# But Why Is the USA So Unpopular In Russia? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 9, 2016, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-why-is-the-usa-so-unpopular-in-russia/748382 "2016-03-09T06:20:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-why-is-the-usa-so-unpopular-in-russia/748382/61 "2016-03-10T10:47:31Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > If I may take this discussion in a slightly different direction (but please, continue your trains of thought, in addition to this post:)). I forgot to bring up one important point: homosexuals. They typically hate them in Russia, esp. the male ones. In the USA, we even largely support gay marriage, for the first time in history. > > This fact has to make some Russians mad. Am I mistaken? > > 🆒 **Jackmanii** mentioned “Jews” above, but at the moment it’s gay people in Russia (and Georgia and a few other states still close to Russia) who are being deliberately used as a target of general public anger and hatred. It’s another distraction, and the latest in a long history of Russian pogroms. While it reinforces the anti-West agenda, it is not in itself an instigator of that agenda. Sadly, such efforts are actually supported by anti-gay evangelical groups in the US, who will happily talk about how wonderful Putin is purely because they’re aligned on the “hate the gay” axis. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-why-is-the-usa-so-unpopular-in-russia/748382/62 "2016-03-10T15:58:14Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > You are, yeah. US unpopularity in Russia predates the relatively recent US acceptance of gay marriage. Well, 2011/12 wasn’t exactly ancient days and only predates the wide spread and official acceptance of gay marriage. I agree that this isn’t the cause of the US’s unpopularity in Russia though. > [@](#): > > As I’ve said before in this thread, the attitudes of non-Americans to the US - whether those attitudes are positive or negative - is overwhelming driven by (their perceptions of) Americans role in, and actions in, the wider world. 90% of what shapes Russian attitudes to the US is going to be US foreign policy, as it affects Russia and Russian interests. And you could substitute almost any other country for Russia in that statement, and it still holds good. I disagree. I think 90% of what is shaping Russia’s current attitude towards the US is coming from Putin and his minions. What you are saying is the equivalent of saying that the average North Koreans attitude towards the US is actually shaped by our foreign policy and has nothing to do with how they are bombarded daily with accounts of how the US is poised to attack them at any moment or how we deny that their glorious leader shot an 18 on a world class golf course the first time he played. > [@](#): > > Seriously, I welcome US sanity with respect to same-sex marriage. I look forward hopefully to the development of US sanity with respect to firearms. But these are not the things which shape my assessment of the US as a global citizen, or my assessment of whether the US is, on balance, advantageous to or detrimental to me, or to the community of which I am a member. You are projecting your own most likely cosmopolitan and relatively enlightened view and how it’s formed onto everyone, though. YOUR issues with the US are probably pretty well founded and grounded in some sort of reasonably unbiased information you’ve collected from a number of sources and most likely not by being bombarded by constant streams of propaganda coming from state media. Right? ---
**Author:** ![Salvor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Salvor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Salvor)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-why-is-the-usa-so-unpopular-in-russia/748382/63 "2016-03-10T17:34:02Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Nationalism. > > They believe that Russia is destined to be the most powerful country in the world, and America is the one holding them back. It’s pretty simple, really. America has to be their enemies, because otherwise they’d have to take responsibility for their own failings. Simple and pathetic. They don’t seem to grasp how insecure and small it makes them all look. The delusions of grandeur over their former place as a superpower being lost and wanting it to return is causing them to want to blame someone for their state. Russian leaders encourage this as anything that takes attention off their own actions and failures is preferable. Gay hatred, religious orthodox christian pimping, and an internet propaganda machine designed to take down the west all line up as a blame anyone but us campaign for their issues and status. Look at this interview with an rt reporter and Kaku. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCPKlkHMLIs) ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-why-is-the-usa-so-unpopular-in-russia/748382/64 "2016-03-11T02:07:33Z")
> [@XT](#): > > I disagree. I think 90% of what is shaping Russia’s current attitude towards the US is coming from Putin and his minions. What you are saying is the equivalent of saying that the average North Koreans attitude towards the US is actually shaped by our foreign policy and has nothing to do with how they are bombarded daily with accounts of how the US is poised to attack them at any moment or how we deny that their glorious leader shot an 18 on a world class golf course the first time he played. You’re kind of making my point for me, actually. My point, you’ll recall, was that non-Americans’ attitude to the US was overwhelmingly driven by **their perceptions of** the US’s role in the world, the US as a global citizen, the way the actions and attitudes of the US affect them and their community. So when the NK regime wants it’s citizens to hate and fear the US, it doesn’t acheive this through propaganda about domestic conditions in the US, but about the US’s aggressive intent with respect to North Korea, the US’s defamation of the NK leader, etc, etc. Because it knows that that will be much more effective than similarly mendacious propaganda about conditions inside the US. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-why-is-the-usa-so-unpopular-in-russia/748382/65 "2016-03-11T05:17:47Z")
Reading this thread makes no none the wiser as to why Russian dislike the U.S. I have learned that Americans do have an exceptional ability to believe in their own propaganda. “Gay marriage”? “We don’t circumcise our women”.Dear God. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-why-is-the-usa-so-unpopular-in-russia/748382/66 "2016-03-11T12:50:25Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Shhshhhshhh! on talking about the U.S. annexing anything while **Bryan Ekers** is following the thread. > [@XT](#): > > :smack: Hopefully he won’t get word of operation poutine… Well, we _could_ use some more room for our landfills. What else are we gonna do with our waste, shoot it into space? ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2016, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-why-is-the-usa-so-unpopular-in-russia/748382/67 "2016-03-12T00:28:17Z")
> [@XT](#): > > Putin, basically. If I have time I’ll dig up the article and video on this I’ve used before, but if you look at US popularity in Russia, it suddenly collapsed around 2011, going from over 50% approval to in the 30% and then dropping steadily from there. Basically, Putin et al started a concerted anti-US propaganda push. Why? Well, that’s more speculative, but probably because he needs external enemies that the Russian people can identify with, and since they have been primed for half a century or more to see the US as the enemy, it gives Putin an easy scapegoat for all his fuckups. And, of course, there have been real tension points like the Crimea and Syria, as well as NATO allowing in countries that used to be under Russia’s thumb and Russia still feels they have a gods given right to have under their thumb. Putin does not want Russia to democratize. He’s a corrupt oligarch-in-chief who would reside in prison if Russia had a strong judiciary. He doesn’t want civil society and his economic plan relies heavily on resource extraction. Plotting a path to sustainable growth would mean taking on his base of Kremlin linked oligarchs. Not going to happen. So Putin -personally- needs to either hope for high oil prices (bread) or jizz up nationalistic impulses (circuses). He does both. Putin had no interest in olive branches offered by the Obama administration, and we can understand why. He _relies_ on external enemies to prop up his non-democracy, albeit one with greater freedom than the USSR had. All of this sounds harsh, but let’s recall that his elections are fixed and the electronic media is firmly under government control. Putin’s stance is that the US and Russian oligarchies are broadly similar, democratic trappings are phony, and both sides do it. It’s a zero sum game, and Russia isn’t just going to dance to America’s tune. Politics isn’t beanbag. So there’s plenty of ideological cover for underlying personal and oligarchical interests. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2016, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-why-is-the-usa-so-unpopular-in-russia/748382/68 "2016-03-12T12:50:09Z")
> [@Measure\_for\_Measure](#): > > So Putin -personally- needs to either hope for high oil prices (bread) or jizz up nationalistic impulses (circuses). In Putin’s Russia, impulses jizz up YOU! ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2016, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-why-is-the-usa-so-unpopular-in-russia/748382/69 "2016-03-12T13:41:54Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > In Putin’s Russia, impulses jizz up YOU! How do you say “squeal like a pig” in Russian? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/but-why-is-the-usa-so-unpopular-in-russia/748382.md?page=3)