History / History of Europe and the Next Russian Grand Idea [49]


I hope it is as you say.

A strong, conservative, traditional German East is welcome in Russia - even if we do not measure up to our own standards for others.

What irritates me about modern Russia, is all this energy that goes into playing this Kabuki theater for foreign audiences.

Self defeating hypocrisy. Pretending all is well, and reading lectures to others - even as we are completely lost ourselves.

The Kremlin - the beating heart of Russia - has to be open to admitting mistakes.

History / History of Europe and the Next Russian Grand Idea [49]

@Bratwurst Boy

What I want to say to you, is that Europe is not impervious to those American exports.

Otherwise, why do you have so many Jehovah's Witnesses, Pentecostalists, Seventh Day Adventists, and all the flavors of Baptists present in big numbers in Europe?

All these are American imports.

Seems your experience of religious wars has not insulated you from these dangerous American innovations...

If these insidious cult ideologies can penetrate your continent, how is Orthodoxy different? Orthodoxy is spreading roots in America, and is one of the fastest growing denominations.

The path of these lost souls to Orthodoxy is often guided by messaging coming from Moscow.

History / History of Europe and the Next Russian Grand Idea [49]

@Torq

I don't know who to respond to! BB also asked an important question... I will get back to it soon - I promise BB.

-//-

I shouldn't have pretended to having a fully fleshed out Russian Great Idea sitting in my backpack, but what I could do is enumerate certain conditions I believe are necessary... before we can attempt to bamboozle the world again with some new Russian philosophy.

1) We should fix relations with the West and our own neighborhood, and abstain from wars for at least 20-30 years more. We are in desperate need of technology transfers, and access to capital - if we hope to be competitive in the second half of this century.

2) We need to invest more in our people, and less in metal. Russia's greatest wealth is our wonderful people, who I firmly believe are some of the smartest and most talented people in the world. No "Poseidon" or "Satan" can replace a world-changing idea that some boy in Siberia might be carrying, but cannot realize in Russia.

3) We need to move the country's administrative center away from Moscow, and towards the center of the country. Siberia and the East are dying - and Moscow is like a black hole that sucks all matter towards it. A new capital, perhaps in Novosibirsk, could recenter the country.

4) Children must become the center of all attention. We moan and complain about abortions and low birth rates, and at the same time we have 500K orphans living in the country that nobody seems to care about except for warm-hearted foreigners (for whom Putin made it illegal to adopt our children). This is a f*cking crime. A country that doesn't care about its weakest and most vulnerable is no country at all.

5) We need to liberalize politically. An active opposition and a free press - were important components of the 1990s, and set the stage for the surge in growth in the early 2000s. Without these two, the folks in power start believing too much of their own "hopium". It must be in the interests of the Kremlin to have some smart people that are able to criticize them. Sniffing your own ass all day is a path to nowhere.

History / History of Europe and the Next Russian Grand Idea [49]


It's absolutely true.

Western conservatives want a "strong, traditional" Russia to admire.

They consume it as a fantasy of order and community.

They do not care if it's true - they want a symbol, not a reality.

-//-

Russia responds in kind, through:

1) RT's messaging to Western audiences

2) Alignment with far-right European parties (often helping them with a little bit of money, to get things off the ground)

3) Embracing the "defender of Christianity" narrative

4) Producing metric tons of brain rotting slop about "traditional family values" for Twitter and Instagram.

So you see... Russia doesn't actually have to live these values, but merely has to project them. The "ideology" is the packaging, and the product is geopolitical leverage. At least that's how I understand it, and how Mr. Surkov explained his approach several times.

-//-

Regarding my own idea... it would take me to long to flesh it out here.

History / History of Europe and the Next Russian Grand Idea [49]


After critiquing your suggestion, I would like to respond to your criticism of the current product Russia is marketing to the world.

First things first - of course all of it is total bullsh*t - but it doesn't matter.

