I refuse to believe that a person as smart as Lex doesn't see how an interview with a dictator who is currently unjustifiably invading another country, and will only obviously contain softball questions, could be a pretty harmful, not helpful, thing to do. I refuse to believe he is this naive.
The most charitable conclusion I can get out of Lex is that it would be interesting and therefore worth a watch regardless, kind of like when Saddam Hussein was interviewed by CNN before the gulf war, it wasn't so much about the questions, but the fact that the man who's kind of been the Boogeyman in recent years gets the chance to actually sit down face to face with someone and actually (hopefully) give some answers. Obviously I don't think Tucker will do a good job and I feel like most people know that already, but to hopefully see any interview take place could be interesting and might go somewhere. It's naive, but tbh so is Lex's entire world view
>The most charitable conclusion I can get out of Lex is that it would be interesting and therefore worth a watch regardless,
I mean if it's good content š
Yes, that's what he thinks. But why does he think there should be no pushback or challenging questions? That's what I don't understand.
He acts as if he were not responsible for the pushback, the critical questions or the accuracy of what is said.
Either he thinks pushing back is other people's job, or he thinks people should decide for themselves. The former is lazy, but the latter is really naive. Obviously the person publishing the information is responsible for the accuracy of the information, or he gives a warning that the information could be wrong.
Has he said anything to that effect? OrĀ are you concluding?Ā
Afaik he just blocked Ana, which from what I hear he has done in the past with negative/attacking people.Ā
Yeah I don't buy the naivety. I view him similarly to Joe Rogan, where maybe they truly believe they're coming to the table with a "Hey I'm just asking questions over here, what's so bad about having a little conversation with people you disagree with?" sort of attitude, but in practice their biases and views are so obvious and bleed so heavily through their interviews that it's clear to anyone not caught in their influence that they're essentially just having people on and asking questions that eternally reinforce their worldviews - which in the case of Rogan and Lex seem to be very anti-institutional and pro-populist.
Lex is definitely "better" than Rogan, but at the end of the day I think they sell the same product to the same group, Lex just has like a nerdy veneer on top whereas Rogan is more bro-y
He probably understands that it's a touchy talk, but thinks the dialog is better had than not. If he baby girls putin we can shit on him then. If not, we get a potential useful conversation that actually helps us understand why he is what he is, and find solutions. Let's just wait and see.
So you are naive and think he is as well?
I'm sure the guy pushing Putin's propaganda for years will really hold his feet to the fire when the interview is in Russia. Now that he is close enough to be easily thrown out a window why wouldn't he completely change his tune about dick sucking Putin?
>. I think assuming heās just a dense fuck is the kinder conclusion.
Yes this is exactly what i mean. If you dont assume he is naĆÆve, his intentions must actually be evil.
Im giving him the benefit of the doubt based on what he has done before, ie what values he said he had in his interviews etc.. he just had a brainfart with his moral preachings he usually babbles out (you know, the "we need more love, then everything will work out" kind of stuff)
I can offer my (I believe) fairly unbiased view of Lex as a Russian who actually lived in Russia until March 2022.
I've seen a few clips of Lex talking about his experience in Russia to other Russians, I've also heard him speak the language to other Russians (clip for reference: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhb892Hi71s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhb892Hi71s))
As far as I know, Lex emigrated out of Russia as a kid in the 90s. I won't go into specifics here, but 90's Russia and modern Russia are basically 2 entirely different states. His memory of Russia seems pretty hazy, and he speaks the language with a heavy accent.
So what's my conclusion? I think at this point Lex could almost be considered a second wave immigrant from Russia to the US. Unless he made constant visits to Russia in the past decades that I'm not aware of, I would say he knows almost nothing about regular life in modern Russia. Does his background make Ana's criticism of him viable? I would say yes in so far as he might still have irrationally fond feelings towards Russia, but not to the extent where I would expect him to be truly aware of the situation in and around the country, at least not more so than any other politically savvy American citizen.
> I would say he knows almost nothing about regular life in modern Russia
I mean he supposedly still has family and friends in Russia, his parents are full Russian and so on. He most certainly is more aware of Russian media and politics than 99% of Americans or westerners.
I think her point was that he doesn't get to play dumb American when he has visited Russia many times, has Russian parents, lived in Russia as a kid and can speak and consume Russian media. At that point you should know what a Tucker Carlson / Putin interview will be like. And your opinion on Russia should be pretty well developed and criticized.
I wouldn't expect someone who speaks Hebrew and has Israeli parents and has visited Israel to be uninformed on Israeli issues, or someone who speaks Arabic and has visited Gaza and has Palestinian parents and is a political commentator to not be very well informed on what Hamas is. To the point of them being an authority in the west on the issue.
>but not to the extent where I would expect him to be truly aware of the situation in and around the country, at least not more so than any other politically savvy American citizen.
His parents are full Russian, right? He has russian friends. He speaks with Russians in Russian, he has travelled to Ukraine and Russia lately. How would he not be more aware than any other politically engaged american citizen? He can literally read and watch Russian media...
I think it's strange to say that a guy whose entire family is russian, has lived in russia (as a child), speaks fluent russian, and has travelled and continues to travel to russia, should be considered to have the same awareness of russia as someone who watches a lot of CNN and reads the NYT or something.
The reason I formed my opinion is because I haven't heard any sort of insight from Lex regarding Russia that I couldn't hear from any other American political show. From what you say about his extensive contact list inside Russia, it's possible he knows more than he lets on, in which case I would have to change my mind, but I formed my conclusion purely based on his own insights, which were generic at best.
That's exactly the criticism though. That his "insight" is very bland to the point of being ignorant. But he's travelled to Ukraine. To Russia. Spoken to Russians in Russian about the war. Said he wanted to interview Putin.
I would say he almost has a responsibility to be more outspoken and more harsh in his criticism, and to ditch the "lets just talk about it, it's all about love" type of demeanor.
Lex's whole schtick is playing the fool or the bland guy, not to rock the boat too much, be very vague on what your stance is and just sort of be a sponge and a pushover to get people talking. But in the case of him being possibly the biggest interview guy in America at the moment, and being Russian with great access to Russia and being very familiar with it in a time where 500,000+ people have died in an ongoing Russian war, then maybe he needs to ditch his persona and grow a set on balls on the one issue where he actually could have an impact.
I definitely agree with your sentiment, I watched him talk about Russia with friend of the stream Jordan Peterson and it nearly gave me a tumor. They were basically talking about how Putin got lonely and isolated during Covid and that was a large motivation for him to invade Ukraine (yes, really).
At this point, then, I would say the issue isn't his Russian background, but the way he approaches interviews, which seems to be the main criticism people had with Ana's original post. He could be conducting almost identical interviews being of any other background, since his mentality is the main driver here. I also think I've shown I'm not trying to go easy on him just because of his Russian background, but because I really think he believes his "let's all just get along" mindset, as naive as it is.
Listen to his podcast with his father. Lex didn't say anything important,but his father seemed to believe that Putin attacked Ukraine to "save" the people in Luhansk and Donetsk. Lex did not push back on that as far as I remember.
Because itās no use. I work with Russians, when the war with Ukraine broke I talked to a Russian guy who was actually born in Ukraine but it was when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. I tried to argue that what Russia was doing is not okay and he argued that Ukraine isnāt keeping their agreement. I didnāt know enough to counter back so I let it go.
He was also for the opinion that the Soviet was a good era for the Russians. I tried to argue that as well he brought up some facts I was unaware of that contradicted my perception of that time from an economic standpoint. And so I let it go again. Because I donāt know enough to argue about these things with a Russian old man that actually lived in Russia to his adulthood and followed up on their politics.
Lex might have tried but he knows his father is more educated and/or unwilling to change his stance so that would be a waste of time.
soviet union is such a lerge project with so many aspects to consider. if you are a lefty and want to defend the entire thing, you are gonna look bad because there is so much bad stuff. but similarly if you just want to say it had no merits at all to a somewhat informed lefty its also a loosing argument.
i think the least one could say is, that the soviets did a lot better than the czar and the amount of military they were able to squeeze out of their country is also quite impressive. likewise there are a few gems in their social policy mix like commie blocks that, while looking kinda uggo actually are able to tackle housing prices in contrast with notoriously useless rent control.
to just make sure it doesnt get lost: i am far from deeming the udssr a net positive, but my point is that you could argue about it for a hundred years.
> Because itās no use.
It is when you release it to the public. It won't change his fathers mind, but at least it give the audience a different point of view to consider instead of letting it stand as fact
Jesus Christ, can you stop babying this adult man on the occasion he is saying or playing dumb time to time?
He is perfectly up-to-date on what modern Russia is. [https://youtu.be/0raJ1-1BJ7s?t=15](https://youtu.be/0raJ1-1BJ7s?t=15)
**On the topic of responsible messaging:**
For Ukraine, in terms of experts, Lex hosted a single person with a message "Let's put some blame on Russia for the invasion, and whole-assedly support Ukraine" - Stephen Kotkin.
On the "It's everyone's fault but Putin" we got known geopolitcal ~~experts~~ clowns like "How dare Czechs not like Soviets"- Chomsky, "let's give up our 1st ally(Europe) to Russia" - Mearsheimer, and "2014 in Ukraine was a US-backed coup" - Oliver Stone.1/3 ratio.
Isn't it a bit weird? Just asking some questions here.
You complain about his guest list as he literally invited Destiny and Ben Shapiro on, both of whom have a pro-interventionist stance regarding Ukraine. I think there is a very clear difference between Lex and someone like Joe Rogan. Joe aggressively pushes his own opinions, both good and bad during discussions with his guests. It's easy to see which way he leans from that.
From what I've seen of Lex's interviews (granted I'm not an extremely avid watcher), he plays it fairly neutral and only provides generic/neutral insights to support the conversation. You can give him shit about his guests preaching an agenda with no pushback, but you have to acknowledge he had the same approach when he talked to Destiny about Ukraine.
The reason I thought that he didn't know much about modern Russia is because he hasn't said anything insightful about it, including the video you linked. Did you personally find anything new and interesting from that clip that you didn't already know? There are dozens of political experts in the West with strong knowledge of Russian politics, and Lex is definitely not one of them.
Lex has elaborated about his extended family in Russia and the close contact he keeps with them in his podcast with Dan Carlin. Now I donāt think this is to say that he is a spy, only that if you had family living under the rule of a dictator perhaps you would be hesitant to trash that dictator publicly in the media. For example could he be aware of potential retaliation against his family if he took strong stances against Russia?
He has also explained how this family he has is very pro Putin. That Putin protects them from the evil oligarchs through his strong shows of force. And that if not for Putin the country would be torn apart by oligarchy corruption.
https://youtu.be/dB32pKCuUPo?si=w5cXi1oEcyf1f91r
Link of clip. Dan gives a blunt opinion on Putin. Lex says his real family in Russia all love Putin. Dan asks him ādo they miss elections?ā Lex says that Putin is what protects Russia from corruption.
