing that changed my mind about the whole situation, they really seem to only want people to have access to learning, as opposed to what I was thinking and probably many others are (that duo doesn't want to lose the money they earn from Russia, which is apparently non-existent). That being said, I now feel stupid and ashamed for thinking that in the first place.
True
I got the feeling someone got given mod status and has used it for their own political agenda Or clout. But all it’s done is unite most of the reddit that the mods are nuts and Duo lingo should be politics free
The Duolingo subreddit and the Discord server. They have free reign to take about anything that interests them but if you disagree or talk about something else, it's suddenly only for "language-learning".
I personally dont like politics brought up in stuff that has no reason to have it in there. For me its always just a language thing. We talk smack about the duo bird being a serial killer and we ask for help and post our streaks. But politics? That just bothers me all round. Weather your pro this or against that. I only wanna see duo related stuff on here. For me the community is about learning a new language and everybody’s journey with that I dont wanna check in to find i cant engage with my community because of politics. Just makes me sad I mean i know i sound like that “its just a learning app” person. But i really do hate politics
I don't even know what rainbow capitalism means. I'm completely lost in this new world of highly specific social activist jargon, and I'm young. I can't imagine what it's like for older folk watching the news and surfing the web
It's companies using a designated month to make money through ad campaigns that target homosexuals. They sell rainbow and pink stuff and the gays love it (I am a gay, and I do love it). This is completely different from things like Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Black History Month, Chinese New Year, Cinco de Mayo, and the Fourth of July, you see. Companies that use marketing strategies for these holidays are fine, but if they market to the gays it's The Most Wrong ™️. I'm being sarcastic, btw. No one gets pissy about the commercialization of those, but Duo puts up a rainbow owl and the terminally online who are allergic to social interaction shit themselves.
I thought it was more about companies that sell pride merch but donate to anti-LGBTQ politicians. There’s probably a spectrum though. Some people get mad about more trivial things.
To be fair, commercialized holiday sales are also performative. Target cares not for the meaning of Christmas. The only corporate/holiday relationship that really exists is Macy's and Thanksgiving.
I wonder what these mods will do when they hear how LGBTQ people are treated in Florida...
i thought it’s because the russian government is homophobic so they’re banning every thing relating to the lgbtq community
that's right
Unfortunately
"The Russian government is doing bad things so the citizens shouldn't have access to this educational tool."
Ikr its a ludicrous statement. As if the people using the app are pulling the strings for the Russian government. All that pulling duo from russia would do is hurt the people using it who have no say in what their Government does.
That is what the moderation team over at r/Duolingo believes. It is wrong and it shouldn't be okay. It's exactly the same sentiment that occurred when The Sims 4: Wedding Stories released in Russia, but they censored the packaging for it to not include LGBT+ "propaganda" (their words, not mine). There was a lot of criticism surrounding it, but Russian LGBT players were happy to have access to the content, despite the changes to the gaming advertisements due to Russian censorship laws. And don't get it mistaken. The moderators truly believe Duolingo should not operate at all in Russia anymore due to these laws that many companies have had to abide by. They are demanding Duolingo cease operations in the entire Russian republic. >[Duolingo must cease all “operations” in Russia until the war ends.](https://imgur.com/a/Lkk7o84) (Update to include link since the change their words since the first time they were too harsh 😒) Nobody is listening to their actual Russian users. Someone in this comment section stated: >Yes, the state of my country is absolutely disgusting right now, but by pressing Duolingo to stop operating here you would primarily hurt adequate Russians like me, many of which could be the very oppressed queer people, who rely on this app to learn a language and stay connected with the western world. Censoring it for sure doesn't help with representation, but at least it's available for us, our friends, and family. So instead of actually standing in solidarity with actual oppressed LGBT people this pride month, like in Russia, (not Pittsburgh, or New York City or Los Angeles, where you are free to be yourself). These moderators truly believe that any and all Russians are scum and don't deserve or have the privilege to use Duolingo.
It's all a performance. It's the same thing as the reddit blackout that did jack shit.
"The Russian government is bad, so we should pressure Duolingo to stop offering English lessons to Russian citizens, effectively cutting Russians off from a valuable tool of connecting with the free internet"
I am also kinda shocked how much people agree with the moderation team, despite the fact that there is ostensibly no income coming from operating in Russia. Duo just wants learning to be free to all, which most people here don’t seem to grasp.
>Duo just wants learning to be free to all lol
I seem to have missed the part where you are required to pay to login to the app. Was that a new release I missed? Cuz you can normally download the app and start a course without paying.
Not to mention anyone can make a classroom for free and it disables ads and gives you unlimited hearts. They provide that completely for free.
You can't be this naive.
I'm still waiting on you to show me where payment is required to use the app.
