It is not an unfair assessment to say that the American right wing has recently become rather enamored with Putin’s Russia. This is an admiration not based on geopolitical shared interests but rather on an ideological sense of Russia being an anti-woke bastion.
There is no doubt that the American right wing and the Russian government are unequivocally united in both ideological rot and utter stupidity. They’re two sides of the same rotten ultraconservative coin.
For a red-blooded American who’s a patriotic conservative, modern-day Russia might seem appealing for several reasons. In recent years, Russia has moved away from progressive policies by enacting laws that criminalize being gay, conducting raids on migrant communities in its supposed ghettos and engaging in the irredentist war against Ukraine to reclaim what is considered de-wokified traditional lands. Additionally, Russia’s minimal regard for secularism emphasizes its commitment to traditionalism.
Many of the values shared by Putin’s Russia are nearly identical to those held by modern-day American conservatives — adherence to traditional values, promotion of hawkish foreign policies and a stance against wokeness. These values can be seen through the American lens in the perpetuation of right-wing agitators, multiple incursions into the Middle East and cultish support of attempted dictators.
For starters, let’s examine how traditional values are practiced within the Russian Federation — a concept most vocally celebrated by the American right. Integral to any discussion of tradition is religion, and in Russia this involves the Russian Orthodox Church. Despite claims by the Russian state and its online sycophants about the church’s supposed omnipresence in Russian society, only around 14% of Russians actively attend church. A similar phenomenon can be observed in traditionally religious regions of the United States. This points to the hypocrisy of both Russia and traditionalists in the Americas who advocate for similarly ultra-religious cultures.
Additionally, Russia boasts one of the highest divorce rates in the world, with 7 in 10 marriages ending in divorce. The country also leads Europe in the number of abortions per capita and has a high number of abandoned children, especially in areas heavily influenced by the Church.
It is hypocritical that a society claiming to be built on “Christian values” could be so negligent in protecting its most vulnerable members. Sharing similar hypocrisies are Russia’s American conservative counterparts, who also lead in cases of child abandonment and mistreatment.
The only truly traditional aspect of modern Russian society that survives beyond any scrutiny is the fact that the country boasts the highest levels of domestic violence and contains the harshest anti-LGBTQ laws in all of Europe.
Russia’s foreign influence extends beyond manipulating the American right; it also profoundly impacts its own people. Putin’s continual attempts to present Russia as an ultraconservative traditionalist nation have had devastating consequences not only on civil liberties but also on the lives of Russians.
Further evidence of the hypocrisy inherent in the ultraconservative rhetoric of both Russia and the American right is found in Putin’s aggressive foreign policy. As Russia continues to wage its failing war in Ukraine, capturing only single-digit numbers of square kilometers per campaign season, it becomes even more jarring to take into fact that the war is based on bad history. Putin has sacrificed nearly 75,000 confirmed lives under irredentist and bogus claims of re-establishing a coveted Russian World.
This Russian World that has captivated both the Russian political elite and the American Right is, like everything, traditional and coveted, and laughably marred by its own set of historical misconceptions and false narratives.
It feels almost anticlimactic to say that modern Russia’s entire history of horrific civil liberty infringements and human rights violations is all predicated on a notion almost identical to that of the American right wing. Russia’s attempts to nationalize the Russian Orthodox Church, obstruct LGBTQ civil liberties and rapidly militarize mirror similar attempts within the United States, such as the rise of Christian political fascism, the “Don’t Say Gay” Bill and continued American militarization.
Putin’s Russia is an inexplicably terrible society due to its extreme commitment to anti-wokeness. Of greater concern is that a significant portion of our population wholeheartedly agrees with this ideology and desires a transition toward it. These ideals are in opposition to all things progressive.
This critique of modern-day Russian society should demonstrate that constructing a society based on ideologically baseless and misguided concepts like anti-wokeness is a god-awful idea.
For starters, just face east!
Jaden Nguyen is an Opinion Intern for the summer 2024 quarter. He can be reached at jadenpn@uci.edu
Edited by Zahira Vasquez and Jaheem Conley.
