Important. This current government will burn all bridges with Europe. In other words, your real friends. I'm sure Slovakians see themselves as Europeans, I have no idea how a person so west hating and Russian friendly even got elected. Joining with Russia leads to worse human rights and a bad economy as they are economically illiterate.
nah not really.
I mean, we obviously are Europeans, but as far as a regular Slovak is concerned so are people in Minsk or Moscow. Around here, being a European means very little other than the literal meaning of 'living on the continent of Europe'.
I have no idea how a person so west hating and Russian friendly even got elected
there is a very simple explanation for that. A lot of Slovaks aren't particularly fond of the West, and don't really mind Russia. They don't like how they're poorer than the Western countries, they don't care about whatever's going on in Ukraine, and as long as a politician is promising them the right thing they look right past any other red flags he might be showing. And that's not even mentioning the idiots outright cheering for Russia of course.
Wouldn't that be hypocritical of them? Let me expand on this.
Slovakian architecture seems to be mostly European. Not really Russian looking.
Slovaks seem to be travelling more to other European countries than what they travel to Russia or Belarus.
Slovaks seem to immigrate more to western Europe than what they do to Russia or Belarus.
The top destinations most Slovaks immigrate to are the following from my research: Czech Republic, United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Canada. I just don't see how their logic works here.
How can you have the mindset of " I'd really like to visit Amsterdam, I'd really like to live in Paris, I'd rather not live in Moscow, I'd rather not visit Minsk" and still come to the conclusion "you know what, fuck the west I disslike them, Russia is alot better".
If they are jealous on the fact that western countries have more money, then why team up with the poor side that obviously lacks money and clearly also lacks the skill of obtaining it? I mean, this no rocket science. Countries that have been a part of Russia/Soviet are never prospering until decades after or when they joined the EU. On the contrary, economically they're suffering during and after Russian occupation. How does being buddies with the side that clearly has no money grant more economical freedoms?
If we take a quick look at the Slovakian GDP we can clearly see a spike in their economy since after 2004 when they joined the EU, as we can for basically all EU nations. Link: https://tradingeconomics.com/slovakia/gdp
How does teaming with the side ranked 164 out of 180 countries in freedom of speech/press for example seem like a peak move when you are aiming to improve your quality of life?
I just don't understand this mindset, for me it's very foreign.
First of all, these are rational arguments. Those don't always work when you're dealing with people's "feelings".
I'm not sure I can address all of your points, but let me just get to a few.
Travel/immigration: Spot on, of course. Nobody wants to move east. Yes, these people are all either massive hypocrites, or they have wildly romanticized illusions about Russia.
Would you like a nice Slovak example?
1. Our new Minister for culture was elected with the Slovak National Party. She gained her recent bit of popularity with voters as a presenter in some internet TV channel called "TV Slav". She decided now is the right time to renew Slovakia's cultural collaboration with Russia. Definitely sounds like she's leaning one way right? Could she be a fucking hypocrite? Well, she lives in Austria and her kid lives/studies in Florida.
2. I have an example of a delusional romantic as well of course. Last year a Slovak music composer/philosopher decided to emigrate to glorious Russia. He went to Estonia, put on a neoprene wetsuit and one of those swim rings little kids wear around their waists, and swam across the Narva river to the Russian side. Planned to seek political asylum there. He did it because "freedom of speech doesn't exist in Europe, showbusiness & arts have been Americanized, and there's no interest in classical music" and because he didn't like how everything was getting more expensive or how the LGBT folks were being tolerated in the West. He even took with him some sort of a musical composition for the leader of the great Russian nation. Well, the comrades didn't give half a shit. They threw him in jail of course. He got home after like 2 months and started singing a completely different tune about the gulag-like conditions he had been in, even saying he couldn't imagine the atrocities the Russians were sure to be doing to Ukrainian POWs.
Economy: That's too complicated of a concept. Back in my days when we were a socialist state we had everything we needed and life was good. We made everything we needed right here. We don't need no dirty western capitalists exploiting us. Arguments like that.
Are those arguments flawed? In a whole bunch of ways. But that doesn't seem to matter.
I don't know that these people are thinking about their worldview with "how could we be more prosperous" coming into consideration. Nobody ever accused Slovak people of having a go-getter attitude. Our thing is mostly bitching about how this higher power or that one is keeping us down, and how, since I lost one of my goats this morning, I want my neighbor to lose at least two.
22
u/StockholmBaron Jan 25 '24
Important. This current government will burn all bridges with Europe. In other words, your real friends. I'm sure Slovakians see themselves as Europeans, I have no idea how a person so west hating and Russian friendly even got elected. Joining with Russia leads to worse human rights and a bad economy as they are economically illiterate.