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Russia Bans Roblox

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Re: Russia Bans Roblox

#81

Post by SanjayMehta »

jan_g wrote: post #70
SanjayMehta wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In real life, European hypocrisy is off the charts. BBC got caught manipulating videos featuring Trump. 12000 people were detained in the UK for thought crimes. In one year. One little old lady was arrested for praying silently. France went after Durov. Russia media IS banned, hiding behind ISP incompetence doesn't count. Come on. Wake up. We who have lived under actual socialist dictators can see what's happening.

I see you have an axe to grind with EU. That's fine, but I'll say that I also lived in socialism, so I do have experience and perspective of what it was like. And precisely because of that, these EU bans don't worry me at all. I know the difference as opposed to many who think they know the difference.

We are sick of European hypocrisy; lecturing the "third world" on democracy, freedom of the press, human rights, climate change blah blah blah instead of introspecting on the mess within.

[0] https://www.outlookindia.com/national/explained-what-jaishan...

Re: Russia Bans Roblox

#82

Post by benterix »

RomanPushkin wrote: post #25

It's both good and bad. On one hand, it's sad that there's no access. On the other hand, it increases the diversity of tools and services worldwide. Google, for example, is well known for buying startups just to kill them. In Russia and China, they have their own search engines, social networks, eBay/Amazon alternatives, and so on. These companies have produced great free software like LLMs, databases, development to…

I have mixed feelings about this. On the other hand, developments like Deepseek are clearly marks of progress and practically a gift to the society, and it's a good thing. The Chinese are also creating and maintaining many valuable open source projects (although they might not be that popular in the West due to security concerns, which is a different lengthy topic). So everybody wins, right?

On the other hand... People in the West rarely get the taste of what happens if someone deeply immoral gets to the top. The closest we got is Trump who might be an arrogant egoistic asshole, but he's very far from deciding to kill thousands of people to fulfill his ambitions. Nevertheless, normal sensitive people feel abhorred when they hear or see how immigrants are treated and so on. Imagine this developed decade after decade, also using modern tech, into a cold machine an ordinary person is powerless against.

It's hard to explain to someone who hasn't experienced it but imagine your whole life, and often of your family, can be destroyed in an instant because you found yourself in a wrong place, you made a wrong comment, you expressed your opinion too openly. You were relaxed because maybe you did similar things in the past but you still lived a normal life; then at that particular moment it ended abruptly and there is no recourse. Nobody can save you and you know it's all finished. In the West there is nothing close to that.

Re: Russia Bans Roblox

#83

Post by buggeryorkshire »

boston_clone wrote: post #55
lenkite wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My bad - I thought Tiktok (and other Bytedance apps) were banned in the US but apparently not since President Trump reversed the US Supreme Court decision. Huh, so it is mainly the European powers who are the culprits. Changed my claim.

All good, it can be a ...chore to keep track of what decisions and reversals the current administration is making. To support your original claim - when I was in the military, we were explicitly forbidden to look at anything Snowden leaked as it was still classified and would be a violation of our clearances as we did not have either the appropriate level (e.g., TS-SCI) or need to know. Kind of understandable, but st…

I was working at a place in the UK where I only had BPSS but everybody else in the office had top clearance as they worked on military stuff, this was when The Guardian were doing the Snowden stuff.

It was easily the best way of clearing the office for some peace - mention the front page of the newspaper and everybody would lock their laptops, pick up their papers and walk.

From what I can gather the fact you know something you shouldn't, even though it's in the national news, it causes problems when renewing your clearances, so...

Re: Russia Bans Roblox

#84

Post by notarget137 »

M95D wrote: post #63
theshrike79 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A rich billionaire can still be affected by shareholders. If they stop providing shareholder value (due to mass boycotts or public scandals), they have to change. If it's a Putin-style dictator who has spent a quarter century digging his claws into every facet of the country, there's literally nothing you can do that doesn't involve physical violence to change things.

> A rich billionaire can still be affected by shareholders. A rich billioneaire is a shareholder. > If they stop providing shareholder value [...] they have to change. But we (the small people) don't care about the shareholder value. Shareholder value is often contrary to what we (the small people) value, so expect change for the worse. > due to mass boycotts or public scandals Sorry, what? > has spent a quarter cent…

It's baffling for me living in Russia that modern western societies see everything wrong with dictatorship from a goverment but nothing or almost nothing wrong with dictatorship from big capital. E.g. you can't change your break pads unless you go to authorized repair (literal control over your private property and how you use it) and big platforms banning you from multiple public forums because you said a big no-no word (deplatforming and cross-platform restrictions are a thing)

Re: Russia Bans Roblox

#85

Post by s1mplicissimus »

mk89 wrote: post #60
Atlas667 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As if you have a say other than "that guy" or "that other guy". The wealthy already fund politicians' careers, they fund judges, they fund campaigns. The wealthy already run the country. They fund both parties as a tactic. The parties are just "good cop/bad cop".

