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> The uproar about JK Rowling is not equivalent to the treatment of "blasphemers" in the Soviet Union Which one do you see as being worse (and why?)

lostlogin 6y ago
Maybe a brief read up on gulags, knowing what got you there and what happened might help you.
tikhonj 6y ago
You mean comparing the one where a car with its headlights off turns up at your apartment around midnight and you're never seen again to one where you're a billionaire who gets angry comments on Twitter and, maybe, a non-material reduction in ongoing revenue from a work you finished years ago?
chki 6y ago
Is this a serious question? Are you comparing actual executions to the treatment of Rowling on Twitter? You must be trolling.
- AlexTWithBeard 6y ago
  Ok, now I see where you're coming from. In the original post I was talking about the late (no pun intended) Soviet Union: 1960 onwards. You were not executed for political jokes. You will just be shunned by your friends and won't be offered any decent job and your kids may never get into the college.
sbmthakur 6y ago
In the Soviet Union, the "blasphemers" were actually tried in a show trial, which sent them to labor camps. All they did was to write satire that did not go well with the state. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinyavsky%E2%80%93Daniel_trial https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinyavsky%E2%80%93Daniel_trial
- gambiting 6y ago
  The point everyone seems to be missing here is that it's not like if you said something bad about the party then bam, off to the labour camps you went. The entire Soviet Union would be one huge labour camp if that was the case. That would happen to you if you somehow got published in a newspaper being critical of the government. Or if you were say a headmaster of a school or the director of a state owned company - then yeah, the punishment would be pretty severe. But your regular Joe making a bad comment at the wrong time? You'd definitely lose your job first, few phone calls to the right place and it would happen. Or maybe you got a mandatory re-assignment to a middle of bumfuck nowhere. Not a labour camp, just the same job you were doing already, but in a small town out thousands of km away from your family. Or maybe you were waiting in a queue to get a flat assigned to you - well, that's not happening anymore. Like, my point is, there were escalating punishments to criticizing the government. Some people here suggest that it was like "say something bad about the government = black volga picks you up and you disappear forever". It wasn't that unless you had certain amount of outreach.

lostlogin 6y ago

Maybe a brief read up on gulags, knowing what got you there and what happened might help you.

tikhonj 6y ago

You mean comparing the one where a car with its headlights off turns up at your apartment around midnight and you're never seen again to one where you're a billionaire who gets angry comments on Twitter and, maybe, a non-material reduction in ongoing revenue from a work you finished years ago?

chki 6y ago

Is this a serious question? Are you comparing actual executions to the treatment of Rowling on Twitter? You must be trolling.

AlexTWithBeard 6y ago
Ok, now I see where you're coming from. In the original post I was talking about the late (no pun intended) Soviet Union: 1960 onwards. You were not executed for political jokes. You will just be shunned by your friends and won't be offered any decent job and your kids may never get into the college.

sbmthakur 6y ago

In the Soviet Union, the "blasphemers" were actually tried in a show trial, which sent them to labor camps. All they did was to write satire that did not go well with the state. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinyavsky%E2%80%93Daniel_trial https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinyavsky%E2%80%93Daniel_trial

gambiting 6y ago
The point everyone seems to be missing here is that it's not like if you said something bad about the party then bam, off to the labour camps you went. The entire Soviet Union would be one huge labour camp if that was the case. That would happen to you if you somehow got published in a newspaper being critical of the government. Or if you were say a headmaster of a school or the director of a state owned company - then yeah, the punishment would be pretty severe. But your regular Joe making a bad comment at the wrong time? You'd definitely lose your job first, few phone calls to the right place and it would happen. Or maybe you got a mandatory re-assignment to a middle of bumfuck nowhere. Not a labour camp, just the same job you were doing already, but in a small town out thousands of km away from your family. Or maybe you were waiting in a queue to get a flat assigned to you - well, that's not happening anymore. Like, my point is, there were escalating punishments to criticizing the government. Some people here suggest that it was like "say something bad about the government = black volga picks you up and you disappear forever". It wasn't that unless you had certain amount of outreach.