Posted on 02/11/2014 10:46:28 PM PST by cunning_fish
It’s still relatively early in the Sochi Olympics, but the star so far has been Julia Lipnitskaya a diminutive fifteen year old figure skater from the Urals. While the adoration hasn’t been unanimous, most people have, understandably, been awed by her performances. Lipnitskaya combines technical proficiency in skating with the sort of mind-warping flexibility one usually associates with elite gymnasts. She performed on an entirely different level from her competitors, and while the individual competition hasn’t yet started in earnest, Lipnitskaya now appears to be the odds-on favorite to win an individual gold medal. To sum things up, an awful lot of people watched Julia Lipnitskaya skate and an awful lot of people were very impressed.
Now if you are a normal adult human being, Julia Lipnitskaya’s performance has nothing whatsoever to do with politics, the Kremlin, or the dread Vladimir Putin. But one of Russia’s leading “liberal” opposition figures, Viktor Shenderovich, has a slightly different opinion. Writing in Yezhedevny Journal, Shenderovich penned a column called “Putin and the girl on skates” that, more than anything I’ve seen in a long time, helps explain why Russia’s liberal opposition remains marginalized, unpopular, and irrelevant. The column is a bit on the rambling side (“ How can I not understand that Lev Tolstoy, the constructivists, and a fifteen year old beauty on skates were summoned to make us completely forget about the current thievery and bloodshed?”) but the main point is fairly encapsulated by the following excerpt:
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Shenderovich must have gone insane.
I have trouble watching skating and gymnastics...I feel like a dirty old man...
We have so damned many serious problems in the U.S. that continue to be unaddressed and unresolved but yet again, at the continual prodding of the MSM and the government and the elites, the only thing the masses want to do is cover their ears, close their minds, drink beer, and watch SPORTS. The American people’s appetite and capacity for irrelevancy and for “fiddling whilst Rome burns” is astounding and perhaps unmatched in history on this earth.
But you have to be positively unhinged to compare anything that happens in Russia today to Nazi death camps or to a war of conquest that left tens of millions of innocent people dead. Official corruption and the prosecution of political rivals are bad but they’re not nearly as bad as industrial mass murder. Saying “Putin is Hitler!” isn’t a compelling criticism of Russia’s government, it just makes you sound like an idiot.
But I don’t want to focus on the simple wrongness of Shenderovich’s “argument,” since it should be self-evident to anyone with even a cursory knowledge of 20th century history.
Well unfortunately, to anyone with even a cursory knowledge of 20th century history the Soviet Union's record of industrial mass murder far surpasses the Nazis. So to get all righteous about the impossibility and absurdity of such concerns, involving a Russian president who just brought back the hammer and sickle in full view of the world, is criminally idiotic - at best.
Secondly, the figures given in the "Black book of communism" are untrustworthy, so the topic "who mass-murdered more" is duscussionable.
At third, the people who lived in the USSR during the break-up, suffered much from that (savings, careers, life-span, etc.) and they tend to blame the associated people, the values they advocated and those who are adcocating them now. And guess who is voting in Russian elections - those people, or Americans or Eastern Europeans?
Shenderovich is no way a “leading” opposition politician. The current opposition is badly fractioned, and the leader of the largest chunk is Navalny who is being blamed by his opposition opponents for (who would know?) nationalism.
As much as we like to root for the home team, it doesn’t mean we cannot appreciate a spectacular and near flawless performance from that young Russian woman.
It’s much easier to do so with the cold war over, with the Olympics no longer being a continuation by other means of the ideological struggle between communism and freedom.
In my (much) younger days, I skated with some pretty good figure skaters, and learned a few moves, like a single jump, some turns, ice dances, and a spin. I can appreciate, actually I’m in awe of, what goes into the routines performed by those exceptional athletes.
And there are many athletes who march in under different flags, that actually do live and train here in the US.
I’m afraid you lost me with your attempted minimization of the slaughter of its people by the Soviet Union. The horrors of those seventy years stand against your soul.
Well, I've never been wanting to have you, so this lost means nothing to me. The only thing I care for on the topic is the truth.
No doubt, America is one of world best training places.
Okay, then let me be clear here, because you don't seem to understand: I'm sayng you're deliberately lying about the scale of the murders against its own people that the Soviet Union committed.
Deliberately. Lying.
And I'm: 1) Calling you on it, and 2) Rejecting you for it.
I hope this clears up any misunderstanding about this subject between us.
I would hate for that TRUTH to be missed.
Are you ready to present proof for your allegations?
That does not stop me from appreciating the incredible performances of some of the athletes, regardless of their nation of origin.
Thankfully, I can take five or ten minutes to do so without watching days of tedious commercials.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, after all.
Not good for Jack's work either. Relaxation is necessary for perfomance, the trick is to know the measure.
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