Title is an oversimplification of course, but the USSR fell partly because many people east of the Berlin Wall, especially young people, were clamoring to get into the Western side where everything was healthier, prosperous, and freer. Our art and celebrities were setting the standard for the world. Look at how many people showed up to Metallica in Moscow. It's like a scene from Dune.
Popularity is not true value and there were weaknesses running through the West's culture all the way back to postwar and beyond, but just look at today's situation. Our "leaders" tried to apply the same Cold War playbook to current Russia, except they built the Iron Curtain of sanctions themselves. The idea is that the Russian people would pine for the West now that they've been cut off.
But what is a young Russian person supposed to see in the West? Trannies, ugly astroturfed movie stars, mumble rap, obesity, girlbosses, low T men, gay molestation, electric vehicles, declining standards, Indian tech, decadent culture? Who is the modern day Metallica that is supposed to win over millions of Russians? Kendrick Lamar?
What is a Russian middle-aged couple supposed to think when they take a holiday to France and are confronted with Africans and Arabs, Muslim ghettoes, and rapists prowling the Eiffel Tower? In Russia, at least Dagestanis mostly stay in Dagestan.
What is a Russian supposed to make of a Western academic culture that tells people every achievement of the West was a lie built on the bodies of minorities?
Anime is the biggest cross-cultural influence today, and that's from Japan.
I'm shocked the West has any cultural cachet left. I think a lot of it is just foreigners being polite.
The West was given the opportunity to show Afghanistan the glories of our civilisation, and we showed them Duchamp's urinal. Someone should have been court-martialled for that decision.
Embrace democracy so trannies will be in charge and your women becomes hoes! Just like the west. Lol.
Thats literally all the "propaganda" the taliban or any muslim nation has to do. Show their people all the queer shit and cucked black worship we have lol.
Tbf western society is in the toilet right now. it was the polite way of telling those women they are on their own.
They could have ruled the world but then they came after kids. And my videogames.
For real. They had the media. They had Hollywood. For a time they had 100% of Big Tech censoring opposing views. They had the schools, the govt, and even the fucking white house had that Marxist flag drapped everywhere a US flag should have been.
And then they went fully tranny and even invaded female sports. For generations, feminists enjoyed the double standard of invading all male spaces while maintaining their own, but the woke train matches on.
There was an anime called golgo 13 and its about a japanese sniper assassin. The chinese are making a film in the usa and its expected to be so great that it will make chinese made films have global influence. The CIA sends hit squads to try to assassinate the main actor because the CIA sees that the USA gained a lot of global power by spreading its influence through film and showed american exceptionalism. The chinese hires the japanese assassin to be the actor's bodyguard.
I dunno how you can say Russia won a culture war, when you see zero Russian influence in the current zeitgeist. It's not borscht is being consumed by the bucket full. What Slavic influence do you see in the US.
I don't think the Russians even care about the US.
Let me put it like this: it's the same way the US lost the Afghanistan War.
This shows we lost.
Agreed.
What Russian culture war? The only culture war is with China, which China seems to be winning, Chinese suppress and keep their muslims on a leash while they're an increasing demographic in Russia.
The "cultural war with Russia?"
Thank you for the gayest headline I've read today.
Holy fuck.
You tards actually think you're in a culture war? You actually think you lost something of value? Jesus fucking christ..
I can't actually tell what your problem is, but maybe take it less seriously
It's incredibly obvious. You just don't want to or would prefer to pretend you don't.
In any case, it's ironic your suggestion is to "take it less seriously" while you've written four paragraphs on a phenomenon that I would posit doesn't actually exist, and to the extent it does, should not actually matter.
Culture war with Russia? Please explain what parts of the "Russian culture" are dominating the world currently? Your analysis is confused and therefore useless. Your headline unironically manages to capture all of this.
I don't know man. You can't "actually tell?" Yet you doing "culture war analysis?" Okay.
The phenomenon obviously exists. It's called soft power. In past decades the US has projected such strong influence that the foreign policy establishment invented the term "the end of history," people openly debated whether internet access would collapse China, and Tom Friedman was writing about Mcdonalds per capita as an index of global peace. America projects soft power to influence and destabilize other countries.
Some sanctions targeting luxury goods and cars are explicitly designed around soft power. Soft power also backs up the propaganda war waged against Russia, with the idea that demoralized Russian citizens would force Russia's hand.
Rugby was leveraged to great effect to end apartheid, for another example.
Your point seems to be around the semantics of the term "war," in which case you can substitute "contest" or "initiative" or whatever makes you feel better.
It exists in the mind of the deep state.
fucking "russian culture war."
seriously fucking stupid.
OK sweetie, just let us know when you're ready to come down from your room and join the family dinner.
I don't agree. Being a bit more humble doesn't hurt.
It's "culture war", not cultural war.
Russia is not the alternative to the West, you have your own problems. Keeping the lid on them doesn't mean they're not hissing underneath. You're defining yourselves lately as the opposite of what the West has to offer, but you don't offer anything palpable. You don't seem to understand the pressure that's coming from China and India combined with their almost 3 billion little dots, you've got nothing comparable, only posturing and hybrid war.
Russia won nothing. Better focus on your latent problems with the islamic world and with China, not with the West. This is your chance to survival and ours too. Trump got it and gave you the chance to brag about winning something, when even from the inside of Russia, Prigojin would have changed the whole premise of your argument.
Take care of your own problems, Russia. Don't worry about the West. Good luck!
I'm American.
What about Russian domestic art, music, goods, or standard of living makes you conclude this?
The US doesn't offer vastly superior consumer goods anymore, btw. Everything is made in China or Korea.
Serguey, sell it to someone else. Why do you guys need to come up with these moronic acts it's beyond me. Learn to think, learn to write, learn to think in writing, learn English, hey, learn better Russian, but stop pretending. You're as American as my Russian vodka. За здоровье!
Listen to him: Russian domestic art! You win the internet today! W h o t h e f u c k c a r e s about anything related to the Russian standard of living? Russian domestic art, homies, we lost the "cultural war".
Oh, it's a NAFO soldier.
Actors are on par with prostitutes and tax collectors. We should never have abandoned this cultural standard