We need to first agree - "what is the goal?". It seems to me, that the goal of all Russian "Great Ideas" is - "how do we maximally grow Russian power, while also offering something in return".

Some smart Americans, like George Kennan, understood this at the beginning of the Cold War - when they were trying to understand "what does Russia want?". Kennan saw through the charade of Communism, and saw the Great Russian chauvinism beneath. So...

Pan-Slavism promised us leadership of a large part of humanity. To the Slavs it was marketed it to - protection from various Turks, autonomy from the Decadent West, and a healthy dosing of fascistic niceties.

Communism also spread our influence widely, with power dividends accruing back to Moscow with every government that fell into the fold. So this idea was very nice too, because it made us much more powerful (the main criteria - as I see it).

-//-

The current idea of exporting "machismo" and "conservative values" is therefore also not so retarded.

It is of course a total lie, but a good and useful lie.

Why?

Because there are buyers in the market for this sh*t, and so long as there are buyers - we should be peddling it to whomever is willing to buy it.

The West and the Far East have a crisis in gender relations. Men hate women, women hate men. No one's getting married, and no one's having babies. We're not doing it either, but we can use the moment to play on their insecurities and turn their gaze (fraudulently) towards the Kremlin.

The electoral leverage it provides us within those democracies, is worth all the shame and self-disgust evoked by pumping out nonsense.

Maybe 3 out of 10 people see through the charade of "Russian Conservatism", but 7 out of 10 do not - and to them we are heroes. These Russia lovers have votes, and they have money, and hopefully they have children. So... then they are ASSETS.

In the absence of a genuine RGI, this Frankenstein creation will have to do for the time being, because:

1) There is demand for it.

2) It works.

3) It pays dividends.

History / History of Europe and the Next Russian Grand Idea [49]


Yet, I will thank you anyway. This was very interesting to read.

However, I have many issues with your attempt to turn Russia into a Scandinavian Christian Social Democracy...

Without further ado - my feedback:


My concern with this, is that it seems like a "growth destroying" idea. We'll have to stop tracking GDP, and use instead some Happiness Index like Bhutan.

Historically - non-Darwinian societies decay.

The wild jungle conditions in America, where the strong eat the weak, explains a lot of the difference in the dynamism of the two economies (vis a vis Europe).

Xi Jingping is trying to do it in China (rejecting the various ugly aspects of capitalism). Billionaires are regularly jailed, or admonished for living "too lavishly" or with concern only for themselves. The people cheer... but it doesn't do any wonders for the place's investment attractiveness.

So... this is my first reaction to this point. There's much nuance, of course, which I'm glazing over. AI and robotics could change much of this model which at the moment seems flawed.


Here you are channeling straight Dugin.

Question for Duginists - where did this place ever exist historically?

Among Russian "muzhiks" working for the "gospoda", while they gambled away the fruits of their labor in St. Petersburg salons?

Among Chinese rice paddy farmers hiding from the tax collector?

In an Israeli kibbutz?

On a Mennonite farm?

Show a good, working example from the past, and then we can discuss it. Because Dugin's imagined ideal - I fear - never actually existed in the way he seems to think about it.

Communalism has more often been a survival technique than a "value". Once enough capital is accumulated, and life becomes a little more interesting, these communes always tear themselves apart.

I may be wrong, and am prepared to debate this further:)


We are a multi-ethnic, multi-confessional country. We have many Muslims, and Buddhists, and Jews, and other folks.

Have to be careful in embracing Christianity too closely, lest it blow up in our face.

Putin and various Dugins are trying this, and playing it very carefully, but still not carefully enough for my tastes.

-//-

All in all, 2 out of your 3 points are straight Dugin eschatology concerning salvation and civilizational redemption. The difference is that Dugin thinks all these things will come about only after some apocalyptic battle, and you are instead trying to avoid a fight (a noble goal).

News / AfD politician: Poles are land-stealing n*ggers [191]

You should be Professor of some Slavic Faculty.

You've lived so long among the natives, you understand them better than they understand themselves.

