I agree that there’s nothing wrong with being any ethnicity (although that’s a creepy way to say it), however the Russian public does have extremely high support for Putin’s actions: https://www.statista.com/statistics/896181/putin-approval-rating-russia/
Notice the huge jump in approval when he invaded Ukraine. Only FDR, Truman, Kennedy, and the Bushes have ever gotten that high of approval in the US.
And Americans voted Trump.
I’m not trying to whataboutism here, my point is that even an actual democracy people are fooled by the (political)elite. We can’t blame the Russian people for living in a dictatorship and for (foolishly) trusting / listening to their media, I think. Still open to be convinced otherwise.
There’s some amount of nuance to both I think. For America, Trump actually had less popular support for both elections he ran in. For Biden v Trump, he not only lost the electoral college but also got something like 10 million fewer votes, which is a blowout result for an election in a 2-party nation. For Hillary v Trump, he lost by a few million but was more strategic with the states he appealed to, winning several Rust Belt states by fairly thin margins. For Russia, polling works a bit differently in a dictatorship vs. a democracy. In a democracy, even if everyone hates the current leader the idea that people can vote them out often brings contentment, so a democracy can chug along with low approval. In a dictatorship, the dictator can’t be voted out and will often use fear to gain support, so they tend to poll highly because the people doing well love them and the people doing poorly are too afraid to say their feelings on the matter on government record. However, this means that if polling falls low that there are either fairly few people doing well or they no longer attribute their well-being to the state and that the people doing poorly are either bold or desperate enough to push through fear. This is extremely bad news for a dictator and may signal an impending change in leadership. With all that in mind, stable dictators like Kim Jun Un and President Xi Jinping poll very highly even during times of hardship, and Putin’s poll numbers falling to levels that would seem fine in a democratic nation could be dire news for his state.
If you had left out “gorgeous Russian girls” you would probably have significantly fewer downvotes. I generally agree it’s not the people’s fault their nation is a dictatorship, but I think generally when people say fuck Russia they mean fuck the Russian state, not the geographical area nor the people that happened to be born there.
Russian girls part was the best for it shows how unhinged they are if they aren’t a troll.
I happened to be born there, and I’ve seen a discussion about who’s to blame for so long it’s nausiating.
Idk what foreigners mean by that, probs they just react to the news and socialize by saying that without a second thought most of the time.
But the sad truth is regular people were purposefully fucked in the head for two decades (after just ten years of promising chaos). That’s not easy to undo. They won’t magically wake up after wishing another drone strike on Kiyv, they don’t believe they deserve political power or freedom, all they talk is how they are wronged by the world and how they get their sweet revenge.
If they weren’t so submissive it couldn’t have happened. It’s a learnt serf mentality. And they are complicit in that tragedy as well. Not as much, but it sure feels like there we see the whole country acting as a one, not a handful of leaders doing that against their will. And others like me not having means or courage to speak up. I’ve been already disowned by some friendgroups, thankfully without telling on me.
The whole thing about carving out ‘the good russians’ is done by people who didn’t (or couldn’t) do anything before it’s too late, to feel better and to bear with it. It’s its’ own subculture. And I really doubt this distinction means much in the big picture. Unvocal minority not even hitting the margin of error, and not deserving support like those who actually fucking die. A community without it’s place.
And I’m really surprised I see this group named in english language.
edit: Originally there were three or four paragraphs. I sent it too early.
Culture, movements, propaganda, all odd and complex things. Seeing how things have changed in the last 30+ years in the US (since that’s what I know) and especially the last 10, and how that all came about, gives me a very different perspective about the directions various countries take and how the populous is led there gradually.
I’ve been to Moscow briefly. I know the people there are just people like anywhere. But their reality, like mine, is shaped by information available, the culture, the history.
Rise of right wing craziness to mainstream in USA via right wing media has been a targeted project for the last 40+ years following Watergate. Only now do we see those plans come to fruition in the form of judicial takeover and extreme divisiveness among the populace. As educational institutions continue to be eroded, underfunded, demonized, and subverted there will come a time when the majority of the population gladly accepts its strong man and relinquishes the rest of its freedoms with a smile.
They have returned to nature and now run in wild packs on the Kazakh steppes.
As you imply, it’s possible for someone to come into power by winning elections, and then become a dictator by breaking the democratic process, ending free & fair elections, criminalizing opposition parties, destroying independent judiciary so that dictatorial actions cannot be reviewed in court, etc.
There are plenty of examples of this in today’s international fascist movement.
