The False Romance of Russia

[90DayFinancier 910]

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/12/false-romance-russia/603433/

American conservatives who find themselves identifying with Putin’s regime refuse to see the country for what it actually is.

ANNE APPLEBAUM

6:00 AM ET

Sherwood Eddy was a prominent American missionary as well as that now rare thing, a Christian socialist. In the 1920s and ’30s, he made more than a dozen trips to the Soviet Union. He was not blind to the problems of the U.S.S.R., but he also found much to like. In place of squabbling, corrupt democratic politicians, he wrote in one of his books on the country, “Stalin rules … by his sagacity, his honesty, his rugged courage, his indomitable will and titanic energy.” Instead of the greed he found so pervasive in America, Russians seemed to him to be working for the joy of working.

Above all, though, he thought he had found in Russia something that his own individualistic society lacked: a “unified philosophy of life.” In Russia, he wrote, “all life is focused in a central purpose. It is directed to a single high end and energized by such powerful and glowing motivation that life seems to have supreme significance.”

Eddy was wrong about much of what he saw. Joseph Stalin was a liar and a mass murderer; Russians worked because they were hungry and afraid. The “unified philosophy of life” was a chimera, and the reality was a totalitarian state that used terror and propaganda to maintain that unity. But Eddy, like others in his era, was predisposed to admire the Soviet Union precisely because he was so critical of the economics and politics of his own country, Depression-era America. In this, he was not alone.

 

......

 

But in the 21st century, we must also contend with a new phenomenon: right-wing intellectuals, now deeply critical of their own societies, who have begun paying court to right-wing dictators who dislike America. And their motives are curiously familiar. All around them, they see degeneracy, racial mixing, demographic change, “political correctness,” same-sex marriage, religious decline. The America that they actually inhabit no longer matches the white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant America that they remember, or think they remember. And so they have begun to look abroad, seeking to find the spiritually unified, ethnically pure nations that, they imagine, are morally stronger than their own. Nations, for example, such as Russia.

 

 

[Burnt Reynolds 5,058]

Enjoy the gaslighting, comrade?

[Dashinka 23,252]

Stalin ruled by his honesty?  I think it was more like he ruled by his insecurities.  Anyway, there is always someone willing to stand up and apologize for a mass murderer.  Btw, what is meant by a Christian Socialist being rare?  This author though does appear to be blind to the frailties of communism. Kind of like any Westerner that visits the DPRK and are given the propaganda tour. 

 

4 hours ago, 90DayFinancier said:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/12/false-romance-russia/603433/

American conservatives who find themselves identifying with Putin’s regime refuse to see the country for what it actually is.

ANNE APPLEBAUM

6:00 AM ET

Sherwood Eddy was a prominent American missionary as well as that now rare thing, a Christian socialist. In the 1920s and ’30s, he made more than a dozen trips to the Soviet Union. He was not blind to the problems of the U.S.S.R., but he also found much to like. In place of squabbling, corrupt democratic politicians, he wrote in one of his books on the country, “Stalin rules … by his sagacity, his honesty, his rugged courage, his indomitable will and titanic energy.” Instead of the greed he found so pervasive in America, Russians seemed to him to be working for the joy of working.

Above all, though, he thought he had found in Russia something that his own individualistic society lacked: a “unified philosophy of life.” In Russia, he wrote, “all life is focused in a central purpose. It is directed to a single high end and energized by such powerful and glowing motivation that life seems to have supreme significance.”

Eddy was wrong about much of what he saw. Joseph Stalin was a liar and a mass murderer; Russians worked because they were hungry and afraid. The “unified philosophy of life” was a chimera, and the reality was a totalitarian state that used terror and propaganda to maintain that unity. But Eddy, like others in his era, was predisposed to admire the Soviet Union precisely because he was so critical of the economics and politics of his own country, Depression-era America. In this, he was not alone.

 

......

 

But in the 21st century, we must also contend with a new phenomenon: right-wing intellectuals, now deeply critical of their own societies, who have begun paying court to right-wing dictators who dislike America. And their motives are curiously familiar. All around them, they see degeneracy, racial mixing, demographic change, “political correctness,” same-sex marriage, religious decline. The America that they actually inhabit no longer matches the white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant America that they remember, or think they remember. And so they have begun to look abroad, seeking to find the spiritually unified, ethnically pure nations that, they imagine, are morally stronger than their own. Nations, for example, such as Russia.

