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Tell HN: If You Are in Russia

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Re: Tell HN: If You Are in Russia

#331

Post by thablackbull »

jd115 wrote: post #259

Here's my take on this, which you are not going to like one bit. It goes like this... The good people of Russia - and I'm not saying this with a tongue in cheek - the vast majority of the people of Russia truly are GOOD people, in the simplest, most sincere sense of the word... But they do need to go through some things. You just don't get to support a murderous communist regime for 100 years and then say "but we had…

> You just don't get to support a murderous communist regime for 100 years and then say "but we had nothing to do with it".

If that argument holds (which I'm not saying it doesn't), then how much more responsible are we who have democracy and tell everyone else how great it is we have a say in how our government operates. Surely, we then hold even more of the blame on issues such as the WMD fiasco. Ironically, ask any one of us about these issues and suddenly its, we have no control over the government, and other endless excuses.

Re: Tell HN: If You Are in Russia

#332

Post by jeffrallen »

blablablub wrote: post #269

What are the possibilities for an average russian citizen to leave russia and start over somewhere in the west? How about visas? Does anyone know?

It would be easier to fix your own government. General strike. They can arrest protesters, but they cannot arrest the entire working population.

Re: Tell HN: If You Are in Russia

#333

Post by Stevvo »

teekert wrote: post #180

This whole situation is so surreal and disappointing. I grew up on Star Trek and somehow I just though we had (almost) arrived in a post-war, federation-like world. We know things should be solved with words because otherwise there are only losers. It’s how we raise our kids. I just keep thinking about how Jean Luc is looking down on us from orbit, slowly shaking his head whispering “Savages.”

It was Q looking down, slowly shaking his head whispering “Savages.”

Re: Tell HN: If You Are in Russia

#334

Post by netfortius »

nathias wrote: post #271
redwood wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I get it: are you saying you do not believe the international community should hold Russia accountable for its murderous incomprehensible actions in Europe?

They aren't holding Russia accountable, they holding Russians accountable and that seems like a terrible thing.

Lack of large reaction to Putin's behavior goes through the stomach and smartphone apps of Russians. Remember 1989 and what the stage of famine and cold and lack of basics had to be, for Romanians to finally take the streets and bring Ceaușescu down. Hard! If the Russians can still sit comfortably at home, playing with Amazon, FB and Google, while their Ukrainian brothers are killed, that is no incentive for uprising. So - sorry - but action in this area seems to require a little incentive.

Re: Tell HN: If You Are in Russia

#335

Post by jopsen »

robert_foss wrote: post #184
dmitrygr wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

To do nothing is to be complicit. Your taxes paid for this.

Even if you don't buy the complicity by taxes argument.

What alternative do we have left? Sanctions is just the least bad thing.

Re: Tell HN: If You Are in Russia

#336

Post by ncallaway »

5ESS wrote: post #185
diiiimaaaa wrote: post #165

I am in Ukraine right now. In a small village to the north of Kyiv. I am the author of PhotoSwipe ( https://github.com/dimsemenov/photoswipe ). Yesterday I was filling bags with sand to make a fortification for local defenders. I hear artillery as I am writing this. And by the way, you get used to it. In the last few days I received about 20 emails offering support, none of them were from russian devs. One asked a te…

How are sanctions going to make anybody more informed? They dont…That makes no sense. Instead of sanctions, a more effective strategy would be to provide Russians with free VPNs so that they can access western news media.

I'm going to articulate the theory, but I want to be clear that I'm not advocating it.

The general idea is that a war in a foreign country (even a neighbor) is pretty easy to ignore (especially if state media doesn't cover it). If you don't have relative or friends there, you could easily go on believing exactly what the government reports--that it's a limited military operation, etc. You're busy at work, you've got a lot going on, so maybe you should spend some time looking into it, but maybe next week.

However, if the value of your currency drops 25%, and your mortgage interest rate jumps 10% overnight you're much more likely to ask: "what the hell is going on". Those are significant changes that will really impact you. Suddenly you're a lot more motivate to do some research and see what's happening. Maybe when doing that research, you find some of the media of Kyiv being bombed or residential areas in Kharkiv being hit repeatedly by cluster bombs.