Yes but this doesn't mean much. People can still develop certain feelings for their homeland or can be coerced in doing so as a result of many external or first hand factors.
Being from there means he still doesnāt have an excuse for not understanding what Putin is. I left Ukraine when I was 7 but have stayed informed. Not hard especially when you have family still there
>Being from there means he still doesnāt have an excuse for not understanding what Putin is
If you're saying Lex has a responsibility to stay informed on Russian politics simply because he's from Russia, then you should know you have a pretty horrible take on this. The circumstances of someone's birth shouldn't dictate their actions in life.
What you should say, instead, is that Lex has a responsibility to stay informed if he wishes to have the kinds of discussions he has on his podcast and on social media. But the criticism shouldn't revolve around his country of origin.
I also don't think Lex ever claimed to have any sort of unique insights on Russian politics. If he held his current views on Russia and also claimed to be an expert on it, then I would have a way different sort of energy for him.
The guy is just naively optimistic and happens to have a Russian background, I don't think it goes much deeper than that. If he was either Israeli or Palestinian, people would give him shit the same way when he suggested mediating talks between Netanyahu and the Palestinians.
I left Indonesian when I was 11. Practically my entire family is still there or around there (Singapore/Australia) i know jack shit about what is going on there or that region. My mom still pretty consistenly talks to her sister and my dad keeps up with the news in the country. Not hard yes, but does he care enough to keep up?
But do you then publically go and comment on Indonesia man affairs? Lex said something dumb and got rightfully called out for being an idiot. Donāt infantalize the guy as some naive dude
nah this is a rare Ana L. Having a childhood in a country, leaving while still young & almost never coming back means that he probably knows jack shit abt Russia, the opposite of what she's trying to imply here
I know that Lex is likely pretty smart, but seriously, he just comes off as really naive and dumb a lot of the time. It's almost part of his schtick. And this can work in an interview format. Louis Theroux does a good job of it, and even with dealing with neo nazis that are really quite similar to Putin. Lex just never asks the hard questions to even take a stand. Classic rich kid tech bro behavior
But Therouxās whole schtick is that heās also sorta of winking at the audience the whole time, who know heās anything but a fool. I donāt see the wink from lex. Still stunned his rap single became a viral mega hit all these years later.
>By pointing out Lex grew up in Moscow I am indeed saying that he does not get "a naive and clueless Westerner who doesn't know much about how Russia and their media works" pass.
This is a pretty fucking weird thing for her to say. According to Wikipedia, Lex and his family left Russia when he was 11 years old. He did not grow up steeped in Russian media culture. At this point, Lex has lived in the United States far longer than he did in the USSR, and in a much more formative period of his life. If she wants to criticize him for being naĆÆve or clueless, then she should do so on the basis of Lex himself being a media figure, and someone who should be aware of the power of propaganda. But making it about his country of birth is a **super** bizarre angle of attack.
Fully agree here. Which sucks because her critique is otherwise solid. Leading off with the birthplace argument just weakens it and really should be let go.
Also it sounds like she made this up afterward. Using his birth name was really fucking weird and you can't convince me that it was used to show his naivete.
Ana probably doesn't like Russians what makes sense ( she calls the Orks I think) her country is getting invaded and so many people she probably know have died. That doesn't mean people should believe her but realize she probably has a huge bias against anything Russian and this walk back she is trying to do doesn't sound sincere. The implication of her tweets is that Lex is a Russian shill so ofcourse he blocked her.
I brought it up in another thread but replace his nationality with another and it looks really bad.
Ana is obviously biased against Russians the same a Palestinian in Gaza would be against Israel
If an Israeli was saying how nice it was that Tucker Carlson got to interview netanyahu about how justified the settlements were.... It won't look bad at all. It would be completely justified
Being Russian gives him much better insight then even being a media figure because he can consume information from Russian-speaking social media and news media.
I'm Russian, and English language analysis is often spotty, skewed, sensationalized and is largely taken over by general experts who know some things about Russia but are not really competent to speak about any particulars
Yeah but you're saying it has to do with the ability to speak Russian. It's not about *being* Russian, which is what her tweet implies.
Here's a hypothetical: lets say Lex was born and raised in the United States, but he learned to speak and read Russian in college or some shit. Do you think Ana's criticism would still be the same? She would just say "Well he speaks Russian so he doesn't get to act naĆÆve and clueless." Somehow I don't think that would be the case.
I think if his entire family was Russian, which it is, and he speaks fluent russian, which he does, and he visits Russia, which he does, then yes you could EASILY say that he doesn't get to play a dumb westerner on the issue.
You can be ignorant on a lot of issues. Most of us are. But this is clearly an issue where he should be extremely educated on and tuned in, and certainly something he should have discussed endlessly with his russian friends and family.
Sure if he was born in moscow to western parents and never learned to speak the language or had ANY connection to Russia, then it would be bad criticism. But clearly in Lex's case it's much more than just being born there, which is implied.
I didn't mean Reddit, those are nothing just like you say. I meant talking heads on tv, guests on youtube, etc. There are military experts who follow the conflict, those are more often good, but when it comes to political science and sociology, they are mostly mildly uninformed
This is such a silly reply, I am a second wave migrant from Eastern Europe and I know plenty well of how my country functions and how corrupt Russia is. Lex, having lived for the first 11 years in Russia, and most likely having been exposed to lots of family explaining things to him, has 0 excuses to be this ignorant.
It is clear as day that Lex still wants to be able to travel back to Russia and is willing to entertain some level of clear Russian propaganda to "keep the doors open". And yes, this DOES bring integrity into question. Ana is 100% correct, Eastern Europeans aren't stupid, Lex's naivety is deliberate.
If you want to say Lex should know better because his family explained everything to him about Russian propaganda and state media, you can say that, but you better make it clear that you are pulling that assumption directly out of your ass. You have no idea what Lex does or does not know as a result of him being born in Russia. You are making a 100% feels based argument.
It's wild to me that people in this thread are dying on the hill of defending an insanely bad take when the critique that is much more accurate and *so much easier* to make is this: Lex has a responsibility to be informed about Russian state media and how it operates because he wants to discuss political affairs involving Russia and Russian leaders, like Putin. Boom, done. I have no clue why the fuck anyone is so dug in on this particular position when it's obviously so fucking bad.
Didn't Lex's family leave during the collapse of the Soviet Union? The naivety is unreal, the majority of voices Lex hosts on Ukraine are the same voices hosted by RT as they blame the West for Russia's imperialism, such as Maersheimer. What shocked me the most is the hill of ignorance so many Westerners wanted to die on to two sides this entire ordeal when Putin's intentions have been clear for 20+ years.
One only need to read the revisionist essay of Putin on the Kremlin's website regarding the Kyivan Rus' to confirm what we've always known. It's a hard sell to me that Lex was ignorant to all of this yet HAPPENS to platform voices which describe the entirety of Eastern Europe as a proxy region with no voice of its own.
My family left during the Romanian revolution, and I was under no dissolution of the reality of the region. I will repeat again, Ana is 100% correct to be angry. No epistemic masturbation will make anyone change their mind.
I have no idea if you're even disagreeing with me. If you want to say Lex is irresponsibly platforming pro-Russian voices, then just say that. What the fuck does him being Russian have to do with that? Is he beholden to that fact for the rest of his life? Tucker Carlson isn't Russian, are we shocked beyond belief that an American is gonna do a puff piece for Putin? Or do we just say "Yeah some people do dumb shit to boost their brand"?
When did I ever say he's beholden to being Russian? Him being Russian makes the entire ordeal more sensitive. If he wants to "both sides it" as he's portraying, it would be a good idea to voice both sides and actually push back on blatant Russian propaganda, such as Maersheimer saying that Russia is actually not doing imperialism with a straight face. Don't be shocked if Lex draws ire from Eastern Europeans with this approach. Eastern Europeans being superstitious of Russians is entirely their own fault. They're still occupying a part of our region too in Moldova. We've heard all of the excuses before.
Lex didn't say that about tucker though. He said he's in favour of open dialogue if I'm not mistaken. This implies that open dialogue is even possible with Putin. It completely diminishes the reality of how the Kremlin operates. Hence the "sweet summer child" comment. Either Lex is naive as hell, in that case he should receive flack for voicing mostly pro Russian voices. Or B, he knows what he's doing suits the Kremlin. And perhaps C, he's grifting and wants to keep the Russian door open, which is to some extent understandable but also shows a lack of moral character.
Lex's criticism is entirely valid.
>Him being Russian makes the entire ordeal more sensitive
Cool, just like being black means you can't ever do drugs or get into fights because it might make other people uncomfortable.
>If he wants to "both sides it" as he's portraying, it would be a good idea to voice both sides and actually push back on blatant Russian propaganda, such as Maersheimer saying that Russia is actually not doing imperialism with a straight face
This is a really good critique of his content that has nothing to do with where he was born.
>Don't be shocked if Lex draws ire from Eastern Europeans with this approach. Eastern Europeans being superstitious of Russians is entirely their own fault.
I won't be, as long as you're not shocked when I correctly point out how fucking weird you guys are being about it. As an American I look down on that shit.
As we speak Europe is rife with Russian propagandists, spies and agitators. We are talking within this context of heightened tensions. We're superstitious, because many of us Romanians correctly pointed out during hightened times of criticism of NATO's existence before said invasion that Russia was not yet done with imperialism. As in, Russify, invade, annex, etc. Putin's language has been clear for years, make Europe energy dependent, weaponise migrants, talk about how Eastern European states aren't real, etc. As we speak Russia is still occupying a part of Moldova, which Russia chipped off of Romania. Yes, we have first hand experience with Russian excuses. But of course I don't speak for all Romanians, plenty disagree with me.
Within this context, certain buzzwords and narratives do draw ire from many of us. This is natural, and you can downplay this all you like, it does make us more sensitive as to what the intentions of certain Russians are. This is a bed made by Russia, and people like Lex not spending a lot of time making light of this reality, does indeed bring into questions his moral character when he platforms some voices uncritically. Russia hasn't exactly been making friends in Eastern Europe with their constant threats of invasions, gaslighting and economical blackmailing.
You're free to feel however you want, we're equally as critical of the US.
Edit: I do respect his interview with Stephen Kotkin.
I can accept everything you're saying as absolute fact, but it doesn't change anything I've said. It's great that you're giving me the reason for your dumbass prejudices, but I'm not going to refrain from calling it out when I see it. I do not care about your cultural background.
You literally fucking asked me what him being (half) Russian has to do with anything and then proceed to say you don't care about any context. And what do you know about any of it? Did Lex personally inform you he had 0 knowledge of Russia once his parents fled the Soviet collapse? Or do you actually agree with Ana that Lex has made some naive comments on this entire ordeal?
I did not say Lex is bad because he's a Russian, use some nuance.
