I’m waiting for Russia to incorporate the new regions, contrary to popular belief I believe the referendums weren’t kremlin’s idea. That regrouping really spooked people. Russian army pussyfooting around didn’t help either. Hopefully kremlin won’t be too busy crying about the pipeline for the next few months. One thing that Russians won’t like but if it wasn’t for the dagies and chechens there would be annual pride parades in Moscow. Russia is always on thin ice with their leadership and they only care about their traditional honor.
The point being is the rot is deep and the only reason I care is because I know what a real Russian is and thankfully a lot of them are still alive or their kids took the mantle. This conflict was theirs and mine call to action. This is the chance for the patriots to really gain a foothold in their society and do the job themselves.
Sad, but this is a true reflection of the situation in Russia today. Border crossing lines to countries like Georgia, Kazakhstan, Finland and other bordering nations stretching for miles, cars filled with young men trying to escape mobilization draft is another sign of the malaise of Russian society. If the only reason of SMO was to shake up Russian elites and society as a whole - this along would make it worth while for Russia. Yes, this creates the situation close to what was happening in Russian Empire back in 1916 - 1917 and creates a risks of system collapse. But, as they say in sports - no pain, no gain!
"situation in Russia today" - Quite true - but not only today but rather the continuation of a long historical practice in which elite Russians loath other Russians and probably Russia itself (how many of them just couldn't wait until they could get to Italy again?!) Not sure how far back it can be traced but by the 18C, certainly 19C many aristocratic Russians could not even speak Russian; French was their only language. French was also to a degree the official court language. Their entire strata loathed and feared the Russian peasant strata (who formed what? - 80% + of the population.) Same thing going on here - an elite (at least self-designate as such) strata - i.e academics, globalist oriented elements, loathing those below them; those who tend to view "Russia" as their country.
Things get more interesting by the late 19C when a certain mystique of the Russian peasant as the salvation of Russia began to form among the literary class; but that's another story.
Sep 27, 2022·edited Sep 27, 2022Liked by Rurik Skywalker
I have been aware for some time that many countries have a problem with Western Culture. They see it as decadent and expansionist, exploitative, atheistic and unable to reflect properly on its own shortcomings.
Meanwhile, many inside the culture experience it as supportive of their desire to be "free" and creative. They love the shiny materialism of it, and can become rather addicted. It is a culture - if you can call it that - rife with internal contradictions.
For me to live in this culture without tearing myself to shreds emotionally, I have to make a distinction between the people of the West and the things that have been done in the name of Western Democracy by cynical criminals. And even though I am in a sort of "minority" here, I usually don't get mistreated because (I suppose) I am an elderly white guy.
What has impressed me the most in my studies of history, ideologies and culture is how friendly most people are, while yet being willing to support ideologies that are twisted, violent or exclusionary. Many people in the West have been insulated from their own ideological choices to such an extent that they are blind or otherwise unaware of the consequences of those choices. It is a very frustrating situation.
> Rudeness and intolerance towards the expression of patriotism is unacceptable for the faculty.
I can't imagine any American university declaring free speech for patriotism is important. American education is much further gone than Russia's. That kind of toothless stance might have been taken 10-15 years ago. Now the education administrators want to prosecute White Lives Matter
campus activists.
> is living in Russia easy for a person with patriotic, nationalistic views. Only if you learn to avoid... the schools, the corporate world, the bar scene, the music scene, the normie internet, women, old-timers
Your passion is exemplary in defense of patriotism, but this liberal enemy litany goes too far. Women and boomers are not necessarily liberals. Not by a long shot. They don't need to be shunned as categories of deplorables. Granted, feminists are a problem. Please, don't conflate the two. As to boomers, I can't even think of a valid subset that can be criticized w/ impunity. Of course that could well be my personal bias. However, there are even good old hippies, no? If you're thinking about old-guy owners or administrative controllers, then say that. But do you think young guys in those positions would be any different? Not if they're liberals.
That would be Klaus Schwab -Jewish NWO villain. Klaus Schulze (anglicized would be Schultz) is a creative krautrock/cosmische musician and a German gentile. Just disambiguating.
"I know nothing!" One of my favorite shows growing up. Wouldn't be permitted now. Incompetent Nazis goes against the industrial- scale brutality narrative.
