SO spot on. ALL of it. In America they stopped teaching US and World History decades ago. They went into social studies to teach culture. Not horrible on its own. But it's whitewashed. No history of tyrants etc.
But yes why we now how USA white liberal jews worried about Gaza Palestine. Who literally want them dead. The list long of populations who have no clue.
Yeah, it's actually scary. Also, geography and distance makes it harder for Americans to travel to the 'Old world' and to learn what's actually going on there.
i think its a DYOR situation. Sometimes, some of the anti-individual liberty societies will promote social values. In America we have states that the cost of living are horrible or are as violent or illiterate as a third world country. In argentina or Dominican republic i have heard of 40 and 30% yields for investors where SnP was flat for two decades previously. The geopolitical situation moves fast and there are many sub movements. Of course its easy to have grass is greener on the other side. Tucker said russian food is much cheaper but FEE responded that its a higher percentage vs a US salary so wages are lower. A third article said the war is producing a young middle class for russia. So there is nuance there. I think Putin did save russia economically and from western financial interests and gave it national boundaries that are respected. Obviously many russians like Kasparov dont like Putin but in US we rarely like our presidents. Glad you are encouraging some critical thinking. Its very hard to have all or nothing since things are nuanced.
Yeah, good point about Russian wages being much lower too - without comparing wages, food prices comparison is pointless.
The point is Putin didn't save Russia - oil prices did. Oil prices were about 30 dollars per barrel in 90s under Yeltsin which was dire for Russia as an energy exporter, and grew up to 110 dollars per barrel under Putin. But it's not his merit - it's international market situation. To ascribe it to him is essentially the sand as to say Putin improved weather in Russia. Yeah he used this opportunity but he would have been an utter fool not to.
Yeah Putin chased away Western oligarchy from Ruy only to give it to his own. Same as he fights Wokeness merely to promote his own toxic imperiaist ideology. He isn't really saving Russia or promoting social values buf merely protects his power and wealth from foreign competition, don't you see it?
And nope war does NOT create a new middle class in Russia, where did you even pick up this outrageous lie? Putin might be paying some money to families of the soldiers bur they're very small and pathetic.
Thanks for your message nevertheless, respectful exchange is great.
Yeah, especially state bureaucrats are profiteering on war, but not regular people.
Send me if you'll find what you saw. But if those are payments to the families of the soldiers I think about, their size is pathetic, less than an average monthly salary even.
I think you are right about not ignoring the criminal leaders around the world, but criminality is alive and well here in the USA as well and has been since it's inception. The founding criminals were writes of good stories that tickled the ears of many, but they didn't follow the morality portrayed by the Constitution. I don't let the other criminal nations off the hook. Many of them have taken away freedoms of humans at a much larger volume than the USA, but keep in mind a person only has one life and if that single person is stripped of the chance of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, that is all there is for that person, whether in Russia, China or the USA etc. Without forgetting that all Governments have been proven bad, Take a look nat the real America. https://www.truthhistoryandmore.com/when-was-america-great.php
Yeah, thanks for you comment. Ofc we shouldn't idealize America as well, but it's equally important not to whitewash foreign criminals, and I'm with growing concern seeing Americans doing it on BOTH sides.
That is, Woke Left are openly praising Islamist terror groups and Shariah dictatorships and Nazi Ukraine, while conservatives are whitewashing Putin's Russia or nationalist Eastern Europe. I'm very concerned of those toxic trends, hence my article.
Yeah, you proved my point then. As an immigrant from Russia I also spotted that most Americans are entirely ignorant of my homeland and believe either NATO Russophobic hateful propaganda or in the contrary Putin's propaganda recycled through the likes of Tucker Carlson and Oliver Stone.
I think it's the case with almost other place in the world. So perhaps instead of listening to propaganda Americans would do some independent research at least if living abroad isn't an option for them, sigh.
This "whitewashing", as you put it, is a product of binary thinking. Anything that's not Woke must be 'good'.
"Actually, I believe, that just ONE YEAR in Russia or China would be more than enough to heal Americans from this toxic delusion, to make them very grateful for being Americans and to make them realize that Wokeism indeed isn’t the ONLY problem the world has, and that anti-Woke societies ironically might be much worse than Woke ones."
Living abroad does make some Americans wake up, but I fear that others will stay in their foreign ghettos and maintain their illusions.
Larry Romanoff is a retired businessman and mega China fan who lives in Shanghai:
I have never seen him demonstrate any knowledge of Chinese. I imagine he is living quite comfortably in the big city, hiring others to take care of his needs. Which is fine but does not enable him to really understand what the average person living there is going through. And as he writes nothing but paeans to the PRC, he is in no danger of censorship.
