Russophobia: why do so many people in the west hate and fear Russia?

[Mashika]

Posted by Satori (here)

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

Posted by Mashika (here)

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
Do you think there's more to this than some kind of phobia of anti-fascism and some weird compulsion to erase history?

I've heard several very bright commentators asked this question recently, and all of them have been honest enough to confess they can't fully understand it. Some possible factors seem to be

• Language (it's easier for most Europeans to read French, Spanish, Italian or English, whatever their nationality)
• Few Americans/Europeans have Russian friends
• Travel (for most Europeans and Americans, it's not been all that easy to visit Russia)
• Hollywood (Russia has often been presented as the 'bad guy')
• Generational memories of the Cold War (Ronald Reagan and "The Evil Empire"), maybe passed on through families
• And of course, media propaganda (as in 1984, there always has to be an enemy, whether it's a real one or not)
• ..... more ??

That's a hard one to answer

At least without sounding all conspiracy crazy and paranoiac

But i do have something to say, and it may or may not be right, i just know some people do tend to think this is a very real thing. In some of the less known political parties, and even in United Russia party at some levels, there is a very well accepted theory that the fascists never left, they just simply adapted and moved on with the times, while keeping their core values alive, under a complete framework of 'reality' adapted to the western values

In other words, they reformatted their ideology to be compatible with the western one, and eventually merged both into whatever we see today

So for these people (the other political parties in Russia, and the several in United Russia working hard in the background) you can equal modern western political movements and culture to a modern version of fascism

This is always proven right in their eyes by just looking at how media works in the US or the UK, for example. And how the western masses are so brainwashed they can't think properly, there's no critical thinking anymore, they can't identify anything but a childish good vs bad situation in all they see (or us vs them, with me or with them conditional environment)

People are conditioned and 'cancelled' and they lose it all if they even dare to question, and most people are in full compliance by now, they don't even think properly anymore.

When Russian politicians see this, they assume it is true that the west has been engulfed by fascism over decades and decades, and it was all planned this way, so now, repression, violence, ignorance, compliance or else, etc etc, equals "freedom and democracy" and anyone who thinks otherwise is 'malign' and 'communist' and everything else that goes with it

Also i can see that in Ukraine and even on the US, there is a growing trend to say that Russians are Nazi, and that anything that is Russian friendly, by association is Nazi friendly

Everything is backwards but since people have become so ignorant they can't know the difference anymore, this is the view that runs in underground political currents in Russia

We are not fighting against Ukraine, we are fighting against the same fascist machine from WW2, but under a new name and face (westernized), that's the general feeling

Wow, what a great reply. I have to say, that really really rings true, and fits with a great deal that I feel I know and understand. But I'd never joined the dots that way before. And kudos: I've never seen that concept posted or suggested anywhere else at all.

Bill, really? What about Project Paperclip, the Rat Lines, ...?

What Mashika very rightly and cogently said about Russia applies equally to the USA and many other countries. The NAZIs did not lose and disappear after WWII. Sadly, and tragically, they adapted and are functioning here and everywhere today.

I believe what he means is that we have two separate things that could have happened:

1. Over time, some of the people in the west got influenced by the NAZI ideology in several ways, incorporating those ideas into the new modern reality. Is not like Nazi people just turned around and dropped all their ideas and beliefs as soon as the war was over, right?

2. There was a group of people who retreated to the shadows, bought influence on the west and started working towards keeping the ideology alive. They silently moved into positions of power, designed plans to integrate casually into the culture, started pushing for changes and influencing slowly new generations until a new framework of reality was laid out, one in which new generations on the west were born. Under this framework, the people is confused and black is white, nazi is equaled with the enemy (Russia) and anti-nazi is equaled with the original concepts. Under this framework, banning of books is ok, for example, and cancel culture is a representation of removing the unlikable or the ill, like the Nazi did. Then we have the removal of statues and memorials and so on, those are just exactly the same as we can see right now, openly hating on the ideals or what the monuments represent

We are considering the second case as a full reality right now

In this second case, we don't have nazi influence by chance or because it is normal that cultures merge over time and influence each other, instead we have very well planned conspiracy to completely obliterate the previous western culture and replace it with one perfectly designed by nazi shadow governments and that allows the original ideology to grow back into power.