This is democracy, it doesn't mean it's perfect. It's just a tool to keep a lot of people in line. It's the HOW that matters, which is what life finally is about. Being a crazy authoritarian guy with power of life and death over each of your citizens is one. No government at all is the other extreme, which finally leads always to another crazy guy. In between there is an ocean. ...and putting everything in the same p…

> Being a crazy authoritarian guy with power of life and death over each of your citizens is one. No government at all is the other extreme

no, the other extreme of "crazy authoritarian" is "liberal democracy"

The other extreme of "no government at all" is "everything is run by the government"

Re: Russia Bans Roblox

#86

Post by mk89 »

s1mplicissimus wrote: post #85
mk89 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is democracy, it doesn't mean it's perfect. It's just a tool to keep a lot of people in line. It's the HOW that matters, which is what life finally is about. Being a crazy authoritarian guy with power of life and death over each of your citizens is one. No government at all is the other extreme, which finally leads always to another crazy guy. In between there is an ocean. ...and putting everything in the same p…

> Being a crazy authoritarian guy with power of life and death over each of your citizens is one. No government at all is the other extreme no, the other extreme of "crazy authoritarian" is "liberal democracy" The other extreme of "no government at all" is "everything is run by the government"

Fair enough, technically you are right.

Re: Russia Bans Roblox

#87

Post by mingus88 »

notarget137 wrote: post #84
M95D wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A rich billionaire can still be affected by shareholders. A rich billioneaire is a shareholder. > If they stop providing shareholder value [...] they have to change. But we (the small people) don't care about the shareholder value. Shareholder value is often contrary to what we (the small people) value, so expect change for the worse. > due to mass boycotts or public scandals Sorry, what? > has spent a quarter cent…

It's baffling for me living in Russia that modern western societies see everything wrong with dictatorship from a goverment but nothing or almost nothing wrong with dictatorship from big capital. E.g. you can't change your break pads unless you go to authorized repair (literal control over your private property and how you use it) and big platforms banning you from multiple public forums because you said a big no-no…

You don’t have to look very hard to see an enormous number of people expressing discontent at the latter.

To speak to your examples, the right to repair, farmers vs John Deere, the exodus from X to Bluesky, the rise of alternative messaging platforms, the outright murder of CEOs on the street and the beatification of the primary suspect on social media…just to scratch the surface

These are all headlines straight from HN and the fact that you even know about them is the difference.

The fundamental difference is while we both lack any real power to change this, under an actual dictatorship people get jailed or worse for that expression.

Let’s touch base on this again when Dictatorship from big capital means Disney puts me in prison for dissent against the mouse and then offers me clemency if I go to the front lines in their next special military operation.

Re: Russia Bans Roblox

#88

Post by Andrew_nenakhov »

mopsi wrote: post #75
Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol, the dictator's approval rating is so high that he bans, forces to exile or kills any opposing candidate, never risking elections vs anyone not fully controlled by him. Every time someone like Bukele flexes that his approval rating is higher than Putin's, I laugh -- the guy clearly doesn't understand that this isn't the flex he thinks it is.

Putin's approval rating is genuinely that high, around 80%. Nobody cares about opposing candidates, because Russia has had one or two free elections in its entire history. Far more important is that Putin has flooded the lower classes with money. People who were used to surviving on a few hundred dollars a month are now receiving tens of thousands in sign-up bonuses alone, plus military wages and compensations. Absol…

This is absolutely delusional, but Putin thanks you for serving his cause.

Regarding your claim that Putin flooded the lower classes with money, this is simply false. What percent of the population do you think signed up for war? Do you really think that 0.5% (optimistic estimate) that did sign up had spread their wealth with anyone else?

Just last week I stayed in the hospital with 2 men, 72y.o and 64y.o. One has pension of 19k RUB, another one 23k RUB. That's fewer than $300. Showered with money, Yay!

Re: Russia Bans Roblox

#89

Post by SanjayMehta »

mopsi wrote: post #73
SanjayMehta wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia Today et al are banned in the EU. This is standard European censorship of Russian media and news.

> This is standard European censorship of Russian media and news. There is not a single media outlet left in Russia anymore. The media crackdown is complete. They are all government propaganda now, repeating the same narratives dictated by the Kremlin and free only to choose the wording. They deserve to be removed from the market the same way a box of cereal is pulled when ingredients do not match the printing on the…

Of course, US media is completely independent and has diverse views.

We should all emulate US media.

https://theweek.com/speedreads/764546/watch-surreal-video-co...

Re: Russia Bans Roblox

#90

Post by Andrew_nenakhov »

throwaway290 wrote: post #80
Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You aren't from Russia, aren't you? Yes, anyone in Russia who still doesn't have VPN access IS a complete idiot. This is the reality on the ground that I observe every day. Nannies in kindergartens have them, teachers at school have them, salespersons in perfume store have them, all students have them, schoolchildren have them. And it has nothing to do with the law — currently, using vpn isn't breaking any laws.

Where is that, Moscow? I guess you aren't from Russia)

No, Chelyabinsk. You want a photo proof of me standing in the street?
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