Back in my early student years at a University called MGIMO - now this thing is a sort of special deal in Russia back in the time, a bit so now too, but it was pretty much the only solid way to start going abroad consistently in the Soviet time. It is hard to imagine, but the reality of what was called the Iron Curtain was a political, military, and ideological barrier erected by the Soviet regime after World War II to seal off itself and its Eastern and Western allies from open contact with the West and other non-communist areas. The West understood the danger of creating a second reality and the threat of three billion potential soldiers that could be turned against it by Russian (Soviet) propaganda - and countered it with a number of agencies and media like Voice of America or Svoboda, which Trump has just so conveniently shut down as a part of the surrender of the United States to Russia.
I dated a girl whose parents were both scientists. Well, I need to add something here. It sounds much stronger and much more masculine than it really was and given what I think it was. She was as beautiful as a young Jewish girl could be, or probably even better, with her freckles and funny manners, her brazen independence that I’d never seen in anyone around me. Even the way she smoked and wore that leather jacket, and a thousand other small and large things altogether, including the fact that she was a student journalist – which always made me tremble a bit. Journalism was one of those things that had always intrigued me, but I couldn’t bring myself to go for it – it was too economically uncertain compared to international law, which I was studying at the time. Her family, too, carried this scientific aura around them, very intriguing – sorry for the tautology, but that’s exactly what it was, deeply and lastingly.
So, she was a higher league, in short. Her mother worked in immunology, her father in biochemistry, or vice versa, I don’t remember. They were sharp, accomplished people, the kind you’d expect to be on the side of reason. Later, her mother got a contract in Wichita, Kansas - in a lab that Trump has already closed or will close soon after, as we know education has turned out to be unnecessary - and moved there with her daughter. I remember a conversation with her father - we called him Savelytch - a giant, scary guy who had a second nickname among the boys: 'Mountain.' As many, if not all, big and strong men, he was the very meaning of kindness. He told me to join this girl in Kansas.
That was something I couldn’t think of at the time - life looked like an open book I had just started reading, and I craved feat. No shit, G-d met my expectations halfway, going a bit ahead in this story. I was still clinging to the hope that our country would be okay. It actually was starting to recover, if not for the Chekist (KGB) cult that later wrecked everything, including your country. I stayed. The relationship didn’t last. Her parents divorced soon after, too - long-distance relationships require a reason better than just convenience.
Almost twenty years passed. I moved to New York. By the way, I moved to New York completely by accident, after I gave a public talk at a Russian business forum where I openly condemned the annexation of Crimea, Ukraine and the hybrid war in Donbas,Ukraine. They warned me to make a nice speech on this Make Russia Great Again crap, and instead I delivered an hour-long dismantling of Putin's economic strategy, expansionism, the annexation of Crimea, and the occupation of Donbas. It was one of the most renowned economic forums, live broadcast on major Russian channels. I didn’t just say, 'Ich bin eine bereite Pionerin,' as one of my ex-bosses used to joke – I gave a very solid analysis of the private equity market, M&A, and the general market conditions following Russia’s war against Ukraine in 2014. Hundreds of people in the hall went silent. Radio Svoboda, which as already mentioned Trump would later shut down, interviewed me afterwards. That same day a friend called and told me not to return home. He said SAM (САМ), meaning HIM, wouldn’t calm down for at least a month but maybe three months. I flew to New York that night. They said that I could return after one to three months when everything had calmed down. But then they published an article in Izvestia calling me a runaway Russophobe, and shortly after that, one of their journalists called me asking for a comment. I told him that 'phobia' comes from the Latin word for 'fear,' but I am not afraid of them - I despise them. A few days later my friend sent me an emoji of a sigh. That was it. We were done with the plans to return.
Back to the girl. Her mother had since remarried a cancer researcher in Philadelphia - a very composed, intelligent man with the kind of dry wit you don't expect but quickly appreciate. The kind of guy you listen to closely without realizing you’ve gone quiet. A serious guy, very smart, thoughtful. The girl had married a Black man. I met him once, seemed like a decent guy, but I didn’t know much more. They eventually divorced, but they had a son, Daniel. Same name as my own boy, purely by chance. This kid was something else - bright, handsome, polite. Every time I saw him I had to catch my breath. That well-raised.
For a while I visited them at her mother’s big house in Philly. It was warm, open, familiar. Then one day it came out: both her mother and stepfather were Trump supporters. I was stunned. These were scientists, professionals, people who had benefited from the open society America offered them. I couldn’t believe it. Still, I tried to talk to them. I brought books, articles, laid out historical context. I spent weekends explaining why everything about Trump’s rise was dangerous and wrong. At first they argued. When they ran out of arguments, they turned hostile. I stopped going.