He exemplifies binary thinking at its best/worst - he REALLY hates the US, so China *must* be perfect in his eyes!
And without Chinese AFAIK he is in an English bubble dependent on what bilinguals tell him and unable to interview locals, understand local media, etc.
Just tonight I discovered Stephen Shores, an American expat in Russia who calls himself "Nikolai":
His note demonstrates that you're not arguing against a strawman.
I don't know how long Shores has lived in Russia or how much Russian he knows. I can only say he used machine translation last year for one of his posts.
Rurik Skywalker, a native Russian speaker who lived, studied, and worked in the post-Soviet states, replied:
I'll conclude by mentioning two other elements that fuel the whitewashing.
First, some guys (and I mean "guys" because I've never seen any women like this) really like Jewhate, gayhate, and misogyny, so they think it'd be great if they lived under a supreme leader who shared 'their' values. But no, Khamenei or whoever doesn't share *all* of their values and would never be their BFF.
Second, escapism. The appeal of those countries isn't just that they're not Woke; it's that they're foreign, more foreign than the rest of the West. Distant, exotic refuges. The tone of the people who idealize those countries reminds me of the tone of the rabid anime, manga, and K-pop/K-drama fans who idealize Japan and South Korea. I know, because I used to be one of those people. Then I spent a year at university in Japan ...
Last year I read a blog by a K-drama fan who moved to South Korea to study Korean. Things did not work out, and she moved back to Canada and apparently dropped her interest in things Korean. Many such cases, I fear.
Very good analysis as usual. Yeah I forgotten that cognitive bias of some American conservatives is so strong that even living in foreign dictatorship won't heal it provided they have enough money there and don't speak up against authorities.
They also exhibit selective thinking while praising those countries from the inside. For example, they might correctly praise Chinese cuisine and traditional architecture and philosophy (like Taoism, as a Taoist myself I could relate!) but that does not make modern Chinese political system good.
Or they use incomplete comparisons. For example, prices are generally much cheaper in Russia or China than in the West. From that they conclude it's much better for an average Joe there. But they totally forgot to compare their salaries with American ones as well, and without it their analysis makes zero sense. Yeah, food is much cheaper in Russia but so is average salary.
You're spot on about some conservative misogyny, homophobia or Antisemitism too, as a gay man I could relate. They praise any sexist homophobic Antisemitic society as 'traditionalist' which is vile on its own but also stupid because these societies don't give a shit of many other things those hateful idiots take for granted in America, not just of gay and women rights.
Had some positive interactions with Rurik by the way, I think we align with him on Russia and Putin at least. Because yeah, we had seen it from the inside unlike those Americans who listen to Tucker Carlson propaganda.
P. S. And it seems we're similar with you. I used to like Japan and their anime and manga in the past partly because in homophobic Russia where I grew it was a nice contrast with gay animation (yaoi in Japanese I guess).
Later I learned yaoi was made by women for women and was unrealistic model of gay relationship. That disillusioned me with it.
With regard to Japan, talking to real Japanese people and reading about actual Japan - either its Nazi militarist past or modern corporate culture - disillusioned me from adoring Japanese society as well.
I still like for example Studio Ghibli anime production by Hayao Miyzaki or nostalgic about old Transformers anime series but I do see the difference between real Japan and its anime version.
The communists dont like the woke because they see that woke marxists could corrode their power structures just like they are doing in the west. They don't want to be beaten at their own game. It seems that there is validity in the belief that wokism is a rebranded and somewhat reinvented form of communism. It coopts identity politics as the vehicle for achieving revolution. By invalidating merit or competency based hierarchy, it defrocks, dethrones, castrates, cancels, and decapitates all opposition. It distorts and perverts language to upend and invalidate any established mechanisms or processes for vetting leaders. It has no need for the proletariat for revolution. It establishes and then leverages the guilt of the "oppressors" to create its loyal army, which slaughters any remaining opposition in search of penance, favors, treats, and a seat the table. Like all communists, it then rules with iron fisted impunity justified by the right to exact "justice" against the progeny of the "oppressors." Of course once in power they behave in the unrestrained fashion typical of tyrants and eliminates the useful idiots.
Yeah, you're absolutely correct. Communists and Islamists see Wokeism as a competing ideology, that's why they resist it, not out of goodness of their hearts.
