Comments by "Andrew Wilson" (@andrewwilson9183) on "Why Ukrainians Hate Russia (from the Russian Perspective)" video.
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 @daniellarson3068Â
Well you have to understand the role of historical circumstances and geography. Culture plays a role as well, with Russia not being apart of western civilization.
Which explains part of it. You see, what we call liberal democracy had its modern origins primarily in Britain, whereby the mid 18th century Great Britain was the most free and democratic developed (for the time) nation. Britain was developed due in large part to being in middle of the European world, contact that allowed for the scientific revolution to largely start in England for example. You see Britain being an island nation means that it is largely protected from foreign invasion, such security means that country can afford a degree of diversity and descent or freedom as it doesn’t threaten that nations security. This also means that a large standing army that could be used to oppress the people isn’t warranted. Combine this geography and historic wealth with a Germanic culture that believe in making kings accountable to the people, and a Greek Philosophical tradition, you get liberalism as an ideology largely being developed by Englishmen, alongside culturally and geographically similar Dutchmen and Scots, as well as Frenchmen such as Voltaire. With the United States, what happened is that British people established a country in which geographic security allowed us to keep our British mindsets and now today we Americans think in terms of liberalism.
Russia doesn’t have that experience, in which they have suffered immense abuse from outsiders starting with the mongols, after which they started to abuse themselves, much like how an abused child repeats the behavior that was inflicted on them. And due to their lack of security, which is worse than any European nation, freedom hasn’t usually been affordable to them, and now they have a national pathology of paranoia and a lack of empathy.
I’m brutally simplifying, but that’s the gist of it.
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