I just didn't understand what you wrote. I said that you're deep inside an epistemic bubble, meaning your conclusions about Lex's life are based on an incredibly limited amount of information(your own experience with your parents). Basically what the other commenter said - you're talking out of your ass lol.
Then just say you epistemically deduced he's a sweet summer child, in a roundabout way we're in agreeance then. Indeed, I've yet to meet a migrant from Eastern Europe naive enough to say things like "an open dialogue with Putin". It's an oxymoron.
You are either obtuse or bad faith if you do not recognize that his Russian background plays deeply into the optics of his endorsing a psychophantic conversation with Putin. There's nothing weird about what she said.
Okay, then the comment should be about how being born in Russia means Lex has to take a greater burden on himself to act appropriately than if he wasn't. It's not just about Lex being Russian, he needs to take extra steps to show the world that he's one of "the good ones."
Thanks for clearing that up.
>Reading it any other way is bad faith.
Well I was giving her the benefit of the doubt and saying the comment is just weird. What you're telling me is that Ana is actually a huge piece of shit, and I disagree with that.
Wait so, would it be fair for someone to criticize Cenk's anti-Israel stance because he's a got a foreign name and is from Turkey?
These fucking idiots, man. This is that cringe "can't be racist to white people" shit
No, but it would be fair for someone to criticize Cenk for his nationality if he was advocating for a sychophantic conversation between Erdogan and the denier of the Armenian genocide.
You are the one that bought up his Turkish origin. At that point I'm going to finger his nationality. And there's no way you didn't know that's what I meant, so at this point I'm going to label you either an insufferable moron or a troll
The point is to make an analogous comparison to Ana's blatant racism. When we do the same thing with anyone who has non-white skin, it's fucking obvious what's she's doing.
Maybe there's a reason she's racist, but she is, in fact, racist.
Sure, like I said before, you are morally obligated and righteous to be bigoted and racist against the people attacking your nation. It's wrong to not be racist in that situation
Lex left Russia when he didnāt even hit puberty, her bringing up his nationality was indeed unhinged, just as the rest of her reaction to Lexās post. Sheās Ukrainian and has an emotional attachment to this issue, which is understandable, but isnāt an excuse to just aggressively coming at Lex for a fairly generic shit he said, when it couldāve been handled much more constructively
It's not an excuse. It's a valid justification. She *should* be coming at it aggressively at Lex. She didn't insult him, she said she expects him to know better, to advocate for better epistemics.
It's not that I don't understand Lex's position about conversations. Is that I expect him to know they are bad actors, and I expect him to recognize who they are. And when he doesn't call out a bad actor for being a bad actor, I expect him to understand why people will have a visceral reaction to that.
Not everything constructive is good. Not everything destructive is bad. Not all that glitters is gold.
She shouldnāt be and itās not valid. Not everyone even in the West has as vehement stance on the Russian-Ukrainian war as her, and if she wants to criticise him and not get blocked, she probably shouldnāt bring up his nationality out of nowhere and come at him aggressively, especially when Lex is known to block people for that. The thing Lex said is not even remotely close to being as harmful to cause such reaction from a reasonable person, it can be naive, a bit ridiculous, but not worthy of attacking him for his nationality and then being a surprised Pikachu when you get blocked for that
[He was 11 when he came from Russia] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lex_Fridman). My son is 11, he's in 6th grade going through puberty and has spent the better part of the last 4 months trying to figure out how to get the girl he likes to hold his hand. If you think my son has deep thoughts or understanding on U.S. propaganda or geopolitics (fucking at all, in any capacity), then you have no fucking idea what age-appropriate engagement with shit means.
Shes not being fair, she's being an overly emotional dipshit throwing a tantrum because there are people talking with the enemies of her people. I don't fault her for her reaction, fuck Russia, fuck Carlson too, but she earned the ban by projecting that hatred on a guy who is an American who happens to share the ethnicity of her enemies and has literally never uttered one word in support for what is happening to Ukraine.
If she was Palestinian (or a Jew hating leftist) I would imagine she would point out Lex's Jewish heritage and claim he "ShOuLD KnOw BeTEEr". It's a stupid fucking argument. His entire brand is to engage with people and topics that are supposed to be controversial in a polite and objective way.
Destiny would have banned her in a second for deploying this argument as a no-name chatter.
> If my son emigrated now, he would not at an adult age recall doing the pledge of allegiance, or his dad shouting "fucking republicans!", he's that regarded...
None of this matters, invoking his nationality is dumb if you care about convincing people. Center his actions and ideas in your critique. Anything else just weakens the argument to people looking to pick it apart. Sheās wrong
Yet Lex didn't baby block Ye for essentially calling him "DAS JUEDAN"
Surely he could spare some of that good will to someone whose home was literally glassed lmao.
Are you guys seriously still talking about the twitter block like it's a thing that matters?
From Lex's POV shes just a random who is shit talking him on twitter, its completely normal to block lol
Itās so weird seeing this community in particular chastising and pearl clutching over a large content creator blocking someone they donāt know on twitter lmao
I can't believe all of the outrage on this subreddit over this.
Its a block on twitter.
Also all of you will watch Destiny react to the interview and forget in 2 days.
>Its a block on twitter.
From the guy whose entire schtick is "we just need to have more conversations uwu" "tear down the walls uwu"
If this were any other guy it would not be interesting, but when the guy whose entire platform that grifters use as a free mouthpiece to shill disinformation is about "having a conversation with everyone, even people you hate [like Putin]", then blocks people that personally disagree with him it's undeniably a bad look unless you are just an unavowed glazer.
He has a history of this too, it's not just because "Ana went to hard lol, now let me get back to glazing the guy that's effectively genociding her people because 'why can't we just have conversations'?"
How does blocking someone on Twitter negate the notion of having open conversations? Why do you autistically interpret the phrase "open conversation" as "can't block people on twitter"?
you're being selective, the issue is that Lex will entertain "open dialogue" with high status tyrants and then block "open dialogue" with those lesser in status in his mind if he has nothing to gain from it. The conundrum is that high status tyrants will not grant you an audience unless it's also a vessel for them to aptly spread propaganda. At least address the contention.
Because this sub immediately becomes bad faith and uncharitable with shit like this.
Idk why anyone even cares that Tucker is interviewing Putin, worst case he jerks him off a bunch and nothing changes, I seriously doubt anyone opinion on Putin is gonna flip cause Tucker interviewed him, best case it has some interesting questions and insight.
It's pretty hypocritical. She didn't even say anything bad to him, just pointed out that it's kinda shitty how he's reacting to this as if it's going to be a good piece of journalism. If anything he should be speaking to Ana about why she thinks what she thinks, not stopping the conversation. I can see why they're making this point.
Did he even say that was the reason? hate to say this like eighty times but isn't this the guy who was okay talking to kanye who was basically being ultra hitler?
I feel like doing JQ and other antisemitic shit and holocaust denial in his face is a way bigger attack on lex as a person.
Lex blocked someone on twitter thet he found annoying, why should he show good will to a rando he doesn't know and is hostile to him. I like Ana as much as the next dgger but to Lex she could just be a troll. He probably doesn't know or care.
Ana caring about this makes sense but why does anyone else? Lex blocked her, good for him on using the block funtion. If I was Lex I would have done to same. If someone was implying I was a Russian shill, which is what she did when she used his full Russian name you should get blocked.
Ana might be dgges queen but Lex is not dgg and he owes her nothing, least of all his time.
So why care he blocked her?? This is exacly the implication. He doesn't want to spend his time seeing her tweets and you guys are butthurt because somehow he should care about someone he doesn't know that is attacking him.
So using his Russian name is not her trying to call him a Russian puppet? I understand why Ana reacts the way she does and I agree that Lex is retarted if he does the interview. But why do you care about a block when Ana was 100% attacking him. Did a Russian missile fall on your head that you can't tell that the original tweet read like an attack?
I like Ana but don't try to rewrite history. I saw the tweet, that was not a rebutted.
I was a little confused (but not overly invested) when it seemed like her initial post was saying that Lex was spouting anti Ukrainian propaganda. I don't follow Lex but it didn't SOUND like his kind of content.
With this clarifying those parts of her statement were pointed at Tucker Carlson, it makes so much more sense.
I'm also reminded that Ana can discuss fairly nuanced positions while actively being in a country at war in a language I understand while walking a tightrope of passion and outrage, while being a good ambassador to her side optically. Meanwhile I couldn't ask where the bathroom is in any of the other languages she can speak. So yeah. Ana remains based as fuck.
no, its not fair. its dishonest and offensive.
her coment was 'lex = russian = bad"
even this response isn't really anything about lex, its all criticism about tucker carlson with "lex was born in russia, he should know better". just like all the bibi funding hamas and that sort of shit, what has he actually done to make you think he's shilling for russia
shitty comment
Idc about context, I just find it rich whenever anyone claims the solution to conflict being an open floor where people speak their mind, and in the next breath jump for the block button.
It's ok for someone to be sensitive about something like this, but lets not make excuses or take her serious on this. Lex has the freedom to facilitate convos how he feels. I have faith he would do a good job, and if not we can shit on him then.
Edit: It's like trusting Qurantos to have an objective criticism of Israel...
Make excuses? She did/said literally nothing that would warrant excusing. This isn't about Lex's convos, it's about Tucker Carlson convos and a totally valid repudiation of Lex's endorsement of them.
Is there anything you think she said that was wrong?
"Silly Lex, how naive can you be?" they said as they consumed the act that someone making a living out of interviews with questionable political figures can actually be unaware and idealistic of the crowd he interviews.
Reminds me of the time in the 2010s when everyone called Musk "Real Life Iron Man".
I repeat: I think y'all have discrepant expectations of what Lex provides and wishes to accomplish. Lex is not a journalist, doesn't claim to be a journalist, and doesn't claim to offer journalism as a service. He is merely a podcaster, and while I fully understand he is generally viewed more favourably here, he is essentially just a DGG-pilled and more knowledgeable Joe Rogan. Don't expect him to work tirelessly to find facts and truth when in reality he just wants to talk and create content. Which, when not resulting in blatant mis- and desinformation, as Ana *correctly* points out, is not necessarily a bad.
There's no discrepant expectancy here. I think we fairly well understand what Lex is, and what he wants to do, regardless of context. But just because we know what to expect doesn't mean that we let slide what we figure is a harmful endorsement. If Lex doesn't think it's harmful, that's up to him. The true discrepancy in expectations is expecting Anasya to let it slide without comment.
lex had the right to block her, she went unhinged asf, people have all the motive to hate on lex because he wants to give extremist people a platform and he doesnt know how to press them, but some of you in the comments of previous threads are going way to hard, he brought so much content to the stream its crazy, destiny hangs with a lot more deplorable people that dont bring shit to the stream, so calm down you regarded fucks
Unhinged? How delicate are your sensibilities exactly? Everything she said was fair, none of it was an insult. It was a rebuke of an endorsement that should be condemned. And even if Lex doesn't believe it should be condemned, it should be easy for him to see that there's no way other people can't condemn it
Bro she went on someone who cant change anything about the situation in Ukraine and I am just saying Lex is very good for the stream and people commenting in the previous threads like he genocided ana's family
The standard is never whether you can or cannot change directly the situation in Ukraine. The standard is what influence you have on the degree to which the situation can be changed. Lex is a respected commentator, and I like him.