Head Clown Clip Recall... Pro Palestinian Jew Haters Crowd telling an LGBTQ gathering trying to unite with them We're Not Friends... in not so many words... The Rejected's Shock/Confusion/Dejection Faces... From Glee To Crushed in an instant... It's making Twisted Head Clown want to know how many Muslim families get the Surprise We Transed Your Kid At School - Out With The Old - Introducing The New - Have A Nice Day As Long As You Go Along Visit?
Well, with over 20 millions of Muslims in Russia I wouldn't call it more white. Depends on the region ofc but over four millions of Muslims are living in Moscow though... Horrible during Ramadan.
I dunno, I think I like American true old school free spirit more until it comes to partisan and racial issues, there's where they're losing me.
Alex, it is similar to saying both Republicans and democrats are Israel first, or owned by big pharma, or the military,... at the end of the day, we must critique all sides on all policies. We, here in America are used to FREEDOM, and must criticize anyone who takes away our freedoms. But, as I am sitting in front of my TV watching Communist China and Semi Communist Russia, I am impressed with the levels of infrastructure progress in the past 2 decades. USA airports and roads are way behind the Russians, and Chinese? Perhaps their leaders are more honest? They don't waste taxpayers money on wars?
Maybe that's true for China but certainly NOT for Russia. Have you seen an airport and train station at my home city Perm in Russia? Both are utter shitholes, might send you pics. Don't judge just by Moscow which drains all Russian regions dry.
Do you know about over 30% of Russians living on extreme poverty and it's sky high corruption? Do you know of its sky high crime rates? Do you know Putin had destroyed Russian middle class more than completely? Do you know how much Russian money are wasted in Ukraine? Please don't speak of what you have no idea about based on Tucker Carlson selective propagandist Moscow coverage. Russia is one of the most corrupt places in the world.
SO spot on. ALL of it. In America they stopped teaching US and World History decades ago. They went into social studies to teach culture. Not horrible on its own. But it's whitewashed. No history of tyrants etc.
But yes why we now how USA white liberal jews worried about Gaza Palestine. Who literally want them dead. The list long of populations who have no clue.
Yeah, it's actually scary. Also, geography and distance makes it harder for Americans to travel to the 'Old world' and to learn what's actually going on there.
i think its a DYOR situation. Sometimes, some of the anti-individual liberty societies will promote social values. In America we have states that the cost of living are horrible or are as violent or illiterate as a third world country. In argentina or Dominican republic i have heard of 40 and 30% yields for investors where SnP was flat for two decades previously. The geopolitical situation moves fast and there are many sub movements. Of course its easy to have grass is greener on the other side. Tucker said russian food is much cheaper but FEE responded that its a higher percentage vs a US salary so wages are lower. A third article said the war is producing a young middle class for russia. So there is nuance there. I think Putin did save russia economically and from western financial interests and gave it national boundaries that are respected. Obviously many russians like Kasparov dont like Putin but in US we rarely like our presidents. Glad you are encouraging some critical thinking. Its very hard to have all or nothing since things are nuanced.
Yeah, good point about Russian wages being much lower too - without comparing wages, food prices comparison is pointless.
The point is Putin didn't save Russia - oil prices did. Oil prices were about 30 dollars per barrel in 90s under Yeltsin which was dire for Russia as an energy exporter, and grew up to 110 dollars per barrel under Putin. But it's not his merit - it's international market situation. To ascribe it to him is essentially the sand as to say Putin improved weather in Russia. Yeah he used this opportunity but he would have been an utter fool not to.
Yeah Putin chased away Western oligarchy from Ruy only to give it to his own. Same as he fights Wokeness merely to promote his own toxic imperiaist ideology. He isn't really saving Russia or promoting social values buf merely protects his power and wealth from foreign competition, don't you see it?
And nope war does NOT create a new middle class in Russia, where did you even pick up this outrageous lie? Putin might be paying some money to families of the soldiers bur they're very small and pathetic.
Thanks for your message nevertheless, respectful exchange is great.
ok this claims putin adversely affected middle class. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q8uczmwBgEM&pp=ygUYbmV3IHJ1c3NpYW4gbWlkZGxlIGNsYXNz
This claims the war mainly boosted grey and blue collar workers: https://carnegieendowment.org/russia-eurasia/politika/2024/05/russia-war-income?lang=en
i did see something ill post if i find ot again maybe some cash flow so there was like an urban discretionary spending among the young or something.
Yeah, especially state bureaucrats are profiteering on war, but not regular people.
