As many as 1,500 “ideological immigrants,” including 127 Americans, have applied for temporary residence in Russia in the last year.

Two years ago, Derek and DeAnna Huffman were desperate to leave Humble, a suburb of Houston. Their three daughters, they believed, were being brainwashed by public school and mainstream media to support LGBTQ rights. American culture in general no longer offered white people the same opportunities as other races, they said.

The couple yearned to live in a place that shared their "Christian values" and where they "weren't going to be discriminated against" as white, politically-conservative Christians.

So in March, the Huffmans became the first family to move to a community planned for fellow English-speakers some 30 miles west of Moscow, a project they had been following online run by long-term American expat and former Kremlin-sponsored RT host Tim Kirby. The family is among a small but growing number of Americans who have moved to Russia because the United States, in their opinion, has become too “woke."

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[–] 252 points 1 year ago (22 children)

Imagine leaving Texas because you think it's too liberal.

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  • [–] 44 points 1 year ago* (15 children)

    https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/09/16/how-religious-is-your-state/

    Religious profile of Mississippi

    1st most religious state overall

    61% (1st) say religion is very important in their lives

    54% (1st) say they attend religious services at least monthly

    62% (1st) say they pray daily

    74% (1st) say they believe in God or a universal spirit with absolute certainty

    50% in Mississippi are highly religious, based on an overall scale of religiousness

    There was a much easier and better choice than Russia if they wanted to up their "more Christian environment" game.

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  • [–] 31 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    Too many black people in Mississippi. Even if they are religious. Highest amount of African Americans percentage wise in the US.

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  • [–] 16 points 1 year ago (5 children)
  • [–] 26 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    But that's the wrong kind of religious.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    But Orthodox Christian is fine??

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    It doesn't matter to my perspective. The history of religion is for sub groups to spilt off over inconsequential differences, make up different doctrines and eventually go to war over them. It's an expression of Authoritarians and cult behavior, and what leads to some of the greatest suffering that mankind has ever inflicted upon itself.

    These families wanted to filter themselves to a sub group that's a distinction without a difference.

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  • [–] 28 points 1 year ago (1 child)
  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Illinois being more religious than ohio kinda surprises me

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  • I feel like that's because Chicago is all people hear of. The rest of Illinois is most definitely not that.

    Meanwhile Ohio has the 3CS (Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus) and smaller cities like Akron, Toledo, Dayton, Youngstown, Athens, etc.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    Illinois is funky because about a quarter of the state (by land area) is heavily influenced by Chicago but the rest of the state is just generic rural Midwest dotted with small railroad towns and farming communities

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

    They also are the poorest state, they have the worst education, and last I checked the highest murder rate in the country, they also have probably the highest ratio of black to white because they brought in so many slaves.

    They seem to be the nicest Americans though. At least at face value. America has this traditional image of being a very friendly people, and Mississippi might be at the top of the states for that.

    The roads suck ass. People joke that if a woman in Mississippi has all of her teeth she is considered a princess.

    Seeing groups hated by everyone else is always interesting to my morbid curious mind. Mississippi is the perfect example of an extremely poor state in the wealthiest nation in history. For the past 100 years pretty much every politician has hated Mississippians like most Americans and the neglect of the people there is astonishing. The ones who still have a little class are pure survivors.

    It was named after a native American tribe or word like many places down here, it was one that one of my ancestors was part of or that same general group. She was actually royalty in the tribe. The tribes from that area were pretty cool. One of the few examples of a truly matriarchal, and somewhat polyamorous and very peaceful societies in history. You can still see those genes floating around in the friendliness and general respect for women in the south, and also the often suppressed somewhat gender fluidity of many in the south.

    One of the great ironies of history is in the past, these parts of the world where there was fertile farmland used to be the most desirable and best spots. Now they are some of the worst because of industrialization and high global temperatures making the south nearly unbearable to live in.

    Well anyways I'm done with my little bit of history you didn't ask for.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    Does this include experiences from living there? Not that you can’t be trusted if it’s just from history books. I just find all this to be so interesting, and would be nice to hear it’s from both.

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  • [–] 83 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Humble is about 45 minutes from the center of Houston. It's definitely becoming a victim of urban sprawl.

    Texas in general is a shithole though that only cares about personal freedom when it's convenient for business owners.

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  • [–] 55 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    So funny Christians feel persecuted and like they don't have personal freedom. They want the Bible in the classroom, 10 commandments on the wall, drag queens to stop performances, and folks with brown skin deported but heaven forbid someone teaches their children they are free to love whomever they want or be whoever they want.

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  • [–] 36 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Texas in general is a shithole though that only cares about personal freedom when it's convenient for business owners.

    Is there another version of IRL conservatism?

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