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Slush revokes $1M pitch prize from Russian founders after industry outcry

10 points| alboy | 3 years ago |techcrunch.com

7 comments

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logicalmonster|3 years ago

People: Xenophobia and judging people based on stuff they're not responsible for is always wrong.

Also People: Now let me tell you why every Russian should be removed from every possible venue of society.

scrollaway|3 years ago

Disclaimer: I have close Ukrainian relatives and friends highly affected by the war, and acquaintances renouncing and fleeing Russia.

I thought this was a pretty good article that nicely framed a nuanced situation.

I agree with you that there's a lot of xenophobia out there. It's unfortunate. A lot of it also comes from pretty justified places: A surprising amount of Russians are pro-war, and it is not inappropriate to say "fuck those people, even if they aren't on the frontlines". Another large amount of Russians are, albeit not explicitly pro-war, implicitly support it by refusing to stand against it even when they have the means to do so (in other words, Russians fleeing Russia and claiming "I stay away from politics").

This is the key quote:

> They said the VC judges don’t blame Slush or Immigram for the situation but in light of the information about the bulk of it customers, “it felt inappropriate to invest.”

It's simple: If Immigram has a customer base primarily composed of people who support Russia's war against Ukraine (and consequently, Europe), then yes, why god WHY should Europe invest $1MM into it?