Great post Slavland. it is a pleasure and an honour to hear from a patriot. Liberal politics and Society has become diseased degenerate socialist doctrine.. I hope to God Russia does not lose to this doctrine as we have here in the West. I wish you and all like you prosperity anf goodness. Thisis going to be a terrible war and you Russia must win; Win and change the entire order of things . As the despicable zionist Netenyahu himself said > let the USA blow away in the dusts.< Paul Scott New Zealand
Absolutely not true in MGIMO though. I study there, we have three patriotic teachers for one liberal (in proportion I mean). The Russian point of view on the current situation is taught, and I, as a French student (the only one in my group full of Russians) sometimes can feel a bit of circumspection from my teachers. I don't benefit from any favorable treatment, regarding exams, and sometimes (rarely) I can feel that I am asked more. So what's you're saying is absolutely untrue from my experience (limited to MGIMO, which used to be one of the most liberal universities ten years ago).
Really not, I might even have exagerated when I said that one on three are libs. It's more like one on five, really. Most of my teachers don't hesitate to voice their support to Russia and their hatred to what they consider to be "western hypocrisy", when only a few of them mildly say that they are not satisfied with the current situation, without further explanation.
And among the students, needless to say that most of them are patriots, although, being a foreigner from the despised/adored West, I attract liberals to me. But they are nevertheless in an absolute minority. The faculty of journalism from MGU and HSE as a whole have to be the final bastions of the liberal community in universities, at least in Moscow, having met different students from a lot of different universities (RANEPA, MGU, HSE, Baumann, etc...).
As for the Navalny moment, I wasn't studying but already living in Russia. I would say that the majority of youngsters were in his favor, it's true. But I mostly met with young women at this time so it's not representative of the overall population. But as it seems to be the case in Russia, whenever some news breaks out, at the beginning people tend to have a liberal point of view, then with time come to a more conservative point of view. I saw that with how young people viewed Navalny : at the beginning he was seen as a victim of political persecution, then as a corrupt guy, then as a traitor. Liberal medias have a very short term influence it seems. It is the same with the SVO : at the beginning half of the people were against it (mainly students), then even young women, if not supported it, started to "understand" why it was made.
I don't consider "journalism" to be a legitimate academic subject. It's reading and writing. I mastered that by the 6th grade. Oh, and there's also "who what why where when & how". There...now you're a journalism graduate.
White people on our side of the divide simply don't want to win as badly as the Jews and other globalists. There is no way that the globalists would tolerate universities and k12 being centers of race realism or awareness of the JQ. Our side just doesn't care all that much of the universities teach to hate them and their culture.
China and Iran understand the bigger picture but no white country is like that with the possible exception of Hungary.
That is why as frustrated as I sometimes get with Putin, he is one of the few White heads of state that is on the people's side. Orban may be the closest to a true leader of any white country that gets the big picture
..And this is why you can't go back to uni, I guess.
About your other current goal in life, Rolo, seems a couple days ago Edward Snowden - him too definitely not a friend of secret agencies - was bestowed with Russian citizenship from Putin himself, by presidential decree.
Sure, maybe they did this because he is another warm body useful to be thrown in the trenches. But regardless, that quite sets the bar on the kind of deeds you need to perform in order to get that Russian passport, don't you think.
Putin is economic neoliberal, basically supporting world order where Russia is a natural resource supplier to the "developed" world, lives off natural rent, complies with IMF guidelines and allows massive capital outflow into the pockets of oligarchs. On the political and moral side he is more of a classic liberal the kind we used to have here in the West back in 1970s and before that.
The word liberal means just about anything to anyone. What we do know is that the liberal West is dying and fast. Europe and the USA are both on a must collapse pathway with our Debt based economies . I think you will find in time that Putin is looking for a Commodity backed economy; and that could not be further from the toxic evil economic swamp that we are in
Sep 27, 2022·edited Sep 27, 2022Liked by Rurik Skywalker
The biggest bank, Sberbak, is indeed majority state-owned, but there are also private shareholders. What I meant when I called Putin an economic liberal is that financial capital has flown freely from Russia to Western banks and tax shelters. Russian economist Katasonov compares it with trying to warm your house while keeping its doors and windows open.
The similarities to the West are amazing. So called liberals are undermining what is good and decent everywhere. They are not really liberals, they are totalitarian collectivist.
