5 ms·
Yeah, but the people are not exactly "fundamentally in control" if opposition candidates and critics keep mysteriously falling out of windows, drinking plutoniu
by argomo 5y ago
Yeah, but the people are not exactly "fundamentally in control" if opposition candidates and critics keep mysteriously falling out of windows, drinking plutonium tea, and accidentally getting jailed.
- pphysch 5y agoWhat on earth are you talking about?
- robbedpeter 5y agoPutin disappears his opposition on a regular and ruthless basis. Russia is no more democratic than China, they've just got better PR.
- pphysch 5y agoActually, Russia and China have awful PR compared to the West. It's so bad that every time you hear something good about either government, you automatically assume it is fake news propaganda. Putin does not disappear his opposition. That is an insane allegation. Are you referring to the Navalny circus?
- robbedpeter 5y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_Russia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_i... I don't know if you're being facetious or naive, but Putin is a ruthless dictator whose regime is responsible for a galling number of blatant political assassinations. Not to mention Ukraine and nuke testing and state sanctioned hacking. Or the total corruption of democratic reform in Russia. Litvinenko was one of the most high profile, with radioactive tea playing a novel role as a murder weapon. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexander_Litvinenko https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexander_Litvi... Oh, and China is clearly just misunderstood, they're actually really good for the world! /s https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/meghara/china-camps-prisons-xinjiang-muslims-size https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/meghara/china-camps-pri... https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4250097 https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4250097 It's curious how many people reliably show up to defend either Russia or China on this forum. Civilization in modern times is a game of good faith. Both of these countries have unendingly demonstrated their total lack of good faith, without any regard or respect for their erstwhile partners in the west, their geographical neighbors, or even their own citizens. It baffles me that so many in silicon valley are so willing to abandon any pretense at ethics or moral values, of even the most basic humanistic variety, to simply earn a few bucks on the backs of sino slave labor. But carry on, you were telling us all that the concentration camps and political assassinations and imperial aggressions and all that is just propaganda...
- GoblinSlayer 5y agoSo Russia bad and must be killed with fire?
- robbedpeter 5y agoWell that escalated quickly. I'd like to see a great enlightenment and progress toward a post scarcity, humanist, democratic, liberal, freedom loving future in which people can live their best lives, as free as possible of pointless suffering at the hands of assholes. I mean, call me radical, but with reality now as one end of a spectrum, and the above utopic fantasy as the other, it should be obvious what humanity should be moving toward. The history of all of the most free and liberal societies hold great suffering and sacrifice in their past. The bloodshed and revolution that purchased their freedoms might not be an option now that the tyrants have nukes, so that leaves intellectual revolution as the last feasible option for human progress. It's the greed and cynicism of the wealthy and powerful that perpetuate the status quo. Ideologues and selfish exploiters create space for massive corruption. These regimes may be effectively unstoppable, since the west is so eager to capitulate at the first sign of profit. It may be the best and only thing we can do to simply talk about the crimes and abuses of those in power, and never let up.
- GoblinSlayer 5y agoThe road to post scarcity isn't without risks, once we have enough technology for total control, but not enough for post scarcity, that will be a twist.
- pphysch 5y agoIt is crystal clear that you are proceeding from the preconceived notion that Russia and China are essentially "evil", rather than arriving at that conclusion through critical scrutiny of available evidence and historical trends. To you, any allegation from a Washington-aligned media source is a) unquestioningly true and b) evidence of the respective government's bad behavior. You do this automatically, without considering the alternatives. Do these media sources have an incentive to misrepresent their foreign subjects? For example, to maintain good relations with Western governments, or to score lucrative contracts. If so, why would they not act on that incentive? Do Western intelligence services have an incentive to manufacture evidence against their opponents? Why would they not act on this incentive? Indeed, there are countless well-established historical examples of this behavior, from the USS Maine to the OPCW cover-up. Yet to modern Western chauvinists, that behavior is eternally in the past and could never explain present controversies.
- GoblinSlayer 5y agoMaybe those candidates wanted to take fundamental control away.