---

My theory for sanctions is different. My ideal sanctions wouldn't hit the average worker at all. They would hit _only_ the oligarchs and those close to or with a hand on the levers of power. But we don't have access to targeted sanctions that hit the oligarchs hard enough to get them consider taking actions that don't also hit the average worker.

I feel deeply sorry for those Russian citizens who have very limited power over their government, and will nonetheless be hit harder and feel the sanctions more deeply than those closer to power. But I also feel that it's necessary, as a tool to try and minimize the amount of time that Ukraine spends under siege.

Re: Tell HN: If You Are in Russia

#337

Post by jen20 »

codebolt wrote: post #286
throwawayvibes wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you monitor your kids?

Very helpful to control their apps and give them a daily screen time allowance (1 hour on weekdays, 2 hours in weekend). I don't like the idea of my 11 year old spending days and nights on e.g. TikTok, not to mention browsing for porn. Also useful to have the ability to see where they are, although I don't use this feature too much.

Literally every feature you just described is built into iOS without the need for Russian spyware.

Re: Tell HN: If You Are in Russia

#338

Post by dimator »

teekert wrote: post #180

This whole situation is so surreal and disappointing. I grew up on Star Trek and somehow I just though we had (almost) arrived in a post-war, federation-like world. We know things should be solved with words because otherwise there are only losers. It’s how we raise our kids. I just keep thinking about how Jean Luc is looking down on us from orbit, slowly shaking his head whispering “Savages.”

I watched TNG in high school. I never realized how much of my worldview it helped form, until I reflected on it later on. Because of that, humanity has really disappointed me. I thought we were on track, but it's just so stark of a reality check.

Despite all our progress, our greed and petty squabbling make me feel like the future that star trek pointed us towards is slipping further into the future. I'm sure now that even in a post scarcity world, humans would still find ways to fight, burn, waste, and regress. Sorry, Gene.

Re: Tell HN: If You Are in Russia

#339

Post by orloffm »

darawk wrote: post #281
jd115 wrote: post #259

Here's my take on this, which you are not going to like one bit. It goes like this... The good people of Russia - and I'm not saying this with a tongue in cheek - the vast majority of the people of Russia truly are GOOD people, in the simplest, most sincere sense of the word... But they do need to go through some things. You just don't get to support a murderous communist regime for 100 years and then say "but we had…

I don't entirely disagree but I think a slightly better framing is: It's not their fault, but it is their responsibility. Putin is a problem for the world, and it's a problem that can only be properly solved by the Russian people. Unfortunately, that means whether they deserve it or not, they are the group to whom pressure needs to be applied.

I am a Russian citizen. How it is my responsibility? I never supported Putin and hate him as much as anyone. They destroyed Moscow over the last 20 years, gave up on Russians left in former ex-USSR countries, created a separate society of asian immigrants, muted all opposition. How am I responsible? Should I buy a tank of gazoline and go burn Kremlin? Then what? Is every european responsible for not stopping NATO in the middle east? What pressure should be applied to some Dutch for that?

Re: Tell HN: If You Are in Russia

#340

Post by MrDisposable »

Gatsky wrote: post #314
MrDisposable wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm trying to understand the scale of Putin's decision Drastic. Catastrophic. Suicidal. World-changing. The country (Russia) in its current form has just ceased to exist. The entire parasitic elite class just got cut off from everything they stole during all these years. The entire human potential of Russia just got nullified for at lest 20 years. The push towards green energy (and I hope nuclear fusion) just got a…

It’s the Russian curse, lots of potential but truly terrible leaders.

Which is extremely sad. We (the humanity) have LOTS of common enemies: diseases, viruses, aging, poverty, drugs and drug violence, warmongergs, corruption and cheaters (ironic, I know), and countless others.

It saddens me that Russia won't be able to contribute human capital towards any of these goals for at least 20 years.

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