On the other hand multiple, (economically) competing regions could be beneficial to freedom. This would allow a person to vote with his feet.
Good. It is necesary for people to see what Orwellian gobbledygook the word liberal is. We are , as you say >totalitarian collectivist.< I will use your expression to oue weak minded brothers in New Zealand and Australia. The trouble is that when they are inside this collective they still actually believe that this is democracy ... It's like this >> we know who did not discover water and that is the fish inside it. Russia cannot even dream of dividing authority at this point. NATO is a violent psychopathic monster which has already infested the near East of Europe. and it will eat anything small without nuclear power.
In 2019 my wife and I moved to Missouri for my wife to get an advanced legal degree at the Mizzou. There we met, Sofia, a 23 y.o. lawyer from Moscow, who was originally from Vladivolstok but attended a University in Moscow. She was a sweet girl, and very curious about the U.S., U.S. history, race relations, etc., but it struck us how much her political ideology (and warped perspective on dieting, food, etc.) seemed like that of most every deluded young liberal woman here in the U.S. We expressed that there was a lot we liked about Putin's rhetoric relative to our politicians, said there were some things we liked about Trump and said he was possibly the least bad option currently. She gave us the benefit of the doubt on things American, but seemed pretty incredulous that a seemingly intelligent, liberally educated (UC Berkeley and USC) "interracial" couple from CA could actually believe such things, and believe the whole agenda of liberalism and "western democracy" was just a pernicious bunch of imperial, virtue signaling bullshit. We explained that the reason we believed this is we were more than a decade older than her, and that we both basically had advanced degrees in critical thinking and bullshit detection. She didn't know what to make of that, lol.
Sofia ended up meeting a Kenyan guy, James, when she was out partying, who initially said he was an MD, but whom turned out to be a nurse practitioner whose license to practice was currently suspended for a DUI. As a medical professional who had only lived in the country a decade, James was of course a libtard when we initially met him, but it was funny to see how it made Sofia squirm for him to become more "libertarian" during COVID as the Kenyan gov. went full-on nuts - beating up people and disappearing them supposedly for breaking curfew. Sofia was previously gleeful at James (the Kenyan's) laughable ignorance on geopolitics, but now her liberal, "nuanced," university-derived and media-sustained sense of superiority was under direct assault by common sense. James, who was previously a Hillary Clinton fan, was saying fuck China, liberals aren't liberal, the news is fake, etc. Sofia didn't know what to make of it, especially when I agreed with him and suddenly wanted to hear more of his opinions.
To her credit though, Sofia didn't totally shrink away from the company of us deplorables. She ended up being able to stay in the U.S. after graduating because of "the COVID emergency," (which was a windfall in her eyes, as she'd been trying to figure out legal means to stay, and James had been telling her she just had to stay regardless and ask forgiveness later, "b/c Russians are scarcely treated superior to Africans by U.S. immigration, so she'd never make it back if she went home"). She moved to Atlanta, and if she wants I'm pretty sure she'll now qualify for permanent assylum here if she posts a picture on instagram of her holding a pride flag. My wife last saw her when she visited Atlanta on business, and Sofia happened to be hanging out with James (who's still somehow in the picture) and a young Siberian couple Sofia had met in Atlanta. Suffice to say, it was immediately apparent to my wife these Russians were cut from a much more patriotic and western-skeptical cloth than Sofia, and my wife thought it hilarious how outnumbered and outgunned Sofia and her university dignity were now - hanging out in a libertarded American city in a group comprised of black people and emigrants. Hopefully her trip to America has been enlightening.
I’m waiting for Russia to incorporate the new regions, contrary to popular belief I believe the referendums weren’t kremlin’s idea. That regrouping really spooked people. Russian army pussyfooting around didn’t help either. Hopefully kremlin won’t be too busy crying about the pipeline for the next few months. One thing that Russians won’t like but if it wasn’t for the dagies and chechens there would be annual pride parades in Moscow. Russia is always on thin ice with their leadership and they only care about their traditional honor.
The point being is the rot is deep and the only reason I care is because I know what a real Russian is and thankfully a lot of them are still alive or their kids took the mantle. This conflict was theirs and mine call to action. This is the chance for the patriots to really gain a foothold in their society and do the job themselves.
God-willing, Russia will emerge out of this crisis with hard men at the helm.
