. But it would certainly be nice to know if Russia is the “big bad” that western society makes it out to be or if that hopla is all smoke and mirrors to keep US society in check.
The best look I have found for life in Russia is youtube videos by vloggers who predate 2022.
There is SOOO much propaganda, likely in both directions, and it is on videos by vloggers who are latecomers. There are several Russian vloggers who have been doing so for many years.
Here are a few:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj5GXZaE7qs
The young lady who runs this channel does a great job. People watch these and say “I would never ever want to live in a place that cold. It’s horrible!” Then she interviews people on the street with their sophisticated electronics and buses and those people say . . . “Oh! I love to vacation in Sochi! But I would not want to live there. I like it here.”
Travelling with Russell. Predates 2022. Australian
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT9wUfhkhe4
Tool expo, 4 days ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86mt0guB0Y0
Russian Hockey game well outside Moscow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqHTpTJCDEQ
1000 miles from Moscow, food
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT9wUfhkhe4
Vitamin B-12 is complex. And the botulin toxin is likewise complex.
But one is clearly healthful (in the proper concentrations), while the other is clearly lethal (in even minute quantities).
It is not "small-minded" to believe that, for all her imperfections, America is far closer to being that "shining city on the hill" than a nation like Russia, which within living memory was a hell-hole (during the Communist era), with gulags imprisoning millions, and now, is again under Putin.
Regards,