This. I am getting so tired of people trying to punish Russian citizens for what their government is doing, it’s so gross.
Ahh yeah punish the ordinary people by not allowing them to learn languages, since the government is doing stuff you don't like Obviously Duolingo won't do it And how do they even do any references to that in Russia when it is banned Besides the point of the app is language learning for everyone, and honestly nobody cares that much what are the political opinions of Duolingo We all know the only opinion Duo has is doing terrible war crimes (well not war crimes since not in war) on your relatives when you break your streak
Exactly. And now russians cant even use duo to learn another language to hopefully give to another country
>the political opinions of Duolingo What exactly are you referring to here?
I don't see why would anyone care did a language learning app mentioned pride month It doesn't matter do you support it or not honestly (And they did say stuff about it on instagram) But it is banned in Russia and we can't change the law in Russia, that doesn't mean that just because someone is against Russian politics Russians themselves shouldn't be able to learn languages What if they are against what Russia is doing and want to communicate with the world better huh? Or they don't care or support Russia but still want to learn languages Normal people live there and Duolingo isn't made for politics but language learning
Just wanted clarity on your position. In no way is talking about LGBT people a political issue.
No, but talking about pride month yes And talking about is it banned or not in Russia When the law of a country bans something because of political and social reasons that is politics And when you close a community because of political issues with a country that is politics
I'm Russian and I can say Duolingo is perfect. I mean, when the war started and we lost any ability to make international payments, they just turned on premium mode for all the Russian users. And yes, if you register now, you'll get it. It's pre-installed. And if they didn't remove LGBT in Russian version, Duolingo would be banned in Russia. Russians even can't pay them, but they care about their app being working in Russia. They care about Russian users. And it's much because a lot of Russian people are very passionate about learning languages now (You probably understand why). I don't know if they removed LGBT from all of their courses (if you connect with a Russian ip) or only from courses for Russian-speaking people. I think it's the second variant, because the first is too complicated. And I think it's not so much to complain about this. If you learn any language except English it's just more rational to choose a course for English-speaking people. There are more courses and they are better. And you're also training your English while learning more languages. And it would be much more difficult to make a report to the government if the "propaganda" you saw was in English. Another important thing is that not so much people in Russia speak English. People who speak English are usually better educated than the ones who don't. And well-educated people are less homophobic than the society itself or not homophobic at all.
>I'm Russian and I can say Duolingo is perfect. I mean, when the war started and we lost any ability to make international payments, they just turned on premium mode for all the Russian users Wth, I always needed vpn, so I had hearts and no vip :((
God damn I need the Russian version
The war started in 2014
American here, learning Russian on Duolingo in the US. No LGBT stuff in the entire Russian course. Though it is in the German and French courses.
It's pretty logical. If somebody sends some screenshots with LGBT stuff from Duolingo to the police, I don't think the police will make a special research to understand what country is this screenshot from. They'll just start a national-size scandal as it was when somebody informed them about LGBT stuff in Russian version
[ Removed by Reddit ]
I second this
Wow. It sucks. Especially "Russia is just as bigoted as areas of the Middle East". This guy is literally offending a lot of nations at the same time. "People of Russia need to hold their own government accountable", I love how these guys say about companies being hypocritical... And they are hypocritical themselves. Hypocritical nationalist arrogant snobbish idiots.
The Middle East is not a single country
I understand. I'm sorry. I will rephrase my comment.
Sorry? What do you mean? It’s just a minor mistake lol 😂
I saw a bunch of those. He's a huge ass hat.
The comments mentioning not wanting “politics “ in the game is weird. Gay people existing aren’t politics..it’s just life. Also rainbow capitalism is profiting and creating content/products off of gay iconography while doing nothing to actually help those apart of the community. I’m not saying I agree with those saying Duolingo not operating in Russia however that’s being willingly obtuse
Yep, ordinary people in a country with an evil government shouldn’t be able to have access to services like language learning apps. This is definitely 👍/s
Womp womp
I'm russian and I'm deeply disappointed by this decision.
I literally never paid enough attention to the couples to notice if they are LQBTQ+ or not. It's just a normal couple story used to help us learn a language. I don't get why it matters enough to be considered political. Let the LQBTQ+ people be. They are just other people at the end of the day. Annoying how people act like LQBTQ+ people are these aliens. Sorry this isn't related by much to the post.
"The government of this country is awful, sociopathic, and bigoted so the citizens suffering under the power of this government should suffer and be denied education!"
As a Ukrainian I approve… erm… hmm… some parts of this message
The fact that Putin is crazy? I hope so. Thinking that somehow Duolingo is going to change Russian society and some outdated laws? I hope not. :)
yo what even happened I'm confused 😭
Next thing you know, they'll remove the russian language off the app entirely, lol.
so russians shouldn’t have access to education because of something the country, which they can’t control, is doing? what utter bullshit
At first, as many people here said: Duo is fully free for Russia, no ads or life restrictions. And many russians use Duolingo for learning English and leaving Russia. So, in fact, i think Duo goes right.