Sad, but this is a true reflection of the situation in Russia today. Border crossing lines to countries like Georgia, Kazakhstan, Finland and other bordering nations stretching for miles, cars filled with young men trying to escape mobilization draft is another sign of the malaise of Russian society. If the only reason of SMO was to shake up Russian elites and society as a whole - this along would make it worth while for Russia. Yes, this creates the situation close to what was happening in Russian Empire back in 1916 - 1917 and creates a risks of system collapse. But, as they say in sports - no pain, no gain!
"situation in Russia today" - Quite true - but not only today but rather the continuation of a long historical practice in which elite Russians loath other Russians and probably Russia itself (how many of them just couldn't wait until they could get to Italy again?!) Not sure how far back it can be traced but by the 18C, certainly 19C many aristocratic Russians could not even speak Russian; French was their only language. French was also to a degree the official court language. Their entire strata loathed and feared the Russian peasant strata (who formed what? - 80% + of the population.) Same thing going on here - an elite (at least self-designate as such) strata - i.e academics, globalist oriented elements, loathing those below them; those who tend to view "Russia" as their country.
Things get more interesting by the late 19C when a certain mystique of the Russian peasant as the salvation of Russia began to form among the literary class; but that's another story.
I have been aware for some time that many countries have a problem with Western Culture. They see it as decadent and expansionist, exploitative, atheistic and unable to reflect properly on its own shortcomings.
Meanwhile, many inside the culture experience it as supportive of their desire to be "free" and creative. They love the shiny materialism of it, and can become rather addicted. It is a culture - if you can call it that - rife with internal contradictions.
For me to live in this culture without tearing myself to shreds emotionally, I have to make a distinction between the people of the West and the things that have been done in the name of Western Democracy by cynical criminals. And even though I am in a sort of "minority" here, I usually don't get mistreated because (I suppose) I am an elderly white guy.
What has impressed me the most in my studies of history, ideologies and culture is how friendly most people are, while yet being willing to support ideologies that are twisted, violent or exclusionary. Many people in the West have been insulated from their own ideological choices to such an extent that they are blind or otherwise unaware of the consequences of those choices. It is a very frustrating situation.
I repeat, the crazies are everywhere, even in Russia. Sham liberal cancer needs to be excised at the source. It spreads fatally.
> Rudeness and intolerance towards the expression of patriotism is unacceptable for the faculty.
I can't imagine any American university declaring free speech for patriotism is important. American education is much further gone than Russia's. That kind of toothless stance might have been taken 10-15 years ago. Now the education administrators want to prosecute White Lives Matter
campus activists.
> is living in Russia easy for a person with patriotic, nationalistic views. Only if you learn to avoid... the schools, the corporate world, the bar scene, the music scene, the normie internet, women, old-timers
Your passion is exemplary in defense of patriotism, but this liberal enemy litany goes too far. Women and boomers are not necessarily liberals. Not by a long shot. They don't need to be shunned as categories of deplorables. Granted, feminists are a problem. Please, don't conflate the two. As to boomers, I can't even think of a valid subset that can be criticized w/ impunity. Of course that could well be my personal bias. However, there are even good old hippies, no? If you're thinking about old-guy owners or administrative controllers, then say that. But do you think young guys in those positions would be any different? Not if they're liberals.
Liberal rat scum should be trying to learn from the internet how to hang themselves using a doorknob.
In the 17th century, a Tulip Mania overwhelmed the West. Tulip prices soared (making the Beanie Baby craze and the mask/vax fanatics seem trivial).
Imagine a world where a "hive mind" leads people to have irrational fears and that leads them to violence.
In 2020, the entire Western world suddenly adopted the criminal and drug addict George Floyd as their personal totem and object of worship.
We have seen repetitions of this insanity with the mantra of "Global Warming" and the completely nonsensical 1619 Project.
Klaus Schultz, Tony Fauci, Bill Gates, and Joe Biden are not necessary: the people of the world are preparing for mass suicide.
That would be Klaus Schwab -Jewish NWO villain. Klaus Schulze (anglicized would be Schultz) is a creative krautrock/cosmische musician and a German gentile. Just disambiguating.
(blushing). You caught me Billy. I must have been thinking of HOGAN'S HEROES again.
"I know nothing!" One of my favorite shows growing up. Wouldn't be permitted now. Incompetent Nazis goes against the industrial- scale brutality narrative.
