Comments on: Today in Russian decadance

By: rumshop

rumshop — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:27:27 +0000

Most Russians I know are as poor as church mice. Many also share the little they have. But some are just insane. if they are powerful they may be happy to create fear. to deflect attention from their lack of intelligence …

By: Anatoly Karlin

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:11:04 +0000

I wouldn’t have been surprised, though, if we were talking about the same person. There are stranger coincidences than that!

By: yalensis

yalensis — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 01:52:55 +0000

No, Anatoly! My friend lives in New England.
Sounds like you know somebody like that too from the Bay Area. What a wonderful coincidence!

By: Anatoly Karlin

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 20:00:21 +0000

“I am friends with a wonderful African-American lady who, already in her 50’s, decided out of the blue that she wanted to learn Russian.”

Does she, by any insane coincidence, live in the Bay Area?

By: zed244

zed244 — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:03:58 +0000

to yalensis: interesting argument. But I would not describe Julia as a “soldier” of American Imperialsim (although who realy knows? More likely she is a normal young woman with ambitions and a great deal of common sense. She won’t make a living and especially career in US politics writing how good Russia is.

This was not to say that Russophobic remarks (which I saw none) or substitution of personal motives with claims of sacrifice for the common good is something I like to read, especially from an obviously intelligent author.

By: yalensis

yalensis — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:54:04 +0000

To zed244: It’s fabulous when foreigners want to learn about Russian culture. They should be greeted with hospitality and helped in every way.
I am friends with a wonderful African-American lady who, already in her 50’s, decided out of the blue that she wanted to learn Russian. She has been studying very hard, spending her own money to take Russian lessons, reading books about Russian art galleries, etc. She has no ulterior motive other than an inexplicable (for her ethnic background) love for Russian culture.
Then there are people who want to “learn more about” Russia in the same way that a wolf wants to “learn more about” a sheep that it hopes eventually to consume…
It’s an ancient distinction, as old as Alexandr Nevsky (“guest” arriving in peace vs. “enemy” arriving with upraised sword..)
In the modern world, enemy soldiers aren’t always blatant (or honest) enough to arrive with an upraised sword. Sometimes they arrive with an upraised pen (or laptop computer). Their function is to ideologically discredit the host country so that when the real bombs start falling, American citizens have been so blasted with propaganda and so brainwashed that they will enthusiastically support whatever new war is presented to them. The brainwashing consists of legitimate, true facts along with exagerrations. (For example, Iraq, the demonization of Saddam, who truly was a bad guy in many ways; same deal with Milosevich and Serbia.)
The opponent country is demonized to the point that the ordinary American feels like, “Well, that country sucks so much, their government is dictatorial and corrupt, the common people live in misery, so we’re actually doing them a favor by dropping the bombs on them…”

By: kovane

kovane — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 05:57:34 +0000

grafomanka,

if you don’t see the author’s extreme bias – well I guess I can only recommend to start wearing glasses. You can’t cover it up with some word juggling like “Julia is interested in absurdity of life in Russia”. As well as she can’t get away with her racist remarks by saying “Oh, that’s OK. I meant not ethnic Russians but the citizens of Russia”. Point to a SINGLE post, where Russia depicted in an even remotely positive way. I mean there must be some sweet eccentricities in Russia, right?

But on the other hand, Julia is a smart girl. We live in the bizarre world where the US President’s adviser Michael McFaul makes statements which can be refuted by 1 minute or so of googling, or the famous nutcase Garry Kasparov has an op-ed in the WSJ.
http://fkriuk.blogspot.com/2007/12/brave-kremlinologist-too-bad-for-him.html
So, she’s moving in the right direction. Russia – United States relations are in safe hands. I already see her, shouting something like “How you can say that, I was there, I saw everything”. She already began practicing it, by the way.

So, I don’t want anything from her. If she can refrain from blatant lying and any racist remarks – that would be simply grand. If not, I can sleep at night knowing that. But I reserve the right to point them out in any case.

By: zed244

zed244 — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 01:34:34 +0000

re: anti-Russian propaganda.

“The learner always begins by finding fault, but the scholar sees the positive merit in everything.” Hegel

While the Russians must be glad to see so many Americans trying to learn about Russia, they are understandbly dissapointed to see that almost none of the students graduates to become a scholar…

By: grafomanka

grafomanka — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 23:00:25 +0000

yalensis you are being too harsh.
Julia sees Russia as ridiculous and absurd. She picks up more interesting tidbits of ridiculousness and absurdity of life in Russia and exposes them here. There are certainly many absurd things in Russia and Russia is a very authoritarian country (and Julia is allowed to see things that way). But this blog is meant for foreigners and it seems not fair that all they get is (sometimes spiced-up) examples of absurdities. You could say Julia’s at fault here but it’s her own choice as a journalist.
The blog makes an entertaining read though… meh.

By: yalensis

yalensis — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:36:48 +0000

Sorry, grafomanka, I was too lazy to read the sidebars… Okay, I just read her “About me”. Our Julia promises to blog in a “death_defying” manner, from a country that is almost as dangerous as Somalia?? Methinks the lady doth protest too much… and hath an inflated view of her own importance… Or maybe a martyr complex?
Besides, isn’t her Fulbright grant almost over now? My understanding is that it’s a one-year gig. So I guess soon she’ll be returning to her “cushy” life in New York, where she can write anti-Russian propaganda for the Washington Post or Wall Street Journal.