Thread by @WeLoveNATO

Profound 1987 article by former Chancellor of West Germany. A ruthless assessment of russia's political and imperial mindset. He gave 6 reasons why russia can never get along with the rest of the world. Might as well have been written today. Here's the TL;DR...

1. russian messianic mindset
russia has an inherently messianic view of its own role in the world. russia believes it is the center of Christianity and its true standard-bearer ever since the collapse of the Byzantine Empire (continued)

This messianic thinking manifests itself in a variety of ways, such as seeing themselves as the leaders of pan-Slavism and, in the 20th century, as leaders of the global world communist movement. Various movements but all with the same core view of themselves as better.

2. No knowledge of democracy
russia has never had a true experience with democracy. At best, only ever a minority of russians have known it and even fewer understood it. When given the chance, russians always take the subservient (serf) role to the state/Tsar

3. different concept of morality
The West has and continues to mistake russian morality. russia has a different concept of morality that simply cannot be measured by the standards of modern democratic societies....

russia will always act Macchiavelian, will always lie, will always take advantage of others in any situation (often times not even for a better outcome for themselves but purely for the sake of 'winning'). And russians see no problem with this predatory view.

4. security paranoia
russia is always paranoid about its own geographical security, even as it has been expanding continuously and aggressively for nearly 500 years. An old russian saying goes "our borders are only safe when our soldiers stand on both sides of them." (😬🤬)

[side note: eastern Europeans know the consequences of this russian fanaticism all too well]

5. inferiority complex
russia has always been technologically and developmentally behind most of the rest of the world. Other than St. Petersburg and Moscow, it is part of the developing world. This drives deep resentment among russians that is a core part of their psychology.

6. suspicion
russia looks at the rest of the world with deep suspicion and skepticism. russia will always feel the victim even as it has relentlessly and aggressively colonized dozens and dozens of states and cultures for centuries.

This incredibly prescient article was written in 1987, when Chancellor Schmidt didn't even have any idea who Putin was. It shows us clearly that it's not Putin who is the problem, it's the russian mindset.

Here's the link to the source:

de.style.yahoo.com/style/35-jahre…

[also, this is isn't verbatim. He made the key points, I copied those down and in some cases, I elaborated on some of his thoughts or provided examples. but the source doc will show it is absolutely his thinking. so don't @ me]

Crap, I totally forgot: Slava Ukraini ✊️

I was just a kid but I remember Schmidt well. He was leader of SPD (Social Democrats) and we were a CDU house so we'd say SPD stands for 'Schmidt Pinkelt Daneben' ("Schmidt misses the toilet when he pees") 🤣🤣. He was a good man.