Great post Slavland. it is a pleasure and an honour to hear from a patriot. Liberal politics and Society has become diseased degenerate socialist doctrine.. I hope to God Russia does not lose to this doctrine as we have here in the West. I wish you and all like you prosperity anf goodness. Thisis going to be a terrible war and you Russia must win; Win and change the entire order of things . As the despicable zionist Netenyahu himself said > let the USA blow away in the dusts.< Paul Scott New Zealand
Absolutely not true in MGIMO though. I study there, we have three patriotic teachers for one liberal (in proportion I mean). The Russian point of view on the current situation is taught, and I, as a French student (the only one in my group full of Russians) sometimes can feel a bit of circumspection from my teachers. I don't benefit from any favorable treatment, regarding exams, and sometimes (rarely) I can feel that I am asked more. So what's you're saying is absolutely untrue from my experience (limited to MGIMO, which used to be one of the most liberal universities ten years ago).
I'm glad to hear it.
Feel free to share more about your experiences there.
I hesitate to believe you because even if there has been a purge of liberal professors, I imagine the curriculum is still liberal.
Really not, I might even have exagerated when I said that one on three are libs. It's more like one on five, really. Most of my teachers don't hesitate to voice their support to Russia and their hatred to what they consider to be "western hypocrisy", when only a few of them mildly say that they are not satisfied with the current situation, without further explanation.
And among the students, needless to say that most of them are patriots, although, being a foreigner from the despised/adored West, I attract liberals to me. But they are nevertheless in an absolute minority. The faculty of journalism from MGU and HSE as a whole have to be the final bastions of the liberal community in universities, at least in Moscow, having met different students from a lot of different universities (RANEPA, MGU, HSE, Baumann, etc...).
Maybe the Navalny moment was before your time in Russia.
But who, if not the students, was out in droves in the streets? What universities did they attend?
I doubt they were engineers, true. So not all students, for sure.
But the critiques of MGU are not new. I have also given a case example of what happened to a kid showing support for the SMO to bolster my case.
Anyways, I don't want to discredit your testimony, please continue to share if you feel comfortable.
As for the Navalny moment, I wasn't studying but already living in Russia. I would say that the majority of youngsters were in his favor, it's true. But I mostly met with young women at this time so it's not representative of the overall population. But as it seems to be the case in Russia, whenever some news breaks out, at the beginning people tend to have a liberal point of view, then with time come to a more conservative point of view. I saw that with how young people viewed Navalny : at the beginning he was seen as a victim of political persecution, then as a corrupt guy, then as a traitor. Liberal medias have a very short term influence it seems. It is the same with the SVO : at the beginning half of the people were against it (mainly students), then even young women, if not supported it, started to "understand" why it was made.
I don't consider "journalism" to be a legitimate academic subject. It's reading and writing. I mastered that by the 6th grade. Oh, and there's also "who what why where when & how". There...now you're a journalism graduate.
White people on our side of the divide simply don't want to win as badly as the Jews and other globalists. There is no way that the globalists would tolerate universities and k12 being centers of race realism or awareness of the JQ. Our side just doesn't care all that much of the universities teach to hate them and their culture.
China and Iran understand the bigger picture but no white country is like that with the possible exception of Hungary.
We have no natural vanguard elites.
That is why as frustrated as I sometimes get with Putin, he is one of the few White heads of state that is on the people's side. Orban may be the closest to a true leader of any white country that gets the big picture
..And this is why you can't go back to uni, I guess.
About your other current goal in life, Rolo, seems a couple days ago Edward Snowden - him too definitely not a friend of secret agencies - was bestowed with Russian citizenship from Putin himself, by presidential decree.
Sure, maybe they did this because he is another warm body useful to be thrown in the trenches. But regardless, that quite sets the bar on the kind of deeds you need to perform in order to get that Russian passport, don't you think.
Putin is also a liberal--an economic liberal.
True. But he's no ideologue.
Putin is economic neoliberal, basically supporting world order where Russia is a natural resource supplier to the "developed" world, lives off natural rent, complies with IMF guidelines and allows massive capital outflow into the pockets of oligarchs. On the political and moral side he is more of a classic liberal the kind we used to have here in the West back in 1970s and before that.
