Comment by zero_deg_kevin
5 years ago
The thing that struck me most about this article was the frequent east/west framing. Is that common outside of the US?
5 years ago
The thing that struck me most about this article was the frequent east/west framing. Is that common outside of the US?
Very common in post-Soviet countries. The US is often referred to as the "West" and so is Western Europe. This refers to both the freedom and a certain mentality ("mentalitet" in Russian). Never heard this framing in the US, though.
It was more common in the past. In 2002 the cold war had ended only 11 years prior. Now we are 30 years out.
Same as how back then you could say “in the war” and people knew you meant WWII, but nowaways youth may give you a confused look.
But yes at least in Canada we used to use the east/west framing, and in respect of russia. In 2002 they were the more prominent power compared to China. That situation has heavily reversed.
I know a professor who taught at a community college in Brooklyn. He had a section on 9/11 and would warn his students if they had a personal connection to the events that they may want to skip those classes. Some students who were native life long New Yorkers didn't even know what 9/11 was.
The only way I can fathom this being the case in Brooklyn is a combination of kids living under a rock and a total failure of the local public education system.
Yes. Once while touring a space museum in Switzerland I was reading the placards about the Russian and US space programs. Yuri Gagarin was consistently referred to as "the communist" which seemed perfectly normal to me as an American. Then I saw one that referred to John Glenn as "the capitalist" which was a novel concept to my brain. It wasn't until that moment that I realized just how ridiculous it was for us to refer to random Russians as communists, these were both seasoned military men who had nothing to do with either ideology other than the fact that their governments were pushing these things.
Also, the "winning side" is allowed the freedom to move forwards and forget the past quicker. As a Yankee we don't think much about the US civil war. The deeper a northerner goes into the south the more you are reminded that their side did not win the civil war, they remember that shit, and you better be careful what you say about it less you get run out of town.
[edit spelling; I had double checked myself but still fucked it up]
Relatedly, Garagin might've been picked to be the first human in space due to his winning smile.
> Yuri Gregorian
Yuri Gagarin
Radio Yerevan isn't going to correct this one, comrade.
With regard to people of a third country seeing one astronaut as the capitalist and the other as the communist, that goes way back. Consider these lines from Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot le Fou (shot in summer 1965). As a man and woman look up at the moon, the man says about the Man in the Moon:
"He's fed up. He was glad to see Leonov land. Someone to talk to after an eternity alone! But Leonov tried to stuff his head full of Lenin. So when the American landed, the guy fled to his camp. But the American right away crammed a Coke down his throat, after making him say thank you first."
They're both ridiculous terms.
The USA was and is a warmongering socialist state. Capitalism certainly doesn't prescribe huge spendings and nationalisation.
Russia was and is a warmongering socialist state. The redeeming factor, and likely what makes "the communist" sounds reasonable, is that the Soviets defined themselves communist