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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   7745 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 30, 2026

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I really wonder how many Poles still have anxiety over Russia. The very few of them that I’ve met seem to like Russia. Historically Russia and Iran never liked each other either. In 2026, they’re fairly close allies.

Flatly stating you like Russia would produce a mildly negative reaction in almost any company, but using a slur for Russians, describing them in strong negative terms, would not. Russian are 4 years into a horribly destructive, clearly pointless war, so reactions are biased, and anxiety about Russia as an aggressor is the default for near everyone.

Historically Russia and Iran never liked each other either

Not exactly comparable, Iran is on the periphery of Russia, Poland is in the way. But the divide is fixable, mistrust is permanent but hatred not, a change in Russian leadership, a decade, push to focus on similarities. And in certain configurations, inflexibly standing in the way of Eurasian integration will be just dangerous in practical terms, and will force us.

This Pew research report suggests almost everybody in Poland has a negative view of Russia.

79% is definitely not “almost everybody.” I originally would’ve thought it’d be much less than a quarter.

The chart at the top shows 70% very unfavorable and 20% somewhat unfavorable (90% total). The 79% is the average across the countries surveyed.

21% is less than a quarter...?

I think if you were to look at opinion polls, or their justifications for increasing cooperation with NATO, you would see a lot more anxiety towards Russia.

It might not be recognisable as the American/Western European form of anti-Russia sentiment as they also have some friction with Ukraine and they're still friendly with Hungary, but Kaliningrad and Belarus are right beside them.

Obviously I can't speak for the "Polish street," but their government has been unrelentingly hawkish towards Russia for over a decade.

What’s the influence of political Catholicism like there? At least that’s where I’ve heard of support for Russia. The Russian ‘Civilizational State’ paradigm of foreign policy seems to attract a lot of former enemies they had in Europe that persisted since the Soviet times.

Political Catholicism is occasionally instrumentally cooperative with Russia, just like other movements outside the western mainstream(Russia's funding/assistance in western countries is an enormous grab bag including everything from greenies to texas nationalists and everything in between), but it's not ideologically pro-Russia.

Russian nationalism is tied to politicised Orthodoxy, and therefore anti-Catholic.

Turning American politicised evangelicalism from a force which was primarily anti-Catholic to a force which is primarily anti-Left was a multi-decade project.

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