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LinkedIn is now officially blocked in Russia

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Re: LinkedIn is now officially blocked in Russia

#191
post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Any thinking person should be against democracy in the sense of "any time we can get one vote over 50% for something we should pass the something". This is why the US government was set up with various undemocratic features. This is why there are things like constitutions that require supermajorities to modify. Protecting minorities from the tyranny of the majority is one of the main purposes of good governmenan…

Any thinking person recognizes that in the function "votes(issue) > X%" X isn't fixed to 50. I think people should get a say in proportion to how much it affects them and having X be 100% is a perfectly sane and optimal democratic decision process.

Having X be 100% means nothing ever gets decided outside of very very small groups. See http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/04/12/noisy-poll-results-and-... for some actual data on what people do when presented with polls.

Re: LinkedIn is now officially blocked in Russia

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would not be unreasonable to assume that the FSB (or perhaps rather the SVR?) has compromised a CA that's included in all the builds.

It would. That's what certificate pinning is for. If they did that and (ab)used it, they'd be found out in no time. This whole conversation is just not going anywhere. The Russian government can't snoop your tls data if it leaves the country, end of story. That's the reason for this law and the article to begin with!

As if, someone with such access would probably know better than to burn it by indiscriminately using it against connections with pinned certs.

You aren't claiming that they couldn't compromise a CA, are you? That's pretty much the only thing that would make such an assumption unreasonable.

Re: LinkedIn is now officially blocked in Russia

#193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would. That's what certificate pinning is for. If they did that and (ab)used it, they'd be found out in no time. This whole conversation is just not going anywhere. The Russian government can't snoop your tls data if it leaves the country, end of story. That's the reason for this law and the article to begin with!

As if, someone with such access would probably know better than to burn it by indiscriminately using it against connections with pinned certs. You aren't claiming that they couldn't compromise a CA, are you? That's pretty much the only thing that would make such an assumption unreasonable.

Edit: I'll just stop here. Suffice to say we should talk this over another time, not in hacker news comments :)

Re: LinkedIn is now officially blocked in Russia

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That's why I left Russia and I hope forever! > dirty rotten mouths of nasty Kremlin bastards > Heck, the majority of Russians doesn't even bother to learn elementary English! > Stupid people buy everything Kremlin tells them, including version about protecting Russian citizens from US NSA. > thanks to backward masses > P.S. I hope to get rid of toxic Russian citizenship in the future. I think the only thing toxic h…

This majority is totally fine to imprison unwanted minorities. This majority is totally fine to restrict my freedoms. This majority thinks they are right because they are majority . So in short, the majority asks me to sacrifice myself for their sake because I'm in minority and they are in majority. If so, f##k them! P.S. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Shrugged

(ethnic minority and progressive here) This majority can pretty easily be convinced that everything you are mentioning is bad. They are not dumb, they are misguided and they have very poor political education. It's not their fault they behave so, it's the legacy, they have to live with. It will take a lot of time to convince them all that their current way of thought is not right, not good and do not serve their interests, but this sacrifice of time and effort may worth it - for future generations, at least. You may say that it's not your war and you'll be right. But forgive them for they see not the full picture (Luke 23:34).

Re: LinkedIn is now officially blocked in Russia

#195

As a Russian citizen, I used LinkedIn heavily to find jobs in Europe (along with stackoverflow.com/jobs). I keep a lot of contacts there (e.g. former colleagues and European recruiters, some of them are very helpful). I found it's alarming that LinkedIn is blocked in Russia. Blocking LinkedIn significantly reduces chances to find a job in Europe. But I expected that since I watched closely on new laws restricting int…

>The general principle is that any government is constantly trying to expand itself and limit citizen's freedoms. The only force which can prevent government from endlessly limiting citizen's freedoms is the majority of citizens (definitely not a minority of non-rich citizens). Every freedom above what masses asking for is only at mercy of the government's bueracrats.

The fundamental issue affecting all governments and organizations is that they select for Machiavellian or power-growing behaviours. An individual not maximizing power would lose to one who does, as greater power can buy more allies and followers.

There is a reason we see these outcomes in almost every country. It is emergent behaviour. Blaming the people - or even the politicians - will not help. It is our structures that are inherently flawed; you can't expect people to act against their own interests.

If you would like to know more I'd recommend starting with CGPGrey's video, rules for rulers, or visiting my prior comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12880180

This is a fundamental force that affects the entire world. Its impact on our lives is greater than any new technology.

All the 'bad actions' by governments are understandable in this framework. Actions on climate change, freedom, privacy, etc.

We need to solve this.

Re: LinkedIn is now officially blocked in Russia

#196
post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm Russian. The only cliches that I have about Russia are those derived from my experience growing up and living in Russia for 25 years of my life, before finally deciding that it isn't going to get any better, and there's nothing I can do to fix it.

Are you able to fix much at where you are now? Is it going to get any better?

I believe so. Or, to put it more precisely - I believe my chances of fixing things, and of seeing better things come, are much higher in US than in Russia. Even now.

Re: LinkedIn is now officially blocked in Russia

#197
post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm Russian. The only cliches that I have about Russia are those derived from my experience growing up and living in Russia for 25 years of my life, before finally deciding that it isn't going to get any better, and there's nothing I can do to fix it.

Are you able to fix much at where you are now? Is it going to get any better?

One other aspect is the extreme degree of federalism in US. When looking at it from the outside, people generally tend to pay more attention to what's happening on the federal level. But in truth, state and local politics are much more relevant to day-to-day stuff, and there's a very broad range to pick from when deciding which state to live in. Of course, in practice you also get limitations like "where can I actually find a job?" etc; but there's still plenty of options).

And state and especially local politics are easier to influence, too. State politics more so in states that have some form of voter initiatives (which mine does), which rewards grassroots bottom-up efforts.

Re: LinkedIn is now officially blocked in Russia

#198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Any thinking person should be against democracy in the sense of "any time we can get one vote over 50% for something we should pass the something". This is why the US government was set up with various undemocratic features. This is why there are things like constitutions that require supermajorities to modify. Protecting minorities from the tyranny of the majority is one of the main purposes of good governmenan…

Yeah, thats why Trump won with minority of votes. Just as you like. And i like it too!

Please don't make assumptions about what I like.

Re: LinkedIn is now officially blocked in Russia

#200
post #166

I wonder, where is Snowden now? What has he to say about it? Has he ever spoken anything against the oppression done by the Russian govt? We should be asking him tough questions, not just joining in praising him to be some sort of hero, who is cozying up with criminals in Kremlin.

Has he ever spoken anything against the oppression done by the Russian govt?

If you'd bothered to look up, you'd know he has.

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