Going to the US for the first time as a European this year, it felt like what I would imagine the Soviet Union to feel like (which ended before I was born, though I have been to Russia). Capitalism and not communism is the state ideology, but propaganda for it runs through every layer of society and hypernormalization runs wild.
America today felt more opressive than Russia did a bit more than a decade ago. Which may or may not be a surprise to anyone.
US does feel like the flip side of the coin of the USSR (was born there, albeit I was too young to remember any substantive details).
I’ve lived in both US and Russia for many years, albeit I first experienced US as a young adult.
I will agree that Soviet-style hypernormalization is near universal in the US. I felt this as a young adult, perhaps ~10 years before I actually watched HyperNormalisation. It was clear most of the polemics about “freedom of this or that” was just local bullshit, not to be taken seriously.
I would disagree about russia feeling more oppressive (although I haven’t been there since 2009), but in some ways it was more free than the US, I will agree on that one.
This reminds me of some of the earlier USSR 5 year plans in the 20s and 30s.
Going to the US for the first time as a European this year, it felt like what I would imagine the Soviet Union to feel like (which ended before I was born, though I have been to Russia). Capitalism and not communism is the state ideology, but propaganda for it runs through every layer of society and hypernormalization runs wild.
America today felt more opressive than Russia did a bit more than a decade ago. Which may or may not be a surprise to anyone.
US does feel like the flip side of the coin of the USSR (was born there, albeit I was too young to remember any substantive details).
I’ve lived in both US and Russia for many years, albeit I first experienced US as a young adult.
I will agree that Soviet-style hypernormalization is near universal in the US. I felt this as a young adult, perhaps ~10 years before I actually watched HyperNormalisation. It was clear most of the polemics about “freedom of this or that” was just local bullshit, not to be taken seriously.
I would disagree about russia feeling more oppressive (although I haven’t been there since 2009), but in some ways it was more free than the US, I will agree on that one.