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Criticism is allowed unless you have ambitions to work in government. Critique of the government has become actually quite common in the Russian stand up comedy

Criticism is allowed unless you have ambitions to work in government. Critique of the government has become actually quite common in the Russian stand up comedy scene. There are some exceptions, like you cannot show any public disrespect to the Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov (you can google how people apologise to him). Edit (forgot to mention): also, participating in anti-government protests often results in people losing their jobs or being expelled from the universities Edit 2: also, there is an ongoing crisis with the independent media: the Russian government is trying to suffocate the independent news outlets by classifying them as foreign agents (which has pretty bad practical outcomes for the news outlet)

dkdk8283 5y ago
> participating in anti-government protests often results in people losing their jobs or being expelled from the universities This is quickly becoming the situation in the US if you criticize popular political movements.
- struxure 5y ago
  Not exactly... In the US, organizations use this form of self-censorship to prevent a potential backlash from the public, whereas in Russia, the bans are direct orders from the government and the employers simply don't have any choice.
  - hedora 5y ago
    Often, there is less practical difference than I’d hope for. Look at the credit card networks’ sanctions of things like allofmp3.com, for example. If you enjoy audio fiction, or short stories you might enjoy “The Revolution, brought to you by Nike”. It was written by an ad industry insider, and touches on a lot of issues regarding corporate self-censorship. (It’s a few years old, and predates Nike’s recent political activism): https://escapepod.org/2018/09/06/escape-pod-644-the-revolution-brought-to-you-by-nike-part-1/ https://escapepod.org/2018/09/06/escape-pod-644-the-revoluti...
- morelisp 5y ago
  For example, there have been many documented cases in the past few years of people getting fired over supporting the BDS movement - or in a few cases, not actively supporting anti-BDS movements. ... oh, that's not what you meant?
baybal2 5y ago
You don't know anything. Few hundred people paid with their lives for speaking their mind. Either killed in the most gruesome way, or just customarily disappeared. There are at least a hundred something of journalists only who were murdered. It's a brutal KGB-mafia dictatorship trying its best masquerading as a normal country. You will always see Russian diplomats on every high nosed UN, and OSCE talkshop on human rights, and blah blah blah, and yes, they like it more than life to come, and laugh at all kinds of your "security summits"
- struxure 5y ago
  The question was if people (I assumed a regular folk, not journalists and opposition) are allowed to make jokes about the government, and I answered to that. Of course I know that Russia has no traces of democracy left and I am aware how Russia targets high-profile people, including journalists. You should be more reserved before telling people they don't know anything.
  - petre 5y ago
    Allowed? People would do it anyway. Most Eastern European communist era jokes involved the beloved leader. Russian jokes about politicians and policies are even better. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_political_jokes https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_political_jokes
  - cannabis_sam 5y ago
    No, the question was: > Do you see it headed towards China, where no internal criticism is allowed? But if you’re a russian opposed to Putin you cant’t really answer that on a western-run online platform.. (unless you’re considered insignificant enough by the Russian government, so you can safely be ignored of course)
    - struxure 5y ago
      I answered to this question: > are people allowed to make jokes about their own government in Russia?

dkdk8283 5y ago

> participating in anti-government protests often results in people losing their jobs or being expelled from the universities This is quickly becoming the situation in the US if you criticize popular political movements.

struxure 5y ago
Not exactly... In the US, organizations use this form of self-censorship to prevent a potential backlash from the public, whereas in Russia, the bans are direct orders from the government and the employers simply don't have any choice.
- hedora 5y ago
  Often, there is less practical difference than I’d hope for. Look at the credit card networks’ sanctions of things like allofmp3.com, for example. If you enjoy audio fiction, or short stories you might enjoy “The Revolution, brought to you by Nike”. It was written by an ad industry insider, and touches on a lot of issues regarding corporate self-censorship. (It’s a few years old, and predates Nike’s recent political activism): https://escapepod.org/2018/09/06/escape-pod-644-the-revolution-brought-to-you-by-nike-part-1/ https://escapepod.org/2018/09/06/escape-pod-644-the-revoluti...
morelisp 5y ago
For example, there have been many documented cases in the past few years of people getting fired over supporting the BDS movement - or in a few cases, not actively supporting anti-BDS movements. ... oh, that's not what you meant?

baybal2 5y ago

You don't know anything. Few hundred people paid with their lives for speaking their mind. Either killed in the most gruesome way, or just customarily disappeared. There are at least a hundred something of journalists only who were murdered. It's a brutal KGB-mafia dictatorship trying its best masquerading as a normal country. You will always see Russian diplomats on every high nosed UN, and OSCE talkshop on human rights, and blah blah blah, and yes, they like it more than life to come, and laugh at all kinds of your "security summits"

struxure 5y ago
The question was if people (I assumed a regular folk, not journalists and opposition) are allowed to make jokes about the government, and I answered to that. Of course I know that Russia has no traces of democracy left and I am aware how Russia targets high-profile people, including journalists. You should be more reserved before telling people they don't know anything.
- petre 5y ago
  Allowed? People would do it anyway. Most Eastern European communist era jokes involved the beloved leader. Russian jokes about politicians and policies are even better. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_political_jokes https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_political_jokes
- cannabis_sam 5y ago
  No, the question was: > Do you see it headed towards China, where no internal criticism is allowed? But if you’re a russian opposed to Putin you cant’t really answer that on a western-run online platform.. (unless you’re considered insignificant enough by the Russian government, so you can safely be ignored of course)
  - struxure 5y ago
    I answered to this question: > are people allowed to make jokes about their own government in Russia?