US Tucker Carlson: Radicalized By His Trip To Moscow

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Tucker Carlson: Radicalized By His Trip To Moscow​

Radicalized By A Trip To Moscow​

In a post last week ("A Good Weekend For Russia"), when news broke that Tucker Carlson was in Moscow and might be interviewing Putin, we wrote:

Even if he doesn't get an interview with Putin, Tucker is likely to report what he sees there, and what he's going to see is a city that looks like it's doing well economically (on top of being cleaner and safer than American cities like New York or Los Angeles).

It turns out we were right. In an interview at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, said the trip to Moscow radicalized him:

What was radicalizing, very shocking, and very disturbing for me was the city of Moscow, where I'd never been. The biggest city in Europe, 13 million people--and it is so much nicer than any city in my country, I had no idea. My father spent a lot of time there in the '80s, when he worked for the U.S. government, and barely had electricity. And now, it is so much cleaner, and safer, and prettier--aesthetically: its architecture, its food, its service--than any city in the United States that you have to ask...How did that happen? [...]
And at a certain point, I don't think the average person cares as much about abstractions as the concrete reality of his life. And if you can't use your Subway, for example, as many people are afraid to in New York City because it's too dangerous, you have to sort of wonder like isn't that the ultimate measure of leadership? And that's true, by the way, it's radicalizing for an American to go to Moscow (I didn't know that, I learned it last week), to Singapore, or to Tokyo, or to Dubai in Abu Dhabi, because these cities--no matter how we're told they're run, on what principles they're run, are wonderful places to live. They don't have rampant inflation, you're not going to get raped... [the interviewer interrupts at this point].

See For Yourself​

You can watch the full interview below, in which Tucker also weighs in on Biden's mental competency, the war in Gaza, and other topics. Here's a guide to the times when different topics come up, if you'd like to skip to them:

• 00:00:00 Interview Against U.S. Opposition: Tucker overcomes government spying to secure a Putin interview.
• 00:01:30 Political Neutrality of Interview: Tucker emphasizes truth-seeking over political bias in interviewing Putin.
• 00:03:13 Leadership of Putin vs. Biden: Tucker contrasts Putin's effectiveness with Biden's shortcomings.
• 00:06:08 Decline of U.S. Cities vs. Moscow: Tucker attributes U.S. urban decline to policy failures, contrasting with Moscow's improvements.
• 00:07:33 Putin's Willingness for NATO Compromise: Tucker discusses Putin's diplomatic efforts and rejection by NATO.
• 00:09:15 Reaction to Putin Interview: Tucker reflects on negative media and political responses to his Putin interview.
• 00:15:11 Media's Role in Democracy Erosion: Tucker criticizes media alignment with power, undermining democracy.
• 00:19:41 U.S. Foreign Policy Morality Questioned: Tucker questions the ethical stance of U.S. foreign engagements including on Gaza.
• 00:23:15 Uncertainty in U.S. Political Leadership: Tucker highlights the unpredictability of American politics and the value of admitting ignorance.

Let's wrap this up with a brief trading update, since we have to make more money in America to insulate ourselves from the problems here Tucker describes.

Trading Update​

Here's how we did on last week's earnings trade exits:

1. Call spread on Snap (SNAP 6.80%↑). Entered at a net debit of $0.22 on 2/6/2024; expired worthless on 2/10/2024. Loss: 100%.
2. Call spread on Affirm Holdings (AFRM 0.25%↑). Entered at a net debit of $0.20 on 2/8/2024; expired worthless on 2/9/2024. Loss: 100%.
3. Call spread on ELF Beauty (ELF 1.02%↑) (buying the $172.50 strike calls and selling the $175 strike calls). Entered at a net debit of $0.90 on 2/5/2024; exited at a net credit of $1.00 on 2/8/24. Profit: 11%.
4. Call spread on ELF Beauty (ELF 1.02%↑) (buying the $162.50 strike calls and selling the $165 strike calls). Entered at a net debit of $1.10 on 2/5/2024; exited at a net credit of $2.24 on 2/8/2024. Profit: 104%.
5. Call spread on Estée Lauder (EL 2.44%↑). Entered at a net debit of $0.40 on 2/2/2024; exited at a net credit of $0.95 on 2/5/2024. Profit: 138%.
6. Put spread on NetGear (NTGR -10.69%↓). Entered at a net debit of $0.35 on 2/7/2024; exited at a net credit of $0.85 on 2/8/2024. Profit: 143%.

