What foreigners think about Russia

[Arwenn]

This what you get when the radical left has everyone walking on eggshells, where normal conversation has been weaponized.

Political correctness definitely has had people walking on eggshells, no one being able to freely express what they think and having to choose words carefully for fear of offending someone. Some words now have a different meaning or connotation, & as we know, people have been ‘cancelled’ for tweets or posts from years ago because of that. I also think this inability to truly express how we feel is impacted by the way we communicate in the digital age. Nowadays, even a full stop in texts is considered a ‘micro-aggression’ or passive-aggressive.

But reading the romance novels gives an insight into a world where politeness & social etiquette were considered supreme & the making of one’s character, especially in certain classes and the aristocracy. Manners maketh man as some would say. This included not saying what one really thought/felt and ‘keeping a stiff upper lip’. So I have to wonder whether this goes much further back in the cultural West rather than being a relatively new phenomenon.

Perhaps the Russians being blunt these days is a result of having not had that luxury during the Soviet era. I don’t know enough of their cultural history to understand what their social norms were in the past. Free speech should be just that, the ability to express oneself without fear of offending someone. However, having a filter some of the time is necessary, strategic enclosure & all that. Just some of my musings!

 

[meadow_wind]

This is all very interesting...
I worked and am still friends with a Russian girl 10 years younger than me. Her mom moved to Paris because at 5 years old, my friend needed heart surgery from a specialized surgeon not available in Russia. They then moved to Montreal a few years later. The rest of her family is still in Russia.

I had the chance to hear many stories from her regarding real-life family stories, and some of her political views of Putin and Russia. It was all mostly negative... She would never go back to live in Russia. She says there are no economic opportunities there, full corruption at all levels, lack of everything, etc. Her grandfather got killed by mistake by the government during the communist war era: they knocked at his door, grabbed him, brought him somewhere to be shot, then later sent an apology letter to his wife saying "Sorry, we took the wrong person"... Speechless right? They were apparently doing this to anyone who dared "think" such as novelists, journalists, or whoever who got snitched by whoever else.

Today, she's a wealthy person living in Montreal, with a high salary, and she's into real estate (her mom and grandmother also owns a couple of units in France and Russia, so I would consider them as wealthy)

So anyhow, I find it very interesting to see all the angles about Russia and what people have to say about it. At the moment, I find China's culture and history very interesting, although I've always mostly had a negative opinion about it because of the communist regime (and many more shady things). However, my fascination with China goes back to as far as I can remember, something like 4 years old, I remember I wanted to have eyes like theirs, and I put scotch tape to try and make it hold

 

[meadow_wind]

From Canada to Russia

Canadian expert farmer family with nine children sell everything they own and move 2500 miles east to a more farmable area still inside Canada and very aptly build their dream home there. They begin farming again, for their neighbors as well. All this in the last couple years.

Then they realize that the Canadian Nazi Power Elite wants to devour / depopulate them and their children and make Canada UnLiveable in the future. So again they sell everything they own and then happens:

A Magical Angle.​

Because this is how Common Sense looks, lives and works like! This is how our future should look like!

Well worth the watch!

I just watched their video and I'm amazed at how easy it looks to build such a nice home with our own hands! And those animals look so lovely! Gosh, I'd like to have that lifestyle.
Do you or anyone else know any details about their reasons for leaving Canada? We all know in general what it could be, but I'm curious to know their version... They seem to say that they explain it on their Boosty page for their subscribers.

 

[Ca.]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1872320378309079331

 

[Abats]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1872320378309079331

More and more French people have started their own youtube channel to share their experience and opinion about Russia. I follow 4 persons, Gabrielle Duvoisin, Charles en Russie, Thomasovitch and Alexandre Frussien (that I know personaly now). They compare Russia to France and vice-versa (I would say there are talking about big cities and Moscow, they discuss about Russia in general but a bit less), they are all saying most of the time that it's far much better than France on a lot of points even regarding behavior of Russian people.

More and more people from UE are moving there now (according to some moving compagny that I got on the phone), and especially because they introduce this new Ideological visa. Few weeks ago they created an NGO under the supervision of deputy Maria Butina called "Welcome to Russia" (dedicated for french people and more largely europeans Language selection - Welcome to Russia). I have to say that spending a little bit more than 3 months there gave me most of the time the same opinion than these Youtubers. In fact what is really striking is that people are shocked about what we are told for so many years in France about Russia and the difference when you discover Moscow and even some countryside places.. It's like seeing black and white (even if we know that it's a shade of grey) but I really felt this huge difference.