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Talk: "America first!" Actual policy: "America... whatever..." The scale of anti-science policies is historic in their scale and even breadth of topics.
by duxup 1y ago
Talk: "America first!"
Actual policy: "America... whatever..."
The scale of anti-science policies is historic in their scale and even breadth of topics.
- pixl97 1y agoOligarchs first... much like Russia.
- whatshisface 1y agoThat was at first, then Putin started having them murdered. If you think about it, there isn't much of a reason for the individual that is allowed to have all the power to share it with anybody.
- vkou 1y agoMostly the ones that piss him off.
- philipov 1y agoThere were different cliques of oligarchs. Putin had the ones opposing him eliminated, and kept the ones that supported him.
- sorokod 1y agoThe more accurate model for the Russian government is a Mafia family with Putin being the Capo dei capi. The murders are the visible symptoms of the various factions fighting each other.
- FuriouslyAdrift 1y agoNot Mafia but Vor... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thief_in_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thief_in_law
- pixl97 1y agoYou do the hard work of getting the oligarchs to buy up and consolidate the private assets first. Then it's even easier to take those large asset bundles.
- jasonwatkinspdx 1y agoSo my, admittedly distant, understanding of modern Russia is that the FSB and Oligarchs have formed a symbiotic relationship, with Putin as its fulcrum. The FSB secure the oligarchs, and prevent them from being prosecuted for siphoning off billions from the Russian economy. These get distributed down through to FSB leadership as bribes. The whole thing stays loyal to whatever leadership coalition keeps it going. Putin has proved quite good at that. This arrangement is also underscored by a sort of modern descendent of Chekism. There's an ideological component besides all the corrupt money making.
- mistrial9 1y agothis article is about NASA.. the history of corruption, authoritarianism and consolidation of power in private hands would be books longer than Balzac.
- exe34 1y agoAmerica is at the dusk of a new dark age.
- dyauspitr 1y agoDawn?
- reginald78 1y agoI suppose a dark age would be night and therefore preceded by dusk rather than dawn.
- exe34 1y agoNo.
- nashashmi 1y agoTout: America is Great! Actual Words: None of this stuff is Great. Sentiment: "I don't understand all this stuff. Just cancel it! We don't need it."
- Intralexical 1y agoThe types of personality that turn into an authoritarian when given power tend to have damaged senses of both internal identity and external reality. When Trump says "America First" or "Leftists hate our country", what he really means is himself. He's not really lying; "America", in that context, is just an extension of his own ego. Likewise when Putin talks about the "Russian state" or "Russian world", that's something that he conceptualizes as an extension of his own physical body. The channels run by Vlad Vexler on YouTube have an accessible discussion of some of this if you're more interested. It's not that he wants to hurt federal workers, set back science, or destroy US state capacity. But he does so anyway, because his concept of "America" is one that stops at his own ego. Other people aren't really real to him.