Let’s see if we can do better this week. We’ve got two trades (one bullish, and one bearish) teed up on companies reporting after the close today. If you'd like a heads up when we place them, feel free to subscribe to our trading Substack/occasional email list below.

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[Sister Miriam Godwinson]

Yeah, serves them right. Tucker did the job they should have done. As the Joker said "you get what you fuckin' desserve".

The doublethink is so obvious it is even a bit sad.

Before the interview: "Traitor! How dares he interview Pulterdemort! Revoke his passport!"
After the interview: "Putlerdemort sucks! We asked for an interview so many times but he delined it! Why should Carlson get it!"

And not a single soul stops to point out the contradition between the statements.

 

[Smar Mijou]

Gotta love the barely concealed jealousy and seething rage from all of the other media outlets and ensuing hit pieces after the Tucker interview.
They're all just pissed off because they didn't score the interview and he did. Also, since Tucker isn't bound to any mainstream media outlets, they can't spin the results however they want. If any of them had managed to score an interview with Putin, they'd be promoting it for weeks before releasing it, and knowing them, the faggots would probably only release it as a VOD/streaming pay per view event.

I can also tell that some people here didn't watch the interview at all or only seen some highlights. First off, the people who are criticizing Tucker for not going harder in his questioning of Putin, are you crazy? The guy is literally in the heart of the lions den. He's sitting down with a man who is known to have his opponents jailed or killed simply for opposing him. Would YOU push back any harder than he did? I honestly am surprised that he had the balls to push him as much as he did over that journalist kid who is locked up over there. And the outright direct question over if Putin bombed the Nord Stream pipeline seemed off the cuff and to surprise old Vladimir.

Also, while Putin is undoubtedly measured in his responses, and I wouldn't be surprised if the questions were pre-screened beforehand, I'm surprised at how off-track he seemed to get with his historical storytelling. Being ex-KGB and growing up with that USSR/Russian empire worldview, it's not surprising though, especially how he seems to relate everything through a Russian-dominant historical lens. Even the Ukrainian, particularly the Crimean peninsula conquests are undoubtedly for strategic resources and logistical reasons, he even relates those back to historical Russian territorial ownership.

He was 100% correct when he said that the USA has everyone else beat when it comes to propaganda.

It was surprising to me when he said that Boris Johnson, under US direction, had put the kibosh on formalized peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine at the last minute. I hadn't heard that one before, and I wonder how legitimate those claims are.

I can't say that I blame him for being wary of the increasing NATO presence creeping towards the Russian borders under his and Yeltsin's tenures. I know that I wouldn't want Chinese influences bordering the US.

Despite all the "Russian spy/sympathizer/ally!"sperging that I've seen about Tucker, I suspect that Putin allowed Tucker to interview him specifically because he's not a part of the mainstream media narrative. All the people calling for him to be deported, arrested, not allowed back into the US are just fucking retarded. You never seen any of that when Gaddafi, Castro, Saddam Hussein, or Assad were interviewed by the usual suspects.

being radicalized was literally “Every other big city in Russia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore can keep there commons clean. Why can’t we with the most funded cities in the world?”
His radicalization was asking why can’t the US at least put the thin veneer of at least looking nice.

They can if they're simping to their Chinese overlords. SF proved it when Xi visited last year and they were able to clean up the street-shitters and homeless in record time.

There's something to be said that when one enjoys near dictatorial powers, at how much they can accomplish, for better or worse.

 

[Sister Miriam Godwinson]

I wonder how legitimate those claims are.