News / AfD politician: Poles are land-stealing n*ggers [191]


Ahhhh, ahahaha... a juicy subject for them - surely. Promising many votes.

News / Karol Nawrocki - the New President of Poland [495]

@Miloslaw

He's talking about the difference between absolutes and relative figures.

If Poland has an economy of $10, and grows 20% - next year it will be $12 in size.

If Germany has an economy of $50, grows 10% - next year it will be at $55.

Poland grew $2, and Germany grew $5 - even though Poland is growing faster.

See?

-///--

I don't think this is as "impressive" as Alien thinks, and I agree with you Poland has been displaying very impressive economic growth - whereas Germany is in major trouble - but still.. he is right.

News / Karol Nawrocki - the New President of Poland [495]


Fair enough and I apologize.

I do respect him, and I can see why you argue he was the most "real" of the Troika.

But his "solutions" for the Greeks, still make them remember him in the same terms as people in South Sudan interpret the legacy of the people of North Sudan vis-a-vis their region.

Or the same way people from Calabria, see the actions of people from Lombardy.

News / Karol Nawrocki - the New President of Poland [495]


Expecting Eastern Europe to subscribe to your enlightened ways shows your naivete.

While we starved, and marched into gas chambers - those Greek faggots were sailing their ships around the Mediterranean and behaving as heroes.

Who let you down from Eastern Europe?

Who ate more than he can pay for?

In the Euro crisis it was not the Easterners, but the PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain).

News / Karol Nawrocki - the New President of Poland [495]


Ah, of course...

Wolfgang Schäuble was not a cannibal and an autist, but merely very concerned that Greece learns the correct lessons.

News / AfD politician: Poles are land-stealing n*ggers [191]


No, but he chased these ******** around the forests of Galicia, putting to sleep nearly every single one he could find.

Now this monster is raising its head again....

It is our duty to stamp it out, and not give it oxygen.

News / AfD politician: Poles are land-stealing n*ggers [191]


We don't care.

We dealt with them quickly.

They are generational cowards and swine.

My grandfather made many of them a permanent piece of the past.

We know how to deal with these nationalist pigs, and how to make them eat their own ****.

News / AfD politician: Poles are land-stealing n*ggers [191]


Stop pretending to be thick.

We gave you the most industrialized lands in Germany.

And took farmland in the East.

News / AfD politician: Poles are land-stealing n*ggers [191]


lol.

We gifted you a third of Germany.

Not happy?

News / AfD politician: Poles are land-stealing n*ggers [191]


You are acting like a woman - being upset that some Niemiec prostitute called you a thief and a n*gger?

The proper Slav reaction is to ignore the barking of dogs.

We f*cked their mothers, and broke their fathers. If we are n*ggers - then they are our bastard sons.

Russia never asks for reparations. Even when you steal the money amid broad daylight - because that stolen money will be a bone in your throat - until we come and extract our pound of flesh.

Poland should not embarrass itself.

News / AfD politician: Poles are land-stealing n*ggers [191]


Hello BB! How are you?


Proud Russian n*gger here!

We embrace our n*ggerdom.

First Vikings made us Scandinavian n*ggers.

Then Genghis Khan turned us into Mongol n*ggers.

Later, Turks would import millions of Russians to be n*ggers in the Ottoman Empire.

Eventually - all our former slave masters became our dogs, but that's a different story.

Classifieds / Need Food And Clothes [86]

@BritishAtheist

Go and cry in the corner. But be quiet - your wailing disturbs others.

News / How will Polish-American relations change if Trump is elected president again? [812]


What is your point?

What are you trying to say?

Please Lyzko?

News / How will Polish-American relations change if Trump is elected president again? [812]

@Bratwurst Boy

You have some interesting chancellors lately.

Off-Topic / 75 Years of Israel and the War - part 3 [645]


1) The first nation to develop a tractor using stealth technologies. Invisible on radar - unfortunately invisible to farmer too.

