Many people were shocked and appalled by Tucker Carlson’s comments about Moscow being nicer than many cities in the United States. The usual suspects (people who identify or used to identify as Republicans but were affiliated that way only because of fiscal policies while altogether abandoning cultural matters) were outraged. Groups like the Lincoln Project, the social media account “Republicans Against Trump,” and National Review editor Charles Cooke completely dismissed Carlson’s comments as absurd.
Guess what? They are wrong. Their sentiments are based on a cultural ignorance of something they know little about because they have zero experience. I would know. I lived there in 2018 for a study abroad trip, and it was one of the first things I commented to friends and family when I returned home — long before Carlson’s comments and the current accepted anti-Russian sentiment.
I said this not because I was defecting to Russia or had an adoration for the country’s president, Vladimir Putin. I said it was because I felt it was true. And I believe if groups like the Lincoln Project or people like Cooke were sincere and honest and didn’t have an anti-Trump, anti-Putin agenda behind their sentiments, they would agree, too.
And I also say this as someone who didn’t get the affluent Russian experience that Carlson received. I didn’t have any red carpets laid out for me. I didn’t get the whole “girlfriend experience” that Cooke mentioned in his article. I lived in a dorm associated with Moscow State University that was relatively small, a building that lost hot water for a week in July and didn’t have air conditioning in the excruciatingly hot summer months. I am going to guess Carlson didn’t have to experience that. However, none of those experiences changes my opinion.
The first thing anyone visiting Moscow from a prominent inner city in the U.S. would notice is the city’s subway system. I grew up in Philadelphia, and every time I took the subway, the conditions were so gross that I thought I was going to contract some disease by simply touching the handrail. This was, of course, when I wasn’t being accosted for money, harassed by a homeless person, witnessing a homeless person defecating, or being forced to fight off criminals wishing to cause harm.
The conditions at every subway stop in Philadelphia are so bad that the stops look like they were the last remaining pieces of civilization that survived an apocalypse. Conversely, in Moscow, the stops are tidy and clean, and most are decorated elegantly — unlike anything seen in most inner cities in the U.S.
There are frequently statues, paintings, fancy lighting, chandeliers, and stained glass to enhance the personal experience. Josef Stalin purposely designed this when the subway system was constructed to show how the Soviet system was superior to the West, or so I was taught. If only Stalin had a similar resolution for bread lines and gulags.
Moreover, at most of the locations I utilized, they felt like I was entering a museum, not a subway stop. Sure, there were homeless people there, too, but nothing that even comes close to resembling what I regularly see on Philadelphia’s subways. The public transportation was also superior to most of what I experienced in the U.S. However, this is the case with most countries I have visited in Europe.
For example, Moscow has a tramcar, trolley, and bus system that, if being fair and objective, is superior to most cities in the U.S. This would include a significantly noticeable difference in how much cleaner all of these things were compared to my experiences with Philadelphia’s public transportation system and others I have used in the U.S.
The city is also abundant with plenty of restaurants, museums, malls, recreational areas, and sporting events (well, soccer games if you enjoy sports that regularly end in 0-0 or 1-1). I experienced the diverse range of delicious culinary delights and dining cuisines available, though I could go the rest of my life without ever having borscht or kvass again. The museums are top-notch and comparable to many other museums I have visited worldwide, including the British Museum in London and the Louvre in Paris.
The Tretyakov Gallery and the All-Russian Exhibition Center, known as VDNKh, are must-sees when visiting Moscow. Of course, this is in addition to seeing St. Basil’s Cathedral, the Kremlin Museum, and Vladimir Lenin’s tomb — which could only be categorized as simultaneously odd, creepy, and captivating. I can attest that any visitor would never realize a desire to see a mummified man who had been dead for a century until passing through this exhibit.
We would often go to McDonald’s late at night as it was one of the food places that were open and near the dorm in which we stayed. The difference between the appearance and cleanliness of McDonald’s in Moscow compared to those in the U.S. is night and day. It is so clean that it looks like one could eat off the floor. And I dare anyone, anyone at all, who is critical of Carlson’s comments about Moscow to go to a McDonald’s and tell me that I am wrong. If anyone does so, that person is lying.
I also felt safer walking around Moscow late at night than in cities in the U.S., especially Philadelphia, New York, and Washington. On several occasions, some friends and I took the subway and walked around Moscow on the weekends at around 2 or 3 in the morning — I felt completely safe and didn’t have to worry if I was risking my life. At the karate school where I trained in South Philadelphia, I witnessed a drive-by shooting last spring. Guess where I didn’t see any drive-by shootings? Moscow.
Earlier this month, Mike Gill, a former official in the Trump administration, was killed during a carjacking in Washington. In 2023, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) was the victim of a carjacking in the district. In 2021, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA) was carjacked after leaving a meeting in the middle of the day at a building that was located across the street from the Philadelphia Eagles’ practice facility. Do you want to know where government officials aren’t killed during carjackings or where members of Congress aren’t victims of carjackings? Moscow.
Now don’t be mistaken. This is not an endorsement of Moscow’s superiority over the U.S. Despite the filth and the crime, I would unquestionably choose to live in this country rather than Russia (though an argument probably could legitimately be made for living in Moscow over Philadelphia — but I digress). And despite every effort by the totalitarian Left that exists in the Democratic Party that wants to suppress speech, dissent, and opposing viewpoints, people in this country are much freer and have substantially more freedom, liberty, and luxuries than Russians do. So, to me, it will always be USA, all the way.
However, the faux outrage over Carlson’s comments is indicative of agenda-driven sycophants who care more about partisan politics than the truth about how dirty, grimy, polluted, and crime-infested many of this great nation’s cities have truly become. And rather than shed crocodile tears of anger over what Carlson said, perhaps those very same people should try to come up with solutions to improve our own cities so they are not the filth-ridden, unsafe crime havens they have become.