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"everybody who is not a complete idiot" not true. looks like you're in your tech bubble and you think everybody else who is a regular person is an idiot. using

"everybody who is not a complete idiot" not true. looks like you're in your tech bubble and you think everybody else who is a regular person is an idiot. using VPN for circumventing censorship is illegal in Russia. fine is worse if if you promote it. for people who can't afford to spend a few thousands it's enough. some people don't care about fines, but new ISP equipment detects and ban VPNs quickly so people always need to keep trying new servers. so people get used to not using VPN more and more because it's annoying and unstable.

coryrc 11mo ago
> everybody else who is a regular person is an idiot. Looking at your dictator's approval levels and the number of people willingly signing up to die while killing innocents, that sounds correct. You all need help breaking the cycle of intergenerational trauma.
- throwaway290 11mo ago
  you are offtopic, but I will entertain your comment because I'm so confused/amused by what you say and what means "idiot" in your world. - are you saying people forced to sign up for the war by force or rapists who do it to get out of jail in Russia are idiots? - are you saying being pro putin/pro war is like being an idiot in Russia? - are you saying russians in tech are saints and all like one are "not idiots" against the war? maybe you need a reminder about unit 26165 and APT28 - are you saying "everyone in russia/china/israel/iran/north korea/republican party is an idiot"? then allow me to congratulate you on such nuanced understanding of the world, enough said!
  - coryrc 11mo ago
    I'm saying the vast majority of people who support Putin are idiots, just like the vast majority of people who support Trump are idiots, and the religious rural fundies of Iran are mostly idiots. There's a lot of idiots out there and they don't like to think. It causes them pain to think hard. So they like people who tell them simple lies. Others are immoral or evil smart people. Unless you're working to undermine your dictator, that might be you.
    - throwaway290 11mo ago
      idiot by definition is abnormal. if there is more idiots than non idiots then you have a wrong understanding of idiot. if almost everybody except you is an idiot then look in the mirror. americans voted for trump because they are tired of democrats looking down on them. in other words, people with your attitude are to blame. until you seriously start trying to understand people and why they do stuff (it is not because they are idiots) you will keep making them do the opposite of what you think is good.
      - coryrc 11mo ago
        > idiot by definition is abnormal https://www.dictionary.com/browse/idiot https://www.dictionary.com/browse/idiot "1 Informal., an utterly foolish or senseless person." Nope, no abnormality needed. There was (and still is in some places) a lot of lead poisoning. That more people are dumber than their genetics would otherwise dictate doesn't make them not idiots in my obviously-informal ranting. > americans voted for trump because they are tired of democrats looking down on them. Please read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Thought_They_Were_Free https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Thought_They_Were_Free
        throwaway290 11mo ago
        Nope, still the same. If everyone else is "foolish and senseless" from your personal view then that's baseline, sorry to inform you an american wrote a book about germans? why do I want to read it? but thanks for reminding me, as far as I know it was similar when hitler came to power, weimar was falling apart and people felt disrespected due to reparations and nazi preyed on that.
- Andrew_nenakhov 11mo ago
