Upd: HN, the place where you get downvotes by agreeing to answer some questions. That's why I stopped coming.
In some areas Russia still becomes a better place to live, but if you compare it to Europe proper it still lacks in so many ways and the gap is not closing anytime soon, if not getting wider.
And the only news which come is about new restrictions on public life and political free speech.
As my colleague said to me 5 years back, "all of my canaries are now dead"
Your colleague should not keep his canaries in a mine in Siberia!
Joke aside, thanks for your comment, sorry for the downvotes, and good luck to you
And how has the 'work life' changed in the last 20 years? Basically, since the Internet became a thing. Can you tell a distinct difference?
I was on internet before my first job so ot is hard to say. It's a mixed bag. There are jobs which are bureaucratic hell (especially in large Soviet-survivor companies outside large cities), there are jobs which pay peanuts and productivity is non-existent (government sector), but then there's modern economy with nice offices, passable atmosphere and fine work-life balance. If you're not in IT and not splurging on natural resources wealth somehow, the pay is low.
Another thing is, since this 'freedom' for LGBT is relatively very new, most of them experienced very troubled childhood/puberty. It must have been very hard to fit in, not disappoint parents etc. yet feeling so out of place compared to rest of the crowd. Russia as a nation would benefit greatly from such an openness in long term, but I can't see it happening anytime soon.
Been there once (Elbrus), generally common folks are really nice, but this soviet mindset of fuck-it-all-lets-drink-some-vodka (and other like that) are bane of a modern free Russian society. One of examples how just having a lot of smart people isn't enough if there is enough negative things to counter-balance it. World moved to greener pastures, but Russia still seems like stuck in 1991.
2. Maybe I was like that before 2008 or so. Didn't make a difference either way.
If there was other Russian state, like Taiwan is for China, I think I'd jump ship and go for it. There isn't.
Upd: HN throttles me so have to answer here:
Even before 2014, Ukraine put their bet on propelling Ukrainian language and culture. Which from my perspective put them in the same ballpark as Czechia or Croatia. Surely, most people in Ukraine still speak Russian but their culture is 2nd class citizen.
Belarus is a small and boring dictatorship. They're either going the way of Ukraine or, as rumors go, get annexed by Russia. Back to square one. But otherwise it could be an option.
As for placing interests of Russia above my own: aren't we all do it sometimes in any country? Actually this is a trick question since Russians as a nation way overspent on loyalty to regimes in XX century.
Are Belarus and Ukraine too distinct from Russia to you? I realize that historically, these were part of Ruthenia and then Lithuania (and Poland-Lithuania), but ethnographically, they are still part of the Rus cultural spectrum like Novgorod and Muscovy were and unlike, say, Kazakhstan or Georgia.
Ukraine is a questionable choice since they seem to want to get away from any commonality with Russians as soon as possible, including the language.
You saying otherwise is making me question your motivations.
I moved from Russia in 2012, and would gladly move to Ukraine, if not for that movement away from the Russian language.
1. Russia and Ukraine were the same country until 1991. The culture was exactly the same until that time. Until less than half a decade ago, Ukraine was led by a Russian puppet. Believing the culture is "different" is blatantly ignorant or deceitful, and it's unlikely the poster is the former.
2. Russia is stressing the difference between itself in Ukraine to rouse support for its take over of Crimea.
This is how a nationalist can strongly oppose a nation's current government, when the government is not caring for the nation's prosperity (in the nationalist's eyes).
Most liberation movements across the world were and are openly nationalist.
That may be because you wrote Russian nationalist (a person with strong patriotic feelings), when you possibly meant Russian national (a citizen of a particular country).
I think you might have meant "Russian national" instead of "Russian nationalist". Calling ones self a nationalist around here is highly unpopular because that term is loaded with negative connotations for left leaning upper middle class Americans that mostly make up HN. You say "nationalist" and people think of someone that stands for everything that's the opposite of they do and then they down-vote.
Don't be fooled with Dostoyevsky and Chaikovsky legacy - these times are gone and people who had read more than 1 book of Dostoevsky or can name at least one work of Chaikovsky - they are pretty rare, around 0.01% of population. If you have good education - it's a reason to hate you. If you can't afford good education but read a lot of books - it's a reason to hate you even more. And I'm talking not about hatred from kids - adult, grown up people sincerely HATE anybody who loves ANY kind of culture. Books, dancing, music - anything.
So when internet removed the borders, it was just question of time when "brains" will start "draining".
I haven't actually tried the experiment, so I could be under-estimating what the reaction would be. But, yeah, I agree. People who equate the two countries don't get it.
That said, doombolt quoted a colleague as saying "all of my canaries are now dead". Well, most of mine are still alive, but they don't look too healthy...
Right now it is still fairly safe to be an "American dissident". There are a lot of things wrong with the US, it has its share of inequality, injustice, corruption and human rights violations, and it seems like we're going more one step forward/two steps back at the moment, but progressive change is still something you can fight for.