They were confirmed by one David Arahamiya, one of the top dignitaries of "Servant of the people" (Zelensky's own party) who was the head of the peace delegation at the time. The situation was fucked up so badly that during negotiations one of Ukraine's own ambassadors, Denis Kireev, was killed by Ukrainian security services.

 

[Shidoen]

Huh? Tucker is now a real Ukranian/pro-Ukraine? Hohol is a pejorative for Ukranians is it not? Based on a distinctive historical haircut in the region.

In my context I was thinking that it was the Russian equivalent to Nigga or Nigger depending if Tucker is liked by the user seeing the post.

 

[Harbinger of Kali Yuga]

Crimea is at least understandable as they wanted access to the sea. Trying at much of Ukraine though came across as completely unnecessary. Made it almost funny hearing Tucker after his Putin interview talk about Russia not being expansionist, when that's sorta the point of the war.

I can understand (and disagree) with people defending Russia's actions, but to say they didn't even occur is getting into slightly insane territory.

The idea that Fucker claims Russia is not expansionist is absolutely disgusting to anyone with a memory that goes back to his own childhood. Russia is one of the last remaining expansionist powers on the globe. America isn't interested in taking more land.

The problem with people like Fucker is that while they don't march to the beat of the media around that, they sometimes say profoundly right things that the rest of people ignore, but then they also go on and get duped or say these shit, like all the other grifters we've seen. That's how the grifters draw people in.

This whole mindset also comes up with Putin where people figure he's wanting what's best for Russia so he must be getting that for everyone there. Examining the actions of Putin doesn't seem to really come into play, which I think is largely because of valuing the vibe of the guy rather than looking at specific actions from him.

And yet Zelensky does everything to try to keep his nation alive, and these people whine and make fun of him. Sure, Zelensky asks for aid, but Russians keep AMERICANS in prison for political bargaining reasons on trumped-up charges. It's fucking traitorous that people would carry water for the Russian government. Some influential assholes just made supporting Russia look edgy and cool, and that's why you will never get any real reasons out of them, just insults. If you look at who supports Putin usually it's the most obvious grifters or

Fucker has pure boomer mentality here. He knows damn well if Russia takes Ukraine in another generation it'll get hungry again and try shit in the Baltics or elsewhere, wheverever is weakest. This is Russia's history for centuries. The USSR and Russian federation are made up of states that fell to this fate that get treated like 2nd class citizens, but Tucker didn't ask those people. He didn't ask people on the margins of the Russian empire. He is being another boomer passing another problem onto future generations instead of dealing with it now, because it saves a little bit on the pocketbook now. Because when adversarial (to us, Russia will not and cannot be a friend or ally, and Fucker is stupid for even suggesting it was possible) nations control resources, for one, it is more costly and harder to obtain in trade and more risky to rely on them (look at us with China right now), it weakens our allies, whom we need whether you believe that or not, and it makes them stronger for conquest in future generations.

People like to talk trash on Boomers but this sort of thing is the boomer mentality for Millennials--deep down we know if Russia takes Ukraine, that's a much worse future for Europe and will probably lead to costlier confrontations down the road.

The fact that conservatives are wanting to ally with people who are proud of their incredibly faggy communist past is pathetic. Really sad, guys.

Bullshit.
A shoebox apartment in San Francisco or NYC will cost you 5 times per square foot what the same would cost in Tokyo, and yet kids can still be safe going to the corner store alone as young as age 5.

Suggest this in NYC and the shitlib mom will shoot you for it.

Where are we disagreeing? Okay, fair enough, it doesn't change what I am saying because I do agree with Tucker that America is deteriorating compared to the rest of the world. However, you at least have to agree that Dubai is not good example because Dubai is unlike any other city on Earth made almost entirely for wealthy people.

I don't see how we was radicalized. All Putin did was prattle on for 2 hours about "history" with a Russian bias. That's about all he did from what I have heard about the interview. This Putin and Russia worship stuff is very cringey. Most people got over it in the early to mid 2010's. It was funny for the first few years but then retards started taking it serious. It's just cringey now.

