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Russia killed its tech industry

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Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#21
post #8

You can vote yourself into authoritarianism, but you cannot vote yourself out. And when that authoritarian you love so much makes a major blunder, invading Europe for example, he takes everyone with him, and that's by design.

Usually you can't realistically vote the dictator out long before they invade somebody. For example Łukaszenko in Belarus made it impossible to vote him out in 90s already. Putin in early 00s.

Russians and Belarusians made their mistakes back then. Now it's just a consequence of not fighting for their democracy strongly enough when it was still possible.

This is the thing that kills democracy - it is taken away from you very slowly, step by step, and at any given moment it looks like it's not a big deal. And then when it's a big deal - you realize it doesn't matter what people think. You can't change anything.

In my country (Poland) the fight is still going on, but I'm not optimistic.

Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#22

Russia killed a lot more than just its tech industry. While the real impact of this won’t show up for 20 years the impact will be severe. I’m pretty sure Russia will try very hard to attract foreign labor and immigration in the next years to fill some of the gaps that the country has to fill now.

their treatment of their existing ethnic minorities will make that fairly difficult. the obvious immigrants for them to take would be refugees from the middle east, but I doubt many of them will want to go to Russia.

The obvious source of immigrants are the CIS countries, that's where 90%+ of the current immigration comes from. Also in the past it had no problem attracting millions of immigrants as long as the currency exchange was favorable: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Russia

Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#23
post #8

You can vote yourself into authoritarianism, but you cannot vote yourself out. And when that authoritarian you love so much makes a major blunder, invading Europe for example, he takes everyone with him, and that's by design.

Romania voted out their authoritarian ruler with a firing squad back in the mid to late 80s. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolae_Ceau%C8%99escu

It could be said that Europe collectively voted out communism at the end of the 80's.

Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#24

I find it heartbreaking. I grew up in the Cold War (my father was in the CIA). Russians were considered brutish, non-creative, and untrustworthy. Then, the Berlin Wall came down, and everything changed. I started to see amazing creativity come from Russia. Music, technology, art, actors, dance, all kinds of stuff. I loved working with Russian engineers. They were some of the best techs I'd worked with. I have a lot o…

[flagged]

I know right. It was stagnant afterwards too.

Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#25
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While Russia's reputation is in shatters in the west, I'm not sure if this is true for India, China, Pakistan and other countries. Also Russia's Wagner troupes are currently kicking out European ones in Africa, so I wouldn't be surprised if the reputation of Russia will be good enough for immigration in Africa either. This might very well be a solvable problem for Russia if they really want to.

If all you require a warm bodies to do menial tasks or low- to no-skilled labor? Sure, Pakistan and Africa will be happy to provide these. If you are trying to rebuild your high-tech industry, however, you require educated people. And why would these go to Russia if they can go to Europe or the US? Immigrating to Russia with possibly be easier, but it’s still Russia…

Nigeria and Ethiopia are both brimming with tech workers that are happy to relocate for money and better prospects. Whether a post-war Russia can offer either remains to be seen.

Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#26
post #8

You can vote yourself into authoritarianism, but you cannot vote yourself out. And when that authoritarian you love so much makes a major blunder, invading Europe for example, he takes everyone with him, and that's by design.

>a major blunder

On the contrary this war is Putin's multiyear bet on Russia's useful idiots in the West.

US Republicans overwhelmingly supported US military aid to Ukraine in the beginning of the war. However Tucker Carlson and other populists spend the next 12 months lowering that support to less than 40%.

The only reason Russia started this war is because they believed their useful idiots in the West will save them. They are yet to be proved wrong.

Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#28
post #26
post #8

You can vote yourself into authoritarianism, but you cannot vote yourself out. And when that authoritarian you love so much makes a major blunder, invading Europe for example, he takes everyone with him, and that's by design.

>a major blunder On the contrary this war is Putin's multiyear bet on Russia's useful idiots in the West. US Republicans overwhelmingly supported US military aid to Ukraine in the beginning of the war. However Tucker Carlson and other populists spend the next 12 months lowering that support to less than 40%. The only reason Russia started this war is because they believed their useful idiots in the West will save the…

> They are yet to be proved wrong.

I'm confused. Hasn't the US and EU given incredible military aide to Ukraine?

Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#29

I find it heartbreaking. I grew up in the Cold War (my father was in the CIA). Russians were considered brutish, non-creative, and untrustworthy. Then, the Berlin Wall came down, and everything changed. I started to see amazing creativity come from Russia. Music, technology, art, actors, dance, all kinds of stuff. I loved working with Russian engineers. They were some of the best techs I'd worked with. I have a lot o…

Russia and US were political enemies.

> Russians were considered brutish, non-creative, and untrustworthy.

Russia and US stopped being political enemies.

> I started to see amazing creativity come from Russia.

Russia and US started being political enemies again.

> Russians are considered brutish, non-creative, and untrustworthy.

It's not really clear but I think I'm starting to see a pattern here.

Re: Russia killed its tech industry

#30

I find it heartbreaking. I grew up in the Cold War (my father was in the CIA). Russians were considered brutish, non-creative, and untrustworthy. Then, the Berlin Wall came down, and everything changed. I started to see amazing creativity come from Russia. Music, technology, art, actors, dance, all kinds of stuff. I loved working with Russian engineers. They were some of the best techs I'd worked with. I have a lot o…

Most of the brightest ones have left the country, so I do wonder if it might result in being a net positive for the world, moving a million brightest people from a decaying autocracy into the functional countries with good management, potential investors and a culture of innovation.

Russian culture in Russia might be done for though, at least for a while.

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