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Don’t Blame Dostoyevsky

theatlantic.com

141–150 of 251 posts

Re: Don’t Blame Dostoyevsky

#141
post #16

I wonder who Shishkin is writing this for, and why he bothers. Readers interested in Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, or Chekhov are presumably intellectuals. Presumably, they will be familiar with the countless examples from history when, driven by patriotic fervor, countries cleansed themselves from the culture of an adversarial state, including language, literature, music, linguistic borrowings, scientific contributions, com…

I'm going to challenge this because I think it suggests that reading the Russian classics is an intellectual challenge with a perquisite of studying Russian history and culture. Dostoyevsky's works are amazing without any background knowledge. No 'intellectualism' is required, just a love of stories. With a few tweaks they could be set in a modern era and turned into Netflex series. War and Peace is considered a chal…

>With a few tweaks they could be set in a modern era and turned into Netflex series.

And Anna Karenina was in production too...

Re: Don’t Blame Dostoyevsky

#142

A good read for folks riding on the anti-all-things-Russia bandwagon right now or for people with a more nuanced view trying to understand where the Russian stereotypes, tropes and general bigotry originate from: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34237648-creating-russop...

This description just reads like Russian propaganda. Indeed, from the author's Wikipedia page:

"Mettan's journalistic credibility has been questioned on several occasions. In 2017, Reporters Without Borders criticised Mettan for his pro-Russian militancy and for serving as a mouthpiece for Russian propaganda. Florian Irminger, Secretary General of the Swiss Green Party, also called Mettan an apologist for Putin's government. Following Mettan's support for the Ukraine bioweapons conspiracy theory in a Die Weltwoche essay in 2022, Swiss magazine Republik referred to the article as a 'breathtaking compendium' of Russian propaganda."

From what I've seen, hand-wringing over "russophobia" is just another armament in Russia's information war.

Re: Don’t Blame Dostoyevsky

#144
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That book might have been relevent in 2005 but throw it out the window now. All anti-Russian sentiment in the world is due to the fact Russia is literally engaging in genocide against Ukrainians, right now.

Genocide is something entirely different. Watch out using that word. This a war about ground and resources, not an ethnic war.

No post body was provided.

Re: Don’t Blame Dostoyevsky

#146

A good read for folks riding on the anti-all-things-Russia bandwagon right now or for people with a more nuanced view trying to understand where the Russian stereotypes, tropes and general bigotry originate from: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34237648-creating-russop...

[deleted]

Re: Don’t Blame Dostoyevsky

#147
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That book might have been relevent in 2005 but throw it out the window now. All anti-Russian sentiment in the world is due to the fact Russia is literally engaging in genocide against Ukrainians, right now.

Are you suggesting that bigotry is now okay towards all Russians?

Hostility against Russians as a group, and Russia as a nation-state, when this group is collectively aggressive? If you call that bigotry, then yes, definitely. As a nation, you cannot have self-determination and a free pass when you fuck up. You own your mistakes, just like all of Germany at the time own nazism even though not all of them were nazis.

Against specific Russian people, that would be counter-productive and unfair. A lot of them individually disapprove of their government and act in smaller or larger ways against it. I know personally a couple of them, and Inadmire them because they are doing their best in a terrible situation. Collectively, they still put Putin in power and let him come to that point.

It’s exactly the same thing in the US: a lot of Americans are great, but there is no escaping the fact that enough of them think that Trump was a good idea (and I have no doubt we will see worse in the near future).

Re: Don’t Blame Dostoyevsky

#148
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There have been at least three invasions and occupations that are significantly worse crimes: the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Saudi-led invasion of Yemen. All three have led to the total destruction and failure of the invaded state Your opinion is very one-sided and misses many details: - Iraq is currently relatively peaceful democracy after decades of tirany and wars (Iran-Iraq war caused 1M deat…

Quoted post unavailable.

No post body was provided.

Re: Don’t Blame Dostoyevsky

#149
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That book might have been relevent in 2005 but throw it out the window now. All anti-Russian sentiment in the world is due to the fact Russia is literally engaging in genocide against Ukrainians, right now.

Are you suggesting that bigotry is now okay towards all Russians?

Why don't you read what I wrote instead of making up your own meaning?

Your link was about anti-Russian sentiment being tied to western propaganda when in reality, they're creating that sentiment through their own actions.

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