12 Comments
Jun 25, 2020Liked by Yasha Levine

love this episode! as a fellow russian, i've been really frustrated to see my family get so worked up about the protests. you've put a lot of my anger into words and provided a lot of great historical context to their bullshit response. thank you for episode

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Oct 31, 2020Liked by Yasha Levine

I found your description of Russians’ “apolitical” and or right-wing attitudes strangely familiar. I was six when I came to Australia in 1992. Even though my father has mostly voted for the left-leaning Greens Party, he nonetheless espouses racist attitudes (Blacks are dumb and aggressive, Jews are shifty, Aboriginal Australians are lazy parasites) and is sexist, and also despises gays. But typical shit like that aside, he also seems unable to sympathise with protesters in general. Any group protesting or talking about discrimination is <качают права> (a very dismissive attitude). He has a “Law & Order” “tough on crime” mindset (“If you want change, you should pursue legal/parliamentary avenues”. IMO living in the “Soviet” system has tainted his opinion of anything associated with socialism or progressive politics.

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But yeah amazing how similar everyone is — even using the same terminology, despite being on different continents.

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качают права — thats’s a good one!

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You guys hit the nail on the head! I've been dismayed and angry with my own family regarding this.. it is almost as if the US has made them more racist, whereas in the Soviet Union I don't think they really gave a shit. Anyways, stoked about all your content! Keep it coming :)

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Jul 2, 2020Liked by Yasha Levine

This is very informative, thank you for producing it!

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Much as I really like to listen to both of you talk and I always learn a good deal, both of you come across as dismissive and arrogant towards the very idea of intellectual and social mobility ('Putin would be an Uber driver') as any White Russian emigré from the 1890's onwards. I do not think this does either of you credit. And inevitably calls into question the balance of other things you might say. I am not some deluded western Putin-lover, by the way. But on the international stage at least, he does represent intelligent statesmanship and diplomacy. Given the perilous times we live in - this needs encouraging, doesn't it?

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Soros hates Russia, no?

Soros funds BLM.

Russia hates BLM.

???

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Soros hates Russia, no?

Soros funds BLM.

Russia hates BLM.

???

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for the love of gawahd, can someone at least post timestamps of the pertinent material? and/or a summary? thnx

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I can't help but point out the parallel between the descendants of Russian serfs championing libertarian ideals and poor blacks voting (in droves) for Ronald Reagan and his pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps policies. They were both charmed by the Maybach taxi being dangled in front of their noses.

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Please make future audio episodes more succinct. I thought that you could have made your points a lot quicker than you did.

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