2) First country to send a fermented cabbage to the Mariana Trench. Historic Kapusta-1 proved sauerkraut reaches neutral buoyancy in the abyssal zone.

3) Wiadro-7 Deep Earth Exploration Bucket. Poland's advanced geological probe: a bucket attached to 49 kilometers of string. Lost after Czechs borrowed it and forgot to return.

4) The ŚledźSat Constellation - a series of revolutionary low-orbit satellites shaped like herring for hydrodynamic reasons. Provides 8G internet except on Fridays.

5) Kapusta-2 (Abyssal Cabbage Return Mission). Designed to retrieve the original sauerkraut sample from Mariana Trench. Mission delayed indefinitely following loss of Wiadro-7 probe.

News / How will Polish-American relations change if Trump is elected president again? [812]


On Twitter, there are funny posts going around - centered on a video clip where Merz says Germany is the most beautiful country in the world.

As proof, he says he was in Brazil recently - and couldn't be thankful enough to return to Germany. In addition, 20 of the journalists in his press entourage apparently also agreed that Brazils sucks and Germany is much better.

-//-

This guy is real world class diplomat!

The Brazilians are upset for some reason... but what can you do?

• 
  IMG_8347.jpeg
  

News / Poland Sports News - part 2 [91]


Sometimes you say really unexpected things.

You're a self professed body builder, go hiking often, and are generally the healthiest person your age that I know of - but you find wrestling "disgusting".

At the same time, you can seemingly go on and on and on, about how beautiful you think a Corvette is.

You often talk about how you found this or that Russian piece of music "beautiful".

-//-

One almost gets the sense that you are some kind of aesthete, who only masquerades here as a "down to earth American", but is in reality a NYC-esque snob.

You have a very finely tuned sense of aesthetics.

You don't like men wrestling. You don't like to watch men eat...

Very interesting fellow you are.

Maybe in another life you would be not an engineer but a sculptor or painter?

News / European News and Poland Thread - part 5 [12]


Hehehehe!

Poor BB...

Off-Topic / 75 Years of Israel and the War - part 3 [645]


Russians... such cannibals, such animals - but they leave themselves.

Strange.

News / Was Charlie Kirk popular in Poland? [601]

@Novichok
Three possible scenarios:

1) It will kill us all. In this scenario, global GDP goes to zero. No humans = no economy.

2) It will lead to a growth in labor productivity, such, that levels will reach the average for the 20th century. The economy will expand significantly, but not without pain for the displaced.

3) The end of scarcity. Nobody has to work anymore, and everything is available in abundance.

News / Was Charlie Kirk popular in Poland? [601]


Lending to you, is a good deal more risky than lending to Blackrock.

Blackrock's balance sheet, is a good bit more solid than your family finances...

-//-

Blame the Fed. Blame the Treasury.

Their actions led to this place, where big commercial banks (Chase, Citi, BofA, Wells, etc) hate to lend to average Homo Sapiens, and instead prefer T bonds, institutional lending, and private credit exposure.

If a bank can earn 4-5% interest on a risk free Treasury with ZERO CAPITAL COST, the incentive to lend to households @ 7-8% goes to f*cking zero, once you calculate return on equity net of capital charges.

Bank of America, or any other bulge bracket bank, pretty much doesn't care if you drop dead and die - their business no longer depends on your silly mortgage or auto borrowing.

-//-

Bottom line - you can lend to the US government - at zero risk - and print money out of thin air...

... or you can lend to Joe Six Pack to buy a house, which he will default on in 4 years when AI finally and conclusively kills his job.

Who would you rather lend to? Uncle Sam, or tomorrow's recipient of Universal Basic Income?

Life / Trendsetter from Poland. [113]


Ok.

For one time...

I will give you the laurels.

You folks really got a raw deal.

Life / Trendsetter from Poland. [113]


You had some cosmic misfortune fall upon your day, with two such strange neighbors.

You've done much to convince me of the shittiness of the Polish position.