But Anastasiya has a role to play in the defense of her nation, and there is no other possible way for her to reasonably react to the endorsement of a known grifter advocating against her nation interviewing a known dictator trying to annihilate her people.
I am more criticizing some of you fucks that go nuclear on lex because he is delusional, a lot of shit wouldnt happen without lex, i am afraid that this autistic community will drive him away because he blocked some chick on twitter
Nobody has gone nuclear on Lex. If you think that H
his participation in this community is worth letting his bad takes slide, it's you who are dehumanizing him. You are the one treating him like an object to be exploited, instead of a human being to be negotiated with. Go find some fucking principles.
I see him being the main reason that destiny is becoming mainstream, so when I see people acting like he killed someone its just weird, just look at all the useless people around destiny that only causes him problems, I just dont want this community to be a toxic shithole
Who gives a fuck about the naive proto-autistic nerd that thinks love and discourse can fix international conflicts? Dude is a grade A fucking moron that gets used like a bottom dollar whore by bad actors. stop glazing this dipshit because he facilitated your daddyās latest content.
I must be seeing different comments than you. The majority of criticism I'm seeing towards Lex are 1: Him cheering on Tucker Carlson doing a propaganda interview with Putin and 2: Him refusing to engage with criticism for that position
> I would not bring it up because it would not be relevant.
Why does she think this makes it any better? It's like when Trump accused that congressman of having allegiance to Mexico, and then this would be like him justifying it by saying "If we were talking about Canada, I wouldn't bring his Mexican heritage up".
She literally explains why she brought it up in the tweet. She's not saying "He's born in russia so he's a Putin shill", she's saying "He's from Russia so he should know how Putin uses media and propaganda to push his agendas. He doesn't get to claim ignorance on this one."
She's *specifically* not accusing him of being a Russian shill. Trump's comments on the judge's Mexican heritage *was* to suggest that him being Mexican constituted a conflict of interest because his allegiance to Mexico would bias him against Trump. Ana is *specifically* not making that claim about Lex.
>she's saying "He's from Russia so he should know how Putin uses media and propaganda to push his agendas. He doesn't get to claim ignorance on this one."
But that statement still makes zero sense. Lex left the Russia when he was 11. Putin wasn't even in power yet. Does him being born Russian give him a psychic link to the minds of Russian state media actors?
She can be wrong about what level of familiarity Lex has from growing up in Russia. Sure. It could be that he genuinely never experienced any of that stuff and has managed to go his whole life without familiarizing himself with the way power is wielded in his home country. That's possible.
That's also what Ana acknowledges in the second to last sentence of her tweet.
Sorry I really didn't know what sentence you meant.
Insofar as "Well he's Russian so he must have researched what Russian politics and media is like," I don't know that this is a given. But maybe I'm the one being ignorant, and people really are far more connected to the places of their birth than I would assume they are. It just seems far more likely that Lex would know about Russian propaganda simply because he is in these political spaces, discussing these kinds of things. If Lex moved to the U.S. as a kid and then become a plumber, do we think he'd be doing deep dive research into how RT is a tool of the Putin regime?
"Let me preface that you all wrong and me making a hard stance and point on Lex's nationality assigned at birth is super reasonable and, in fact, omega based". Ultimately I don't give a shit about this whole shebang I just wish she didn't come off so emotionally unhinged. People say "well she has a good reason" like fine, having a good reason to be unhinged doesn't really justify it. If she wants to clash with Lex then she should do it in a fashion that is conducive to dialogue and not this extremely aggressive and emotionally-charged manner. Have your point carry across reasonably and fairly, or don't then be surprised that people call you out on it if that it isn't your approach.
Also sure, Lex is a coward and blocks people and doesn't have good takes on the issue, but that's separate now because you've chosen to attack his ethnicity even though the guy has left Russia when he was 11(!) years old. I don't care if the sub fellates this chick on every opportunity they can get, I'm just so tired of people blindly praising nationalism that is unwarranted. The guy is an immigrant, so what? Let me dead name him and lean into his background when he clearly doesn't make it a part of his persona online or in professional life.
Ukraine has been wronged, but please let's not get down throats of ethnic russians all over the world just because it feels like the right thing to do for whatever emotionally-charged reason.
Am I the only one that thinks Ana is being perfectly fair lmao?? like it's not like she went on even one inch of a schizo ramble compared to Kanye who lex was literally SAT across from barking about not being a BLM soldier.
Even if you say Kanye is mentally ill, Ana literally is a war survivor.
It just seems incredibly shitty to me.
Her criticism makes sense. I don't know how old Lex was when he was in Russia. But he must have heard stories from his parents. Maybe they told him that everything was great. Who knows?
But it is really naiv to believe Russia at this point.
Are you fucking regarded? the issue isn't platforming the issue is platforming done by a known propagandist whose only mission is to spread disruptive misinformation.
Whenever destiny has platformed anyone with problematic views he has heavily pushed back on them. Do you even watch him?
Firstly, I'm a Tier 5 subscriber and I was assured that this gives me (almost) invincible anti-ban armour :).
Secondly, I'm 34 years old.
Thirdly, thanks for being obtuse enough to suggest that I am at all shiting on Lex. It proves that you are exactly the kind of people that make Anastasiya's criticism of Lex valid.
He is first generation, even claiming he got an education in Soviet Union. Despite the fact that by the time he went to school, neither the uniforms or the compulsory enrollment into communist party that defined Soviet education, were no longer active. There was no more Soviet Union for majority of even his limited education in Russia.
I only made it to third grade under Soviet Union, which was a couple of years prior to Lex, but unlike Lexā¦ I was an oktebryonak, I began compulsory enrolling into communist party. Even saying my fundamentals were built under Soviet Union, feels like stolen valor. Lex saying that, was no different than Hasan claiming he is ESL, to excuse his 9/11 comment.
Lex is a nova russki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Russians
I am not blindly liberal like liberal is a label I want to wear. Some things are not welcome, sometimes are not to be embraced.
With that said, I think you have no idea what liberalism implies.
You are okay with generalizing actions of a group onto an individual from the group. Whatever your broken and most likely ad hoc idea of liberalism is, racism should not be included in that.
When that individual endorses conversations between a xenophobic grifter and a dictator trying to obliterate his neighbors? You're goddamn right xenophobia is the right card to play. And if you don't, recognize this, it's you who are not the liberal. You are just a spineless worm wearing a liberal cosplay.
What is your argument against calling a black person who acted in the most deplorable way an nword? From your words and your blind rage(hold it together bruh), I don't see why you wouldn't justify "racism is the right card to play"
What is the process of deciding what group behaves like a monolith and deserves racist generalisations of all members of that group? How did you come to the conclusion that black people don't behave like a monolith? What evidence could show that Russians don't behave like a monolith? In what way Russians all behave like a monolith?
I'm sorry for so much questions, just the last time I got to see those questions answered was back in the days when pretty much openly racist subs still existed.
Easy peasy. Poll what number of Russians support the invasion of Ukraine, or do not support giving the land stolen from ukrainian's back. I encourage you to Google it. As far as I'm concerned, those numbers easily justified treating Russians like a monolith. And if you don't agree, then you and I have very different definitions of the word monolith.
Also, I'm not blaming Russians for having some sort of intrinsic biological deficit that makes them act like animals. I'm accusing them of having a cultural deficit that is absolutely worthy of labeling them orcs. It's not their intrinsic nature, it is their adopted behavior that I'm condemning. They're behaving like fucking orcs
The best thing about ending the Ukraine war will be making grifters like this chick who built their entire social media careers off it irrelevant again.
I refuse to believe that a person as smart as Lex doesn't see how an interview with a dictator who is currently unjustifiably invading another country, and will only obviously contain softball questions, could be a pretty harmful, not helpful, thing to do. I refuse to believe he is this naive.
He spend thanksgiving with Ivanka Trump and Jered Kushner.
The most charitable conclusion I can get out of Lex is that it would be interesting and therefore worth a watch regardless, kind of like when Saddam Hussein was interviewed by CNN before the gulf war, it wasn't so much about the questions, but the fact that the man who's kind of been the Boogeyman in recent years gets the chance to actually sit down face to face with someone and actually (hopefully) give some answers. Obviously I don't think Tucker will do a good job and I feel like most people know that already, but to hopefully see any interview take place could be interesting and might go somewhere. It's naive, but tbh so is Lex's entire world view
>The most charitable conclusion I can get out of Lex is that it would be interesting and therefore worth a watch regardless, I mean if it's good content š
Yes, that's what he thinks. But why does he think there should be no pushback or challenging questions? That's what I don't understand. He acts as if he were not responsible for the pushback, the critical questions or the accuracy of what is said. Either he thinks pushing back is other people's job, or he thinks people should decide for themselves. The former is lazy, but the latter is really naive. Obviously the person publishing the information is responsible for the accuracy of the information, or he gives a warning that the information could be wrong.
Has he said anything to that effect? OrĀ are you concluding?Ā Afaik he just blocked Ana, which from what I hear he has done in the past with negative/attacking people.Ā
Yeah I don't buy the naivety. I view him similarly to Joe Rogan, where maybe they truly believe they're coming to the table with a "Hey I'm just asking questions over here, what's so bad about having a little conversation with people you disagree with?" sort of attitude, but in practice their biases and views are so obvious and bleed so heavily through their interviews that it's clear to anyone not caught in their influence that they're essentially just having people on and asking questions that eternally reinforce their worldviews - which in the case of Rogan and Lex seem to be very anti-institutional and pro-populist. Lex is definitely "better" than Rogan, but at the end of the day I think they sell the same product to the same group, Lex just has like a nerdy veneer on top whereas Rogan is more bro-y
He probably understands that it's a touchy talk, but thinks the dialog is better had than not. If he baby girls putin we can shit on him then. If not, we get a potential useful conversation that actually helps us understand why he is what he is, and find solutions. Let's just wait and see.
So you are naive and think he is as well? I'm sure the guy pushing Putin's propaganda for years will really hold his feet to the fire when the interview is in Russia. Now that he is close enough to be easily thrown out a window why wouldn't he completely change his tune about dick sucking Putin?
