Tiocfaidhcaisarla

My brother bought that book for everyone one Christmas because he thought it was so important

Certainly ramped up recently. I wasn't around for cold war hysteria but obviously they were seen as both nefarious or oppressed by their government then. Then the 90s happened, Terminator 2 has Arnold tell lil John Connor that skynet will trick the Russians into launching nukes to which the kid says "I thought the were our friends now?"

That's the perception I grew up with, Russians were trying to be like us, but bumbling and drunk, often with a nearly redneck-like knowhow to problem-solving but without the cheer, just a monotone and heavily accented "it works now" kinda vibe, if that makes any sense. Never really played TF2 but the big guy feels like what Russians were must often depicted as: huge, strong, and dumb but capable. Always with those white and blue striped naval shirts.

After Putin came back to power, and especially 2014 and Crimea, it turned back to them being just evil. Never mind what the people there wanted, that's propaganda!

BTW, Libs wanting Crimea's return is like them being outspoken that native American territory should be returned... to Canada. Similar vibes now post-2022 with the Donbass.

What goodwill may have been left had been tossed and forgotten since the war in Ukraine. Russians are uniquely evil. I met a native woman recently who is doing documentary work for a few tribes, had Luigi as her phone background, talked about being annoyed by liberals, but when I recommended a movie she looked it up and said "oh, it's russian..." and her ig stories are frequently about some volunteer dying in Ukraine with a shit ton of tattoos. And it's in honor of them, mind you. I really didn't expect that kind of singular view from someone who is strongly leftist, doing the work, and not from a nato country.

I haven't been able to have any real conversations about Russia since 2022 that haven't devolved into the fact that it is somehow an evil place filled with evil people doing evil things. It's totalizing. Even 3 years into a war that has seemingly ground to a halt in the popular mind it's seems to not only still be present but gotten worse.

But all that is to say is that it wasn't always this bad, but even at it's best it was still patronizing and distrustful.

Excellent question and I have no idea about any of it

Making Avakians seem down to earth

Related/unrelated but after encountering various artists, who tend to live in some cultivated mystique or sense of genius, it was helpful to realize they're often just also dummies- talented, but of the same mindset as any other dickhead you'll find out in the world.

The pretension of some success makes it way worse, I'm sorry you're out there ing with them

Star Wars sequels suck

A truly contemptuous people, those despicable Dutch

I worked one shift at a warehouse that had some day labor available, guy I was working with was fresh out of Venezuela. Had my current political views, didn't want to prod him too much but wanted to learn from a Venezuelan what Venezuela is like. Of course, he spoke fluent English and told me how his parents had paid for an English teacher for him. He said he hated Maduro and the only way to stop him was to kill him. I asked how he was still in power, he said he stayed in power by paying off the poor.

I got it then, and that flows into my understanding that the people I interact with in anyway who are from socialist countries necessarily speak English, and therfore are almost certainly from the middle class or higher. Which is helpful when remembering how "survivors" testimonies of those counties should be read. They are likely not from the working class or poor, and that WILL color their narratives and of course the ones we hear promoted in the west.

Anyway, he and his dad, who was also fighting brain cancer, were struggling finding work. This was a couple years ago, who knows how things have gone but here we see what capitalist america has to offer

Interesting!

Children of Men is happening

When he started shaving his teats, I said aloud "what is he doing!" But then it all came together.

Do you have any book recs about the rise of financing by way of the Sforzas?