I agree, and it's so obviously about image because they want to revel and absorb Putin's propagandistic "strongman" image. This is basically the basement dweller's version of adolescent machismo: pushing revisionist theories about totalitarian ideologies or leaders to shock mommy and daddy. These people disguise themselves as patriots instead of the traitors they are. Why are people even tolerating these people openly worshipping our national enemies? American nationalists cheering on America's most adversarial enemy is yet another sign Clownworld is taking all of us over.

I can't say that I blame him for being wary of the increasing NATO presence creeping towards the Russian borders under his and Yeltsin's tenures. I know that I wouldn't want Chinese influences bordering the US.

You realize that the only reason Russia doesn't want NATO near it isn't because he is afraid NATO will invade. That's so stupid and I can't believe you guys buy that. He literally just wanted to invade nations that aren't controlled by NATO. NATO only exists because Russia invades other nations. That's literally the reason NATO exists. It's to protect other nations from Russia. Which is why Russia doesn't want NATO nearby.

As to your other comments, the problem is Tucker wouldn't and couldn't push back, this interview would never have been authentic, I'm sure most of the questions were pre-screened and Putin would have anticipated most of them anyway, so it really just gives Putin an outlet to spout propaganda while Tucker gives his answers the veneer of legitimacy.

I find it hilarious anyone here is believing Putin's answers. Some sort of weird wishful thinking based on ideological lines since the left tends to support the Ukraine war than the right because it's Current Thing. I think this is all reactionary.

You can tell who doesn't have any idea of anything of the history of Russia and the USSR, or who the Russia simps that do but like to lie or ignore history because they like the fact that Russia conquers others and doesn't want to publicly admit to that.

Remember, Tucker is the guy that has, numerous times, misreported objectively false Russian propaganda as fact, and has stated his own support for Putin. I think he certainly has the right to interview Putin, but I don't think the interview is enlightening, I think Putin's answers are laughable and they should be obviously false to anyone who has studied history, and Tucker obviously admires a dictator.

 

[Loose Goose]

The article is from Zerohedge, hardly an anti Tucker place. This is a sympathetic piece. Posters framing it as a hit job are barking up the wrong tree.

WRT the talking point, of course the middle of Moscow is orderly, rich and clean. It is the middle of the imperial seat. Not saying the rest of the city is a shithole, but spending a few days near the nice parts is not an accurate sample. That said... Tucker's point still stands. Downtown DC, NYC, LA, London or Paris are the centers of western power, but our masters are not even capable or willing to keep them clean and policed. LA got a scrubbing when Emperor Xi visited, but it didn't last. You can smell the decay, often literally. It is this degradation that hits home when someone makes a comparison.

 

[Overly Serious]

He was 100% correct when he said that the USA has everyone else beat when it comes to propaganda.

I mean, at least people in China, Ukraine, Russia, etc. know it's propaganda. Germans, Brits and Americans are the only peoples who seem to actually believe it en masse. (Not sure about the French).

The idea that Fucker claims Russia is not expansionist is absolutely disgusting to anyone with a memory that goes back to his own childhood. Russia is one of the last remaining expansionist powers on the globe. America isn't interested in taking more land.

You're obviously not counting building military bases all over the place, installing proxy governments and buying up all resource rights as "taking more land". For settlement? No, the US is not interested in that. For every other sense of owning another country? Sure - they still love doing that.

 

[Harbinger of Kali Yuga]

You're obviously not counting building military bases all over the place, installing proxy governments and buying up all resource rights as "taking more land". For settlement? No, the US is not interested in that. For every other sense of owning another country? Sure - they still love doing that.

You realize other countries pay for our protection, right?

Buying up resource rights is what every nation does. That's a far cry from conquering another nation and murdering its citizens. What an absolutely asinine post. The USA is interested in military supremacy, but it is not interested in conquering and claiming other nations.

