5 ms·

doesn't sound different from the US. People believe the unashamed media propaganda, few speak anything besides English, many can't afford to leave, people beli

doesn't sound different from the US. People believe the unashamed media propaganda, few speak anything besides English, many can't afford to leave, people believe the evil east is out to get them. In the 80s the NSA kept out of politics for most part... But now the state is taken over by a miz of NSA and criminal corporate-military-financial entities. Nationalism and borderline Fascism is the order of the day. We've been at continuous war for over 14 years.

soperj 11y ago
Not to mention the whole "Greatest country on earth".
simonh 11y ago
Comments like this depress me. It's like saying a matchstick is the same as a tree because they are both made of wood. Theres no real way to engage with a comment like that.
- yc1010 11y ago
  "The US is no different or infact worse" is a typical argument used to justify various Putinite wrongdoings and deflect discussion. Just go to /r/worldnews for a taste on reddit. * Russia aggressively annexing its neighbors? Hey look over there at the US and Middle East * Russia curbing various freedoms and opposition? Sure the US is a 2 party system where there is no hope for change. * Putin gaining complete control of the media? Sure in the US the media is all run by same companies. And so on, the best lies are those sprinkled with a small grain of truth as the saying goes...
  - shit_parade2 11y ago
    >* Russia curbing various freedoms and opposition? Sure the US is a 2 party system where there is no hope for change. Now this comment depresses me. Why not compare the us patriot act or civil forfeiture, or the wide spread illegal 4th amendment breaking mass surveillance program a whistle blower had to reveal (who incidentally lives in Russia now). Then you use the phrase hope and change, is that satire, a man became president lying with that platform slogan. How about including torture, indefinite imprisonment without trial, or kill lists to show how the US also has erroded civil liberties? How much more comic book evil does the American empire need to become before people stop defending it with 'Russia and China are worse', maybe they are, but its a sad pissing match to ask if Mao or Hilter was the worst 20th dictator, both men caused tremendous amounts of Human misery. Why do people want to defend a military that has killed hundreds if thousands of civilians? How morally bankrupt are the techies of hacker news.
    - xixixao 11y ago
      Look, the problem here is you are comparing bad with really really bad. People aren't defending the US via Russia here, people are saying don't defend Russia via the US. Can you really imagine USA invading Mexico to extend its area of influence? Facebook is filled with anti-US and anti-western arguments. VKontakte is filled with love for Putin. Apples to apples here...
      - shit_parade2 11y ago
        Try to at least study history. The US has a long history of staging coups and invading with special forces Latin American countries. My point is they are both so bad that saying one is really really bad is like Dante discussing why the third circle of Hell isn't as bad as the fourth. Pointless academic nonsense, except the jingoistic RaRa America nonsense is killing hundreds of thousands of civilians.
sqeaky 11y ago
Except this whole thread exists because an American company, SpaceX, led by a foreign national who chose to become a US citizen, Elon Musk, could create a company that competes directly with government run competitors here and nowhere else. There are superficial similarities. But any investigation shows real difference.
- shit_parade2 11y ago
  By contracting with the US military Musk has explicitly joined the military industrial complex, an arrangement akin to Mussolini's corporate-fascism, little different from a nationalized company in practice except there isn't even the facade that profits are shared. Profits are privatized once Musk has sucked off enough public wealth through government by building various machines designed in aid in the killing of people. Maybe that is just the world we live in, at least except it and stop trying to glorify the killing of women and children for profit.
  - sqeaky 11y ago
    > military industrial complex This phrase shows a simplified few events and organizations as they actually are. The rest of your post shows a fanatical viewpoint lacking in critical thought. I will agree with you insofar as not everything is ideal with our military spending, the amount of spending and there is some corruption in military spending. But the government and military must buy goods, this cannot always be fascism. There exists procedures and regulations that attempt limit corruption and to level the playing field for smaller companies. These rules are exactly what SpaceX used to get its foot the door. These rules require certain levels of "quality" and meeting certain requirements, this in effect rules out many of the smallest startups which contributes to why it is so easy for us to feel like outsiders. The smallest company I have seen provide military goods was 12 people, but most require at least 100. The military also has other functions than "killing of women and children for profit", and claiming that this is one of their goals without evidence strikes me as fanatical. A military that wastes resources on things other than valid enemy targets is wasteful, we have defeated too many foreign powers to be that kind of wasteful. I think our current military is built more along the lines of "kill the enemy and break his things". It is sad but sometimes innocent people are near the enemy or his things. It is also sad that we try to use our very effective "breaking" organization to occupy or police despite it not being well equipped for such.