  Lol, the dictator's approval rating is so high that he bans, forces to exile or kills any opposing candidate, never risking elections vs anyone not fully controlled by him. Every time someone like Bukele flexes that his approval rating is higher than Putin's, I laugh -- the guy clearly doesn't understand that this isn't the flex he thinks it is.
  - throwaway290 11mo ago
    I used to be rosy eyed like you for a while I think if you talked to more fellow russians you would be surprised how many support him unironically) by my estimate more than 50% (of people who have an opinion) control of information is a magical thing
    - BobaFloutist 11mo ago
      I mean the whole thing about perverting statistics is we can't know the truth, since anecdotal surveys are useless (which I realized as a child in 2004 when Bush won despite everyone I knew hating him) and anything big enough to be meaningful is corrupted. Even if they didn't massage the stats after asking people, I doubt everyone is fully comfortable sharing their honest opinions. So...we can't know. We likely never will know, at least how people at large felt in this precise moment.
      - throwaway290 11mo ago
        I know from talking to people outside of my friend circle. Sure it's not reliable statistics but it's what I have. Try talking to taxi drivers and so on.
  - mopsi 11mo ago
    Putin's approval rating is genuinely that high, around 80%. Nobody cares about opposing candidates, because Russia has had one or two free elections in its entire history. Far more important is that Putin has flooded the lower classes with money. People who were used to surviving on a few hundred dollars a month are now receiving tens of thousands in sign-up bonuses alone, plus military wages and compensations. Absolutely life-changing money for them. It is comparable to flooding a troubled area like West Virginia with military sign-up bonuses ranging from hundreds of thousands to a million per enlistment, with additional money flowing into communities from injury and death compensations.
Andrew_nenakhov 11mo ago
Of course, it is true. If you are not a complete idiot, you won't be content with being blocked from the information you seek, so you'd find someone technical to help you out. I personally give access to my vpn server to ~100 users for free, and so far the access is stable enough. I have little doubts that in the future it'll be more difficult, but we'll see about that when we get there.
- throwaway290 11mo ago
  Calling people "complete idiots" because they follow the law, because they don't have $$$ to spend on fines, because they are unlucky to be doing a job society actually needs like a teacher or cleaner or bus driver instead of vibe coding ai saas, will not help you convince people about the change you want to see A normal person follows the law. It's bad when that law is forced by dictator but you should get off your high horse sometimes. If you think of regular public as complete idiots you should not be surprised when they vote for putin. Similar thing happened in america where democrats alienated as many people as possible by looking down on them like they're stupid And why it is logically not true: an idiot is by definition a person with abnormality. If you are saying 90% of people are abnormal... idk what to tell you > I personally give access to my vpn server to ~100 users for free, and so far the access is stable enough yeah I often talk to a friend who does the same. depending on your region it won't be too stable for long. > you won't be content with being blocked from the information you seek You don't know what you don't know. If you don't know it is, you don't seek it. That's why censorship works
  - Andrew_nenakhov 11mo ago
    You aren't from Russia, aren't you? Yes, anyone in Russia who still doesn't have VPN access IS a complete idiot. This is the reality on the ground that I observe every day. Nannies in kindergartens have them, teachers at school have them, salespersons in perfume store have them, all students have them, schoolchildren have them. And it has nothing to do with the law — currently, using vpn isn't breaking any laws.
    - 11mo ago

