An American tourist in Russia
Russia Qatar have both made the news recently for being “anti-gay.” Russia for tightening up their ban on LGBT propaganda, and Qatar for not allowing “OneLove” armbands at the World Cup. Yesterday some Russian students asked me what I think about the whole thing. Well, here’s an explanation of my stance on the issue. My argument hinges on two main points:
Today I decided to take another look at the fourth phase of Russia’s special military operation, which began with the announcement of a referendum in four liberated oblasts of Ukraine, as well as the announcement of a partial mobilization of Russian citizens. As I noted in a previous post, there is a huge amount of propaganda and disinformation coming from pro-NATO outlets, but it’s easy to refute. That said, I think almost everyone is missing the significance of these events, and these misinterpretations could spell global disaster.
Come and See (Иди и смотри), the iconic 1985 World War II movie by Elem Klimov, offers western audiences valuable insights into the Russian mindset. Unfortunately, they were all lost on us. We see the “horrors of war” trope and it overwhelms all of the other much more important lessons. On top of that, our minds are shielded by 80 years of Cold War propaganda, and the morality of Come and See goes over our heads.