We can see it perfectly but most people out there probably can't, or even realize that by cancelling someone or a book or a painting, they are basically implementing nazi policies and customs

And there are 'black lists' of books, monuments and other materials in the west, for example, just like there were in Nazi Germany, and the people who implement or follow those lists in schools and other places think they are doing 'the right thing'

A very important thing to consider: Most western young people don't remember or know anything about their past, they kind of have a clean slate somehow (we believe it is part of the design) so they can't identify the issues or how close things like cancel culture or the pedo degenerate stuff is to nazism or fascism. The 'snitch on your neighbor' thing is another example of that

They simply can't figure out these things because it has been erased from their culture, they are brand new into the world, and all the past seem to have been rewriten in a way that they find perfect sense of it all in this 'new reality' framework in which they were born

They don't hate Russia or Russian culture because they look into it and find it disgusting, they hate it because they carry the hate from whoever is behind the scenes and they have been programmed to hate since they were born, the environment in which they were born is one that allows nazism to flourish perfectly well, and by association it leads into hating the 'enemy' or the culture that hurt and defeated fascism the last time.

This is what Russian politicians see, even if they pretend or act nicely around it in the world stage

Does that make sense?

[9ideon]

Mashika

It is not really that the phobia is 100% turned towards Russia, at least not in a conscious way, it is that most of the people 'infected' tend to think of the USSR as Russia, and they ignore the fact that the USSR was made of several countries, just like the EU is right now

I have been thinking about this a lot lately, especially pointed at myself and how this has progressed since 1991.

When we (my classmates and myself) were around 11 years old we got Sowjet Union Doctrine class. We'd be educated on the CCCP and Politburo, Warschaupact etc. Basically we were taught to distrust Eastern Europeans and Russians (Sowjets).

After the wall collapsed and the Iron Curtain was history, that idiot Yeltsin took control of Russia, he and Zirinowksi were in the news pretty often, the latter being portrayed as a right wing nut, in his case I believe that was partly true. Russians got the image under that walking Wodka barrel, of a gangster state were nothing really got done and life meant nothing, a bunch of idiots with similar leadership. Eastern Europeans were portrayed as psychos with no regard for life as well and if you were to go to one of these cities you could vanish and it would be very likely your organs would be harvested. This is more or less how we started to see the former pact after 1991, I was witness to something nightmarish in Prague in the early 2000's but no organs were taken.

When Russia picked Herself up after Yeltsin and Putin eventually rose to stabilize Russia a new Enemy was created, especially after he stopped playing the game of the West, most of us know why, the vilifying of Russia and Putin in particular never stopped, while at the same time damage repair concerning former Warschaupact states in Europe was underway, personally I look at most former pact states as completely corrupt, so did the rest of the West including the so called string pullers, we can see how great it worked out for the happy few, liars are in control and opposition of volume have been taken of the board.

When Russia had war with Georgia the Putin is Hitler campaign started, it is still going on to this day.

Personally I still "suffer" from the indoctrination of negativity about Russians. For example every time I see a Russian with a Cat I am surprised the Cat is not being mauled, things like that, it still pops up and luckily I can correct my thoughts on it, imagine how many People cannot and will not, especially nowadays.

It will not be hard to sell a War against Russia, the hate towards Russians runs deep. I walk around my village with that T-shirt (Foreign Agent) from the iEarlGrey channel from time to time and seriously have to be careful about engaging in discussion if it ever gets to that, that and there are/were some Ukrainian refugees here as well, lol.

I also left all, but one, veteran group etc, can't stand the idiotic speeches about freedom and Western values anymore, it's like the resistance for the bs has been penetrated. I made a joke once, like 8 years back, that if I would hear one more speech about Freedom I's get a nervous breakdown, funny enough that remark was not really appreciated as it seemed. I left those groups when the SO started in February, I could not stomach the anti-Russian doctrine we are supposed to follow (as veterans) as well, I jumped ship before this started to anger me. Without doubt this brainwashing has gone full gear now.

