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Nope, that's not how things in Bulgaria or even the Balkans in general work. The state definitely has ideas how things are supposed to work but on the ground of
by mrtksn 4y ago
Nope, that's not how things in Bulgaria or even the Balkans in general work. The state definitely has ideas how things are supposed to work but on the ground often it does not work as expected.
This is a problem for things like making roads safe or corruption, but on the other hand it also means the state does not have the power to control the daily lives of the citizens, which yields the sense of freedom that we are talking about.
The problem(or feature, if you like) in the west is that the governments do function well and some attempt to design every aspect of life. In Bulgaria the government doesn't have that power and the people actively tend to push back.
This is both nice and problematic. It's problematic, for example, when you need to vaccinate people. During the pandemic, Bulgaria had access to the same vaccines as the west but ended up to be the has some of the lowest vaccination rates and the highest death rate per capita.
- watwut 4y agoWe are talking about TV channels switching to erotics exactly at midnight. That is state regulation. They are not allowed to show it before, are allowed to show it later and thus all switch in sync. Balkans have a lot of corruption. But this one seems to he followed.
- mrtksn 4y agoBut I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about people not making it a big deal. Besides, I'm not sure at all of it was state regulations. Up until not too long ago there were no private TV channels or cable operators. The cable company I'm talking about was run by a few guys who got the idea of wiring cables in the city. Later they did internet services as well and included a server where you can simply connect via FTP and download DivX films for free. I don't recall even having a formal contract, you call them and they come and connect and if you don't pay the monthly fee, they come and cut the wire. I think they shut it down 2010 or something like that. Anyway that's not the point. I don't think you understand the kind of freedom I'm talking about, it's not really about the laws but about the lack of moral panic and lack of discussions over how we should live our lives. As a result, the sense of freedom comes from the society not caring you watch porn and the restrictions come from the parents of the kids. It's considered a trashy behaviour to let kids be exposed to that kind of stuff but no one demands the government do something about it. In the west, the discussion always revolves around government allowing or denying stuff.
- mrtksn 4y agoOkay, check this out, apparently distribution of pornography is illegal in Bulgaria: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pornography_in_Bulgaria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pornography_in_Bulgaria I had no idea, probably no one has. As it is stated in the wikipedia article, authorities tolerate porn on TV after 23:00. On our TV cable network it was 00:00 but on others apparently it starts earlier. As you can see, things don't work according to the laws in Bulgaria and the switch to porn at 00:00 has nothing to do with the laws. The attitude is, this is not governments job - no matter what the laws say.