As many as 1,500 “ideological immigrants,” including 127 Americans, have applied for temporary residence in Russia in the last year.
Two years ago, Derek and DeAnna Huffman were desperate to leave Humble, a suburb of Houston. Their three daughters, they believed, were being brainwashed by public school and mainstream media to support LGBTQ rights. American culture in general no longer offered white people the same opportunities as other races, they said.
The couple yearned to live in a place that shared their “Christian values” and where they “weren’t going to be discriminated against” as white, politically-conservative Christians.
So in March, the Huffmans became the first family to move to a community planned for fellow English-speakers some 30 miles west of Moscow, a project they had been following online run by long-term American expat and former Kremlin-sponsored RT host Tim Kirby. The family is among a small but growing number of Americans who have moved to Russia because the United States, in their opinion, has become too “woke."
It’s funny how often I see a headline like this, then think to myself “now, now, let’s be reasonable and give them the benefit of the doubt because crazy situations happen every day…”
aside: You see, growing up in white conservative christian america, my brain has this old deep conditioning to see people who are different looking or who have different priorities in life than me and think of how stupid/worthless that makes them. I have those neural pathways pretty safely contained, but it’s important to do maintenance.
Anyways, I often think to myself oh hey they aren’t just mind numbingly stupid and surely there’s something else going on. Then I read the details and it’s like every sentence pushes my face closer to my silly optimistic assumptions bellowing “search your feelings, you know it to be true” like some really heavy-handed metaphor about feeling the call of the dark side.
Nah, I guess I do know how stupid they are. But their stupidity isn’t gonna frustrate me into being like them again.
It’s so interesting to see how other people’s experiences of white conservative Christian America can be so different from mine. I have this deep conditioning to see people who are different looking or have different priorities and be curious about their choices and experiences, specifically because of my upbringing in a little country church.
In fact, I remember being cautioned to pull back on the reins a bit when I was in my “angry conservative” stage in college—back during W’s first term, when I was super far right for the time but still had beliefs that would make me a “radical lib’rul” today. Some of the people I went to church with were like, “yeah, I can see that your heart is in the right place, but you’re kinda over the top about this and this.” Most of what brought me out of that phase was meeting people who were different from me, but another part was Christian people I trusted saying, “that’s too much.”
That’s part of why I had so much cognitive dissonance when Christians started supporting Trump; it felt out of step with everything we had ever been taught as children, and even as young adults.
I’ve come to terms with the fact that I (and my parents, more recently) just aren’t going to be welcomed back into that community again, because it has gone so deeply maga. But it wasn’t like that when I was a kid.
That’s a really great way to say it. I feel that way myself, though I couldn’t put it into words.
I agree. It’s interesting and enriching to hear about the different starting points in life that led us to similar places.
It looks like you had one of those pockets of “true”
scotsmanchristians! /sMy family was catholic. I was surrounded by miserable conservatives before it was cool! :D
Deep take. Thanks for sharing.
I appreciate the comment. Thanks!