The entire "I hate Russians" "Russians are Criminals" "Russians are cruel to Animals" "Russians sell their Daughters" "Russians are War mongers" Russians are Bigots" "Russians can't play Football (lol)" "Putin is Hitler" and so on is tiresome, unfortunately most Westerners gobble it up like Medovik. Why do you think RT was forbidden in the EU, exactly, what if People would exercise their right to freedom by deciding for themselves what channel to watch and thoughts to form, right?

If I were a younger man I would already be on my way to the Ural Mountains, I'd be screaming like a little Girl when Winter comes, but at least I'd be truly free.

[dim]

what dna said

How obvious to propaganda bombard the last wall against globalist/imperialist/capitalist agenda to those that still depend on the tv to dictate them the truth.
And how hilarious to ban their athletes from all international games and allow Turkey or Israel that still attack whomever they please.

[Tintin]

This is being posted here as the antithesis of Russophobia and because it is, well, breathtaking.

We used to, as a small young family, watch the athletics, swimming, and gymnastics regularly as the different competitions came around, and although I have no genuine clear memory of this particular routine can guarantee that we used to watch Olga Korbut and were genuinely awestruck. Strictly speaking she was from Minsk but that's probably more a matter of semantics.

Russian athletes couldn't compete in the recent (2022) European Championships in Munich, but, Israel could, and did. Someone needs a geography lesson methinks

Do enjoy this piece of magic from 1972:

[Mike Gorman]

In regard to the docudrama Threads, it was so powerful because it avoided the usual hyperbole and glamorized special effects (if nuclear explosions could ever be considered glamorous - I simply mean comic-book/Hollywood style depictions) it focused instead on the plausible settings of suburbia and how ordinary people would react, the grim, ragged awfulness of the aftermath and the breakdown of all decency and 'civilized' conduct. It truly is harrowing, and realistic beyond anything else that has been produced in my opinion. The Day After was quite good, American production, but trust the Brits to really give the topic a stark, in your face treatment. Bill's warning is sincere, it really can affect you if you allow it to play on your mind. In my view the Russians are genuinely human and 'good people' - they would not go to nuclear war unless there was no other possible response and their country was truly threatened with extinction. Take comfort from this.

[rgray222]

Posted by Mike Gorman (here)
In my view the Russians are genuinely human and 'good people' - they would not go to nuclear war unless there was no other possible response and their country was truly threatened with extinction. Take comfort from this.

I think your statement is true for most people in the world. As a general rule, I don't think any decent person on the planet would want to use nuclear weapons unless they are threatened with extinction. That said many leaders of the world are a different breed of people altogether, capable of genocide and murder on a grand scale and destruction of livelihood and property on an enormous scope all for the sake of their territorial and materially ambitions. Control and power are enticing aphrodisiacs to many of these people.

[Mike]

Posted by rgray222 (here)

Posted by Mike Gorman (here)
In my view the Russians are genuinely human and 'good people' - they would not go to nuclear war unless there was no other possible response and their country was truly threatened with extinction. Take comfort from this.

I think your statement is true for most people in the world. As a general rule, I don't think any decent person on the planet would want to use nuclear weapons unless they are threatened with extinction. That said many leaders of the world are a different breed of people altogether, capable of genocide and murder on a grand scale and destruction of livelihood and property on an enormous scope all for the sake of their territorial and materially ambitions. Control and power are enticing aphrodisiacs to many of these people.

Agreed.

Even as a boy, when Cold War tensions were at their highest, I think I intuitively knew this to be true - that Russians were really no different than Americans, or anyone else for that matter, and were basically good, decent people. Most people are aware of this, regardless of the hostility they may express outwardly.

Of course as a boy I was too young and naive to fall for the anti-Russian propaganda. It just confused me. But mostly I was just too distracted with little boy stuff, like baseball cards and kickball games to care one way or another.

And now as an adult I'm too distracted with adult stuff, like how I'm going to pay my rent and buy all the supplements I need, and so on. I almost never even think about Russia, it's people, or where it is on the map (but I can find it on a map lol!) In order to possess some kind of Russophobia, I s'pose I'd have to think about Russians first!