It's asinine you people will also start up by criticizing the USA for everything it does, but excusing what Russia does with this kind of Whataboutism. Buying into the idea that everything America does abroad is colonialism, wholesale, is you eagerly adopting old USSR and socialist propaganda. Though, I'm kind of guessing you align that way.

Imagine thinking an American base in Djibouti is the same thing as invading Ukraine, Dagestan, or Chechyna.

 

[FierceBrosnan]

tl;dr: Journalist expands his worldview and the worldview of his readers/viewers. Communist propagandists most effected.

 

[Harbinger of Kali Yuga]

The article is from Zerohedge, hardly an anti Tucker place. This is a sympathetic piece. Posters framing it as a hit job are barking up the wrong tree.

WRT the talking point, of course the middle of Moscow is orderly, rich and clean. It is the middle of the imperial seat. Not saying the rest of the city is a shithole, but spending a few days near the nice parts is not an accurate sample. That said... Tucker's point still stands. Downtown DC, NYC, LA, London or Paris are the centers of western power, but our masters are not even capable or willing to keep them clean and policed. LA got a scrubbing when Emperor Xi visited, but it didn't last. You can smell the decay, often literally. It is this degradation that hits home when someone makes a comparison.

Yeah, in the countryside in America you'll see all the things a house in the city has, and more; in Russia, most places outside the cities they may not even have a working toilet. The Russians act like looting barbarians in Ukraine, taking things they don't have--toasters, washing machines, toilets, etc., as Russian conquest is done for all the traditional reasons it was in history... but I suppose Americans are so used to niggers doing it in their cities that they can't recognize a war of looting, pillaging, and conquest when they see it.

Nobody really believes Putin, these Americans all have more isolationist foreign policies, so they want to repeat Putin's propaganda to convince people at home to reduce American influence abroad and pull out of NATO.... which is what Russian propaganda has been aiming at for decades, since their intention is more land and a return to the USSR days (or beyond). It's funny how people who want to pull out of NATO for financial reasons try to bend over backwards to find a way to make Putin appear justified. And the logic is always tortured, funny, Ameri-centric worldview logic, that or it's the childlike nationalism you get from proud Russians with more krokodil than morals.

So yeah, that's a good point. Moscow may look nice and have a good subway, but that's because Moscow hosts Russia's elite and so of course that's where the money goes. It's not surprise then that Fucker brought up Dubai, as if the reality of Dubai's elite Saudi oil money and its underground slave class relates to anything any other city can do, he doesn't think about the big picture, he just wants to spew propaganda because he is just an extreme isolationist. Tucker was quite influenced by Ron Paul and his campaign along with the Republican party sandbagging him and it looks like this is the result of that shit gestating in his mind for all this time.

 

[The Ugly One]

All the people calling for him to be deported, arrested, not allowed back into the US are just fucking retarded. You never seen any of that when Gaddafi, Castro, Saddam Hussein, or Assad were interviewed by the usual suspects.

None of those people stole a US election and put one of their assets in the Presidency.

WRT the talking point, of course the middle of Moscow is orderly, rich and clean. It is the middle of the imperial seat. Not saying the rest of the city is a shithole, but spending a few days near the nice parts is not an accurate sample. That said... Tucker's point still stands.

One of the bizarre things about postmodern Western governments is that turning the core of their capital cities become festering shitholes is some kind of point of pride to them. Every other government in the world treats the heart of their capital as a showpiece. The rest of the country might be a shithole, but the areas around the government buildings had better be nice, or there will be hell to pay. The fact that bringing in niggers and homeless people to piss and shit all over nice things is a central plank of Western urban policy never stops confusing Third Worlders who come here.

 

[MrJokerRager]

But they do have a lot of central Asian single males from stan countries.

Nothing in this world compares to the American Feral Nigger.

I get it that other nations have their own niggers.

But nothing can compare to this creation of Jews and White sociopathic liberals.

