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(disclaimer, I'm russian but not Russia citizen, but I 'experienced the culture' for 30 years) This is wrong. There is not so much special russian 'mentality' l

by Zvez 5y ago

(disclaimer, I'm russian but not Russia citizen, but I 'experienced the culture' for 30 years) This is wrong. There is not so much special russian 'mentality' left in Russia, not in the big cities. People there have more-or-less the same 'european values'. The problem now is that we used to think of ourselves as 'good guys'. We destroyed nazis and even though we did a lot of not so good stuff, in minds of russians it always viewed as 'missteps' or 'lesser evil'. Thats why propaganda now is so efficient. General population of Russia can't even imagine the possibility that we invade other country. Because it is impossible, we remember way too well how we were invaded by Germany. And it is easy to use. Basically government tells people that we actually prevent Ukraine to invade DNR/LNR. Yes, it sounds stupid, but it works. Personally I can't even convince my parents that right now we are the bad guys. It is beyond their world view. My point here is that russians are not some special people or special culture that allow us to invade other countries. We just struggle to move to more 'people-based' governments.

ignoramous 5y ago
The constant rhetoric reducing Russia to just Putin (mad-man), or Communists (not-democratic), or worse, a generic Russian soul (not-european) is Western political bias at play. It is trivial to dehumanize, devalue, derogate an entire nation once you have made these labels stick. After that, garnering consensus for inflicting sanctions, suffering, segregation becomes a walk in the park. Both sides of the table are guilty of doing this, but the West is way more influential and hence much effective at propaganda. Playbook as old as humans themselves: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_stages_of_genocide#Ten_stages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_stages_of_genocide#Ten_sta...
trhway 5y ago
> There is not so much special russian 'mentality' left in Russia, not in the big cities. People there have more-or-less the same 'european values'. that is just external shell that came with oil money. Try to fit the "Great Russia chauvinism" into what you said. You wouldn't be able to. That chauvinism is the basis of Russian mentality and has been well alive and kicking, and the last few days it has been taking a trip to Ukraine. >General population of Russia can't even imagine the possibility that we invade other country. convenient self-delusion. Afghanistan is a glaring example. Of course it was sold as "brotherly help" by propaganda just like the Ukraine war right now. Well, easy falling for the same propaganda again and again - that is the convenient self-delusion. That delusion naturally feeds into and is reinforced by the "Big Brother" self-perception which is one of the facets of the "Great Russia chauvinism".

by Zvez 5y ago

ignoramous 5y ago

The constant rhetoric reducing Russia to just Putin (mad-man), or Communists (not-democratic), or worse, a generic Russian soul (not-european) is Western political bias at play. It is trivial to dehumanize, devalue, derogate an entire nation once you have made these labels stick. After that, garnering consensus for inflicting sanctions, suffering, segregation becomes a walk in the park. Both sides of the table are guilty of doing this, but the West is way more influential and hence much effective at propaganda. Playbook as old as humans themselves: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_stages_of_genocide#Ten_stages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_stages_of_genocide#Ten_sta...

trhway 5y ago

> There is not so much special russian 'mentality' left in Russia, not in the big cities. People there have more-or-less the same 'european values'. that is just external shell that came with oil money. Try to fit the "Great Russia chauvinism" into what you said. You wouldn't be able to. That chauvinism is the basis of Russian mentality and has been well alive and kicking, and the last few days it has been taking a trip to Ukraine. >General population of Russia can't even imagine the possibility that we invade other country. convenient self-delusion. Afghanistan is a glaring example. Of course it was sold as "brotherly help" by propaganda just like the Ukraine war right now. Well, easy falling for the same propaganda again and again - that is the convenient self-delusion. That delusion naturally feeds into and is reinforced by the "Big Brother" self-perception which is one of the facets of the "Great Russia chauvinism".