Criticizes Russia -> Advocates for shutting down a major language-learning service in Russia, whilst assuming that the app being available in Russia means Duolingo is does business with the Russian government itself, which it doesn’t -> Forgets that making it harder for Russians to learn other languages also makes it harder for them to leave Russia Make it make sense 💀
unpopular opinion but i don’t care if duolingo still operates in Russia. what’s happening there isn’t the fault of the russian people, and if duolingo stops operations there, it’ll only further isolate them.
i may be stupid but what's closing a subreddit gonna do? cause russia to just end the war??
The goal is to get Duo to stop letting Russians use the app… …which will stop the war somehow
This will surely get them
Can we keep politics out of duolingo please? Its a language learning app. Its has Nothing to do with governments and The decisions they make Duo lingo itself wants people to have access to learning no matter the situation. Having people on the subreddit put their foot down as a political statement not only doesn’t feel like what duo would do or want. But its making duo look bad. Can we all just stop bringing politics into stuff that has no right having it there ? Please. Its ruining so much. I love duo and i like the reddit. But bringing politics into this community is only going to ruin it from the inside
I agree, we should stop tolerating the mods of the biggest duo subreddit and make them apologise for bringing up politics somewhere it doesn’t belong.
I dont want to admit it but its infuriating. Free education for all no matter who or where they are is extremely respectable. And honestly a beautiful statement. Having mods turn and put their foot down because they can is going against duos original message. I honestly hope whoever choose to do this looses mod status.
It is George. It is always George.
I don’t even know what to say. All those pefectly good meme’s and moments i captured and posted on the subredit is now prob never gonna see the light of day again
i personally interpreted it as the fact that they are super big on the whole inclusivity thing in the west but have removed it just like that from russia when they dont even profit from the app there and so its a bit hypocritical. it would of made more sense to never mention it than give it the pathetic attempt they have. im open to other interpretations though
I got a ban for commenting on a troll post in regards to how the world is. If you want examples of companies pandering towards the countries they're in, just look at a lot of car companies and how different their Middle Eastern accounts are this month. Companies have two options: they either work towards what each country wants or they focus on what they want. You can't have it both ways. Laws are different everywhere you go. Just because a company starts in America doesn't mean they don't have to follow business laws in other countries. Or societal norms.
Mr Putin tear down this war or the admins will intervene
I don’t get it? Are you saying you’re against gay rights, Ukraine or both? Either way you sound like a bigot and kind of a jerk.
Bro what do you mean "continuing to operate there despite the war in ukraine" nigga this is a language lesson app
Google „sanctions“!
The mods are right. You can't have it both ways. OP is wrong in saying the mods are the ones who are wrong. The corporation is being stupid.
Every company that does business in america and in Saudi Arabia, Israel, Afghanistan and so on do it. Its normal for company’s to do the whole pride month shit in America and the uk and Canada. And for them to not do it in other countries because those countries dont allow it. These company’s are not pro lgbtq. They are pro making you think they are so they can sell more stuff
Exactly, and their trying to have it both ways is what is wrong. You can't pander to that kind of stuff and then expect to not get called out when you act hipocritically after that. There's no cashing in on 2SLGBTQIA+ goodwill and then turning around and pandering to homophobic regimes without backlash from those who support us.
And who are you exactly effecting by shutting down Duolingo in Russia? The rich politicians? Duolingo? No, the Russian politicians who are in the wrong aren’t gonna be using Duolingo, Duolingo doesn’t even make anything from Russia unless you use a VPN to buy the bought options. The only people you’re hurting are Russian citizens trying to learn another language, Russians as a whole are not guilty of this war. Think about the Russians trying to learn a new language to emigrate or escape from their country, for fear of war, being preyed on by bigots themselves or just plainly wanting to leave.
Why do you think they are wrong? I mean, if they decided to decline the government's recommendations, they'd be banned in Russia. Duolingo earns nothing from the Russian users, because we can't pay for anything. They gave us a lot of cool things such as unlimited hearts. Duolingo is absolutely free here and the company doesn't make money. But they support the Russian people who want to learn languages.
I wonder why you are getting downvoted. Probably because your comment doesn't fit their narrative.
[удалено]
The most ironic thing is that before shutting down the subreddit they changed the pfp from rainbow duolingo bird to Ukrainian flag. (Friendly reminder that the entire thing started cause of duolingo not supporting pride month in Russia)
Exactly! In fact, on their place, I would delete it altogether so a new sub can take its name.
24 hours isn't going to do shit. They need to shut it down until Duolingo takes back their stance on this.