 

[MrJokerRager]

The Russians act like looting barbarians in Ukraine, taking things they don't have--toasters, washing machines, toilets, etc.,

I get it that you lot got buck broken by the Russian empire and later on the USSR for centuries.

But no need to go over the top on hating Russia, we get it.

It's like how almost all of America's neighbors like Canada and Mexico and Cuba and Haiti would want to see this land die.

 

[Harbinger of Kali Yuga]

I get it that you lot got buck broken by the Russian empire and later on the USSR for centuries.

But no need to go over the top on hating Russia, we get it.

It's like how almost all of America's neighbors like Canada and Mexico and Cuba and Haiti would want to see this land die.

Imagine thinking saying that most of Russia is nearly third-world shithole is hyperbole. It's not. Most Russian immigrants that come to the USA heap praise on this country and often become among the most patriotic. You talk to Russian immigrants in the USA about both countries and they gas up the USA like no other. But I guess they just don't put enough premium on "basedness" over silly things like freedom and quality of life, and they need Americans to explain to them how Putin is a freedom fighter for humanity, or something.

 

[MrJokerRager]

Imagine thinking saying that most of Russia is nearly third-world shithole is hyperbole. It's not.

Are there bad areas in Russia, I agree.

If you trying to tell me that they could compare to places like Somalia or the Congo or India or Baltimore, then it does sound over the top.

Plus Hollywood in general would show Eastern Europe overall as a shithole before this whole war began. So it's like meh, how much is really bad compared to propaganda from our institutions and YouTube videos of places in India where you got literally poopoo everywhere.

 

[Harbinger of Kali Yuga]

Are there bad areas in Russia, I agree.

If you trying to tell me that they could compare to places like Somalia or the Congo or India or Baltimore, then it does sound over the top.

Plus Hollywood in general would show Eastern Europe overall as a shithole before this whole war began. So it's like meh, how much is really bad compared to propaganda from our institutions and YouTube videos of places in India where you got literally poopoo everywhere.

So you're basically admitting to talking out of your ass and going with gut feelings here? My dude, it's not that hard to find out what it's like there. You probably should think long and hard why stealing washing machines was such a big modus operandi for the Russians... many, if not most, of those people don't even have toilets indoors, they still have outhouses.

Thinking it's a given that Baltimore (infrastructure-wise) is going to be worse than the worst parts of Russia... dude, you can't be more sheltered.

And now many regions of Russia now have very few men. Putin conscripted men particularly from the Western parts of Russia where resistance/rebellion/activists could weaken them, so they send a large portion the men off to war to die so they have no physical means to rebel or resist. These are also the people in Russia who are viewed as lower-class. Western Russia holds the power, Eastern Russia exists to keep Moscow happy. Russia is not held together like the USA is. Russia is held together through force.

So much for doing right by his country, though.

You know, actually, I think Tucker is just an uninformed, typical American oaf, not very well traveled and he gets his info from TV and movies, and he views Russia as a United States of the East, and it's not. He just doesn't try to look for anything that would contradict any of his Amerintuitions.

 

[Sister Miriam Godwinson]

Yeah, no, Moscow sucks. Obviously Tucker would've been staying in nice parts, but if you can't afford to stay in nice parts, it can get very skeevy.

Unless it's changed significantly in the past decade or so.

It kind of did. The phrase "Have you noticed how prettier Moscow became under Segei Semyonovich?" became a local meme becuse the Deer Herder (Mayor Sobyanin is an ethnic Buryat) has a fetish for prettying things up. Knocked down all street kiosks, banned ads on building facades and keeps laying down pavement tiles everywhere because his wife owns the pavement tile factory. Quadrupled park maintenance budget and did some very fancy things with public transport too.

He became mayor in 2010.

Spoiler: Before and after

Exhibit one


Exhibit two

 

[Night Crawler]

I agree, and it's so obviously about image because they want to revel and absorb Putin's propagandistic "strongman" image. This is basically the basement dweller's version of adolescent machismo: pushing revisionist theories about totalitarian ideologies or leaders to shock mommy and daddy. These people disguise themselves as patriots instead of the traitors they are. Why are people even tolerating these people openly worshipping our national enemies? American nationalists cheering on America's most adversarial enemy is yet another sign Clownworld is taking all of us over.