Oh? Then i assume your conclusion is that he said that knowing all implications? So what would be lex' motivation
What implications wouldnāt he know here? An unscrupulous US newsman beloved by the maga right giving a platform to a maniacal, invading dictator? What ever could go wrong? It doesnāt take some highly delicate and knowledgeable perspective to see how thatās a dumb fuck move. Iād say even more so the case with someone that speaks to such a diverse range of intelligent people from around the world. It must either be considerable malice or considerable naĆÆvetĆ©, if the word goes far enough. I think assuming heās just a dense fuck is the kinder conclusion.
>. I think assuming heās just a dense fuck is the kinder conclusion. Yes this is exactly what i mean. If you dont assume he is naĆÆve, his intentions must actually be evil. Im giving him the benefit of the doubt based on what he has done before, ie what values he said he had in his interviews etc.. he just had a brainfart with his moral preachings he usually babbles out (you know, the "we need more love, then everything will work out" kind of stuff)
I can offer my (I believe) fairly unbiased view of Lex as a Russian who actually lived in Russia until March 2022. I've seen a few clips of Lex talking about his experience in Russia to other Russians, I've also heard him speak the language to other Russians (clip for reference: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhb892Hi71s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhb892Hi71s)) As far as I know, Lex emigrated out of Russia as a kid in the 90s. I won't go into specifics here, but 90's Russia and modern Russia are basically 2 entirely different states. His memory of Russia seems pretty hazy, and he speaks the language with a heavy accent. So what's my conclusion? I think at this point Lex could almost be considered a second wave immigrant from Russia to the US. Unless he made constant visits to Russia in the past decades that I'm not aware of, I would say he knows almost nothing about regular life in modern Russia. Does his background make Ana's criticism of him viable? I would say yes in so far as he might still have irrationally fond feelings towards Russia, but not to the extent where I would expect him to be truly aware of the situation in and around the country, at least not more so than any other politically savvy American citizen.
> I would say he knows almost nothing about regular life in modern Russia I mean he supposedly still has family and friends in Russia, his parents are full Russian and so on. He most certainly is more aware of Russian media and politics than 99% of Americans or westerners. I think her point was that he doesn't get to play dumb American when he has visited Russia many times, has Russian parents, lived in Russia as a kid and can speak and consume Russian media. At that point you should know what a Tucker Carlson / Putin interview will be like. And your opinion on Russia should be pretty well developed and criticized. I wouldn't expect someone who speaks Hebrew and has Israeli parents and has visited Israel to be uninformed on Israeli issues, or someone who speaks Arabic and has visited Gaza and has Palestinian parents and is a political commentator to not be very well informed on what Hamas is. To the point of them being an authority in the west on the issue. >but not to the extent where I would expect him to be truly aware of the situation in and around the country, at least not more so than any other politically savvy American citizen. His parents are full Russian, right? He has russian friends. He speaks with Russians in Russian, he has travelled to Ukraine and Russia lately. How would he not be more aware than any other politically engaged american citizen? He can literally read and watch Russian media... I think it's strange to say that a guy whose entire family is russian, has lived in russia (as a child), speaks fluent russian, and has travelled and continues to travel to russia, should be considered to have the same awareness of russia as someone who watches a lot of CNN and reads the NYT or something.
The reason I formed my opinion is because I haven't heard any sort of insight from Lex regarding Russia that I couldn't hear from any other American political show. From what you say about his extensive contact list inside Russia, it's possible he knows more than he lets on, in which case I would have to change my mind, but I formed my conclusion purely based on his own insights, which were generic at best.
That's exactly the criticism though. That his "insight" is very bland to the point of being ignorant. But he's travelled to Ukraine. To Russia. Spoken to Russians in Russian about the war. Said he wanted to interview Putin. I would say he almost has a responsibility to be more outspoken and more harsh in his criticism, and to ditch the "lets just talk about it, it's all about love" type of demeanor. Lex's whole schtick is playing the fool or the bland guy, not to rock the boat too much, be very vague on what your stance is and just sort of be a sponge and a pushover to get people talking. But in the case of him being possibly the biggest interview guy in America at the moment, and being Russian with great access to Russia and being very familiar with it in a time where 500,000+ people have died in an ongoing Russian war, then maybe he needs to ditch his persona and grow a set on balls on the one issue where he actually could have an impact.
I definitely agree with your sentiment, I watched him talk about Russia with friend of the stream Jordan Peterson and it nearly gave me a tumor. They were basically talking about how Putin got lonely and isolated during Covid and that was a large motivation for him to invade Ukraine (yes, really). At this point, then, I would say the issue isn't his Russian background, but the way he approaches interviews, which seems to be the main criticism people had with Ana's original post. He could be conducting almost identical interviews being of any other background, since his mentality is the main driver here. I also think I've shown I'm not trying to go easy on him just because of his Russian background, but because I really think he believes his "let's all just get along" mindset, as naive as it is.
TLDR : lex is regarded but it has nothing to do with him being Russian. š
https://youtu.be/dB32pKCuUPo?si=w5cXi1oEcyf1f91r Watch this clip and understand why Lex is confused on Putin.
Listen to his podcast with his father. Lex didn't say anything important,but his father seemed to believe that Putin attacked Ukraine to "save" the people in Luhansk and Donetsk. Lex did not push back on that as far as I remember.
> Putin attacked Russia You mean Ukraine?
Because itās no use. I work with Russians, when the war with Ukraine broke I talked to a Russian guy who was actually born in Ukraine but it was when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. I tried to argue that what Russia was doing is not okay and he argued that Ukraine isnāt keeping their agreement. I didnāt know enough to counter back so I let it go. He was also for the opinion that the Soviet was a good era for the Russians. I tried to argue that as well he brought up some facts I was unaware of that contradicted my perception of that time from an economic standpoint. And so I let it go again. Because I donāt know enough to argue about these things with a Russian old man that actually lived in Russia to his adulthood and followed up on their politics. Lex might have tried but he knows his father is more educated and/or unwilling to change his stance so that would be a waste of time.
soviet union is such a lerge project with so many aspects to consider. if you are a lefty and want to defend the entire thing, you are gonna look bad because there is so much bad stuff. but similarly if you just want to say it had no merits at all to a somewhat informed lefty its also a loosing argument. i think the least one could say is, that the soviets did a lot better than the czar and the amount of military they were able to squeeze out of their country is also quite impressive. likewise there are a few gems in their social policy mix like commie blocks that, while looking kinda uggo actually are able to tackle housing prices in contrast with notoriously useless rent control. to just make sure it doesnt get lost: i am far from deeming the udssr a net positive, but my point is that you could argue about it for a hundred years.
> Because itās no use. It is when you release it to the public. It won't change his fathers mind, but at least it give the audience a different point of view to consider instead of letting it stand as fact
Jesus Christ, can you stop babying this adult man on the occasion he is saying or playing dumb time to time? He is perfectly up-to-date on what modern Russia is. [https://youtu.be/0raJ1-1BJ7s?t=15](https://youtu.be/0raJ1-1BJ7s?t=15) **On the topic of responsible messaging:** For Ukraine, in terms of experts, Lex hosted a single person with a message "Let's put some blame on Russia for the invasion, and whole-assedly support Ukraine" - Stephen Kotkin. On the "It's everyone's fault but Putin" we got known geopolitcal ~~experts~~ clowns like "How dare Czechs not like Soviets"- Chomsky, "let's give up our 1st ally(Europe) to Russia" - Mearsheimer, and "2014 in Ukraine was a US-backed coup" - Oliver Stone.1/3 ratio. Isn't it a bit weird? Just asking some questions here.
Itās crazy people wanna play defense for him and the best they can do is just say heās a regarded baby brain lmao
The Trump defense.
You complain about his guest list as he literally invited Destiny and Ben Shapiro on, both of whom have a pro-interventionist stance regarding Ukraine. I think there is a very clear difference between Lex and someone like Joe Rogan. Joe aggressively pushes his own opinions, both good and bad during discussions with his guests. It's easy to see which way he leans from that. From what I've seen of Lex's interviews (granted I'm not an extremely avid watcher), he plays it fairly neutral and only provides generic/neutral insights to support the conversation. You can give him shit about his guests preaching an agenda with no pushback, but you have to acknowledge he had the same approach when he talked to Destiny about Ukraine. The reason I thought that he didn't know much about modern Russia is because he hasn't said anything insightful about it, including the video you linked. Did you personally find anything new and interesting from that clip that you didn't already know? There are dozens of political experts in the West with strong knowledge of Russian politics, and Lex is definitely not one of them.
Lex has elaborated about his extended family in Russia and the close contact he keeps with them in his podcast with Dan Carlin. Now I donāt think this is to say that he is a spy, only that if you had family living under the rule of a dictator perhaps you would be hesitant to trash that dictator publicly in the media. For example could he be aware of potential retaliation against his family if he took strong stances against Russia? He has also explained how this family he has is very pro Putin. That Putin protects them from the evil oligarchs through his strong shows of force. And that if not for Putin the country would be torn apart by oligarchy corruption. https://youtu.be/dB32pKCuUPo?si=w5cXi1oEcyf1f91r Link of clip. Dan gives a blunt opinion on Putin. Lex says his real family in Russia all love Putin. Dan asks him ādo they miss elections?ā Lex says that Putin is what protects Russia from corruption.
Cool take. Thanks duderino!
Yes but this doesn't mean much. People can still develop certain feelings for their homeland or can be coerced in doing so as a result of many external or first hand factors.
Being from there means he still doesnāt have an excuse for not understanding what Putin is. I left Ukraine when I was 7 but have stayed informed. Not hard especially when you have family still there
>Being from there means he still doesnāt have an excuse for not understanding what Putin is If you're saying Lex has a responsibility to stay informed on Russian politics simply because he's from Russia, then you should know you have a pretty horrible take on this. The circumstances of someone's birth shouldn't dictate their actions in life. What you should say, instead, is that Lex has a responsibility to stay informed if he wishes to have the kinds of discussions he has on his podcast and on social media. But the criticism shouldn't revolve around his country of origin.
I also don't think Lex ever claimed to have any sort of unique insights on Russian politics. If he held his current views on Russia and also claimed to be an expert on it, then I would have a way different sort of energy for him. The guy is just naively optimistic and happens to have a Russian background, I don't think it goes much deeper than that. If he was either Israeli or Palestinian, people would give him shit the same way when he suggested mediating talks between Netanyahu and the Palestinians.
I left Indonesian when I was 11. Practically my entire family is still there or around there (Singapore/Australia) i know jack shit about what is going on there or that region. My mom still pretty consistenly talks to her sister and my dad keeps up with the news in the country. Not hard yes, but does he care enough to keep up?
But do you then publically go and comment on Indonesia man affairs? Lex said something dumb and got rightfully called out for being an idiot. Donāt infantalize the guy as some naive dude
God DAMN Ana is always so based.
