"The people are primitives, drunks, and wastrels; don't belive it? Check the Russian immigrant populations in Brooklyn."
Then why would you talk to me--the American of Russian background and hence primitive in your logic -:))) ? If you dig a bit deeper, Russian Population of America (Russian Jews or Ethnic Russians) which is contrary to popular opinion is not confined to Brooklyn but spread across the US. You can find Russians in the offices of large companies, etc, working in such "primitive" jobs as programmers/system analysts, accountants, engineers, highly skilled workers, etc. I work for a large company called Hewitt Associates, and I know a bunch of Russians working there. I also saw them in a number of other companies. Of course if you go to the places where Russians go to drink you'll find plenty of drunken Russians many of whom the after getting sober will go to work on "primitive" jobs -:)))
Well--go for example to the Chicago where White Sox parties are under way in sports bars or at streets, and you can find a plenty of ordinary Americans of completely non-Russian background getting boozed. Everybody wants to be a little primitive once in a while--our primeval ancestors kicking in -:)))) Irish are not exactly examples of sobriety especially on St. Patrick Day--or are they -:))))
There is a veneer of civilized Westernized Russians in Russia, and in the United States. It is a very thin veneer.