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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

#151
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Wrong. Democratic super delegates overrode the nomination in favor of someone more friendly to the true pro-business party line.

Democratic super delegates overrode the nomination

This literally didn't happen. This sort of conspiracy-theorizing nonsense is akin to Trump's about the 2020 election and has lead to a bunch of low-info voters making bad decisions.

Re: 14 Killed in anti-government protests in Nepal

#152
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nepal government made the classic mistake of not realizing if you let people scream into the ether on whatever the youth use as twitter, they won't meet up with their friends to scream on the street or even worse.

> “No movement of people, demonstration, meeting, gathering or sit-in will be allowed in the restricted zone,” Chief District Officer Chhabi Lal Rijal said in a notice. This is what I'll never understand about neolib governments sliding towards authoritarianism: why push back so hard? Evacuate the parliamentary buildings, don't meet the protestors with police, and let them have the run of the place. Record every face…

You and me both. On some level I'm happy that governments push back so hard because it makes protests "work" but it seems like it would be way more effective for a government to simply ignore the protesters. It would be the ultimate flex by a corrupt government—we're so far above you that you have nothing to shake your fist at.

Re: 14 Killed in anti-government protests in Nepal

#153

It was absolutely not just social media ban, it was mostly youth protesting against the corrupt government and unfairness, social media ban was one element that was against the freedom of speech, but it was right around the time where everyone was documenting the rich politicians, their business connections and their families that have been living lavishly and just inheriting the election seats from generation to gen…

Quite similar corruption is happening here in America! Donald trump made over $3.8B since getting into office this year, while tanking farming, jobs market, and foreign relations.

That number can’t be right, must not be right, do you have a source for that?

Re: 14 Killed in anti-government protests in Nepal

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just went to look you up on your profile to see why you might be hanging out with government officials, and just fyi your website link seems gone.

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…

Here in East Africa some people tell me that it should be easy to find a job for me, but I must be talking to the wrong people. Not lamenting, just sharing how different the experience can be...

Re: 14 Killed in anti-government protests in Nepal

#156
post #32

It was absolutely not just social media ban, it was mostly youth protesting against the corrupt government and unfairness, social media ban was one element that was against the freedom of speech, but it was right around the time where everyone was documenting the rich politicians, their business connections and their families that have been living lavishly and just inheriting the election seats from generation to gen…

The corruption is simply incredible. About fifteen years ago I found myself in Kathmandu after getting altitude sickness. The team's fixer brought me to lunch with some government officials. The topic of discussion? How to steal from a hydroelectric project. One of his guests outright asked, "should we be talking about this in front of this guy?" The fixer shrugged it off saying "he's a Westerner, what is he going to…

I think its quite something that we all waste our time over divisions like left/right, capitalism/socialism, woke/not-woke when in practice; this is the only division that matters. Those who are trying to follow the rules and make the nation better, and those that are only active for their self-interest.

Re: 14 Killed in anti-government protests in Nepal

#157
post #32

It was absolutely not just social media ban, it was mostly youth protesting against the corrupt government and unfairness, social media ban was one element that was against the freedom of speech, but it was right around the time where everyone was documenting the rich politicians, their business connections and their families that have been living lavishly and just inheriting the election seats from generation to gen…

The corruption is simply incredible. About fifteen years ago I found myself in Kathmandu after getting altitude sickness. The team's fixer brought me to lunch with some government officials. The topic of discussion? How to steal from a hydroelectric project. One of his guests outright asked, "should we be talking about this in front of this guy?" The fixer shrugged it off saying "he's a Westerner, what is he going to…

[deleted]

Re: 14 Killed in anti-government protests in Nepal

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite similar corruption is happening here in America! Donald trump made over $3.8B since getting into office this year, while tanking farming, jobs market, and foreign relations.

That number can’t be right, must not be right, do you have a source for that?

I put that number from the lower end, but actuals are closer to $10B, if all his corruption is totaled together. Just making himself great! The key is - when he points anything at others or asks to do something for country, it is actually about himself.

For instance check this https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/trump-family-amasses-...

Re: 14 Killed in anti-government protests in Nepal

#160
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.

You can't make people care.

Not by telling them they should care. They have to experience. Unfortunately, with dictatorship, once you are experiencing it, it's already too late.

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The reasons democracies slide towards less freedom is that in theory decisions should be made by people who care and are informed. But in reality, a single vote every few years is too imprecise to express any kind of informed opinion.

You pick and issue, do research and vote according to what's best for you and/or society. Except you can't vote on the issue. You vote for a party or candidate which also has stances towards dozens other issues. So even if you provide signal in one dimension, you provide only noise in others.

Voting for parties/candidates is like expressing your entire opinion, a multidimensional vector, by picking one point from a small number of predefined choices.

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