Send me if you'll find what you saw. But if those are payments to the families of the soldiers I think about, their size is pathetic, less than an average monthly salary even.
i think it was $2,600 usd or 200,000 rubles. hard to understand the exchange rate
Yeah, the exchange rate is constantly changing. But I think real figure is much more humble though, from 30 to 50 thousands rubles.
yes a lot is due to natural resources and exports
I think you are right about not ignoring the criminal leaders around the world, but criminality is alive and well here in the USA as well and has been since it's inception. The founding criminals were writes of good stories that tickled the ears of many, but they didn't follow the morality portrayed by the Constitution. I don't let the other criminal nations off the hook. Many of them have taken away freedoms of humans at a much larger volume than the USA, but keep in mind a person only has one life and if that single person is stripped of the chance of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, that is all there is for that person, whether in Russia, China or the USA etc. Without forgetting that all Governments have been proven bad, Take a look nat the real America. https://www.truthhistoryandmore.com/when-was-america-great.php
Yeah, thanks for you comment. Ofc we shouldn't idealize America as well, but it's equally important not to whitewash foreign criminals, and I'm with growing concern seeing Americans doing it on BOTH sides.
That is, Woke Left are openly praising Islamist terror groups and Shariah dictatorships and Nazi Ukraine, while conservatives are whitewashing Putin's Russia or nationalist Eastern Europe. I'm very concerned of those toxic trends, hence my article.
Living abroad has made me see how ignorant Americans are of the world.
That ignorance causes Americans to have a distorted, us versus them view of other people.
As a result they make villains out of people and nations they don't understand.
Yeah, you proved my point then. As an immigrant from Russia I also spotted that most Americans are entirely ignorant of my homeland and believe either NATO Russophobic hateful propaganda or in the contrary Putin's propaganda recycled through the likes of Tucker Carlson and Oliver Stone.
I think it's the case with almost other place in the world. So perhaps instead of listening to propaganda Americans would do some independent research at least if living abroad isn't an option for them, sigh.
Thanks for writing this!
This "whitewashing", as you put it, is a product of binary thinking. Anything that's not Woke must be 'good'.
"Actually, I believe, that just ONE YEAR in Russia or China would be more than enough to heal Americans from this toxic delusion, to make them very grateful for being Americans and to make them realize that Wokeism indeed isn’t the ONLY problem the world has, and that anti-Woke societies ironically might be much worse than Woke ones."
Living abroad does make some Americans wake up, but I fear that others will stay in their foreign ghettos and maintain their illusions.
Larry Romanoff is a retired businessman and mega China fan who lives in Shanghai:
https://www.bluemoonofshanghai.com/politics/english-blue-moon-of-shanghai-archive/
I have never seen him demonstrate any knowledge of Chinese. I imagine he is living quite comfortably in the big city, hiring others to take care of his needs. Which is fine but does not enable him to really understand what the average person living there is going through. And as he writes nothing but paeans to the PRC, he is in no danger of censorship.
He exemplifies binary thinking at its best/worst - he REALLY hates the US, so China *must* be perfect in his eyes!
And without Chinese AFAIK he is in an English bubble dependent on what bilinguals tell him and unable to interview locals, understand local media, etc.
Just tonight I discovered Stephen Shores, an American expat in Russia who calls himself "Nikolai":
https://substack.com/@russiaamericandream/note/c-70363595
His note demonstrates that you're not arguing against a strawman.
I don't know how long Shores has lived in Russia or how much Russian he knows. I can only say he used machine translation last year for one of his posts.
Rurik Skywalker, a native Russian speaker who lived, studied, and worked in the post-Soviet states, replied:
https://substack.com/@rurikskywalker/note/c-71214122
I'll conclude by mentioning two other elements that fuel the whitewashing.
First, some guys (and I mean "guys" because I've never seen any women like this) really like Jewhate, gayhate, and misogyny, so they think it'd be great if they lived under a supreme leader who shared 'their' values. But no, Khamenei or whoever doesn't share *all* of their values and would never be their BFF.
Second, escapism. The appeal of those countries isn't just that they're not Woke; it's that they're foreign, more foreign than the rest of the West. Distant, exotic refuges. The tone of the people who idealize those countries reminds me of the tone of the rabid anime, manga, and K-pop/K-drama fans who idealize Japan and South Korea. I know, because I used to be one of those people. Then I spent a year at university in Japan ...
Last year I read a blog by a K-drama fan who moved to South Korea to study Korean. Things did not work out, and she moved back to Canada and apparently dropped her interest in things Korean. Many such cases, I fear.
Very good analysis as usual. Yeah I forgotten that cognitive bias of some American conservatives is so strong that even living in foreign dictatorship won't heal it provided they have enough money there and don't speak up against authorities.