There is still a chance of winning, and more importantly, it's still safe to lose. Not in the "things can't get worse" sense, but in the "if you come at the king" sense. In the US, you can challenge the reigning kleptocrats, expose their crimes, embarrass them, and then fail to remove them from power, and while it is frustrating and depressing, you can still live a long and happy life.
It's when that last part stops being true[*] that I would start asking myself if it is time to get out.
Arguments for staying: high rate of pay I guess. Also, maybe some people enjoy living this way. I don't!
There’s just a tremendous amount to unpack here.
The United States is a vast, nonhomogenous, capitalistic culture with it’s fair share of issues.
The war in Iraq was a travesty and reconstruction efforts were unmitigated money grabs by a certain subset of well connected contractors.
The war in Afghanistan has gone on for almost two decades and appears unlikely to ever be “won” in any traditional sense of the word.
Despite that, our continuing presence there is actually a rather mature decision to not let millions of Afghani peoples fall back under the oppressive and horrid Taliban rule they were under before.
We have issues with undue corporate influence, and the issue of voting weight disproportionality among our citizens when the Senate, gerrymandering, and Electoral College are taken into account are indeed insane.
However. There is a very clear difference between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans, excluding this horror story of a Presidency, have something like 38 times the number of indictments as compared to Democrats when taken on an equal number of years in power.
Republicans consistently expand the deficit while cutting social programs.
They investigate Benghazi for six years then moan about a two year investigation.
Enough about that distinction, but it goes on. The Republicans are a drastically different party than the Democrats. And no, the Democrats aren’t perfect.
But you know who had plans for fixing infrastructure and the opiod crisis? Democrats. And they still do. Go look at their policy positions. Staggeringly enough there actually well thought out and decent, progressive policy initiatives laid on Sanders’, Warren’s, and Clinton’s websites.
Finally. The young people of America are fantastic. Gay rights have moved forward dramatically in the last two decades. The MeToo movement is helping to stamp out a culture of sexualization and rape throughout our industries.
We produce culture, and planes, and tremendous advancements in science, and research.
And our framework has held up pretty damn well against a clearly authoratative demagogue.
The post WWII period which has been centrally defined by the rise of American Hegemony features plenty of mistakes, but it’s also been the singular most peaceful era of global history and seen the greatest decrease in world poverty.
So please don’t reduce us to “drugged to muh gills” and “endless war”.
FWIIW I was born in the US and lived here almost my entire life; I don't plan on dying here. Good on you for sticking it out: I'll vote with my feet while I still can.
And the Democrats who started those wars.
And the Democrats who give tax cuts to the wealthy.
And the Democrats who get indicted for corruption constantly.
The idea that the Obama administration is as left as we can get is some seriously revisionist history which disregards which party was continually blocking any attempt at progress the other party made.
The Democrats never blocked Supreme court nominees for a year, or stone walled any attempt at legislation put forth by the other party.
No Democratic Senate Majority Leader ever said “our only goal is to make this guy a one term President”. And during the Bush years there were many examples of bipartisan initiatives which went forward.
That all ended after Obama’s second year as President when Republican’s won the House and Senate and decided the only thing they would be for was being against Obama.
You’re placing the blame on both parties for the Obama administration and yet only one party is to blame for the abject lack of forward progress during that administration.
And despite that, under Obama millions and millions of American’s gained healthcare, gays got the right to marry, the United States came out of an absolutely tremendous recession, the US scaled back it’s wars in the Middle East, and the US regained some of the respect it lost under the Bush administration.
And yes, I, and the US as a whole absolutely produce tremendous amounts of culture, technology, science, and research.
No idea where you think Hollywood movies come from, or many of the advances in healthcare, or silicon valley came from.
Many advances in healthcare? Name one! The US population's average lifespan is declining; something that has never happened before. Yay muh "health care" and alleged medical advancements. Hollywood is garbage, and I don't watch it, basically, at all. Your civilization is declining, physically, culturally, even technologically. The last interesting technological thing the US did was search engines, and that happened in the 20th century.
Anyway, you can console yourself with the fact that I'm leaving! And every time I interact with people like you, or your ideological opposite, I'm more determined to GTFO the sinking ship while I still can.
However...where else would you go? A Nordic country? Switzerland? I think you would want some place high on the freedom list that has a good economy and also a strong enough military to not have to worry about getting steamrolled. I don't think there are too many that meet that list.
Switzerland is hard to beat as far as long term stability goes, but one of the reasons it is hard to beat is they don't just let anybody in.
Yea...a little weird as an American citizen, I have trouble comprehending places which basically don't ever let you become a citizen.
That his approval rating holds steady at 42% no matter how awful he gets, and that congress supports him is what is super disturbing.
Back in 2007, it was very certain that the country was bordering on turning North Korea any day. As somebody faring from a more or less privileged background, my parents heard of credible rumour of Kremlin looking up to "quick, clean war," and that was the last straw for them.
I saw tons and tons other far-easterners from Russia in China, Vietnam, Malaysia, South Korea. Some leave for jobs, some move permanently.
Back in nineties, there were mostly engineers leaving for plumpy jobs in Chinese state companies, but in this wave I see far more regular people.