5 ms·
Don't forget the huge bias in all of the materials describing Russia/USSR in the West, even coming from Russians themselves (like Brodsky, Solzhenitsyn, and oth
by anticodon 5y ago
Don't forget the huge bias in all of the materials describing Russia/USSR in the West, even coming from Russians themselves (like Brodsky, Solzhenitsyn, and other defectors/traitors/dissidents).
One prominent goal of the Western world was always to destroy Russia (last prominent example: German invasion in 1941 which clearly stated that the final goal is to exterminate Slavs). There were and there are numerous plans in the current Europe and USA that continue the work of Hitler. Almost every day you can read in the news on the new plan of USA/NATO/GB to start a war with Russia.
So, all the news, all the books, all the history you get on the West is dedicated to one thing: paint Russia and Russians as the most evil savages, the history of Russia as a bloody bloodbath, etc, etc.
There's simply no English source on Russia/USSR/Russian-USSR history I've seen that was free from that bias. Even English prose contains absurd exaggerations when telling about Russia.
Speech of famous USSR/Russian dissidents require different explanation, but most of them exaggerate the rusophobic bullshit with even more zealousness than anglosaxons themselves. I think the main reasons are that they need to find vindication for their treason and they need to demonstrate to the Western world that they're loyal. Also, it's possibly the only source of income for many Russian emigrants that have some humanitarian degree (writers, journalists) is to write rusophobic pamphlets.
- TheGigaChad 5y agoIdiotic dumbass.
- rpmisms 5y agoI am of direct Russian descent. Soviet Russia was a hellscape. It is not Rusophobic to say this.
- anticodon 5y ago«О чем вся великая русская классика? Об абсолютной невыносимости российской жизни в любом ее аспекте. И все. Ничего больше там нет. А мир хавает. И просит еще… Для них это короткая инъекция счастья. Они на пять минут верят, что ад не у них, а у нас. Но ад везде, где бьется человеческая мысль. Страдает не одна Россия. Страдает все бытие. У нас просто меньше лицемерия и пиара.» -- Пелевин
- thrwway34 5y agoSo, your proofs of world-wide Russophobia are... posts on Facebook, travel forums and a quote from Pelevin? Very fitting.
- anticodon 5y agoLOL, Russophobia doesn't even need proofs. You can open any western media (BBC, CNN, DW, whatever), type Russia in the search box, and get tons of results that regurgitate the same thoughts over and over: "Russia is guilty for everything bad that is happening now", "Russia is guilty for everything bad that happened in the past", "Russia is guilty for everything bad that will happen in the future", "Russians are dangerous villains", "Russians are savages". If you open social network, like reddit.com/r/worldnews, it would be even more obvious. If you open comments under any news about Russia there, you'll find even direct appeals to kill Russians (BTW, always ignored by Reddit, Facebook and Twitter moderators, but try to write the same about any other nationality and you'll be immediately banned). My comment was about a small part of russophobes - Russians that emigrated abroad. Most of the time they become the most zealous russophobes. I don't really know the explanation, nor do I really care. I've just made a rule to avoid Russians abroad as most of them hate themselves to the point of schizophrenia.
- dmitrybrant 5y agoI grew up in the Soviet Union until my family and I immigrated to the US. I have no particular loyalty to "the west", but I can say with absolute certainty that Western culture is objectively better than Soviet culture. The general feelings that permeated Soviet society were apathy and misery. It was so pervasive that modern Russians fetishize it and even feel nostalgia for it. There was an excellent little movie from the 80s called Moscow on the Hudson, with Robin Williams, which beautifully portrays the Soviet immigrant experience. Robin Williams' character says the following lines, which resonate with me completely: "When I was in Russia, I did not love my life... but I loved my misery. You know why? Because it was my misery. I could hold it. I could caress it. I loved my misery."
- anticodon 5y agoI lived for years in various SEA countries. Most are significantly poorer that USSR/Russia ever was, lacking infrastructure (basic necessities like electricity, tap water, internet, access to medical care, good roads, etc). Many of them are also highly authoritarian. E.g. Cambodia, which is authoritarian, lacks electricity (even in the capital blackouts are frequent and long, in the summer they happen every day for the duration of the whole workday!), there's no qualified medical care (free or non-free whatsoever), no education (even highly expensive "western" schools are worthless, and I know from experience that there work many drunkards, drug addicts and pedophiles from the West). Nevertheless Russian expats are praising these third world countries as "best in the world" and endlessly vilify Russia. In fact, vilifying Russia is the main talk topic everywhere where 2 or more Russian expats gather, main reason why I avoid making friends with Russians abroad. You can easily find lots of proofs on Facebook and travel forums.