Cal88 said:dajo9 said:
The aversion to Russia could just be that they have no history of freedom or democracy. Have historically invaded and conquered their neighbors and, in fact, have occupied half of Europe in our parents lifetimes and imposed deadly authoritarianism and economic backwardness on them.
Russia has no colonies, unlike every other major European country or the US for that matter. Their people have enjoyed economic prosperity and social harmony that is unprecedented in their entire history, that is why Putin has had favorability ratings in the 60%-80% range while his counterparts from presumably democratic western countries like France, the UK or Germany have ratings in the 10%-20% and are hated by the majority of their population.
The Russians treat their minorities well, for instance you don't find the same type of unrest with their very large muslim population (14% of their total population) that you have in western Europe, or the same level of criminality, lack of security in Moscow or St Petersburg that you have today in Paris, London, Berlin or LA and Chicago for that matter.
Also, you're conflating the USSR and the Soviets (who have killed tens of millions of Russians in the 20th century) with the Russians, a common error that is based on a Cold War mindset and a lack of understanding of Russian history. No one in Russia today wants to colonize Hungary or Czechia.
Furthermore, Russia has a very rich history of cultural contributions to western and world civilization, from the arts, literature, music to the sciences, they are not the backwards culture that you believe they are, and those types of beliefs go a long way in explaining the kind of hostility you have towards that country.
Russia isn't the Soviets or the the USSR. Germany wasn't the NAZI's. Southerners weren't the Confederates. What a fun game you play.
