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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 12, 2023

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Based on my experience of Ukrainian women, a lot of conservative motteizeans might find those women TOO unwoke.

So DR guys(of whom we have more than our fair share) should get over their Russia fandom.

There's no real difference between the stance on culture war topics of Russians and Ukrainians (and Poles). Ukraine has a much lower power distance, but on all the topics this thread cares about we are within the confidence interval of the prevailing media winds blowing in opposing directions. The existence of openly LGBT service members in the Ukrainian army, for example, doesn't prevent the rest of the army from calling the Russians fighting against them "faggots".

At least if that fandom is based on Russia being somehow unique in Eastern Europe, except in terms of inferiority complex (reconciling itself to no longer being a superpower, a bit like the UK and France post WWII) and pessimism (AFAIK it's bad form in Russia to be positive when asked "How are you?" or "How was your day?", which can be tedious in a relationship).

AFAIK it's bad form in Russia to be positive when asked "How are you?" or "How was your day?"

No it's not. It's just that positive response rate is closer to 50% than to 100%

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This isn't an adult forum (or a mature one - we're thoroughly immature, much of the time) but basically just dating Ukrainian women in various parts of Europe, where I work. Unlike other Eastern European women I've known, who were thoroughly Twitterized culturally, the Russian, Romanian, and Ukrainian women I have known (intimately or casually, with a sadly small sample of the former) have been anti-abortion, trad or moderately trad about gender roles, racially insensitive (including towards other Eastern Europeans, e.g. gypsies and Albanians) and softly anti-Semitic. Often Christian in a vague, spiritual way, e.g. sexually liberated and suspicious of clergy, and just as into Asian mumbo-jumbo as Christian mumbo-jumbo.

Personally I liked them because they were forthright, insensitive, and really, really liked debating, which are the top personality traits in a woman for me. I happily date both conservative and progressive women with such personalities, as long as they don't mind me speaking my mind and they don't hide their own opinions. And, while Eastern European women often drink too much, they are also very often good at not eating too much, and I like tall/slim women.

And, while Eastern European women often drink too much, they are also very often good at not eating too much, and I like tall/slim women

If we are going full on with stereotypes, they also often tend to age very very badly. I guess it is a combination of dry skin, too much cosmetics, alcohol and unhealthy diets.

True. The melancholy attitude probably doesn't help either. We may not have effective anti-ageing medicine yet, but stress and depression is a great method if you want to age rapidly.

Also most Russian women I know seem to be in rather shitty relationships. Maybe it is just my small sample size. I don't know what is up with this.

No, this is also the consensus in my experience and that of everyone I know. The only Slavic women I know in happy relationships are dating/married to Germans or Brits. However, I also know a lot of toxic behaviours among Slavic women, e.g. looking for drama or cheating. I also suspect there's a sample effect: the Slavic women I know (and probably you know) are emigrants/students, who are often unusually high in anxiety and attachment issues.

racially insensitive (including towards other Eastern Europeans, e.g. gypsies and Albanians)

That's nothing. In Europe, everyone hates gypsies (and pikeys, if they are British or Irish and educated enough to know the difference). Our so-called-liberal-elite just know to shut up about it in public. /r/historymemes is down, but there are some epic memes on this point.

True, but I think that blue tribe Americans (most people on here) would be surprised by that.

Is it really fair to say that most people on here are blue tribe Americans? That's not my read.

(actually, if we do a survey at some point, we should totally have it include what tribe people most identify with)

Let's check the original definition:

The Blue Tribe is most classically typified by liberal political beliefs, vague agnosticism, supporting gay rights, thinking guns are barbaric, eating arugula, drinking fancy bottled water, driving Priuses, reading lots of books, being highly educated, mocking American football, feeling vaguely like they should like soccer but never really being able to get into it, getting conspicuously upset about sexists and bigots, marrying later, constantly pointing out how much more civilized European countries are than America, and listening to “everything except country”.

Perhaps not quite, though I imagine that a lot of people on here tick a high proportion of those boxes, with a few being rare e.g. liberal political beliefs about immigration, conspicuously being upset about sexists or bigots, or driving Priuses. The same would be true of the Grey Tribe definition:

There is a partly-formed attempt to spin off a Grey Tribe typified by libertarian political beliefs, Dawkins-style atheism, vague annoyance that the question of gay rights even comes up, eating paleo, drinking Soylent, calling in rides on Uber, reading lots of blogs, calling American football “sportsball”, getting conspicuously upset about the War on Drugs and the NSA, and listening to filk

Many of these fit, but I think that libertarians are overrepresented on here but not a majority, and Dawkins-style atheism is present but quite rare.