experience the west through hollywood and other western media
You forgot tourism and immigration. I feel a lot of people here underestimate the power of a good image, especially one that could be experienced in person. If you visit Prague or Florence as a tourist, while living in Russia all your life, you’d be forgiven for thinking “they have it better”.
For immigration I mainly mean people who left after USSR collapse (or around the time) and moved to USA. Plus the young specialists (mainly IT guys) who moved westwards in semi-recent years. You listen to their stories and you watch them on social media, then you turn on the TV and see a toad like Kisilev talking about patriotism (while you’re pretty sure he’s got a British passport).
Don’t fall into “people are brainwashed by the media” trap. While the media is heavily responsible, it’s not the sole culprit.
That’s true. I’m from a west Asian country though and I tell people back home that the west is not that great but they think I’m just trying to make them feel better or something and don’t believe me. The power of media is pretty influential as well, at least when it comes to west Asia. Perhaps for Russia it’s different, I don’t have experience with that.
You forgot tourism and immigration. I feel a lot of people here underestimate the power of a good image, especially one that could be experienced in person. If you visit Prague or Florence as a tourist, while living in Russia all your life, you’d be forgiven for thinking “they have it better”.
For immigration I mainly mean people who left after USSR collapse (or around the time) and moved to USA. Plus the young specialists (mainly IT guys) who moved westwards in semi-recent years. You listen to their stories and you watch them on social media, then you turn on the TV and see a toad like Kisilev talking about patriotism (while you’re pretty sure he’s got a British passport).
Don’t fall into “people are brainwashed by the media” trap. While the media is heavily responsible, it’s not the sole culprit.
That’s true. I’m from a west Asian country though and I tell people back home that the west is not that great but they think I’m just trying to make them feel better or something and don’t believe me. The power of media is pretty influential as well, at least when it comes to west Asia. Perhaps for Russia it’s different, I don’t have experience with that.