It’s fascism. Putin is already a dictator, however from 2010 onward Putin’s government is trying to rehabilitate honest to god fascism. Their talking points are “fascism is actually good”, “fascism isn’t the same as Nazism”, “Mussolini was actually a cool dude”. They hammer on the idea of slav identity too and it’s very easy for people to emphasize with it as there are so many outgroups. For religious people it’s LGBT folk and muslims who must be removed. For people who encountered drug addiction it’s those pesky immigrants who smuggle drugs. You know how that works.
That doesn't seem right to me. (My relationship to Russia is more removed, to be fair, - I've immigrated longer ago, though not at 3 years old. But I do visit and keep up with media/family/friends.)
I've seen zero "fascism is actually good" anywhere in official media - rather the opposite. Fascism is still the go-to way to describe a lot of anti-Russian nationalists in Eastern Europe. Navalny gets attacked for being a nationalist occasionally. And recently they killed Tesak in prison... so it doesn't really fit with the government line. Neonazis and so on are a thing, and not necessarily inconvenient for the state, but they're themselves a minority. Dangerous for individuals, but not for society as a whole.
There's definitely concerning alignment with traditionalists/Christians... but they're clearly just tools, not an independent power base. Actually religious (churched) people are still a minority. And the flipside is amoral liberalism on TV, strip clubs out in the open, etc. I think on balance there's more liberalism than traditionalism, especially among the upper and ruling classes.
And Muslims, thank God, will never become an enemy of the state. Russian foreign and domestic policy depends on keeping nice with Muslim republics and neighbors. Muslims are a part of the fabric of Russian society, the government and military. No one in government is stupid enough to sow ethnic discord. If you're Muslim, especially a migrant laborer, you will likely face discrimination on a personal level, but it's not something anyone encourages from on high.
The Soviet Union gets beat up in some media, but praised in other.
I think the social conservative talking points are just for show. The ruling ghouls don't believe in anything. They are affected by Europe and the West though, which means they imitate it or react to it. They'll play the same games, not go out on a limb - they're too cowardly and careful for that.
TL;DR I'm 100% predicting that Russia will continue to be boring/liberal/capitalist. At least no more fascist than the USA.
Thank you for the reply and the source! I am guilty of avoiding Solovyov and even Komsomolskaya Pravda, because why would voluntary see that? Туда не наступайте, ибо там нехорошо.
фашизм и ублюдлчный нацизм - разные вещи (fascism and bastard Nazism are different things)
третий путь, по которому, частично, сегодня идёт Россия ([Mussolini created] the third way, which Russia today partly follows)
Ah, but this is a bit different from a rehabilitation of fascism the way fascism is normally understood. Mussolini, despite inventing fascism, wasn't really its most pure expression. The fact that an odious media personality is flirting with Mussolini isn't indicative of the general direction of things.
Remember the time when Kiselyov said gays shouldn't be allowed to be organ/blood donors? That was a very prominent statement - but in the end Russia's one of the few countries without restrictions on MSM blood donations. I think it's just empty demagoguery or TV clowns being TV clowns. I'm optimistic, but I hope I'm right.
I would 100% agree with you if people wouldn’t eat this shit up. Not only my relatives, but real people all over Russia in general.
My anecdotes sadly confirm your anecdotes. People are dumb and don't go outside enough. But, luckily, Russia's not a democracy. So there's no need to fear what people think ;-). I agree it's bad that there are fascist/racist/conservative opinions entrenched out there, which creates the potential for bad leaders, but I also think people's backward views are tempered by pragmatism/apathy/civility. Sure, hypothetically, the Jews and Gayropa want to addict your kids to drugs and perverted sex, everyone knows that, but in your daily life it's not something that ever comes up. (Unless you yourself are the target of discrimination, which sucks, obviously, but it's not systematic.) Most people are too busy dealing with normal shit to want to get into politics.
Hey, maybe I'm 2 years behind. But I've vacillated on this question before. I think the darkest timeline is not in the interest of the ruling class either.
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:deeper-sadness:
That doesn't seem right to me. (My relationship to Russia is more removed, to be fair, - I've immigrated longer ago, though not at 3 years old. But I do visit and keep up with media/family/friends.)
I've seen zero "fascism is actually good" anywhere in official media - rather the opposite. Fascism is still the go-to way to describe a lot of anti-Russian nationalists in Eastern Europe. Navalny gets attacked for being a nationalist occasionally. And recently they killed Tesak in prison... so it doesn't really fit with the government line. Neonazis and so on are a thing, and not necessarily inconvenient for the state, but they're themselves a minority. Dangerous for individuals, but not for society as a whole.
There's definitely concerning alignment with traditionalists/Christians... but they're clearly just tools, not an independent power base. Actually religious (churched) people are still a minority. And the flipside is amoral liberalism on TV, strip clubs out in the open, etc. I think on balance there's more liberalism than traditionalism, especially among the upper and ruling classes.
And Muslims, thank God, will never become an enemy of the state. Russian foreign and domestic policy depends on keeping nice with Muslim republics and neighbors. Muslims are a part of the fabric of Russian society, the government and military. No one in government is stupid enough to sow ethnic discord. If you're Muslim, especially a migrant laborer, you will likely face discrimination on a personal level, but it's not something anyone encourages from on high.
The Soviet Union gets beat up in some media, but praised in other.
I think the social conservative talking points are just for show. The ruling ghouls don't believe in anything. They are affected by Europe and the West though, which means they imitate it or react to it. They'll play the same games, not go out on a limb - they're too cowardly and careful for that.
TL;DR I'm 100% predicting that Russia will continue to be boring/liberal/capitalist. At least no more fascist than the USA.
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Thank you for the reply and the source! I am guilty of avoiding Solovyov and even Komsomolskaya Pravda, because why would voluntary see that? Туда не наступайте, ибо там нехорошо.
Ah, but this is a bit different from a rehabilitation of fascism the way fascism is normally understood. Mussolini, despite inventing fascism, wasn't really its most pure expression. The fact that an odious media personality is flirting with Mussolini isn't indicative of the general direction of things.
Remember the time when Kiselyov said gays shouldn't be allowed to be organ/blood donors? That was a very prominent statement - but in the end Russia's one of the few countries without restrictions on MSM blood donations. I think it's just empty demagoguery or TV clowns being TV clowns. I'm optimistic, but I hope I'm right.
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My anecdotes sadly confirm your anecdotes. People are dumb and don't go outside enough. But, luckily, Russia's not a democracy. So there's no need to fear what people think ;-). I agree it's bad that there are fascist/racist/conservative opinions entrenched out there, which creates the potential for bad leaders, but I also think people's backward views are tempered by pragmatism/apathy/civility. Sure, hypothetically, the Jews and Gayropa want to addict your kids to drugs and perverted sex, everyone knows that, but in your daily life it's not something that ever comes up. (Unless you yourself are the target of discrimination, which sucks, obviously, but it's not systematic.) Most people are too busy dealing with normal shit to want to get into politics.
Hey, maybe I'm 2 years behind. But I've vacillated on this question before. I think the darkest timeline is not in the interest of the ruling class either.