Tessa Lena a.k.a. Tessa Fights Robots  ❤️

So here's more about Russophobia and general stereotyping. You know what, lame, shallow everyday stereotyping has always been around, I can live with it. Not ideal and annoying, but fine, whatvrs. Ivan Drago, Red Sparrow, blah blah blah.

This is how American pop culture works in its relaxed, well-fed state. I have had lots of funny discussions about it with immigrants from all over. We laughed about it, rolled our eyes, and moved on to the next topic.

However, what is happening today in terms of Russophobia on the left and all sorts of phobias on the right, is institutional. It's a perfect storm where the state and the media collaborate to demonize people in an environment where it is already not safe to talk freely.

However, the biggest sin in the American culture, still, is not ideology or ethnicity. The biggest sin is not being plugged into ANY eco system / echo chamber where somebody with deep pockets will subsidize your existence because what you do is good for their bottom line.

Everything and everybody is a symbol. It took me many years to see it. Even being a favorable symbol is an illusion. If the symbol that you are helps somebody make money or raise their profile, awesome. But it is not about anything real. Xenophobia is a subcase of symbolism.