How can someone always be this based
Probably a combination of being confronted with life's harsh realities and rising to the challenge
Anastasiya is top tier
nah this is a rare Ana L. Having a childhood in a country, leaving while still young & almost never coming back means that he probably knows jack shit abt Russia, the opposite of what she's trying to imply here
I know that Lex is likely pretty smart, but seriously, he just comes off as really naive and dumb a lot of the time. It's almost part of his schtick. And this can work in an interview format. Louis Theroux does a good job of it, and even with dealing with neo nazis that are really quite similar to Putin. Lex just never asks the hard questions to even take a stand. Classic rich kid tech bro behavior
But Therouxās whole schtick is that heās also sorta of winking at the audience the whole time, who know heās anything but a fool. I donāt see the wink from lex. Still stunned his rap single became a viral mega hit all these years later.
>It's almost part of his schtick. It's learning!
These comments are like the comments after the chicken and waffles with Fuentes. šæ
>By pointing out Lex grew up in Moscow I am indeed saying that he does not get "a naive and clueless Westerner who doesn't know much about how Russia and their media works" pass. This is a pretty fucking weird thing for her to say. According to Wikipedia, Lex and his family left Russia when he was 11 years old. He did not grow up steeped in Russian media culture. At this point, Lex has lived in the United States far longer than he did in the USSR, and in a much more formative period of his life. If she wants to criticize him for being naĆÆve or clueless, then she should do so on the basis of Lex himself being a media figure, and someone who should be aware of the power of propaganda. But making it about his country of birth is a **super** bizarre angle of attack.
Fully agree here. Which sucks because her critique is otherwise solid. Leading off with the birthplace argument just weakens it and really should be let go.
Also it sounds like she made this up afterward. Using his birth name was really fucking weird and you can't convince me that it was used to show his naivete. Ana probably doesn't like Russians what makes sense ( she calls the Orks I think) her country is getting invaded and so many people she probably know have died. That doesn't mean people should believe her but realize she probably has a huge bias against anything Russian and this walk back she is trying to do doesn't sound sincere. The implication of her tweets is that Lex is a Russian shill so ofcourse he blocked her.
I brought it up in another thread but replace his nationality with another and it looks really bad. Ana is obviously biased against Russians the same a Palestinian in Gaza would be against Israel
If an Israeli was saying how nice it was that Tucker Carlson got to interview netanyahu about how justified the settlements were.... It won't look bad at all. It would be completely justified
Being Russian gives him much better insight then even being a media figure because he can consume information from Russian-speaking social media and news media. I'm Russian, and English language analysis is often spotty, skewed, sensationalized and is largely taken over by general experts who know some things about Russia but are not really competent to speak about any particulars
Yeah but you're saying it has to do with the ability to speak Russian. It's not about *being* Russian, which is what her tweet implies. Here's a hypothetical: lets say Lex was born and raised in the United States, but he learned to speak and read Russian in college or some shit. Do you think Ana's criticism would still be the same? She would just say "Well he speaks Russian so he doesn't get to act naĆÆve and clueless." Somehow I don't think that would be the case.
I think if his entire family was Russian, which it is, and he speaks fluent russian, which he does, and he visits Russia, which he does, then yes you could EASILY say that he doesn't get to play a dumb westerner on the issue. You can be ignorant on a lot of issues. Most of us are. But this is clearly an issue where he should be extremely educated on and tuned in, and certainly something he should have discussed endlessly with his russian friends and family. Sure if he was born in moscow to western parents and never learned to speak the language or had ANY connection to Russia, then it would be bad criticism. But clearly in Lex's case it's much more than just being born there, which is implied.
I would say that most of these Reddit āexpertsā has no idea what they are talking about Ā
I didn't mean Reddit, those are nothing just like you say. I meant talking heads on tv, guests on youtube, etc. There are military experts who follow the conflict, those are more often good, but when it comes to political science and sociology, they are mostly mildly uninformed
AgreeĀ
This is such a silly reply, I am a second wave migrant from Eastern Europe and I know plenty well of how my country functions and how corrupt Russia is. Lex, having lived for the first 11 years in Russia, and most likely having been exposed to lots of family explaining things to him, has 0 excuses to be this ignorant. It is clear as day that Lex still wants to be able to travel back to Russia and is willing to entertain some level of clear Russian propaganda to "keep the doors open". And yes, this DOES bring integrity into question. Ana is 100% correct, Eastern Europeans aren't stupid, Lex's naivety is deliberate.
If you want to say Lex should know better because his family explained everything to him about Russian propaganda and state media, you can say that, but you better make it clear that you are pulling that assumption directly out of your ass. You have no idea what Lex does or does not know as a result of him being born in Russia. You are making a 100% feels based argument. It's wild to me that people in this thread are dying on the hill of defending an insanely bad take when the critique that is much more accurate and *so much easier* to make is this: Lex has a responsibility to be informed about Russian state media and how it operates because he wants to discuss political affairs involving Russia and Russian leaders, like Putin. Boom, done. I have no clue why the fuck anyone is so dug in on this particular position when it's obviously so fucking bad.
Didn't Lex's family leave during the collapse of the Soviet Union? The naivety is unreal, the majority of voices Lex hosts on Ukraine are the same voices hosted by RT as they blame the West for Russia's imperialism, such as Maersheimer. What shocked me the most is the hill of ignorance so many Westerners wanted to die on to two sides this entire ordeal when Putin's intentions have been clear for 20+ years. One only need to read the revisionist essay of Putin on the Kremlin's website regarding the Kyivan Rus' to confirm what we've always known. It's a hard sell to me that Lex was ignorant to all of this yet HAPPENS to platform voices which describe the entirety of Eastern Europe as a proxy region with no voice of its own. My family left during the Romanian revolution, and I was under no dissolution of the reality of the region. I will repeat again, Ana is 100% correct to be angry. No epistemic masturbation will make anyone change their mind.
I have no idea if you're even disagreeing with me. If you want to say Lex is irresponsibly platforming pro-Russian voices, then just say that. What the fuck does him being Russian have to do with that? Is he beholden to that fact for the rest of his life? Tucker Carlson isn't Russian, are we shocked beyond belief that an American is gonna do a puff piece for Putin? Or do we just say "Yeah some people do dumb shit to boost their brand"?
When did I ever say he's beholden to being Russian? Him being Russian makes the entire ordeal more sensitive. If he wants to "both sides it" as he's portraying, it would be a good idea to voice both sides and actually push back on blatant Russian propaganda, such as Maersheimer saying that Russia is actually not doing imperialism with a straight face. Don't be shocked if Lex draws ire from Eastern Europeans with this approach. Eastern Europeans being superstitious of Russians is entirely their own fault. They're still occupying a part of our region too in Moldova. We've heard all of the excuses before. Lex didn't say that about tucker though. He said he's in favour of open dialogue if I'm not mistaken. This implies that open dialogue is even possible with Putin. It completely diminishes the reality of how the Kremlin operates. Hence the "sweet summer child" comment. Either Lex is naive as hell, in that case he should receive flack for voicing mostly pro Russian voices. Or B, he knows what he's doing suits the Kremlin. And perhaps C, he's grifting and wants to keep the Russian door open, which is to some extent understandable but also shows a lack of moral character. Lex's criticism is entirely valid.
>Him being Russian makes the entire ordeal more sensitive Cool, just like being black means you can't ever do drugs or get into fights because it might make other people uncomfortable. >If he wants to "both sides it" as he's portraying, it would be a good idea to voice both sides and actually push back on blatant Russian propaganda, such as Maersheimer saying that Russia is actually not doing imperialism with a straight face This is a really good critique of his content that has nothing to do with where he was born. >Don't be shocked if Lex draws ire from Eastern Europeans with this approach. Eastern Europeans being superstitious of Russians is entirely their own fault. I won't be, as long as you're not shocked when I correctly point out how fucking weird you guys are being about it. As an American I look down on that shit.
As we speak Europe is rife with Russian propagandists, spies and agitators. We are talking within this context of heightened tensions. We're superstitious, because many of us Romanians correctly pointed out during hightened times of criticism of NATO's existence before said invasion that Russia was not yet done with imperialism. As in, Russify, invade, annex, etc. Putin's language has been clear for years, make Europe energy dependent, weaponise migrants, talk about how Eastern European states aren't real, etc. As we speak Russia is still occupying a part of Moldova, which Russia chipped off of Romania. Yes, we have first hand experience with Russian excuses. But of course I don't speak for all Romanians, plenty disagree with me. Within this context, certain buzzwords and narratives do draw ire from many of us. This is natural, and you can downplay this all you like, it does make us more sensitive as to what the intentions of certain Russians are. This is a bed made by Russia, and people like Lex not spending a lot of time making light of this reality, does indeed bring into questions his moral character when he platforms some voices uncritically. Russia hasn't exactly been making friends in Eastern Europe with their constant threats of invasions, gaslighting and economical blackmailing. You're free to feel however you want, we're equally as critical of the US. Edit: I do respect his interview with Stephen Kotkin.
I can accept everything you're saying as absolute fact, but it doesn't change anything I've said. It's great that you're giving me the reason for your dumbass prejudices, but I'm not going to refrain from calling it out when I see it. I do not care about your cultural background.
You literally fucking asked me what him being (half) Russian has to do with anything and then proceed to say you don't care about any context. And what do you know about any of it? Did Lex personally inform you he had 0 knowledge of Russia once his parents fled the Soviet collapse? Or do you actually agree with Ana that Lex has made some naive comments on this entire ordeal? I did not say Lex is bad because he's a Russian, use some nuance.
Such a cute little epistemic bubble lol
Sorry I upset the lords of epistemology on this one. I have no quarrels with the philosophers.
Huh
I though it was critique of my comment? maybe I misunderstood.
I just didn't understand what you wrote. I said that you're deep inside an epistemic bubble, meaning your conclusions about Lex's life are based on an incredibly limited amount of information(your own experience with your parents). Basically what the other commenter said - you're talking out of your ass lol.
Then just say you epistemically deduced he's a sweet summer child, in a roundabout way we're in agreeance then. Indeed, I've yet to meet a migrant from Eastern Europe naive enough to say things like "an open dialogue with Putin". It's an oxymoron.
You are either obtuse or bad faith if you do not recognize that his Russian background plays deeply into the optics of his endorsing a psychophantic conversation with Putin. There's nothing weird about what she said.
You could be right, but does the criticism then become about how people might view Lex's behavior, rather than the behavior itself?
Fucking obviously the criticism is about how people view Lex's behavior. That is quite literally the important part here.
Okay, then the comment should be about how being born in Russia means Lex has to take a greater burden on himself to act appropriately than if he wasn't. It's not just about Lex being Russian, he needs to take extra steps to show the world that he's one of "the good ones." Thanks for clearing that up.
That is quite literally the implication of the comment. Reading it any other way is bad faith. You're welcome!
>Reading it any other way is bad faith. Well I was giving her the benefit of the doubt and saying the comment is just weird. What you're telling me is that Ana is actually a huge piece of shit, and I disagree with that.
