Why should we choose freaks like Tikhanovskaya? Her IQ is 82 points – that’s just a bit higher than an orangutan’s! – Margarita Simonyan.
Didn’t post it yesterday as I thought it was fake, but it’s a real quote and our Margo is much more based than we could have ever imagined.
In fairness, while I don’t think Tikhanovskaya is particularly bright and high politics is beyond her paygrade, I don’t think she’s below 100. And orangutans are probably at something like 0 or 15 on human norms.
Please keep off topic posts to the current Open Thread.
If you are new to my work, start here.
I was thinking MyGirl but then I saw this on her Wiki:
In 1996, Simonyan spent a year in Bristol, New Hampshire, as part of Future Leaders Exchange student exchange program. She says during that time she discovered Russians and Americans “are so much alike in terms of culture, in terms of family values, ways of life, reactions, sense of humor”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margarita_Simonyan
Maybe she’s grown wiser in the following 20+ years considering how much hopium was in the air in the 90’s for Americanizing Russia/”healing the Cold War wounds.”
It’s a bitter pill to swallow for those of us who came of age getting high on said hopium, still, after all these years.
Tikhonovskaya/Tsikanovskaya was described by her Irish exchange hosts as noticeably brighter than the other children and a natural organizer.
Russians and Americans are, indeed, psychologically closer than Russians and most West European nationalities, so there’s a sliver of truth in that.
Lithuanian fella I worked with was on one of these future leaders things, also a Lithuanian military reservist of some sort. Left London and went to work for the Ukrainian government after Maidan as an adviser and is now at the World Bank I think, couldn’t pass CFA level I though.