What stereotype about Russia do you now consider the most bizarre?
Deborski27 January, 2012, 21:18
I think the most ignorant and embarassing stereotype of Russians, which persists in America, is the idea that Russians are "commies." Seriously! I lived in Russia in 1991 and I saw the Soviet Union crumble right in front of my eyes. I saw the end of communism (though it really was not communism as Marx would have had it). But when I returned from Russia, my American friends called me a "commie." Even today, if I mention that I speak Russian, I am called a "commie" and not always jokingly.
Why do some Americans seem unable to let go of the Cold War? Well, my personal opinion is that Americans were more comfortable having Russians as enemies, than terrorists from middle eastern countries. Maybe America and Russia is really just a love story, only with lots of fighting and unrequited love? Anyway, it is very troubling to me to see such stereotypes persist 20 years after the end of the Cold War...
I've been called a commie before on a few occasions, despite not ever having set foot in Russia, or any other communist country. Nor do I look, act, or speak like a stereotypical communist. Nor do I speak Russian.
Calling someone a "Commie" in America, is, I feel, the Godwin's Law of politics. (Calling someone over the Internet a "Nazi" in a desperate attempt to salvage a ruined arguement.)
Most of my countrymen cannot even describe what exactly DEFINES communism. It has been reduced to a allegedly insulting buzzword that can be spit venomously over a shoulder while walking away. At least that's what I get when I ask them if they even know what communism is, or where it even originated from.
I say laugh it off and write them off as a tool whose brains have been replaced with sawdust and lies.
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