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Why not? Putin has a profile with ordinary Russian people, too -- and yet he has someone murdered, defenestrated, poisoned, discredited, ruined, or jailed witho
by unfocussed_mike 5y ago
Why not? Putin has a profile with ordinary Russian people, too -- and yet he has someone murdered, defenestrated, poisoned, discredited, ruined, or jailed without reason literally every single day.
Why would he think he should act differently abroad? Remember: he's a psychopath.
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Edit: a flagged comment replying to this called this hysterical hyperbole because I used the words "literally" and "psychopath".
In the latter case I understand this to be the assessment of more or less every foreign intelligence service on earth. The flagged comment suggested "sociopath" is better; I do not see evidence of Putin's ability to feel remorse or of his conscience generally. Also, psychopaths are not unusual; up to 3% of the human population could be psychopaths, and the point was not to stress his personal violence, but his remorseless consistency.
In the former case: OK, let's go with "very nearly literally" -- there may be some days where Putin's regime, if not Putin quite directly, does not have someone at least jailed, threatened or ruined for opposing him, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say there are very few days like this. He runs a regime that threatens every single citizen who opposes him, and he could stop it if he chose. He chooses not to.
- throwaway111023 5y ago
- unfocussed_mike 5y agoWhat is it that is stupid about this? It is true. Putin's enemies and opponents are murdered, jailed, pushed out of windows, poisoned, ruined, threatened by Putin-adjacent gangsters more or less constantly on domestic soil, are they not? And yet he enjoys a strong profile among Russian citizens. So you have to ask -- why would a man who has got away with this domestically, not think he can get away with it internationally, when he has his Farages and Trumps and Gabbards and Salvinis raising his profile everywhere? Or are you saying that it's hysterical and stupid to call the man what he is? He's a psychopath. It's in absolutely everything he does. (Psychopaths, FWIW, are not particularly unusual: maybe 3% of the human population is a psychopath)
- throwaway111023 5y ago[flagged]
- hondo77 5y ago> The flagged comment suggested "sociopath" is better... FWIW, enter "sociopath" in Wikipedia and you are redirected to the "Psychopathy" page.
- unfocussed_mike 5y agoIndeed: I think it is a too fine hair to split, generally. The colloquial distinction is that sociopaths are still capable of a limited form of remorse. The past view that Putin was not necessarily a psychopath hinged on the idea that his government was more than just him. For example that other people in his regime might have chosen to use a chemical weapon on British soil, but not necessarily Putin himself, directly. The Ukraine war totally explodes the myth that Russia's foreign policy is under the control of anyone but Putin. Either way, the point I was making is not that he is evil or violent, but that there's no reason to believe he would think he should act any differently when having people killed on foreign soil; he's unconstrained by any such deference or restraint.
- pvg 5y agoDon't write replies to flagged or bad comments. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=author%3Adang%20don%27t%20feed%20the%20trolls&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- unfocussed_mike 5y agoTBH I don't really understand why it was/they were flagged. It's reasonable to infer I was engaging in hyperbole. I could have clarified more to avoid provoking a flame war. So I have clarified more. I'm a bit surprised that what I have done here is frowned upon when it was an attempt to reach consensus.
- pvg 5y agoIt's meta and straight up name-calling. Troll comments are not your fault but giving them life and exposure is something the site guidelines specifically ask you not to do.
- throwaway111023 5y ago
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]