soperj 11y ago

Not to mention the whole "Greatest country on earth".

simonh 11y ago

Comments like this depress me. It's like saying a matchstick is the same as a tree because they are both made of wood. Theres no real way to engage with a comment like that.

yc1010 11y ago
"The US is no different or infact worse" is a typical argument used to justify various Putinite wrongdoings and deflect discussion. Just go to /r/worldnews for a taste on reddit. * Russia aggressively annexing its neighbors? Hey look over there at the US and Middle East * Russia curbing various freedoms and opposition? Sure the US is a 2 party system where there is no hope for change. * Putin gaining complete control of the media? Sure in the US the media is all run by same companies. And so on, the best lies are those sprinkled with a small grain of truth as the saying goes...
- shit_parade2 11y ago
  >* Russia curbing various freedoms and opposition? Sure the US is a 2 party system where there is no hope for change. Now this comment depresses me. Why not compare the us patriot act or civil forfeiture, or the wide spread illegal 4th amendment breaking mass surveillance program a whistle blower had to reveal (who incidentally lives in Russia now). Then you use the phrase hope and change, is that satire, a man became president lying with that platform slogan. How about including torture, indefinite imprisonment without trial, or kill lists to show how the US also has erroded civil liberties? How much more comic book evil does the American empire need to become before people stop defending it with 'Russia and China are worse', maybe they are, but its a sad pissing match to ask if Mao or Hilter was the worst 20th dictator, both men caused tremendous amounts of Human misery. Why do people want to defend a military that has killed hundreds if thousands of civilians? How morally bankrupt are the techies of hacker news.
  - xixixao 11y ago
    Look, the problem here is you are comparing bad with really really bad. People aren't defending the US via Russia here, people are saying don't defend Russia via the US. Can you really imagine USA invading Mexico to extend its area of influence? Facebook is filled with anti-US and anti-western arguments. VKontakte is filled with love for Putin. Apples to apples here...
    - shit_parade2 11y ago
      Try to at least study history. The US has a long history of staging coups and invading with special forces Latin American countries. My point is they are both so bad that saying one is really really bad is like Dante discussing why the third circle of Hell isn't as bad as the fourth. Pointless academic nonsense, except the jingoistic RaRa America nonsense is killing hundreds of thousands of civilians.

sqeaky 11y ago

Except this whole thread exists because an American company, SpaceX, led by a foreign national who chose to become a US citizen, Elon Musk, could create a company that competes directly with government run competitors here and nowhere else. There are superficial similarities. But any investigation shows real difference.

shit_parade2 11y ago
By contracting with the US military Musk has explicitly joined the military industrial complex, an arrangement akin to Mussolini's corporate-fascism, little different from a nationalized company in practice except there isn't even the facade that profits are shared. Profits are privatized once Musk has sucked off enough public wealth through government by building various machines designed in aid in the killing of people. Maybe that is just the world we live in, at least except it and stop trying to glorify the killing of women and children for profit.
- sqeaky 11y ago
  > military industrial complex This phrase shows a simplified few events and organizations as they actually are. The rest of your post shows a fanatical viewpoint lacking in critical thought. I will agree with you insofar as not everything is ideal with our military spending, the amount of spending and there is some corruption in military spending. But the government and military must buy goods, this cannot always be fascism. There exists procedures and regulations that attempt limit corruption and to level the playing field for smaller companies. These rules are exactly what SpaceX used to get its foot the door. These rules require certain levels of "quality" and meeting certain requirements, this in effect rules out many of the smallest startups which contributes to why it is so easy for us to feel like outsiders. The smallest company I have seen provide military goods was 12 people, but most require at least 100. The military also has other functions than "killing of women and children for profit", and claiming that this is one of their goals without evidence strikes me as fanatical. A military that wastes resources on things other than valid enemy targets is wasteful, we have defeated too many foreign powers to be that kind of wasteful. I think our current military is built more along the lines of "kill the enemy and break his things". It is sad but sometimes innocent people are near the enemy or his things. It is also sad that we try to use our very effective "breaking" organization to occupy or police despite it not being well equipped for such.