"It just seems absurd to me that so many people in such a populous country are so uniformly super-conservative. "
I think you might be young and inexperienced in (geo)politics.
Otherwise you would know that people tend to rally around the flag and support strong leaders in times of trouble.
despite not being a fan of their usual politics.
US presidents not sure of getting re-elected can just start a war and their approval goes up astronomically.
In Russia I believe the communist party scores in the high 30%, the biggest opposition.
Not exactly conservative.
I think you are also misinformed about the USSR, they were progressive in many ways.
It had more rights for minorities decades before the west, and many black Americans prefered to live there after being discriminated in their own country.
Also consider the times when talking about LGBTQ rights.
Nowhere in the world did they get treated right despite being officially decriminalised.
Which was the case (for a period) even before Stalin in the USSR, while the US did it in…2003.
Plenty of other aspects, such as women’s rights, workers rights were vastly more progressive than anywhere in the west. Swiss women didn’t gain the right to vote until 1971
Again you’re focussing on LGBTQ while they were also wrong just like most other countries decades ago is unfair.
"It just seems absurd to me that so many people in such a populous country are so uniformly super-conservative. "
I think you might be young and inexperienced in (geo)politics.
Otherwise you would know that people tend to rally around the flag and support strong leaders in times of trouble.
despite not being a fan of their usual politics.
US presidents not sure of getting re-elected can just start a war and their approval goes up astronomically.
In Russia I believe the communist party scores in the high 30%, the biggest opposition.
Not exactly conservative.
I think you are also misinformed about the USSR, they were progressive in many ways.
It had more rights for minorities decades before the west, and many black Americans prefered to live there after being discriminated in their own country.
Also consider the times when talking about LGBTQ rights.
Nowhere in the world did they get treated right despite being officially decriminalised.
Which was the case (for a period) even before Stalin in the USSR, while the US did it in…2003.
Plenty of other aspects, such as women’s rights, workers rights were vastly more progressive than anywhere in the west. Swiss women didn’t gain the right to vote until 1971
Again you’re focussing on LGBTQ while they were also wrong just like most other countries decades ago is unfair.