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.