Anti-americanism and civic activism

I was tagged by an acquaintance of mine in a video on the Russian version of Facebook. I ignored it for awhile because the videos are often composed of things like pictures of kittens put to a song about friendship. Then I decided to check out this latest video. It's called "The American Show," and it's in the political category.

I might be a little late tuning into this, but I don't normally follow politics.

In the beginning of the video, "President Bush" begins enlightening us on how the American Empire got so powerful, beginning with World War I. You could say the film is in a Michael Moore "exposee" style.

Since the version I was watching was dubbed in Russian, I decided to go hear what the English sounded like. I found an English version on Youtube, and lo and behold, the George Bush impersonator is in fact Russian.

Meanwhile, a lot of people (mostly college-aged) were leaving comments like "This is so true!" "This is a great video!" "People need to know the truth!"

I watched about 2 minutes of the video. I got tired of reading articles in Russian, trying to figure out where it came from, so I finally found something in English.

"Whoever created this movie is not just against the Bush administration, but
absolutely anti-American...After some research online, the red thread runs all through the movie and via Alexey Filonov leads to "Putin's children", a youth movement "Nashi" ("Ours!")."*

I left some comments on my friends' (more than one person had posted it) pages asking what they thought the point of the movie was. I don't always understand the tone of commentaries in Russian. Perhaps, for some, it's just a joke. But, I wonder, why joke about it?

The fact is, we are just as distrusting of Putin as they are of Bush. When it comes to the politics of our own country, or country of residence, we do have a responsibility to practice discernment and try to be aware of what's going on. It also helps to know what kind of relationship our country has with others. But on the other hand, we don't need to go running after every conspiracy theory. It's hard to find a balance.

*To read the explanation in English and watch the clip:
http://current.com/items/89407444/american_show_run_by_putin_s_children.htm