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Vladimir Putin is encouraging Western conservatives to move to Russia to escape oppressive liberal values. He’s gone so far as to exempt them from immigration quotas and waive language tests that were previously required. The real question is how many people will take him up on that offer.
Notwithstanding enthusiasm from people like Alex Jones, I suspect the answer will be “not many”. Conservatives moving to Russia is like progressives moving to Canada. It’s something that a lot of them fantasize about, especially when an election doesn’t go their way, but few follow through on.
Here’s one who actually did it.
His name is Joseph Gleason. By his account, he was born in America, raised as a Protestant and became a pastor, then converted to the Eastern Orthodox church. In 2017, he moved to Russia with his wife and eight (!) children.
In an interview he republished on his Substack site, he explains why he took this drastic step:
In 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States of America upheld the “right” of all states to recognize same-sex “marriages”. Of course, the acceptance of homosexual behavior is the primary reason why Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by God. I believe that the foundation of any society and any nation is based on what people think about God, what they believe in, and how they feel about the institution of family. If these fundamental values — faith in God and family — are destroyed, then the whole country will come to destruction. I think that either America will repent of this monstrous sin, this idea of same-sex marriage, which destroys the family, or this country will be destroyed.
He sounds pretty confident about that. So here’s my question: what’s taking so long?
Same-sex marriage has been legal in the U.S. for almost ten years, and LGBT people have benefited from societal acceptance for longer than that. Massachusetts has had marriage equality since 2004, over twenty years now. Vermont has had same-sex civil unions since 2000, almost a quarter-century.
Where’s the brimstone? Why hasn’t God destroyed all these places yet, if he hates gays so much? Is he procrastinating? Is he asleep at the switch?
Here’s his list of reasons to move to Russia. There’s some normal-sounding stuff about how taxes are low, land is abundant and cheap, Russian culture is great… and then, in the middle of it, you come across this:
The GloboHomo LGBT Rainbow Mafia is not allowed to force their views down your throat here. Homosexual “marriages” are not permitted in Russia, nor are there any civil unions. LGBT propaganda for minors is illegal. And they are now working on putting a new law on the books, which will make LGBT propaganda illegal nationwide, regardless of age.
In a perverse way, you have to respect the bluntness of his bigotry. There’s no tiptoeing around the subject, no “hate the sin, love the sinner” evasions. He just says it flat out: LGBTQ people shouldn’t exist, they should have no rights, and it should be illegal for them to speak out, punishable by gulag or deportation. The law should favor his views and crush any opposing views.
Just in case you thought this profound homophobia was the only personality flaw in someone who’s otherwise a lovely person, here’s another of Gleason’s reasons to move to Russia:
You won’t get called a “racist” every five seconds. No riots. No “Black Lives Matter” marches. Lots of white people live here, and we aren’t aware of any particular reason we should be ashamed of it.
Obviously, Russia doesn’t have the same history of plantation slavery and Jim Crow segregation that America does. That doesn’t mean it’s free of racism.
On the contrary, racist attitudes are widely reported to be omnipresent. There’s widespread racism by ethnic Russians against migrants from Central Asian countries, as well as against foreign students from African countries. Immigrants in Russia report discrimination like “Slavs only” signs on apartment buildings. Russia has committed mass deportation so brutal, it’s been called a form of ethnic cleansing.
It’s safe to assume that Gleason hasn’t experienced this kind of treatment himself. Therefore, in his eyes, it doesn’t exist. Judging by his attitude toward Black Lives Matter – where his disdain is clearly for the marchers, and not for the racism they’re protesting – he doesn’t care what racism exists in his society, just as long as he doesn’t have to hear about it.
Here’s yet another of Gleason’s reasons to move:
There are gazillions of Orthodox churches and vibrant Orthodox Christian communities here. For example, in Rostov Veliky there are five monasteries, numerous churches, and zero mosques.
He doesn’t state the reason for this. Do mosques just happen to not exist near where he lives, or are they not allowed there? Is he concerned for religious freedom at all?
Last but not least, there’s this reason that should provoke bitter laughter at his shameless hypocrisy:
The American military industrial complex has no power here. No need to worry about the United States arriving on the doorstep to overthrow another national government.
Gleason felt no compunction about republishing this interview while Russia was waging an unprovoked war against its historically Orthodox Christian neighbor, Ukraine. The Russian invasion has included torture and mass slaughter of civilians, kidnapping of children, leveling cities with artillery barrages, and indiscriminate bombing of churches and cathedrals along with other civilian targets. It’s a level of brutality and callous destruction that American colonialism never reached, even at its harshest.
Most notable about his list is what’s not there. He admits that Russian bureaucracy can be slow and unpleasant to deal with, and that the Russian language is difficult to learn – but that’s it. He says nothing whatsoever about Russia’s lack of freedom, its oligarchical government, its corrupt and arbitrary law enforcement, or Putin’s habit of imprisoning protesters and murdering dissidents. It’s not listed, even euphemistically, in reasons not to move.
