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This guy's insight has been enlightening, and highlights how alien Russian Authoritarian thought is compared to Western Individualist thought. One thing that's

This guy's insight has been enlightening, and highlights how alien Russian Authoritarian thought is compared to Western Individualist thought. One thing that's been especially shocking is the relatively low status the military has, which seems insane to us here in the West. Here, it's "Thank you for your service!", there it's a very low-status thing. It makes more sense once you realize the military represents a coup risk for a dictator, and has to be kept politically weak to preserve the State. Our military's undying loyalty to our civilian governments is something we here in the West take for granted, and is severely underrated. https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1502673952572854278.html https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1502673952572854278.html

greedo 4y ago
Kamil has done an excellent job, both in his descriptions of how the military is viewed, with how the Kremlin manipulates and controls the other regions. How the corruption isn't just a new thing, but that it's more of a continuous power struggle in the Russian empire that has persisted since the time of Catherine.
- moistly 4y ago
  [Edit: As Kamil describes it] the Russian power apparatus is thuggery. It’s a biker gang with nukes. And while Western Democracy hasn’t nearly lived up to the hype, at the very least it is one hell of a lot more lawful. I believe we are at the crux of an existential dilemma. Law or lawless? Provided rights by an imperfect constitution, held accountable by an imperfect judiciary, and progressing forward through imperfect politicians … or held hostage to a cartel of lawless and largely incompetent gangs of thugs and the mafioso who run the show?