 

 

 

[90DayFinancier 910]

2 hours ago, Bill & Katya said:

Stalin ruled by his honesty?  I think it was more like he ruled by his insecurities.  Anyway, there is always someone willing to stand up and apologize for a mass murderer.  Btw, what is meant by a Christian Socialist being rare?  This author though does appear to be blind to the frailties of communism. Kind of like any Westerner that visits the DPRK and are given the propaganda tour. 

 

 

Use the link to get the full context.

 

[Dashinka 23,252]

11 hours ago, 90DayFinancier said:

Use the link to get the full context.

 

I don’t need a link to read some pie in the sky opinion on Communism.  I have first hand information from someone that lived under Communism in the Soviet Union for a large portion of their life.

[90DayFinancier 910]

1 hour ago, Bill & Katya said:

I don’t need a link to read some pie in the sky opinion on Communism.  I have first hand information from someone that lived under Communism in the Soviet Union for a large portion of their life.

You misread even what was posted , the point is depression era Western socialist romanticized Russia and failed to see the dangers of Stalin The right wing runs a similar risk today.

 

"Eddy was wrong about much of what he saw. Joseph Stalin was a liar and a mass murderer; Russians worked because they were hungry and afraid. The “unified philosophy of life” was a chimera, and the reality was a totalitarian state that used terror and propaganda to maintain that unity. But Eddy, like others in his era, was predisposed to admire the Soviet Union precisely because he was so critical of the economics and politics of his own country, Depression-era America. In this, he was not alone."

 

 

 

Edited December 13, 2019 by 90DayFinancier

[Burnt Reynolds 5,058]

What exactly are the similarities again between then and now?

 

- No depression

- The "right wing" are fighting for free speech, open government

- The left wing are fighting for censorship, on the side of the secretive bureaus who abused power against a Presidential candidate (and President elect+sworn in President)

 

- "Russians worked because they were hungry and afraid"

- Contrasted to the American economy with low unemployment, suggesting American economy is only as fantastic as it is because Americans are similarly hungry and afraid

- But we also hear about how the good economy is actually Obama's fault, not Trump, and Trump didn't do much of anything other than put the US into debt

 

- The American right "identifies" with Putin's regime

- Some arbitrary "identification" is apparently the only criteria needed to place this category

- Which is similar caricature of Trump to Hitler used so many times since 2015, using some utterly irrelevant comparison about words from Trump's mouth, or slogans, in order to hyperbolize things one disagrees with into something genocidal

 

I mean, how is one supposed to take this seriously? 

 

Watching lefties live in some entirely different reality is like a comic strip that writes/draws itself.

Edited December 13, 2019 by Burnt Reynolds

[90DayFinancier 910]

16 minutes ago, Burnt Reynolds said:

What exactly are the similarities again between then and now?

 

- No depression

- The "right wing" are fighting for free speech, open government

- The left wing are fighting for censorship, on the side of the secretive bureaus who abused power against a Presidential candidate (and President elect+sworn in President)

 

- "Russians worked because they were hungry and afraid"

- Contrasted to the American economy with low unemployment, suggesting American economy is only as fantastic as it is because Americans are similarly hungry and afraid

- But we also hear about how the good economy is actually Obama's fault, not Trump, and Trump didn't do much of anything other than put the US into debt

 

I mean, how is one supposed to take this seriously? 

 

Watching lefties live in some entirely different reality is like a comic strip that writes/draws itself.

How can we take you seriously when  you don't address the point of the article?

[Dashinka 23,252]

7 minutes ago, 90DayFinancier said:

How can we take you seriously when  you don't address the point of the article?

The point of the article is supposedly the bogey man on the Right while ignoring the Leftist behind the curtain.

[Ban Hammer 12,842]

i'll just be sitting over here playing bingo

[Nature Boy 2.0 8,315]

2 minutes ago, Ban Hammer said:

i'll just be sitting over here playing bingo

I know a member that almost got banned one time for having a very clever but simple alpha numeric liberal response system. You could really narrow it down to its racist and Bushs (now Trump) fault and  cover 90%

[Steeleballz 7,550]

10 minutes ago, Ban Hammer said:

i'll just be sitting over here playing bingo

 

  Is that called bingo now?  We used to call it trolling. Then we were told to stop doing it.

[TBoneTX 43,061]

But it IS Bush's fault.

(uh... isn't it?)

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

On 12/13/2019 at 7:01 PM, Steeleballz said:

 

  Is that called bingo now?  We used to call it trolling. Then we were told to stop doing it.

Sadly, my friend, it is just the reality of the society in which we live today.  Not really deserving of a chuckle because it is too true.

[Steeleballz 7,550]

1 hour ago, ALFKAD said:

Sadly, my friend, it is just the reality of the society in which we live today.  Not really deserving of a chuckle because it is too true.

 

   

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