coryrc 11mo ago

> everybody else who is a regular person is an idiot. Looking at your dictator's approval levels and the number of people willingly signing up to die while killing innocents, that sounds correct. You all need help breaking the cycle of intergenerational trauma.

throwaway290 11mo ago
you are offtopic, but I will entertain your comment because I'm so confused/amused by what you say and what means "idiot" in your world. - are you saying people forced to sign up for the war by force or rapists who do it to get out of jail in Russia are idiots? - are you saying being pro putin/pro war is like being an idiot in Russia? - are you saying russians in tech are saints and all like one are "not idiots" against the war? maybe you need a reminder about unit 26165 and APT28 - are you saying "everyone in russia/china/israel/iran/north korea/republican party is an idiot"? then allow me to congratulate you on such nuanced understanding of the world, enough said!
- coryrc 11mo ago
  I'm saying the vast majority of people who support Putin are idiots, just like the vast majority of people who support Trump are idiots, and the religious rural fundies of Iran are mostly idiots. There's a lot of idiots out there and they don't like to think. It causes them pain to think hard. So they like people who tell them simple lies. Others are immoral or evil smart people. Unless you're working to undermine your dictator, that might be you.
  - throwaway290 11mo ago
    idiot by definition is abnormal. if there is more idiots than non idiots then you have a wrong understanding of idiot. if almost everybody except you is an idiot then look in the mirror. americans voted for trump because they are tired of democrats looking down on them. in other words, people with your attitude are to blame. until you seriously start trying to understand people and why they do stuff (it is not because they are idiots) you will keep making them do the opposite of what you think is good.
    - coryrc 11mo ago
      > idiot by definition is abnormal https://www.dictionary.com/browse/idiot https://www.dictionary.com/browse/idiot "1 Informal., an utterly foolish or senseless person." Nope, no abnormality needed. There was (and still is in some places) a lot of lead poisoning. That more people are dumber than their genetics would otherwise dictate doesn't make them not idiots in my obviously-informal ranting. > americans voted for trump because they are tired of democrats looking down on them. Please read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Thought_They_Were_Free https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Thought_They_Were_Free
      - throwaway290 11mo ago
        Nope, still the same. If everyone else is "foolish and senseless" from your personal view then that's baseline, sorry to inform you an american wrote a book about germans? why do I want to read it? but thanks for reminding me, as far as I know it was similar when hitler came to power, weimar was falling apart and people felt disrespected due to reparations and nazi preyed on that.
Andrew_nenakhov 11mo ago
Lol, the dictator's approval rating is so high that he bans, forces to exile or kills any opposing candidate, never risking elections vs anyone not fully controlled by him. Every time someone like Bukele flexes that his approval rating is higher than Putin's, I laugh -- the guy clearly doesn't understand that this isn't the flex he thinks it is.
- throwaway290 11mo ago
  I used to be rosy eyed like you for a while I think if you talked to more fellow russians you would be surprised how many support him unironically) by my estimate more than 50% (of people who have an opinion) control of information is a magical thing
  - BobaFloutist 11mo ago
    I mean the whole thing about perverting statistics is we can't know the truth, since anecdotal surveys are useless (which I realized as a child in 2004 when Bush won despite everyone I knew hating him) and anything big enough to be meaningful is corrupted. Even if they didn't massage the stats after asking people, I doubt everyone is fully comfortable sharing their honest opinions. So...we can't know. We likely never will know, at least how people at large felt in this precise moment.
    - throwaway290 11mo ago
      I know from talking to people outside of my friend circle. Sure it's not reliable statistics but it's what I have. Try talking to taxi drivers and so on.
- mopsi 11mo ago
  Putin's approval rating is genuinely that high, around 80%. Nobody cares about opposing candidates, because Russia has had one or two free elections in its entire history. Far more important is that Putin has flooded the lower classes with money. People who were used to surviving on a few hundred dollars a month are now receiving tens of thousands in sign-up bonuses alone, plus military wages and compensations. Absolutely life-changing money for them. It is comparable to flooding a troubled area like West Virginia with military sign-up bonuses ranging from hundreds of thousands to a million per enlistment, with additional money flowing into communities from injury and death compensations.

Andrew_nenakhov 11mo ago

Of course, it is true. If you are not a complete idiot, you won't be content with being blocked from the information you seek, so you'd find someone technical to help you out. I personally give access to my vpn server to ~100 users for free, and so far the access is stable enough. I have little doubts that in the future it'll be more difficult, but we'll see about that when we get there.

throwaway290 11mo ago
Calling people "complete idiots" because they follow the law, because they don't have $$$ to spend on fines, because they are unlucky to be doing a job society actually needs like a teacher or cleaner or bus driver instead of vibe coding ai saas, will not help you convince people about the change you want to see A normal person follows the law. It's bad when that law is forced by dictator but you should get off your high horse sometimes. If you think of regular public as complete idiots you should not be surprised when they vote for putin. Similar thing happened in america where democrats alienated as many people as possible by looking down on them like they're stupid And why it is logically not true: an idiot is by definition a person with abnormality. If you are saying 90% of people are abnormal... idk what to tell you > I personally give access to my vpn server to ~100 users for free, and so far the access is stable enough yeah I often talk to a friend who does the same. depending on your region it won't be too stable for long. > you won't be content with being blocked from the information you seek You don't know what you don't know. If you don't know it is, you don't seek it. That's why censorship works
- Andrew_nenakhov 11mo ago
  You aren't from Russia, aren't you? Yes, anyone in Russia who still doesn't have VPN access IS a complete idiot. This is the reality on the ground that I observe every day. Nannies in kindergartens have them, teachers at school have them, salespersons in perfume store have them, all students have them, schoolchildren have them. And it has nothing to do with the law — currently, using vpn isn't breaking any laws.
  - 11mo ago