The word liberal means just about anything to anyone. What we do know is that the liberal West is dying and fast. Europe and the USA are both on a must collapse pathway with our Debt based economies . I think you will find in time that Putin is looking for a Commodity backed economy; and that could not be further from the toxic evil economic swamp that we are in
But isn't Russian gas and banking nationalized instead of for profit? Basically every economy is more left wing than the US.
The biggest bank, Sberbak, is indeed majority state-owned, but there are also private shareholders. What I meant when I called Putin an economic liberal is that financial capital has flown freely from Russia to Western banks and tax shelters. Russian economist Katasonov compares it with trying to warm your house while keeping its doors and windows open.
The similarities to the West are amazing. So called liberals are undermining what is good and decent everywhere. They are not really liberals, they are totalitarian collectivist.
On the other hand multiple, (economically) competing regions could be beneficial to freedom. This would allow a person to vote with his feet.
Good. It is necesary for people to see what Orwellian gobbledygook the word liberal is. We are , as you say >totalitarian collectivist.< I will use your expression to oue weak minded brothers in New Zealand and Australia. The trouble is that when they are inside this collective they still actually believe that this is democracy ... It's like this >> we know who did not discover water and that is the fish inside it. Russia cannot even dream of dividing authority at this point. NATO is a violent psychopathic monster which has already infested the near East of Europe. and it will eat anything small without nuclear power.
In 2019 my wife and I moved to Missouri for my wife to get an advanced legal degree at the Mizzou. There we met, Sofia, a 23 y.o. lawyer from Moscow, who was originally from Vladivolstok but attended a University in Moscow. She was a sweet girl, and very curious about the U.S., U.S. history, race relations, etc., but it struck us how much her political ideology (and warped perspective on dieting, food, etc.) seemed like that of most every deluded young liberal woman here in the U.S. We expressed that there was a lot we liked about Putin's rhetoric relative to our politicians, said there were some things we liked about Trump and said he was possibly the least bad option currently. She gave us the benefit of the doubt on things American, but seemed pretty incredulous that a seemingly intelligent, liberally educated (UC Berkeley and USC) "interracial" couple from CA could actually believe such things, and believe the whole agenda of liberalism and "western democracy" was just a pernicious bunch of imperial, virtue signaling bullshit. We explained that the reason we believed this is we were more than a decade older than her, and that we both basically had advanced degrees in critical thinking and bullshit detection. She didn't know what to make of that, lol.
Sofia ended up meeting a Kenyan guy, James, when she was out partying, who initially said he was an MD, but whom turned out to be a nurse practitioner whose license to practice was currently suspended for a DUI. As a medical professional who had only lived in the country a decade, James was of course a libtard when we initially met him, but it was funny to see how it made Sofia squirm for him to become more "libertarian" during COVID as the Kenyan gov. went full-on nuts - beating up people and disappearing them supposedly for breaking curfew. Sofia was previously gleeful at James (the Kenyan's) laughable ignorance on geopolitics, but now her liberal, "nuanced," university-derived and media-sustained sense of superiority was under direct assault by common sense. James, who was previously a Hillary Clinton fan, was saying fuck China, liberals aren't liberal, the news is fake, etc. Sofia didn't know what to make of it, especially when I agreed with him and suddenly wanted to hear more of his opinions.
To her credit though, Sofia didn't totally shrink away from the company of us deplorables. She ended up being able to stay in the U.S. after graduating because of "the COVID emergency," (which was a windfall in her eyes, as she'd been trying to figure out legal means to stay, and James had been telling her she just had to stay regardless and ask forgiveness later, "b/c Russians are scarcely treated superior to Africans by U.S. immigration, so she'd never make it back if she went home"). She moved to Atlanta, and if she wants I'm pretty sure she'll now qualify for permanent assylum here if she posts a picture on instagram of her holding a pride flag. My wife last saw her when she visited Atlanta on business, and Sofia happened to be hanging out with James (who's still somehow in the picture) and a young Siberian couple Sofia had met in Atlanta. Suffice to say, it was immediately apparent to my wife these Russians were cut from a much more patriotic and western-skeptical cloth than Sofia, and my wife thought it hilarious how outnumbered and outgunned Sofia and her university dignity were now - hanging out in a libertarded American city in a group comprised of black people and emigrants. Hopefully her trip to America has been enlightening.