US ex pat living in Europe: 100% agree. I’ve actually not had a single person be mean or negative about where I’m from. Either jokes about how it’s going or more likely, curiosity about how things actually are.
It’s just like if you meet a Russian who left. I would hope you’d have the nuance to think “oh, they escaped, fantastic for them and I’m so sorry about their country” not “oh they must love Putin”
I met a Russian student studying abroad who was very intent on staying out of Russia as much as possible because he’s aware of how messed up things are. Had very a good sense of humor. His jokes about Putin and the Russian government would be enough to get people there thrown in jail.
It’s just like if you meet a Russian who left. I would hope you’d have the nuance to think “oh, they escaped, fantastic for them and I’m so sorry about their country” not “oh they must love Putin”
Unfortunately, as a Polish person, reality proved to me over and over and over again that in this particular scenario, the latter is just most often the case.
Russian people in general have special love for strong men in power. Make no mistake, they somehow even managed to turn Marxist ideas into authoritarianism and it made a massive damage to the international perception of the idea of communism. To this day general populace im my post-communist country, when you say socialism, they see Stalin.
I was born in mainland China, my parents are sort of sympathetic to PRC (but they are not communists), as in, they want to see Taiwan be reunified and opposed the Hongkong Protests. Simultaneously, they are also somewhat sympathetic to trump and their shitty policies, and they are anti-immigration despite us being immigrants, and they hate homeless people and neurodivergent people.
Meanwhile, I grew up in the US (arrive before I turned 10), I oppose the CCP, support Taiwan’s democracy and Hongkong protests, oppose trump.
Eh, really depends. Some immigrants keep supporting right-wing and authoritarian leaders in their home countries, regardless of where they’re from. There are many immigrant Russians who don’t support Putin, but there are some who do. Just like there are MAGA Latinos. Same as many Balkan people who move to Austria, Germany, etc. who still support right-wing leaders whose economy- and people-ruinning policies forced them to move for work in the first place.
US ex pat living in Europe: 100% agree. I’ve actually not had a single person be mean or negative about where I’m from. Either jokes about how it’s going or more likely, curiosity about how things actually are.
It’s just like if you meet a Russian who left. I would hope you’d have the nuance to think “oh, they escaped, fantastic for them and I’m so sorry about their country” not “oh they must love Putin”
I met a Russian student studying abroad who was very intent on staying out of Russia as much as possible because he’s aware of how messed up things are. Had very a good sense of humor. His jokes about Putin and the Russian government would be enough to get people there thrown in jail.
Unfortunately, as a Polish person, reality proved to me over and over and over again that in this particular scenario, the latter is just most often the case.
Russian people in general have special love for strong men in power. Make no mistake, they somehow even managed to turn Marxist ideas into authoritarianism and it made a massive damage to the international perception of the idea of communism. To this day general populace im my post-communist country, when you say socialism, they see Stalin.
Depends?
I was born in mainland China, my parents are sort of sympathetic to PRC (but they are not communists), as in, they want to see Taiwan be reunified and opposed the Hongkong Protests. Simultaneously, they are also somewhat sympathetic to trump and their shitty policies, and they are anti-immigration despite us being immigrants, and they hate homeless people and neurodivergent people.
Meanwhile, I grew up in the US (arrive before I turned 10), I oppose the CCP, support Taiwan’s democracy and Hongkong protests, oppose trump.
Eh, really depends. Some immigrants keep supporting right-wing and authoritarian leaders in their home countries, regardless of where they’re from. There are many immigrant Russians who don’t support Putin, but there are some who do. Just like there are MAGA Latinos. Same as many Balkan people who move to Austria, Germany, etc. who still support right-wing leaders whose economy- and people-ruinning policies forced them to move for work in the first place.
People are dumb, tribalistic animals.