@john_sipher @McFaul Why? What is your point? That Russians haven't ever had a 'good leader'? (Define.) That they haven't had "good times"? (Again, define: good times for which segment or percentage of the population, and for how long?) But this vagueness aside....
@john_sipher @McFaul even if what you say is true -- what follows? What's the unspoken assumption? That Russians are genetically/ethnically incapable of producing good leaders or enjoying "good times"? Are they subhumans who can't match OUR wonderful leaders or rip-roaring good times? What exactly...
@john_sipher @McFaul is the point? But let's get back to definitions. What does "good times" mean? In the Fifties, say, the white men in my lower middle class family enjoyed pretty "good times." Taxes on the rich were high, job security was high, living costs were low. Good times. But for millions..
@john_sipher @McFaul of Americans, those were not "good times" by any stretch. African-Americans, poorer whites, citizens who loved other citizens of the same sex and lest we forget, half of the citizenry who were women & faced barriers my father and grandfather did not. Were these "good times"?
@john_sipher @McFaul The Russian nobility enjoyed "good times" for centuries. They probably thought they had "good leaders" who sustained their wealth and privilege. So were these "good times" in Russia? Again, I sincerely don't understand the implication or assumptions behind your remarks. If...
@john_sipher @McFaul they DON'T mean the Russians are somehow congenitally incapable of producing a stable society with good leaders and good times, then what do they mean? Or if you're simply saying Russians have suffered bad luck throughout their history, why not just say that? But coming in reply
@john_sipher @McFaul to McFaul's tweet, there seems to be some edge to your remarks that you are not fully spelling out. Do you think the Russians are somehow inferior creatures who can never have good leaders or good times? Or, more rationally, do you think there are many complex historical,
@john_sipher @McFaul political, even geographical reasons for the lack of good leaders and good times you decry? Is disapproval of an authoritarian leader of an oligarchical state turning into a kind of racism against Russians themselves? The prejudice against the "primitive" Slavs, even to the point
@john_sipher @McFaul of considering them as subhuman, is not unknown, even within the living memory of some.
