Leftists believe the NRA is in bed with "Russia", as an offshoot of "Russian collusion".
All conservatives are stooges for Russia.
Of course, Saint Obama told us Russia is no threat . . .
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There is much stupidity and hysteria when it comes to Russia within our Government and our society.
Much of that stems from our own culture sabotages our perception of Russian Culture. While at our foundation the Russian and American people are very similar. We would understand them well if we can just filter out a few things in the culture on both sides that short circuits the communication.
We are arrogant and tend to think everybody is a little American deep inside that is just waiting to get out.
We used to joke:
If you speak three languages; you are trilingual
If you speak two languages; you are bilingual
If you speak one language; you are an American.
The fact is America has a crappy reputation with the rest of the world. Our reputation is while our gadgets and stuff is great, we as a people lack fortitude. We will run out on our friends at the first sign of trouble.
"Are you going to see this through and stick by us to the end" is the number one question because everybody else in the world knows, America will run out when things get tough.
Our basic outlook is very different from your average Russian. We admire the guy who smiles in the face of adversity. The Russian's think smiling without a good reason just means you are too stupid to understand the misery of the human condition.
In negotiations, we establish the ideal and work back to a compromise. The Russians start at the realistic compromise as the ideal is complete fantasy. Any backing off of that is viewed as weakness. American's sit down at the negotiating table and automatically appear unreasonable, weak, as we smile all the time like complete idiots.
Even something as simple as "How Are You?". To us, that is greeting. We do not want to hear about the pimple on your behind or how your pillow was lumpy last night. A simple, "I am fine" is all we want to hear back.
To a Russian...that is a question to be answered. If you do not want to hear about their painful elbow and Aunt Evita's visit then why did you ask??
Russian culture is community centric while American culture celebrates individuality.
While Russia is a threat, it is mostly because of Putin himself and his personality. It is artificially inflated.
I think the intelligence operation conducted by Putin's agencies to disrupt our political process, divide our population, and sew the seeds of discontent will go down in history as one of the most successful disinformation operations in Intelligence History. Certainly right up there with Reagan's Star Wars program.