In summary, what kind of person moves to Russia? The answer is: a violently homophobic, white supremacist, Christian dominionist who decries American imperialism but cheerfully turns a blind eye to even more brutal and violent Russian imperialism. He doesn’t want to live in a free country where people have rights. He wants to live in a dictatorship, just one where he’s on the same side as the dictator. In Russia, that’s what he’s found.
Very few.
The right wingnuts rarely walk their talk.
We would hope it would be more but it won’t be. That Gleason guy moving to Russia is a win-win situation. We get rid of a mindless hater and Russia gets stuck with one of our worst citizens.
The only other guy who moved to Russia that I can remember off hand is former actor Steven Siegal. Another horrible person that we were lucky to get rid of.
The opposite situation is far more common. People have been fleeing Russia by the millions over the last few decades.
In the last 2 years, 900,000 Russians have moved from Russia.
Since the fall of the USSR, the number of Russians who have left Russia is in the millions, somewhere around 5 to 10 million.
Google claims that 2.9 million foreign born Russians live in the USA.
How long until Gleason is drafted by mother Russia for military service in their special operation in Ukraine? Will he launch missiles at civilians, or do a frontal assault against the Azov battalion?
I was going to say he’s probably exempt from the draft, because his propaganda value as an English-speaking Westerner praising Russia exceeds his value as a meat-wave infantryman… but it really depends on how long this war drags on and how bad Putin’s manpower problems get.
I seriously doubt ANY American defectors will be drafted: most of them are likely to be above draft age, not physically trainable, and probably not mentally trainable either. Only the most desperate general would trust that batch of draftees, and they’d probably look to their own country’s teenagers first.
Now if any of them stay and raise kids there, those kids would be fair game.
Huh, I expected this to be about the Feenstras, a Canadian couple who sold their farm and moved to Russia with *their* 8 children (I guess they left one behind, dunno why), for the same homophobic reasons. Seriously, except for their occupations, they spout the same anti-gay, racist bullshit. It hasn’t worked out so well for them, though. Haven’t heard whether they got kicked out after all or not.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/canadian-idiots-who-fled-to-russia
With respect to the absence of mosques in Rostov Veliky …
Rostov Veliky (not to be confused with Rostov-na-Donu) is a town with a population of around 30,000, lying to the north east of Moscow. I imagine that you can find similar sized towns in several American states that also lack mosques. (The next town north of me, here in the UK, has a similar population, and apparently no mosques.)
According to WikiPedia 6.5% of Russians are Muslim, compared to 0.9% of Americans. Even Yaroslavl Oblast (were Rostov Veliky is situated) is 1% Muslim.
I was curious about that, because Gleason’s description made it sound like there were no mosques *allowed* where he lives… but on the other hand, Islam isn’t banned in Russia and many of its Central Asian populations are Muslim.
If (when) Trump loses the election and is facing a jail sentence, I suspect he may seriously consider the offer.
I’m with @4, Ridana. I was sure at first that you were talking about the Canadian family who moved to Russia and immediately regretted it because they couldn’t be bothered to learn a word of Russian before they left, or even to look into how the bureaucracy and even the banks worked. Conservatives and religious fruitcakes are always so sure that there’s some utopia out there where they’ll be free to let their freak flags fly and they’re always so bitterly disappointed when real life doesn’t align with their fantasies.
Apparently during the Jim Crow era, Black Americans went to Paris (France) and Moscow (Russia) in search of better lives. So that’s one group that went voluntarily. Most of the ones who went to Russia returned to the USA for obvious reasons.
Ridana @ # 4: … the Feenstras, a Canadian couple who sold their farm and moved to Russia …
And so far, it seems, they’ve been so discreet that none of them have been deFeenestrated (yet).
Ba-dum tisch!
Some Native Americans might have a quibble with that statement …
” I believe that the foundation of any society and any nation is based on what people think about God…”
So what does he think about Japan?
Ridana@4 the eldest Feenstra kid is an adult, so it’s a reasonable guess he didn’t go to Russia because he thought it was a dumb idea.
Apparently Gleason has somehow never heard of Chechnya or Dagestan, 2 Russia republics whose residents are predominantly Muslim. Chechnya’s Muslim strongman Ramzan Kadyrov is a good buddy of Putin’s. A number of current mixed martial arts fighters are from Dagestan.
I wonder what he thinks of Buddhists given the Russian Republic of Kalmykia, where the largest religious group is Buddhists.
At least Gleason was smart enough to become a Russian Orthodox convert. Russian law is not favourable to American Christian sects like Evangelicals.
It’s hardly worth mentioning, but what Gleason wrote, “Of course, the acceptance of homosexual behavior is the primary reason why Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by God”, is bollocks. I know the Fundagelicals think that, but that just goes to show that he doesn’t even know the Bible as well as atheists! And he was a pastor?
Or so said the prophet Ezekiel, but what did he know?