Her daughter and I still talk. She’s anti-Trump and just as disturbed. Who heard that Trump cancelled de facto anti-segregation regulations? He did, just now. This family knows what segregation is: all the Jews did in the Soviet Union. It’s impossible to hide it in this country. The signs are everywhere. The intention to roll back civil rights is out in the open. I asked her, how does your mother feel knowing she could end up in a country where her own grandson isn’t allowed to sit at the table, or drink from a public fountain, or use the same bathroom as the white boys? Or not take the same car on the train to New York? She was shocked. Deeply. But did it change her mother’s mind? Not one bit.
How does this happen? How do smart, educated people who once fled authoritarianism turn around and embrace it in another form? How do people with interracial grandchildren support a man whose policies empower racists?
People who support Trumpism, Putinism, or who once embraced Hitlerism aren’t just acting on ideology. They are reacting to fear. Not fear of violence or poverty, but fear of losing something they believe was once theirs: social status, cultural dominance, ethnic or national identity, the feeling of being in control, the belief that the world made sense and they had a place in it.
When the world changes – when women demand equality, when minorities demand justice, when immigrants arrive, when systems begin to shift – some people don’t see it as progress. They see it as theft. Something is being taken from them, even if nothing physical was ever theirs to begin with. That perceived loss feels more painful than any possible gain, more urgent than truth, more powerful than morality.
So they rally behind strongmen who promise to give it back. Make America Great Again. Russian World. Blood and Soil. Traditional values. These movements aren’t built on vision. They’re built on resentment. They aren’t about what could be better. They’re about what must not be lost.
And fear alone is not the only mechanism. These people are not stupid - they are trained, many of them highly educated in mathematics, chemistry, economics, law. But intelligence doesn’t prevent collapse - it often accelerates it. Cognitive science shows that smart people are better at rationalizing what they already believe. They don’t seek truth - they fortify identity. Especially when that identity is built around perceived loss.
Loss aversion explains some of it. Many Soviet émigrés came to the U.S. with a clear self-image: moral, intellectual, resilient. They expected recognition. Instead, they were ignored. Their degrees dismissed. Their accents ridiculed. Their social capital dissolved. And then the society they had struggled to enter began to change - not toward them, but further away. Diversity, equity, complexity. To some, it looked like betrayal.
And in that moment, Trump appeared. Or Putin. Or a dozen other figures promising simplicity, dominance, restoration. They speak the old language: order, punishment, strength. And they trigger a kind of nostalgia that was never real but always powerful. A myth of rightful place.
Some of this comes from authoritarian conditioning. Soviet citizens - even those who rejected the system - were shaped by vertical hierarchy. Karen Stenner’s research into authoritarian personality types shows that some people are simply wired to fear norm violation. When the world feels unstable, they don’t seek justice - they seek control.
And so, the very people who fled a totalitarian system now support a soft version of it. Not because they miss communism. But because they miss certainty.
Cold War baggage, misapplied. Lastly, the trauma of Soviet authoritarianism has caused many émigrés to develop reflexive anti-leftism. To them, anything associated with social equity - universal healthcare, racial justice, even environmental policy - sounds like “socialism,” a word that triggers a moral allergy.
The irony is cruel: having once suffered under state tyranny, they now support an American version of it, as long as it punishes the right targets and restores their perceived rightful place.
Then there’s the myth of merit and the reality of race. Soviet immigrants often brought with them a powerful narrative of self-reliance: “I made it here without help, so why can’t they?” They resent affirmative action, social welfare, or reparations - not always from racism, but from a deep belief in a meritocratic fable that helped them survive exile.
But when confronted with their own grandson being potentially excluded in a segregated future, the story breaks. Or it should. In reality, many compartmentalize: the grandson is 'different,' exceptional. He becomes an exception to a rule they still refuse to revise.
Meanwhile, their information silos grow tighter. They consume ultra-right YouTube, Fox News, and conspiracy media in their own language. Social media echo chambers and Russian-speaking communities that consume Fox News, RT, or YouTube content create silos. In these environments, Trumpism doesn’t appear as extremism. It feels like self-defense. A bulwark against decline. Even scientists are vulnerable to motivated reasoning when their worldview is under threat. To them, Trumpism doesn’t look like extremism. It looks like safety.
So I asked her - how do your mother and stepfather feel knowing their grandson might live in a country where he’s not allowed to drink from the same water fountain or sit at the same table or ride in the same train car? She was horrified. But did that change their view? Not at all.
This is the final layer: ideological capture so complete that even love cannot undo it. When identity, fear, and myth converge, reality no longer matters.
There is no hope for free people when the educated, the rational, the scientifically trained, willingly surrender to a lie that promises power at the cost of truth.
And it’s not just Russia anymore. Now, it’s your country too.
And that’s when you understand that it’s over. Not just politically. Not just culturally. But civilizationally. When the educated, the experienced, the ones trained to know better - choose the lie. And not because they’re forced. But because they want to.
There is no hope. Not really. America isn’t an outlier - it’s a preview. Tyranny is inefficient. It will collapse under its own contradictions. But not before it brings everything else down with it.
I could say I count on the aliens. But they’re not going to help us for free. So no, it is the end unless we all act now. And I know the planet of the apes, so no - it is the end.
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