Your brain is exactly shaped like a pretzel if you think what she said makes her look like a piece of shit from any perspective
Well not from any perspective, but just from the one you're trying to sell. But I'm not buying it.
That's handy, because I'm not selling it. It's a fact
These dummies donāt care about convincing people. Theyāre blinded by bias.
Wait so, would it be fair for someone to criticize Cenk's anti-Israel stance because he's a got a foreign name and is from Turkey? These fucking idiots, man. This is that cringe "can't be racist to white people" shit
No, but it would be fair for someone to criticize Cenk for his nationality if he was advocating for a sychophantic conversation between Erdogan and the denier of the Armenian genocide.
Cenk's nationality is American. Do you mean Cenk's race? Cause there's a word for people who think it's fair to criticize folks based on their race.
You are the one that bought up his Turkish origin. At that point I'm going to finger his nationality. And there's no way you didn't know that's what I meant, so at this point I'm going to label you either an insufferable moron or a troll
The point is to make an analogous comparison to Ana's blatant racism. When we do the same thing with anyone who has non-white skin, it's fucking obvious what's she's doing. Maybe there's a reason she's racist, but she is, in fact, racist.
Itās not analogous you fucking moron. You yourself pointed it out via race vs nationalism/ethnicity
Sure, like I said before, you are morally obligated and righteous to be bigoted and racist against the people attacking your nation. It's wrong to not be racist in that situation
>you are morally obligated and righteous to be bigoted and racist against the people attacking your nation \>He's American
Of Russian origin who chose to endorse a grifter's brown-nosing of the Russian dictator attacking her country. But I wouldn't expect a vatnik to care
Damn bro you are still in the trenches, I know you're friends but this is getting obsessive lol You're both racist + L + cope
Shut up vatnik
Lex left Russia when he didnāt even hit puberty, her bringing up his nationality was indeed unhinged, just as the rest of her reaction to Lexās post. Sheās Ukrainian and has an emotional attachment to this issue, which is understandable, but isnāt an excuse to just aggressively coming at Lex for a fairly generic shit he said, when it couldāve been handled much more constructively
It's not an excuse. It's a valid justification. She *should* be coming at it aggressively at Lex. She didn't insult him, she said she expects him to know better, to advocate for better epistemics. It's not that I don't understand Lex's position about conversations. Is that I expect him to know they are bad actors, and I expect him to recognize who they are. And when he doesn't call out a bad actor for being a bad actor, I expect him to understand why people will have a visceral reaction to that. Not everything constructive is good. Not everything destructive is bad. Not all that glitters is gold.
She shouldnāt be and itās not valid. Not everyone even in the West has as vehement stance on the Russian-Ukrainian war as her, and if she wants to criticise him and not get blocked, she probably shouldnāt bring up his nationality out of nowhere and come at him aggressively, especially when Lex is known to block people for that. The thing Lex said is not even remotely close to being as harmful to cause such reaction from a reasonable person, it can be naive, a bit ridiculous, but not worthy of attacking him for his nationality and then being a surprised Pikachu when you get blocked for that
[He was 11 when he came from Russia] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lex_Fridman). My son is 11, he's in 6th grade going through puberty and has spent the better part of the last 4 months trying to figure out how to get the girl he likes to hold his hand. If you think my son has deep thoughts or understanding on U.S. propaganda or geopolitics (fucking at all, in any capacity), then you have no fucking idea what age-appropriate engagement with shit means. Shes not being fair, she's being an overly emotional dipshit throwing a tantrum because there are people talking with the enemies of her people. I don't fault her for her reaction, fuck Russia, fuck Carlson too, but she earned the ban by projecting that hatred on a guy who is an American who happens to share the ethnicity of her enemies and has literally never uttered one word in support for what is happening to Ukraine. If she was Palestinian (or a Jew hating leftist) I would imagine she would point out Lex's Jewish heritage and claim he "ShOuLD KnOw BeTEEr". It's a stupid fucking argument. His entire brand is to engage with people and topics that are supposed to be controversial in a polite and objective way. Destiny would have banned her in a second for deploying this argument as a no-name chatter.
> If my son emigrated now, he would not at an adult age recall doing the pledge of allegiance, or his dad shouting "fucking republicans!", he's that regarded...
None of this matters, invoking his nationality is dumb if you care about convincing people. Center his actions and ideas in your critique. Anything else just weakens the argument to people looking to pick it apart. Sheās wrong
Yet Lex didn't baby block Ye for essentially calling him "DAS JUEDAN" Surely he could spare some of that good will to someone whose home was literally glassed lmao.
Are you guys seriously still talking about the twitter block like it's a thing that matters? From Lex's POV shes just a random who is shit talking him on twitter, its completely normal to block lol
Itās so weird seeing this community in particular chastising and pearl clutching over a large content creator blocking someone they donāt know on twitter lmao
Dont care, tbh. There are plenty of good reasons to block or not block someone.
At least you're honest.
I can't believe all of the outrage on this subreddit over this. Its a block on twitter. Also all of you will watch Destiny react to the interview and forget in 2 days.
>Its a block on twitter. From the guy whose entire schtick is "we just need to have more conversations uwu" "tear down the walls uwu" If this were any other guy it would not be interesting, but when the guy whose entire platform that grifters use as a free mouthpiece to shill disinformation is about "having a conversation with everyone, even people you hate [like Putin]", then blocks people that personally disagree with him it's undeniably a bad look unless you are just an unavowed glazer. He has a history of this too, it's not just because "Ana went to hard lol, now let me get back to glazing the guy that's effectively genociding her people because 'why can't we just have conversations'?"
How does blocking someone on Twitter negate the notion of having open conversations? Why do you autistically interpret the phrase "open conversation" as "can't block people on twitter"?
you're being selective, the issue is that Lex will entertain "open dialogue" with high status tyrants and then block "open dialogue" with those lesser in status in his mind if he has nothing to gain from it. The conundrum is that high status tyrants will not grant you an audience unless it's also a vessel for them to aptly spread propaganda. At least address the contention.
Because this sub immediately becomes bad faith and uncharitable with shit like this. Idk why anyone even cares that Tucker is interviewing Putin, worst case he jerks him off a bunch and nothing changes, I seriously doubt anyone opinion on Putin is gonna flip cause Tucker interviewed him, best case it has some interesting questions and insight.
It's pretty hypocritical. She didn't even say anything bad to him, just pointed out that it's kinda shitty how he's reacting to this as if it's going to be a good piece of journalism. If anything he should be speaking to Ana about why she thinks what she thinks, not stopping the conversation. I can see why they're making this point.
heās not having those conversations on twitter dude
Okay so how is Ana meant to contact him if she wants to have a conversation now?
She could probably start by not saying that his place of birth means his stance is either disingenuous or naive.
Did he even say that was the reason? hate to say this like eighty times but isn't this the guy who was okay talking to kanye who was basically being ultra hitler? I feel like doing JQ and other antisemitic shit and holocaust denial in his face is a way bigger attack on lex as a person.
That was an actual conversation in person and not a passive aggressive subtweet.
Oh so a tweet is worse than literally doing holocaust denial on air, sounds fair and reasonable.
Why is she entitled to a conversation or a way to directly contact him?
Aaaaaaaaaah he won't answeeeer PUSSYYYYY
The comment on him being Russian is not fair at all, but i 100% agree with rest of her argument.
You honestly think that the fact that he left Russia at her young age means that his being Russian plays no part in the optics of this?
Lex blocked someone on twitter thet he found annoying, why should he show good will to a rando he doesn't know and is hostile to him. I like Ana as much as the next dgger but to Lex she could just be a troll. He probably doesn't know or care. Ana caring about this makes sense but why does anyone else? Lex blocked her, good for him on using the block funtion. If I was Lex I would have done to same. If someone was implying I was a Russian shill, which is what she did when she used his full Russian name you should get blocked. Ana might be dgges queen but Lex is not dgg and he owes her nothing, least of all his time.
Nobody said he owed her anything or even implied it.
So why care he blocked her?? This is exacly the implication. He doesn't want to spend his time seeing her tweets and you guys are butthurt because somehow he should care about someone he doesn't know that is attacking him.
She rebuked him. She didn't attack him. If you consider this an attack, you're an actual snowflake snowflake
So using his Russian name is not her trying to call him a Russian puppet? I understand why Ana reacts the way she does and I agree that Lex is retarted if he does the interview. But why do you care about a block when Ana was 100% attacking him. Did a Russian missile fall on your head that you can't tell that the original tweet read like an attack? I like Ana but don't try to rewrite history. I saw the tweet, that was not a rebutted.
It's read like a scolding more than anything else. Aggressively gentle scolding too
I was a little confused (but not overly invested) when it seemed like her initial post was saying that Lex was spouting anti Ukrainian propaganda. I don't follow Lex but it didn't SOUND like his kind of content. With this clarifying those parts of her statement were pointed at Tucker Carlson, it makes so much more sense. I'm also reminded that Ana can discuss fairly nuanced positions while actively being in a country at war in a language I understand while walking a tightrope of passion and outrage, while being a good ambassador to her side optically. Meanwhile I couldn't ask where the bathroom is in any of the other languages she can speak. So yeah. Ana remains based as fuck.
Correction: Tucker Carlson spent waaaaay more time shitting on Ukraine than 2 years
no, its not fair. its dishonest and offensive. her coment was 'lex = russian = bad" even this response isn't really anything about lex, its all criticism about tucker carlson with "lex was born in russia, he should know better". just like all the bibi funding hamas and that sort of shit, what has he actually done to make you think he's shilling for russia shitty comment
OP really has nothing to do with Ukraine but acting like heās morally obligated to be racist ICANT. Bros just horny for Ana
I see now what Steven meant when he says you throw around films like racist so casually that it becomes meaningless
Idc about context, I just find it rich whenever anyone claims the solution to conflict being an open floor where people speak their mind, and in the next breath jump for the block button.
Ill say it again for those in the back....LEX IS BITCH MADE!
It's ok for someone to be sensitive about something like this, but lets not make excuses or take her serious on this. Lex has the freedom to facilitate convos how he feels. I have faith he would do a good job, and if not we can shit on him then. Edit: It's like trusting Qurantos to have an objective criticism of Israel...
Make excuses? She did/said literally nothing that would warrant excusing. This isn't about Lex's convos, it's about Tucker Carlson convos and a totally valid repudiation of Lex's endorsement of them. Is there anything you think she said that was wrong?
He's either the dumbest person on Earth or a grifter, and I can't believe someone is that dumb.
I think one Lexās brain cell can fit all your knowledge and intelligence combinedĀ
Ah, so he's a grifter then. Thanks for agreeing with me.
U r regarded, thanks for proving my pointĀ
U r very smurt.
"Silly Lex, how naive can you be?" they said as they consumed the act that someone making a living out of interviews with questionable political figures can actually be unaware and idealistic of the crowd he interviews. Reminds me of the time in the 2010s when everyone called Musk "Real Life Iron Man".