And I think most Americans are like that honestly. You'd have to show me all these Russian haters. Because I've never seen or met them! I think Russophobia, like racism and transphobia and so on, is all massively exaggerated by the media.

As an outsider watching news about America on television, you'd likely expect to see chaos and violence and mayhem etc upon landing here. But nearly anywhere you go, and nearly all of the time things are quite normal and peaceful here, and people are just getting on with their lives and are mostly too consumed with daily stresses to even think about people on the other side of the globe, let alone hate them.

[Bill Ryan]

I've posted this elsewhere, but I'd like to say this again on this new thread. I've been to Russia a couple of times, on short two-or-three week visits. I was greatly impressed with every single person I met there, and found them highly intelligent, well-informed, spiritually aware, fun, and a delight to be with.

[jaybee]

Posted by Mike Gorman (here)
In regard to the docudrama Threads, it was so powerful because it avoided the usual hyperbole and glamorized special effects (if nuclear explosions could ever be considered glamorous - I simply mean comic-book/Hollywood style depictions) it focused instead on the plausible settings of suburbia and how ordinary people would react, the grim, ragged awfulness of the aftermath and the breakdown of all decency and 'civilized' conduct. It truly is harrowing, and realistic beyond anything else that has been produced in my opinion. The Day After was quite good, American production, but trust the Brits to really give the topic a stark, in your face treatment. Bill's warning is sincere, it really can affect you if you allow it to play on your mind. In my view the Russians are genuinely human and 'good people' - they would not go to nuclear war unless there was no other possible response and their country was truly threatened with extinction. Take comfort from this.

re bolded...

I agree and do take comfort from this and sincerely hope NATO does not push Russia too far and does not threaten her with extinction and get us all killed - the 'Special Military Operation' is almost certainly to prevent something more serious down the line with either nuclear or biological weapons coming from Ukraine, threatening Russia's security and safety ...

I also take some comfort that it appears that nuclear weapons cannot be dropped willy nilly, anywhere, any time - because to get a seriously 'effective' detonation requires certain conditions that includes harmonic distances and the position of the sun - maybe these conditions can be circumvented now, dunno, but when I heard about it from the late, great Bruce Cathie a few years ago it took a lot of the fear of nuclear war away - there are plenty of other weapons to be fearful about if a serious global military conflict erupts but unless things have changed we will not experience nuclear weapons flying around willy nilly......

It's something kept secret from the public that the mathematics and conditions of creating a seriously destructive nuclear detonation isn't as easy as is believed and windows of opportunity exist at certain times and certain positions and all the nuclear powers will be aware of the windows of opportunity and have them covered in some way...? (fingers crossed )

Here's Bruce Cathie talking about it - Keith Hunter (a member here) has also done work on this and if I remember right he has made some adjustments to Cathie's work - but Cathie remains the pioneer into making this info public -

Bruce Cathie Calculating an Atomic Bomb Test

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=MRc4vKwf3WA

[Mike]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
I've posted this elsewhere, but I'd like to say this again on this new thread. I've been to Russia a couple of times, on short two-or-three week visits. I was greatly impressed with every single person I met there, and found them highly intelligent, well-informed, spiritually aware, fun, and a delight to be with.

Same with the Russians I've known, mostly thru soccer.

When I was coming up there was a thing called O.D.P. (Olympic training program) and it was basically one long extended tryout for the U.S. national soccer team. The Russians participating were ineligible to play for the national team of course, but they went thru the process anyway to get exposure and so forth.

The farthest they could go was regionals, and most of them made their respective regional teams. Excellent players. They were all liked and heavily respected.

I made lifelong friends with several Russians, Peter and Yuri and Leo, and some Ukranians as well (Dema Kovalenko was one, who played in the MLS here in the US and also in professional leagues in Europe)



We have a group email, and still keep in touch. I love those guys.

Currently I work with a Russian man named Michael, and he's just a terrific guy. He barely speaks a lick of English, but he's very expressive lol, and manages to get his point across. He was a doctor back in Russia, so I consulted him when I had a kidney stone...