The problem is that the Russians are still mad because the Soviet Union collapsed. By Russians I mean people in their government. Though I'm sure there are still some Russian Boomers over there that miss the Soviet days. There are also people in both countries that can't seem to let the Cold War die. This is a problem with the Russians as well. While Russia will never conform to the modern version of democracy in the US it's not all just the evil US picking on poor innocent Russia. The other issue is that the Russians were never punished for what they did in WW2. They were never punished for the atrocities committed by their government. Everyone else has been punished for the bad things they have done except the Russians. They sat over there and told themselves that they single handedly won WW2. Matter of fact they still believe this.

I see the situation in Ukraine with the Russians suffering this humiliating defeat as part of the punishment they never got. Just look what happened to Germany after WW2. The Russians never had this. Instead, they took control of half of Europe. Forced Communism on the countries and installed puppet governments that were friendly to them. To this day you are safer waving around a Communist sickle and hammer flag than you are a flag with a Swastika on it. You can have all the communist symbols you want just don't have a swastika publicly visible and Communism killed more people than the Nazis did.

All these decades later and the world is still feeling the impact of the bad decisions made back in the 1940's. Even after the Cold War ended.

 

[Harbinger of Kali Yuga]

The problem is that the Russians are still mad because the Soviet Union collapsed. By Russians I mean people in their government. Though I'm sure there are still some Russian Boomers over there that miss the Soviet days. There are also people in both countries that can't seem to let the Cold War die. This is a problem with the Russians as well. While Russia will never conform to the modern version of democracy in the US it's not all just the evil US picking on poor innocent Russia. The other issue is that the Russians were never punished for what they did in WW2. They were never punished for the atrocities committed by their government. Everyone else has been punished for the bad things they have done except the Russians. They sat over there and told themselves that they single handedly won WW2. Matter of fact they still believe this.

What gets me is that this narrative stems from when the USSR was expanding and truly threatening the globe. Because leftist intellectuals sided with communism and the USSR (many of these 'intellectuals' were spies) they happily adopted and repeated the colonialist narratives. There were banging that drum even back then. Russia had and has every reason to weaken confidence in the USA and its military aims. The social justice movement still uses that trick today in all their rhetoric. Seriously, find old Soviet newspapers that talk about the USSR, or even go to the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis and read an example they have there talking about race relations in America (the museum itself has a leftist bias),. even back then they sounded much like SJWs do today.

But because the left and the libertarian right intersected on America's place in the world, in part for different reasons, there was transmission of rhetoric and right wingers began adopting the left's arguments towards the US's place in the world, which were largely built on and provided for as defenses of the USSR during the Cold War. So a lot of this rhetoric is Soviet propaganda that has steeped into American culture and has come home to roost.

 

[Marvin]

It kind of did. The phrase "Have you noticed how prettier Moscow became under Segei Semyonovich?" became a local meme becuse the Deer Herder (Mayor Sobyanin is an ethnic Buryat) has a fetish for prettying things up. Knocked down all street kiosks, banned ads on building facades and keeps laying down pavement tiles everywhere because his wife owns the pavement tile factory. Quadrupled park maintenance budget and did some very fancy things with public transport too.

He became mayor in 2010.

Spoiler: Before and after

Exhibit one
View attachment 5721794 View attachment 5721795

Exhibit two
View attachment 5721796 View attachment 5721797

I was last there in 2016. The touristy parts of the city were fine but where we were staying was much sketchier.

Overall Moscow was not significantly better or worse than DC at the time. (I'm from the DC area so that's my main big American city to compare to.)

I did like the metro a lot because I cannot drive so I always appreciate a usable transport system. For me, NYC's subway sucks less because it's unsafe and more because it's an incomprehensible, impossible to navigate piece of shit. But to be fair, it is like 100+ years old.