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The Same Mistake

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Clarissa

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Or maybe the indictments haven’t hurt because it’s hard to take the actual charges brought against him seriously.

I’m not planning to vote for Trump, I don’t follow him on any of his social media, I haven’t seen a single interview excerpt with him for years. But I read the indictments, and they sound deeply ridiculous.

This is the exact same mistake as in 2016 which is assuming that people who vote for Trump are gullible and stupid, instead of trying to see things from their perspective.

This is why I, for example, never say that Russians are brainwashed by propaganda and don’t know what’s really happening. Russians aren’t duped. They are mega pissed off about something that’s very real, and not propaganda or fantasy. It’s not “the NATO expansion” but something much deeper and long-running. The very nature of the problem we are all facing is that nobody has any ideas as to how to make them not pissed off.

6 responses to “The Same Mistake”

  1. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    “ussians aren’t duped. They are mega pissed off about something”

    On another place in the internet I was interacting with a russian or two (and a supporter or two) and I was trying the old tactic — poke and bother and bother some more in a different way until you provoke a big meltdown or outburst of the type where they say what they’re really bothered about (wouldn’t do it in real life since there’s a non-trivial chance of real violence) but online….. okay….

    This is mostly one person who’s easy to provoke… very smart and tries to be cool and collected but also his sensitive points are about as hard to see through as a newly cleaned window… so easier to provoke.

    The closest I’ve gotten so far was a few days ago (after which he disappeared) when he lost it and ranted about how he wants russia to be treated as an equal (to who? no info… presumably the US/UK (“Anglo-Saxons”) and maybe the EU) on what basis? no info, just pouting and an occasional threat but there was a comment about being an agent of positive change (supporting ‘revolutionary’ movements in the USSR)
    Most tellingly he’s ready to burn the whole world down if he doesn’t get his way…

    One bit of new (to me) information was this guy regarded the process of selling resources to the EU for astronomical profits as deeply humiliating and not a wonderful chance to improve conditions in the country…. he doesn’t care about poverty and other social ills in the country at all (or how many people die in russia or Ukraine or environmental damage anywhere like the floods in the far east or the fires everywhere) all he cares about is russia being looked up to….

    It’s a bit like being stuck in an elevator with a crazy person with a handgrenade who’s threatening to pull the pin if they can’t hold their breath for two hours and wanting you to time them….

    I still think there’s more to it… but yikes… russia is basically having a country level psychotic break…..

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    1. ed Avatar
      ed

      “I still think there’s more to it… but yikes… russia is basically having a country level psychotic break…..”

      Yeah, it’s like when someone’s world view completely crashes head on against reality and they are in a weird state of not being able to acknowledge deep self-reflection and change is necessary, but keeping on in hopes things just magically work out.

      I’m no expert on Russia, but to me their biggest flaw is their lack of introspection. It’s like culturally they are unable to do that.

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      1. Clarissa Avatar
        Clarissa

        It’s true but they avoid introspection because what will they find if they do look inwards? “We messed up our entire history” is an impossible thing to accept. Who can live with the guilt of seeing themselves as a fuck-up of a 1,000 years of history?

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  2. Benzion Chinn Avatar
    Benzion Chinn

    Part of the problem, I think, is that liberals have a hard time imagining how people not on their approved list can believe that they are the victims. As a non-Trump conservative, I needed to learn to appreciate that Trump voters see themselves as victims. Despite having no direct access to Russian language media, I can accept that Russians honestly believe that they are the victims of the past 500 years of Western history in large part because, having studied the non-cartoon history of Nazism, I understand how Germans saw themselves as the victims of Western history. It also helps that I have had to struggle with the narrative that Jews are the victims of Western history. There may be a lot of factual truth to such a claim, but, as a Jew, I needed to grow up and stop mopping about my victimhood.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      I agree, the victim narrative doesn’t lead anywhere good. Especially when you don’t really have anybody to blame. Jews didn’t genocide themselves. But Russians did. Guilt is an unbearable feeling, so they go for conspiracy theories.

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      1. Izgad Avatar
        Izgad

        The idea of a self-inflicted genocide is an interesting one. I guess Russians cannot claim that they were invaded by Georgians who then committed genocide. :p
        I am in the middle of reading Guy Maclean Rogers’ book on the 66-73 Jewish revolt against Rome, the grand self-inflicted wound of Jewish history. An example of historical nuance that I try to teach my students is that I can simultaneously admire the Romans and fast every year over the temple they destroyed.

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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