They also exhibit selective thinking while praising those countries from the inside. For example, they might correctly praise Chinese cuisine and traditional architecture and philosophy (like Taoism, as a Taoist myself I could relate!) but that does not make modern Chinese political system good.
Or they use incomplete comparisons. For example, prices are generally much cheaper in Russia or China than in the West. From that they conclude it's much better for an average Joe there. But they totally forgot to compare their salaries with American ones as well, and without it their analysis makes zero sense. Yeah, food is much cheaper in Russia but so is average salary.
You're spot on about some conservative misogyny, homophobia or Antisemitism too, as a gay man I could relate. They praise any sexist homophobic Antisemitic society as 'traditionalist' which is vile on its own but also stupid because these societies don't give a shit of many other things those hateful idiots take for granted in America, not just of gay and women rights.
Had some positive interactions with Rurik by the way, I think we align with him on Russia and Putin at least. Because yeah, we had seen it from the inside unlike those Americans who listen to Tucker Carlson propaganda.
P. S. And it seems we're similar with you. I used to like Japan and their anime and manga in the past partly because in homophobic Russia where I grew it was a nice contrast with gay animation (yaoi in Japanese I guess).
Later I learned yaoi was made by women for women and was unrealistic model of gay relationship. That disillusioned me with it.
With regard to Japan, talking to real Japanese people and reading about actual Japan - either its Nazi militarist past or modern corporate culture - disillusioned me from adoring Japanese society as well.
I still like for example Studio Ghibli anime production by Hayao Miyzaki or nostalgic about old Transformers anime series but I do see the difference between real Japan and its anime version.
The communists dont like the woke because they see that woke marxists could corrode their power structures just like they are doing in the west. They don't want to be beaten at their own game. It seems that there is validity in the belief that wokism is a rebranded and somewhat reinvented form of communism. It coopts identity politics as the vehicle for achieving revolution. By invalidating merit or competency based hierarchy, it defrocks, dethrones, castrates, cancels, and decapitates all opposition. It distorts and perverts language to upend and invalidate any established mechanisms or processes for vetting leaders. It has no need for the proletariat for revolution. It establishes and then leverages the guilt of the "oppressors" to create its loyal army, which slaughters any remaining opposition in search of penance, favors, treats, and a seat the table. Like all communists, it then rules with iron fisted impunity justified by the right to exact "justice" against the progeny of the "oppressors." Of course once in power they behave in the unrestrained fashion typical of tyrants and eliminates the useful idiots.
Yeah, you're absolutely correct. Communists and Islamists see Wokeism as a competing ideology, that's why they resist it, not out of goodness of their hearts.
Well written Sir! 🫡
Thank you!
Head Clown Clip Recall... Pro Palestinian Jew Haters Crowd telling an LGBTQ gathering trying to unite with them We're Not Friends... in not so many words... The Rejected's Shock/Confusion/Dejection Faces... From Glee To Crushed in an instant... It's making Twisted Head Clown want to know how many Muslim families get the Surprise We Transed Your Kid At School - Out With The Old - Introducing The New - Have A Nice Day As Long As You Go Along Visit?
Yeah, you grasped my point well enough!
I preferred living in Russia because it is more White and because I don't get along with Anglos.
Well, with over 20 millions of Muslims in Russia I wouldn't call it more white. Depends on the region ofc but over four millions of Muslims are living in Moscow though... Horrible during Ramadan.
I dunno, I think I like American true old school free spirit more until it comes to partisan and racial issues, there's where they're losing me.
There are only two things I hate: racism and negri.
~old Russian proverb.
Alex, it is similar to saying both Republicans and democrats are Israel first, or owned by big pharma, or the military,... at the end of the day, we must critique all sides on all policies. We, here in America are used to FREEDOM, and must criticize anyone who takes away our freedoms. But, as I am sitting in front of my TV watching Communist China and Semi Communist Russia, I am impressed with the levels of infrastructure progress in the past 2 decades. USA airports and roads are way behind the Russians, and Chinese? Perhaps their leaders are more honest? They don't waste taxpayers money on wars?
Maybe that's true for China but certainly NOT for Russia. Have you seen an airport and train station at my home city Perm in Russia? Both are utter shitholes, might send you pics. Don't judge just by Moscow which drains all Russian regions dry.
Do you know about over 30% of Russians living on extreme poverty and it's sky high corruption? Do you know of its sky high crime rates? Do you know Putin had destroyed Russian middle class more than completely? Do you know how much Russian money are wasted in Ukraine? Please don't speak of what you have no idea about based on Tucker Carlson selective propagandist Moscow coverage. Russia is one of the most corrupt places in the world.