The question I am asked the most is what do I think about Putin as a Russian emigre. The answer is not at all simple. Putin helped pay for most of my education. He even has a Tatar child now, so I know that with him in power that racism towards my ethnicity will be less. He's done nothing bad to me personally either, but there is of course a reason I left Russia.

Russia is not a country you fight to change. You will never win. Your vote doesn't matter, only who you know. When you have a system that lacks meritocracy and allows employment decisions to be made based on race, then you become irritated quickly when you are looking succeed on your own merits. That's why I left when I got the chance. It was luck, but luck favors the bold.

The average person in Russia in general has no respect for your personal property. The Soviet mindset is deeply rooted in culture. If you have made money, then you are a criminal who got it dishonestly. It is why I despise socialists, and socialism in any form. I will not accept America devolving into the USSR. It is why I voted Trump in 2016.

People in the West always try to fight stupid battles with Russia. There are bad things like homophobia in Russia for sure, but every time I hear an American liberal complain about them, they are without fail racist and Russophobic themselves. Ingrained bigotry is a default human condition, not an outlier. It's not unique to Russia. You are not going to influence anyone into behaving better when you yourself are an asshole. You have to work on reducing your own bigotries first.

That's what this work is about. Don't worry about the guy blocking you and farting in your face. Hold your nose, and pass them without fanfare. Refuse to let them hold power over you. If you try to be a jerk by making them crash, then you get disqualified, and both of you lose the race.

This super unbelievably rare cartoon that appeared in Piauí Magazine for their coverage of 2014 Sochi Olympics and is a 1/1.