And he said, "No Mike, I'm Russian doctor." And smiled broadly.

And I said, "Don't Russians get kidney stones?"

And he said, "Yes Mike, but I am Russian doctor," and he just walked of.

Now it's become a running joke. Don't ask Mike about anything health related, because he is merely a "Russian doctor".lol

I also work with a woman named Vera, another Russian, and a classically trained pianist. She wanted me to marry her daughter so she could gain citizenship I wrote about it here somewhere. Anyway, I've spent time outside of work with her and her daughter and they're just wonderful people

[JackMcThorn]

Posted by Mike (here)
And I think most Americans are like that honestly. You'd have to show me all these Russian haters. Because I've never seen or met them!

I really didn't see it either. Most people are busy doing their own thing. The worst of it was in grade school in the 198os when we use to have 'air raid sirens' and 'fall out shelters'. I spent a lot of time in the local library near the school as a kid and those sturdy cement buildings were all marked 'fall out shelters'. No one I knew had a bunker in their backyard. I sort of wondered about those bunkers - they showed us photos in books but never in real-life.

In my 2os and 3os if there was some small talk about the weather we used to say it must be the Russians. [controlling the weather].

This video is regarding the Soviet space shuttles. I was admittedly irritated when I discovered these copies some years ago but secretly pleased that they did not work out for Russia.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=-q7ZVXOU3kM

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/AZmilitary1/stat...86877470048257

[Bill Ryan]

https://t.me/DonbassDevushka/28642

[Ravenlocke]

A young couple in Barcelona went to the Russian consulate to get married and got heckled and cursed by a Ukranian refuge…

https://twitter.com/jaccocharite/sta...90768609529857

[Bill Ryan]

https://t.me/DonbassDevushka/31359

[Pam]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
https://t.me/DonbassDevushka/31359

I was so hoping this kind of stuff, the spray painting of a beautiful Russian Orthodox church in Geneva was not going to start . An act like that, particularly if tolerated to any level will give others with hatred, and resentment from a million other reasons permission for it to escalate. I believe that was one of the earlier types of acts and treatment during the Hitler fiasco. as well as the Rwanda massacre. Probably 100's I don't know about

I watched the movie "A Private War" about Marie Colvin a war correspondent last night. What her reporting and the movie really did was remind us or at least it did for me reminded me of the true level of suffering, pain, fear and destruction of war. The real atrocities that occur so we can have regime changes that will benefit the profit margin of corporations and guarantee another term for a corrupt politician so he/she can skim some more profits off the top..Marie ended up dying in Syria doing this work.

This may have been a dramatic addition to the movie and not factual but the basic, universal imagery of the scene is ringing of truth. She had come to rely on alcohol to deal with the atrocities but she talks of one scene she couldn't get out of her head. A lovely , maybe 10 year old girl blown to bits and her body laying there. She was wearing pearl earrings. In the movie Marie makes the comment when she put them on that morning she probably was so proud and felt so pretty. Maybe her mother let her wear them...anyway the point was. She got up, got dressed to live another day. Just another day for a young girl to experience in what should have been a string of many more, all to be blown away for senseless , insatiable greed, power and control.

I am going to be heart broken if destroying property because it has some affiliation with Russian heritage starts to become "the thing" ....we have a right, an excuse to be cruel to someone we don't even know for a conflict most people couldn't tell you a thing about . With the aid of 5G and technology like the "crimson mist" the sky is the limit.

I got a tiny taste of what that irrational fear turning to hatred and discrimination during the vaccine debacle. Mine was minimal, but it shows how things can turn on a dime. How one minute your just one of the crowd, the consensus and the next, overnight you can be the enemy. And what protection will the world off you? I guess the answer to that is up to each of us.

But I have been able to witness first hand the power of not wanting to belong to the crowd because the crowd makes no sense to me and the consequences. Not to go along it. Even if the crowd consensus changes every other day and makes no sense. There are so many willing to die and suffer just to be part of it.

