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14 Killed in anti-government protests in Nepal

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Re: 14 Killed in anti-government protests in Nepal

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because people in the West have been indoctrinated to trust their governments far too much to an unhealthy degree Can you give specific examples? I frequently find the US outlook to be exactly the reverse, where people pretend like "the government" is some conspiratorial shadow organisation undermining all the citizens at every step (which seems quite silly to me because it basically consists only of people that yo…

>Can you give specific examples? Most rich western/northern European countries. >which seems quite silly to me because it basically consists only of people that you directly or indirectly voted for It's not silly when you consider that the candidates you can vote for, are all managed oppositions, each owned and supported by various mega-money interest groups. Why else did Bernie Sanders never got nominated as a presi…

Why else did Bernie Sanders never got nominated as a presidential candidate even though many people supported him?

Because more people supported someone else.

Re: 14 Killed in anti-government protests in Nepal

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not terribly unusual to end up with random government officials if you're a white guy going into a non-touristy part of the 3rd world. I went to a village in Paraguay, first thing locals did was take me to some government project creating an industrial cow milking operation where I was promptly offered an engineering job. Low-level 3rd world officials love showing off whatever they're doing to whoever will liste…

I'm from Paraguay. Can you elaborate? Which village? TIA.

It was close to "New Italy" (in Spanish), somewhere within 50 miles of Asuncion.

I don't know much about Agriculture Engineering but there were a bunch of big milk vats, a couple electricians, and then a bunch of officials sitting around drinking the cold Yerba Matte stuff.

I assume they brought me because they heard I was an electrical engineer and I saw they were wiring the place up.

Re: 14 Killed in anti-government protests in Nepal

#53
post #22

Hard-earned freedoms are wasted on societies who don't have memories of what it took to earn them. Freedom is a ratchet: slides easily and frictionlessly one way, and offers immense resistance in the other. This is all so disheartening.

I’m not aware of a single nation where the ratchet is loosening. It appears freedom is being eroded everywhere. The most disheartening thing is that nothing works to stop it. There are countries where millions of people have protested, but in time the protests always fizzle or are stamped out, and things continue on the same trajectory.

We recently had a record-sized protest in Taiwan and major political movements as a result. The recall movement was also unprecedented, though it ostensibly failed. However the KMT has failed in its coupe so there's still a positive outcome.

It's why I'm here - it's one of the only countries on earth for which I'm politically optimistic.

Re: 14 Killed in anti-government protests in Nepal

#54
post #22

Hard-earned freedoms are wasted on societies who don't have memories of what it took to earn them. Freedom is a ratchet: slides easily and frictionlessly one way, and offers immense resistance in the other. This is all so disheartening.

I’m not aware of a single nation where the ratchet is loosening. It appears freedom is being eroded everywhere. The most disheartening thing is that nothing works to stop it. There are countries where millions of people have protested, but in time the protests always fizzle or are stamped out, and things continue on the same trajectory.

As first generation out of Salazar's dictorship, our country now having a right majority with a Nazi party in the mix, makes me really sad.

How short the memory of folks can be, especially with my parents and grand parents generations still around, but apparently their memories and experiences now fall into death hears.

Maybe when they start getting visits from the eventually new state protection police, they will understand, then it will be too late.

Re: 14 Killed in anti-government protests in Nepal

#55
post #3

So where's the donkey and where's the cart. It reads like: citizens have been protesting the government using social media, government desperate to curb dissent bans social media, dissent is now on the streets.. Or maybe it's as straightforward as the media has been reporting.

It also seems reasonable that companies have to follow local laws to operate there. Corporations superseding states seems just as dystopian as state repression of dissent. Granted, there is either confusion or misrepresentation as Mastodon is also banned. The reporting seems pretty meagre; even strictly with these events, how are so many dying from batons and rubber bullets? Sure these can kill, but fourteen people?

It's awkward isn't it, because following local laws could mean being a helping hand of the oppressor... For an extreme example, an email company that is forced by a new law to reveal all emails of citizens of country X, or a payment app that has to upload all transactions to the government (and where the supreme court has ruled in favour of the surveillance state). The "moral" company would probably rather shut their operations, but even trillion-dollar companies relent... And who has the last word on what's moral?

Re: 14 Killed in anti-government protests in Nepal

#56
post #17

> The demonstration turned violent when some protesters entered the Parliament complex, prompting police to resort to baton charges, tear gas shells and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd, eyewitnesses said. 14 people dead from so-called "non-lethal" means. How do 14 people end up dead without the police coming with intent to do harm?

The correct term for these means is "less-lethal".

Re: 14 Killed in anti-government protests in Nepal

#57
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not aware of a single nation where the ratchet is loosening. It appears freedom is being eroded everywhere. The most disheartening thing is that nothing works to stop it. There are countries where millions of people have protested, but in time the protests always fizzle or are stamped out, and things continue on the same trajectory.

Protests are rarely effectual, they serve more to gauge interest of others and provide connections. In the end the state is a force of violence. Voting works in so much as it is roughly a tally of who would win if we all pulled knives on each other. Democracy was formed at a time when guns and knives were the most effectual tools the state had to fight against the populace. Now that the government has more asymmetric…

> Protests are rarely effectual

False

“Nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts – and those engaging a threshold of 3.5% of the population have never failed to bring about change” [1].

Exhibit A: the same region, literally last month. First protesters in Bangladesh lead “to the ouster of the then-prime minister, Sheikh Hasina” [2]. Then Indonesia “pledged to revoke lawmakers’ perks and privileges, including a controversial $3,000 housing allowance, in a bid to ease public fury after nationwide protests” [3].

[1] https://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/carr/publications/35-rul...

[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/July_Revolution_(Bangladesh)

[3-] https://apnews.com/article/indonesia-protests-subianto-privi...

Re: 14 Killed in anti-government protests in Nepal

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Protests are rarely effectual, they serve more to gauge interest of others and provide connections. In the end the state is a force of violence. Voting works in so much as it is roughly a tally of who would win if we all pulled knives on each other. Democracy was formed at a time when guns and knives were the most effectual tools the state had to fight against the populace. Now that the government has more asymmetric…

> Protests are rarely effectual False “Nonviolent protests are twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts – and those engaging a threshold of 3.5% of the population have never failed to bring about change” [1]. Exhibit A: the same region, literally last month. First protesters in Bangladesh lead “to the ouster of the then-prime minister, Sheikh Hasina” [2]. Then Indonesia “pledged to revoke lawmakers’ perks and pr…

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Re: 14 Killed in anti-government protests in Nepal

#59
post #15
post #4

These governments that block social media or control/monitor the internet to avoid critics of government or dissent, whether that be Nepal, Tunisia, Turkey, UK, Germany, China, Egypt, US, Russia, Israel, are always shocked when there is an uprising. Unsurprisingly when a government tries to control people this closely many will see the flaws in it and make a stand and rightly so whether that be digitally or in person…

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but look at those engagement numbers tho, numbers the like of which may never be seen again.

sacrifices were made - people put in long nights working, missed their childrens birthdays, anniversaries etc. years of A/B testing and tweaks to the algorithm went into fermenting that genocide.

facebook engineers really earned their pizza party that week.

Re: 14 Killed in anti-government protests in Nepal

#60
post #59
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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but look at those engagement numbers tho, numbers the like of which may never be seen again. sacrifices were made - people put in long nights working, missed their childrens birthdays, anniversaries etc. years of A/B testing and tweaks to the algorithm went into fermenting that genocide. facebook engineers really earned their pizza party that week.

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