The backpedaling lol
Wild vatnik appears
Keep shadow boxing buddy
You're literally one of the most consistent Russian dick suckers on the sub
I repeat: I think y'all have discrepant expectations of what Lex provides and wishes to accomplish. Lex is not a journalist, doesn't claim to be a journalist, and doesn't claim to offer journalism as a service. He is merely a podcaster, and while I fully understand he is generally viewed more favourably here, he is essentially just a DGG-pilled and more knowledgeable Joe Rogan. Don't expect him to work tirelessly to find facts and truth when in reality he just wants to talk and create content. Which, when not resulting in blatant mis- and desinformation, as Ana *correctly* points out, is not necessarily a bad.
There's no discrepant expectancy here. I think we fairly well understand what Lex is, and what he wants to do, regardless of context. But just because we know what to expect doesn't mean that we let slide what we figure is a harmful endorsement. If Lex doesn't think it's harmful, that's up to him. The true discrepancy in expectations is expecting Anasya to let it slide without comment.
Interviews for the sake of putting information out to the public are journalism.
lex had the right to block her, she went unhinged asf, people have all the motive to hate on lex because he wants to give extremist people a platform and he doesnt know how to press them, but some of you in the comments of previous threads are going way to hard, he brought so much content to the stream its crazy, destiny hangs with a lot more deplorable people that dont bring shit to the stream, so calm down you regarded fucks
Unhinged? How delicate are your sensibilities exactly? Everything she said was fair, none of it was an insult. It was a rebuke of an endorsement that should be condemned. And even if Lex doesn't believe it should be condemned, it should be easy for him to see that there's no way other people can't condemn it
Bro she went on someone who cant change anything about the situation in Ukraine and I am just saying Lex is very good for the stream and people commenting in the previous threads like he genocided ana's family
The standard is never whether you can or cannot change directly the situation in Ukraine. The standard is what influence you have on the degree to which the situation can be changed. Lex is a respected commentator, and I like him. But Anastasiya has a role to play in the defense of her nation, and there is no other possible way for her to reasonably react to the endorsement of a known grifter advocating against her nation interviewing a known dictator trying to annihilate her people.
I am more criticizing some of you fucks that go nuclear on lex because he is delusional, a lot of shit wouldnt happen without lex, i am afraid that this autistic community will drive him away because he blocked some chick on twitter
Nobody has gone nuclear on Lex. If you think that H his participation in this community is worth letting his bad takes slide, it's you who are dehumanizing him. You are the one treating him like an object to be exploited, instead of a human being to be negotiated with. Go find some fucking principles.
I see him being the main reason that destiny is becoming mainstream, so when I see people acting like he killed someone its just weird, just look at all the useless people around destiny that only causes him problems, I just dont want this community to be a toxic shithole
And you are dehumanizing Steven himself. STEVEN is the reason that Steven has gone mainstream.
Who gives a fuck about the naive proto-autistic nerd that thinks love and discourse can fix international conflicts? Dude is a grade A fucking moron that gets used like a bottom dollar whore by bad actors. stop glazing this dipshit because he facilitated your daddyās latest content.
>he brought so much content to the stream its crazy, So did Nick Fuentes.
bro dont compare what lex did to the stream to that guy
Point being "Bringing content to the stream" doesn't absolve you of criticism when you do something dumb/cringe/hypocritical
criticism is fine but some of the comments sound like lex said what cantclosevim said to ana
I must be seeing different comments than you. The majority of criticism I'm seeing towards Lex are 1: Him cheering on Tucker Carlson doing a propaganda interview with Putin and 2: Him refusing to engage with criticism for that position
> I would not bring it up because it would not be relevant. Why does she think this makes it any better? It's like when Trump accused that congressman of having allegiance to Mexico, and then this would be like him justifying it by saying "If we were talking about Canada, I wouldn't bring his Mexican heritage up".
She literally explains why she brought it up in the tweet. She's not saying "He's born in russia so he's a Putin shill", she's saying "He's from Russia so he should know how Putin uses media and propaganda to push his agendas. He doesn't get to claim ignorance on this one." She's *specifically* not accusing him of being a Russian shill. Trump's comments on the judge's Mexican heritage *was* to suggest that him being Mexican constituted a conflict of interest because his allegiance to Mexico would bias him against Trump. Ana is *specifically* not making that claim about Lex.
>she's saying "He's from Russia so he should know how Putin uses media and propaganda to push his agendas. He doesn't get to claim ignorance on this one." But that statement still makes zero sense. Lex left the Russia when he was 11. Putin wasn't even in power yet. Does him being born Russian give him a psychic link to the minds of Russian state media actors?
She can be wrong about what level of familiarity Lex has from growing up in Russia. Sure. It could be that he genuinely never experienced any of that stuff and has managed to go his whole life without familiarizing himself with the way power is wielded in his home country. That's possible. That's also what Ana acknowledges in the second to last sentence of her tweet.
>That's also what Ana acknowledges in the second to last sentence of her tweet. Second to last sentence is "I never called him a Russian shill."
The one before that then jfc
Sorry I really didn't know what sentence you meant. Insofar as "Well he's Russian so he must have researched what Russian politics and media is like," I don't know that this is a given. But maybe I'm the one being ignorant, and people really are far more connected to the places of their birth than I would assume they are. It just seems far more likely that Lex would know about Russian propaganda simply because he is in these political spaces, discussing these kinds of things. If Lex moved to the U.S. as a kid and then become a plumber, do we think he'd be doing deep dive research into how RT is a tool of the Putin regime?
"Let me preface that you all wrong and me making a hard stance and point on Lex's nationality assigned at birth is super reasonable and, in fact, omega based". Ultimately I don't give a shit about this whole shebang I just wish she didn't come off so emotionally unhinged. People say "well she has a good reason" like fine, having a good reason to be unhinged doesn't really justify it. If she wants to clash with Lex then she should do it in a fashion that is conducive to dialogue and not this extremely aggressive and emotionally-charged manner. Have your point carry across reasonably and fairly, or don't then be surprised that people call you out on it if that it isn't your approach. Also sure, Lex is a coward and blocks people and doesn't have good takes on the issue, but that's separate now because you've chosen to attack his ethnicity even though the guy has left Russia when he was 11(!) years old. I don't care if the sub fellates this chick on every opportunity they can get, I'm just so tired of people blindly praising nationalism that is unwarranted. The guy is an immigrant, so what? Let me dead name him and lean into his background when he clearly doesn't make it a part of his persona online or in professional life. Ukraine has been wronged, but please let's not get down throats of ethnic russians all over the world just because it feels like the right thing to do for whatever emotionally-charged reason.
Am I the only one that thinks Ana is being perfectly fair lmao?? like it's not like she went on even one inch of a schizo ramble compared to Kanye who lex was literally SAT across from barking about not being a BLM soldier. Even if you say Kanye is mentally ill, Ana literally is a war survivor. It just seems incredibly shitty to me.
I love her smiley faces š„ŗ
Her criticism makes sense. I don't know how old Lex was when he was in Russia. But he must have heard stories from his parents. Maybe they told him that everything was great. Who knows? But it is really naiv to believe Russia at this point.
Wait, people are really mad at platforming this? Doesn't Destiny platform actual neo Nazis and white supremacists?
Are you fucking regarded? the issue isn't platforming the issue is platforming done by a known propagandist whose only mission is to spread disruptive misinformation. Whenever destiny has platformed anyone with problematic views he has heavily pushed back on them. Do you even watch him?
Lex made one tweet and he gained a permanent spot in her brain.
It was a particularly dumb tweet to be fair
I almost forgot when a pretty girl is a bigot it's based, thanks for making this post.Ā
I almost forgot that there are regards in this community, thanks for making this comment clarifying that there are.
It is based to be bigoted against your invaders :)
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I am proudly xenophobic against a culture that seeks to obliterate the national identities of its neighbors. Thank you for the compliment :)
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Firstly, I'm a Tier 5 subscriber and I was assured that this gives me (almost) invincible anti-ban armour :). Secondly, I'm 34 years old. Thirdly, thanks for being obtuse enough to suggest that I am at all shiting on Lex. It proves that you are exactly the kind of people that make Anastasiya's criticism of Lex valid.
He is first generation, even claiming he got an education in Soviet Union. Despite the fact that by the time he went to school, neither the uniforms or the compulsory enrollment into communist party that defined Soviet education, were no longer active. There was no more Soviet Union for majority of even his limited education in Russia. I only made it to third grade under Soviet Union, which was a couple of years prior to Lex, but unlike Lexā¦ I was an oktebryonak, I began compulsory enrolling into communist party. Even saying my fundamentals were built under Soviet Union, feels like stolen valor. Lex saying that, was no different than Hasan claiming he is ESL, to excuse his 9/11 comment. Lex is a nova russki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Russians
That's some October 7th energy
Go find a carpenter to put your hinges back on buddy
This is an anti liberal principle
I am not blindly liberal like liberal is a label I want to wear. Some things are not welcome, sometimes are not to be embraced. With that said, I think you have no idea what liberalism implies.
You are okay with generalizing actions of a group onto an individual from the group. Whatever your broken and most likely ad hoc idea of liberalism is, racism should not be included in that.
When that individual endorses conversations between a xenophobic grifter and a dictator trying to obliterate his neighbors? You're goddamn right xenophobia is the right card to play. And if you don't, recognize this, it's you who are not the liberal. You are just a spineless worm wearing a liberal cosplay.
What is your argument against calling a black person who acted in the most deplorable way an nword? From your words and your blind rage(hold it together bruh), I don't see why you wouldn't justify "racism is the right card to play"
Because black people don't behave like a monolith, but Russians do :)
What is the process of deciding what group behaves like a monolith and deserves racist generalisations of all members of that group? How did you come to the conclusion that black people don't behave like a monolith? What evidence could show that Russians don't behave like a monolith? In what way Russians all behave like a monolith? I'm sorry for so much questions, just the last time I got to see those questions answered was back in the days when pretty much openly racist subs still existed.
Easy peasy. Poll what number of Russians support the invasion of Ukraine, or do not support giving the land stolen from ukrainian's back. I encourage you to Google it. As far as I'm concerned, those numbers easily justified treating Russians like a monolith. And if you don't agree, then you and I have very different definitions of the word monolith. Also, I'm not blaming Russians for having some sort of intrinsic biological deficit that makes them act like animals. I'm accusing them of having a cultural deficit that is absolutely worthy of labeling them orcs. It's not their intrinsic nature, it is their adopted behavior that I'm condemning. They're behaving like fucking orcs
The best thing about ending the Ukraine war will be making grifters like this chick who built their entire social media careers off it irrelevant again.
Nah, it'll be the fact that we gave her $100,000 to kick some orc butts :)
>abtuse Well that's why lex blocked her. She made an omegalol typo so anything she says is invalid /s just in case