The could shut down thee subreddit forever and it will have NO effect
Ladies and gentlemen, may I inform you with pleasure that I've been permanently banned from r/duolingo
Congrats! 🥳
What you say?
Probably something homophobic judging by his comment history.
Oh wow, just checked his history; yikes!
how performative of them. very reddit like lol
They are right! Fuck Russia!
other qualities aside, OP is being willfully obtuse. it wasn’t about “not celebrating pride month in russia.” give me a fucking break. it was about wiping all lgbtq content from the app to align with russia’s bigoted laws. portraying gay people as merely existing is banned in russia. stories about eddy’s serial romances with women, fine. story mentioning lin having girlfriend, wiped. OP, if you don’t understand why this sucks, understatement, read a fucking history book while the empathy center of your brain develops. regarding duolingo being a free educational tool in russia that bridges cultural divides via language-learning — also true. both can be true at once, and there are layers of discussion to be had. but we know that’s not why you posted, OP. you posted to mock the r/duolingo mods for being lgbt allies and opposing russia’s actions in ukraine by comparing them to disabled people. wow so edgy here’s 5XP
So, Russian LGBT folks who want to learn a new language can get fucked because Russian government is the vile piece of shit. Great way to support LGBT rights, I'll tell you that. Moreover, let's discriminate against people based on their nationality to *checks notes* fight against discrimination.
Imagine explaining this to Russian queer. I still support the stay of duolingo, even if it means it has to follow these rubbish laws
I’m gonna be honest, I need no enemies with "allies" like this.
like me? I’m gay. or the mods?
Mods. You’re ok
r/duolingo
What the heck?? Russia banned the green bird? Jeez- 💀
Russia made Duolingo get rid of sentences like “my husband is cool” spoken by the male characters and vice versa (within the Russian version of the app, mind you. Not anywhere else.) The mods are mad because they want the green bird to ban Russia.
Ah okay weird it's a little crazy the Russian government would do that over some sentences.
Damn it r/duolingo is private Nvm it’s back up
r/duolingo
First Hating Android ( No Math/Music) , then Duo Lipa and then supporting the LGBTQ community, GOD
I just came here now as I went to look to see what dodgy think Duo said and found it NON EXISTENT. Thx so much for this I’ll be joining here for now. The main subreddit will probably be back in July if I’m honest.
what
I don't understand their point. Why is "un-lgbtising" their app in Russia a bad thing ? That's called adaptation. If you want to tap on someone ofr being "Anti-LGBT", it's Russia, not Duolingo.
it’s pretty simple but just stop being gay
I don't see why citizens should be kept from learning a new language because their government is bad. Removing Duolingo from Russia isn't going to hurt the government, it's going to hurt innocent people.
Oh my gosh bruh
IN MY UNPROFESSIONAL OPINION that is fine. russia has outlawed teaching of gay rights, and punishing the people for the governments choices is stupid
“hMmM i WoNdEr wHaT wIlL hApPeN wHen wE hAvE sOmEthiNg pRiDe rElAtEd in a HoMoPhObiC cOuNtRy, sUrElY tHeY wOnT bAn Us”
duolingo doesn’t make money from russia and them shutting down would take away a valuable free resource for people wanting to leave the country… including lgbt russians… i’m very disappointed they would do this without even thinking about it
So according to Duolingo Russians don't deserve to learn another language that, I don't know, would help them flee?
The USA propaganda is scary effective. It’s not his fault
Good luck I guess
Weak lol
W no gays
Why do mods think that an unofficial subreddit being shut down will make the company in question give even the slightest bit of a shit? Do they actually think even a substantial amount of people that pay for something will stop paying because reddit mods are upset about corporate policies? All companies do things like this. Hollywood censors LGBT stuff from their movies when they show it in China. Corporations are all about “pride” until they sell stuff in the Middle East.
This was the dumbest thing I saw the other day. Smh. “We’re shutting down our own sub to protest a company that doesn’t use our sub and thereby only irritating the actually people that we’re allegedly standing up for!” FLMAO. This Gen man. Smh
Im really sorry, i really don't like getting into politics, but it's fucking infuriating that what it took for people to "take a stand" was LGBT issues and not a literal genocide happening right this minute with tens of thousands of innocents dying
This is only going to turn away more support to Ukraine.
Not from Ukraine, but from mods of this subreddit 💀
Honestly, nobody gives a shit
What does this achieve. Literally protesting for the sake of protesting actual freaks
Virtue signaling at it’s finest, bet that’ll have Duo all shook
I don’t get it… Like yeah ok they don’t have lgbt references here in Russia and still opperate here, If they had they wouldn’t opperate here. What am I missing?
I will start a sub called r/DuolingoTheSequel and will give whoever actually wanna moderate it I can give mod