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That's really interesting to hear the "other side" as it were. I think the US mentality is to simply not tell you anything about the other county so that you d

That's really interesting to hear the "other side" as it were. I think the US mentality is to simply not tell you anything about the other county so that you don't develop any sort of personal feelings. I was a child during the cold war, but I actually could not tell you one thing about any Russian person that I was told during that time, aside from the "evil" leaders hated our way of life and how they desperately wanted to destroy us. Unfortunately I think that still works - it's still not that unusual to hear about how terrorist hate our freedom, want to take away our freedom, etc. If you have any interesting in understanding why such thing may be true - you have to go out of your way to find news about it.

vastinfest 13y ago
I think it's just easier to paint yourself as good guys when you can leverage "us" vs "them" mentality. During cold war that was USA vs USSR, now its USA vs terrorists. Real beuty of that is that it works from boths sides - USA hated commies from USSR, USSR hated evil capitalists from USA. Now same thinking can be applied to both USA and terrorists (when you think about it - USA has invaded couple countries and is actively bulying rest of the world into shape). During cold war there was USSR to keep USA in check so to say. Now there's USA and some people without any real resources behind them fighting out of idea. Even sadder thing - both sides have people who believe all that "we" are good guys are absolutely true. I was born in USSR couple of years before collapse (I don't remember anything solid myself), but to this day my parents say that "then" things were better, everybody had jobs, everybody was happy (partly because vodka was water cheap, partly because nobody told anybody what really happened in places where happened things like biological or nuclear weapons manufacture). I can guarrantee you same exact things happened over in the USA. When I say "happened" i really mean "happens".. I can't currently decide who next will stomp over my country..
Amadou 13y ago
I was a child during the cold war, but I actually could not tell you one thing about any Russian person that I was told during that time, I still remember Sting's song Russians with the rhetorical lyric, "Do the Russians Love their Children Too?" Which is kind of the opposite of your point, since it wasn't Big Evil propaganda.

vastinfest 13y ago

I think it's just easier to paint yourself as good guys when you can leverage "us" vs "them" mentality. During cold war that was USA vs USSR, now its USA vs terrorists. Real beuty of that is that it works from boths sides - USA hated commies from USSR, USSR hated evil capitalists from USA. Now same thinking can be applied to both USA and terrorists (when you think about it - USA has invaded couple countries and is actively bulying rest of the world into shape). During cold war there was USSR to keep USA in check so to say. Now there's USA and some people without any real resources behind them fighting out of idea. Even sadder thing - both sides have people who believe all that "we" are good guys are absolutely true. I was born in USSR couple of years before collapse (I don't remember anything solid myself), but to this day my parents say that "then" things were better, everybody had jobs, everybody was happy (partly because vodka was water cheap, partly because nobody told anybody what really happened in places where happened things like biological or nuclear weapons manufacture). I can guarrantee you same exact things happened over in the USA. When I say "happened" i really mean "happens".. I can't currently decide who next will stomp over my country..

Amadou 13y ago

I was a child during the cold war, but I actually could not tell you one thing about any Russian person that I was told during that time, I still remember Sting's song Russians with the rhetorical lyric, "Do the Russians Love their Children Too?" Which is kind of the opposite of your point, since it wasn't Big Evil propaganda.