This reminds me, I have an acquaintance, she is from Russia. We are not real close but I hope she is ok. I need to check in with her. I hope to God she is not be persecuted here, in my cute little town because of the hatred being generated. I'm guessing here it would look more like being ignored or not invited to events.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/Dpol_un/status/1588524437468778497

[Bill Ryan]

https://mobile.twitter.com/EndWokene...13351125602304

And reported yesterday by Reuters:

• https://reuters.com/world/europe/ukr...ies-2023-02-07

Ukraine withdraws 19 million Russian, Soviet-era books from libraries

Ukraine had withdrawn from its libraries about 19 million copies of books by last November that came either from the Soviet era or were in Russian, a senior lawmaker said on Monday.

Yevheniya Kravchuk, deputy head of the Ukrainian parliament's committee on humanitarian and information policy, said that of the 19 million books, 11 million were in Russian.

"Some Ukrainian-language books from the Soviet era are also written off," Kravchuk said according to a statement published on the website of the Verkhovna Rada, the country's parliament.

"There are also recommendations to write off and remove books whose authors supported armed aggression against Ukraine."

It was not immediately clear what happened to the withdrawn books.

After Russia moved to annex Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014, Kyiv increasingly restricted the use of Russian books. The process of the so-called "de-russification" sped up when Russia invaded the country nearly a year ago.

In mid-2022 Ukraine restricted the distribution of Russian books, seeking to further sever cultural ties between the two neighbours and undo policies that Kyiv authorities say have suppressed Ukrainian identity for centuries.

"In general, the ratio of books in Russian and Ukrainian languages in our libraries is just very regretful," Kravchuk said.

"So now we are talking about the fact that it is necessary to renew funds and purchase books in the Ukrainian language as soon as possible."

She added that about 44% of books in Ukraine's libraries are in Russian, the rest in Ukrainian or languages of the European Union countries.

Ukrainian is the sole official language of the country. About a half of the population speaks mostly or only Ukrainian and some 30% speak mostly or only Russian, according to a 2019 survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.

Both Russian and Ukrainian are East Slavic languages, but while most Ukrainians speak Russian, Russians unfamiliar with Ukrainian have difficulties understanding it.

Russian plays still a large role in business, culture and the media. And it is still very widely spoken in many cities, including Kyiv, although the use of Russian has been increasingly restricted. Legislation obliges businesses and other institutions to use Ukrainian.

[Jambo]

Oh my gosh! You mean all the arrogant condescending literary giants (from around the world) who would have greatly boasted in the past about having had the endurance to read the famous and massive Russian book 'War & Piece' all these years...and holding that fact over others heads as some kind of literary 'right of passage', will now start saying they've never read it!
They'll now probably start denying that they've ever even heard of the book!

Okay I know that's not really happening right now, but how far off is it, to soon become reality?
Banning musical instruments, banning russian cookery, banning books, banning hockey players & other sportsman because of their Russian heritage. Lol.. Humanity really is insane.

Anyway... The daft buggers!

[Pam]

The mere fact that the citizens of a country should somehow be considered the same as the government is so ludicrous. Like stating that all people that live in the US are just the same as Biden and go along with everything he says. So 1/3 of the citizens of Ukraine are denied the right to read a book in their native tongue. While Zelensky prances around the world, living it up like some sort of pop culture celebrity. That alone is beyond comprehension.

We pour money into Ukraine, I wonder what kind of aid we will be providing Turkey and Syria? Maybe it will like the Rwanda Genocide where Clinton stated that the US just couldn't afford to assist with it. I bet they could help pay for the Crimson Mist experiment that helped the genocide along. Of course, they always excuse themselves later by saying "That was one of my deepest regrets". That is not a direct quote but close enough. At that time I still would never be able to fathom the evil that was and is happening. By the way, that was the explanation for "the weapons of mass destruction" lie. " He deeply regrets it"....walk away, take your pile of money and if you like a high paying job will be waiting for you.....

Sorry for being such a cynic. I need to just turn off my computer for awhile a stay in the moment. It is cold but a lovely day. I have fed the birds and supplemented the deer. I have a place to live and I am grateful for all that.