u/drifty241

I've always viewed Stalin as a totalitarian dictator. Recently, I was a part of a discussion in which someone stated the following to support a broader point:

'Here's a great internal report by the CIA regarding how overblown Stalin's reputation as a dictator was.'

CIA Report

Personally, I don't find a two page document to be sufficient evidence to suggest that Stalin was other than a dictator, especially in contrast to everything else I've ever heard about him, but I also recognise that my knowledge on the USSR is limited and I may have been caught up in potential bias.

I’m visiting Riga soon and read ‘The Latvians - A short history’, which, while informative, left me with a desire to learn more about the region as a whole to complete my understanding. Any recommendations? I’m mostly interested in the political history but some recommendations regarding Baltic Paganism would also be nice.

Hello. I’m going to Riga with some of my friends for 4 nights. We know where we are staying and already have some ideas but it’s been hard to balance out interests (I’m quite interested in the history, a lot of my friends are into music and want to have some fun). Are there any sights that don’t get as much attention from tourists or places you’d recommend? We can all speak English, since we’re coming from England, will that by enough to get by or should I try and learn a little bit of transactional Latvian?

Sorry if any of these questions sound stupid, this is my first time going somewhere independent so I want to make sure I get it right. Thanks, and I look forward to visiting your country!

There have been three seperate instances now where I've been told by seperate people that I appear unenthusiastic and generally disinterested:

• My ex-girlfriend had no idea that I liked her despite us talking in class, and was worried that I had no mutual interest in her. We only got together because I added her on snap and she started a conversation.
• Maths teacher has asked me multiple times why I always look so unhappy and appear unenthusiastic towards the people around me.
• My Biology teacher told me that the only time she had seen me happy was following an exam that was quite easy.

My general attitude towards life so far has been to just put my head down and get along with it, which I've since realised doesn't actually work if you want to make friends and build meaningful relationships. I'm never actually unhappy or disinterested, but it's starting to seem like I exude a hostile impression, and in retrospect I have examined some past interactions to reconsider whether I could've made a friend if I acted more interested. In general, I only really made two good friends over the course of high school, and one in the first year of sixth form/college (UK).

So how can I slowly change this? I want to make friends and talk to people but a combination of appearing disinterested and my own shyness has seemingly cost me a lot.

Edit: Didn't realise, but I butchered unapproachable in the title lol