Britainology 29: Russians in London feat. Olga Koch

I used to work in a private medical lab on the border of dyker heights and bensonhurst that was owned and operated by russians. At the time, I remember thinking that italian americans have nothing on them for homophobia, misogyny, racism, functional alcoholism and believing that your son is an unrecognized genius who just needs the proper mentor to unleash his true brilliance

Turning self deprecation into bragging about 1st world problems is a very UK Pretend Working Class thing to do tbf

Perhaps it's changed in the intervening years since my last visit, but if you ever find yourself in San Diego, California, and fancy a mental night of dining, check out the Russian restaurant in the Gaslamp Quarter whose name is shared with a real restaurant mentioned in this episode. The last time my partner and I ate there the Russian who was running the place serenaded the entire restaurant with some of the worst karaoke money can't buy [sic] even though it was all meant for an obviously nervous older American man. Our server constantly disparaged me for not paying as well. At least they have sweet, sweet kvass.

I got a push saying this episode was unlocked. But it doesn't seem to load the audio. Anyone else having this issue? EDIT: Works now

If you feel like ripping apart the liberal takes of Don't Look Up at any time then I would very much welcome that as I don't think my social circle would support me. They hold a concert to... raise awareness ?

It may be worth mentioning that you can, in fact, buy your way into an elite university in the United States, in a way that is not fraud (like how Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli did). The way to buy your way into an elite university in the United States is to be not a US citizen and be ineligible for a government-backed student loan. American universities do “needs-blind” (ie ostensibly meritocratic) admission… but only for students who are guaranteed (by way of government-backed student loan) to be able to pay tuition. On the one hand, it makes sense not to admit students who can’t pay tuition. On the other hand, some elite *public* universities have become increasingly hard for local students to get into because cuts to public education funding have left these universities increasingly dependent on foreign students paying wildly inflated tuition rates in order for these universities to be able to balance their budgets. The specific example I remember reading about is Ohio State University in Columbus, which charges $12,000/year for Ohio residents aaaaaaand $38,000/year for international students. How much does it cost to buy your way into Ohio State University? It’s honestly only about $200,000—but you can’t be a US citizen, and you’ll have to be able to pay out-of-pocket or somehow convince a bank (ie probably not your own country’s government) to loan you the money. The weird thing with this sort of arrangement is that it’s ubiquitous enough that higher education is one of the United States’ largest international trade exports. Oh, and lest you forget: getting a degree at a US university is a great way to get a work visa and eventually a green card, if that’s, like, something you’re into. So basically buying your way into the United States is a steal compared to buying your way into the United Kingdom (£2,000,000?!?), but you have to go through the motions of getting an elite college degree and gainful employment along the way. In other words, you have to pay through the nose and then LARP the American Dream(TM) in order to immigrate to the United States without having to wait decades for a lottery visa.

A weeb for Russia? Isn't that just Alice? Hey-oo! (Sorry, I couldn't resist. Love ya really)

I think the US puts the lie to the idea that stupidity and scariness are opposed to one-another. It's more like combining two waves. If your stupidity isn't aligned with whatever makes you scary, it can diminish it, but if you get it just right, your wave can double your scariness amplitude. American stupidity aligns brilliantly with what makes Americans terrifying: a fervent belief that our own might is always right. The result is a nation that simultaneously lurches from fuckup to fuckup and also views all opposition to its tendency to fuck things up as morally bankrupt by default, and thus never actually considers its own actions. Doesn't work so much with individuals or small groups abroad, though. Individual Americans abroad are generally just oblivious, rather than scary. Get enough of us together, however, and our collective oblivion becomes a violent willingness to force the world to conform to our expectations.