Hey,
So recently I watching a podcast with Tim Kennedy wheee he said he hates Russia as it is communist. I have hears a lot of similar states from Americans (that Russia is communist).
Ofc Russia is not working as a complete free market system as ours in western countries (USA, EU etc) due to corruption and state being powerful in business but it is not communist as it was during Soviet times (well it never was communist, it was socialist, but well it is just a small observation)
Why do Americans think like that (or is it something they just say?)
14 comments
Everybody knows the Soviet Union imploded, so no one *seriously* thinks that they’re still a Communist country.
They were *the* Communist country though, which makes reminding them of that fact a good insult from our perspective.
It’s no different from calling the French surrender monkeys even though they haven’t done that for quite a few decades.
Many on the right see anything left of Reagan as communism. I’ve heard people call Bernie a communist for simply wanting a closer social net to Europe. The lingering specter of the USSR only reinforces that.
I’ve never seen anyone make the mistake. In fact my teachers in elementary school were apparently instructed that is any student refers to the USSR as Russia or vice versa then that answer is unacceptable because they were different countries and we shouldn’t hold animosity towards Russia for the actions of the USSR.
“Communist” is used as a pejorative by a lot of Americans for anything or anyone they see as backwards. Doesn’t mean they actually understand what communism is or that they genuinely think the subject in question is communist
It obviously was communist and even after the collapse of the USSR, many of Russia’s residents and leaders retained communist leanings, but I don’t think anyone sincerely believes it’s still a communist country. There might be jokes you’re missing in the podcast.
Many people see Putin an authoritarian and many people in the states use communism and authoritarianism interchangeably. Therefore because he is an authoritarian he and Russia are communist.
Americans are shockingly ignorant of the rest of the world, even when being more knowledgeable would help us make better decisions. It’s a trope because it’s all too often true. Russia lives in the American imagination as the inheritor of the mantle of Soviet communism, despite the fact that it’s long been a sort of hypercapitalist kleptocratic petro-state. I suspect that if more Americans had gotten past the “godless commies” perception and caught up with reality, maybe America would be on a slower path than it currently is in becoming alarmingly like Russia.
Because Americans are woefully uneducated as to what communism is.
Since putin has been running the show for a million years it screams dictator. They typically end up communists or fascist. So since communists is a more wide spread term people default to it.
Whatever Russia’s political system is, I don’t like it.
McCarthyism damaged a LOT of brains.
Tim Kennedy occupies a specific subset of willfully stupid, similar to Joe Rogan. Don’t take these people seriously and please don’t think Americans on the whole think like them.
Because Rocky 4
For the same reason a lot of them think Scandinavia is socialist (seen this one from both sides of the aisle).
A lot of them do not know what these words mean.