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Russia Bans Roblox

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Re: Russia Bans Roblox

#131

Post by cosmicgadget »

culebron21 wrote: post #126
johncolanduoni wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’re referring to sanctions - persons/businesses residing in Russia, certain specific individuals and those working for specific Russian entities are locked out of much of the Western economy. I think it’s reasonable personally, but I can understand how a Russian 1000km from the Ukrainian frontline who used to sell jewelry on Etsy would be pissed.

The most affected were not those inside, but the emigrants. MasterCard and Visa blocked Russian banks, and the emigrees couldn't pay with their savings anymore. Some people got shadow banned by banks, their accounts closed, or money transfers rejected. These people were on the Europe's side politically, yet they were targeted by just the passport.

The way you phrase it, the banks were targeted, not the people or passports. Seems like anyone with money in a Russian bank would be in the same boat.

Re: Russia Bans Roblox

#132

Post by cosmicgadget »

SanjayMehta wrote: post #120
cosmicgadget wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could swear I have read something about the BBC and UK introspecting over this "scandal".

Yeah, right. As my USAian friend once told me, "it's better to do whatever you want, and then pretend to apologise when you get caught."

"They didn't do any self-examination and if they did it was fake!"

Are you okay, man?

Re: Russia Bans Roblox

#133

Post by cosmicgadget »

SanjayMehta wrote: post #118
mopsi wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other day I saw Judge Napolitano calling for Hegseth to be prosecuted as a war criminal for ordering a second strike on the survivors of a boat strike. This happened on Newsmax, which is ultra partisan and very pro-Trump. And even they are not always following the party line. Nothing of this sort happens in Russia anymore. The Kremlin has full editorial control over all media outlets. What they want published get…

What Russian war crimes? While the US commits nothing but war crimes.

You can be anti-west without being a Putin apologist.

Re: Russia Bans Roblox

#134

Post by culebron21 »

johncolanduoni wrote: post #127
culebron21 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most affected were not those inside, but the emigrants. MasterCard and Visa blocked Russian banks, and the emigrees couldn't pay with their savings anymore. Some people got shadow banned by banks, their accounts closed, or money transfers rejected. These people were on the Europe's side politically, yet they were targeted by just the passport.

None of the Russian expats I’ve met had this problem: after 2014 they all saw the writing on the wall and moved their money to western banks. I have sympathy for those that didn’t - normal people shouldn’t have to make this kind of calculus - but there’s no alternative to this while having useful sanctions. It’s not the causeless brutality of breaking someone’s window because of their accent.

Well, every expat I know, including me, had this problem and spent days working around. And the sanctions were very poorly designed, because the drones landing in Ukraine still have fresh American and German parts.

I'm not saying they should be lifted, but they punished the most exactly the pro-European Russians, inside our outside.

Re: Russia Bans Roblox

#135

Post by Andrew_nenakhov »

throwaway290 wrote: post #125
Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 pe…

contractors are getting paid VERY good money relatively. Imagine you live in a village, your education is so so. You live in an old house with parents. How much do you earn? Anything? But now you go to war and you/your family gets 200000 monthly. You can buy a cheap car for that money AND buy a flat in a city (first mortgage payment) after first month. Not counting signup bonus.

How many contractors do you think there are relative to the size of population, so that the previous poster was claiming that was flooded with wealth?? This is just plain nonsense. Mercenary payments have extremely limited impact on the overall 'lower class' wealth.

(And you somehow forget about the little insignificant downside of a mercenary career that you might be a bit dead or maimed, oops)

Re: Russia Bans Roblox

#136

Post by Andrew_nenakhov »

throwaway290 wrote: post #99
Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Must be nice. Now imagine living not so close to "center" (the mostly white west of the country). They test more advanced blocking in the regions first because people don't complain so much. Same logic with contractors, most people are recruited to the war from these regions. Why? because they are poor and watch tv. What even is VPN? another ploy by anglo-saxons?;) Basically I'll tell you it's like this: 60% chance y…

> Now imagine living not so close to "center" (the mostly white west of the country)

You seem to have a very limited understanding of Russia.

First, nobody in Russia ever thinks of its population in racial terms like 'white'. At most, there are ethnic terms like 'russians', 'caucasians' [0], 'tatars', 'yakuts', etc. -- there aren't even any genuine Asians here but the students from China.

And no, thanks to the soviets, the cultural influence between most of these ethnic groups is next to unexistent.

More, you say 'the white west' of the country, but this is again a misconception: the closer you get to the 'west' (or, more correctly, to the center, like Moscow and Saint Petersburg), the less 'russian' it is. The percent of ethnic russian population is far higher in eastern parts of the country and on the outskirts than in Moscow, where the percent of ethnical russians is the lowest.

> Remember that most most people in Russia support the government and do what they are told.

Yeah, Putin once again thanks you for your service. You have no idea what real Russia looks like, as I've proven above when I disproved your misconceptions, yet, you go out of your way and still spread Putin's narrative how popular he is.

In reality, Putin stays in power because he has an army of paid thugs who'll kill anyone who opposes him. If Putin would participate in any honest elections vs just about anyone who is not one of his cronies, he'd lose such elections in a landslide. That's why he will never do the Lukashenko's mistake of allowing even a simple housewife to run against him, which ran, and won, so Lukashenko had no blatantly falsify the election results and suppress the protests to stay in power. Genuinely popular leaders do not need such precautions. Putin knows he is deeply unpopular, Russians know he is deeply unpopular, and only unwitting Putin's henchmen from the West spread Putin's narrative that he is a very popular leader. Lol.

[0]: No, not 'caucasians' as americans understand the term, but people from actual Caucasus region, like Chechnya, Dagestan, Armenia, Georgia -- the actual Georgia, not the one which is next to South Carolina :-D

Re: Russia Bans Roblox

#137

Post by SanjayMehta »

cosmicgadget wrote: post #132
SanjayMehta wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, right. As my USAian friend once told me, "it's better to do whatever you want, and then pretend to apologise when you get caught."

"They didn't do any self-examination and if they did it was fake!" Are you okay, man?

I'm okay. Thanks for asking. I suggest you ask yourself the same question.

Re: Russia Bans Roblox

#138

Post by SanjayMehta »

platevoltage wrote: post #128
SanjayMehta wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in a country which banned TikTok. Nothing of value was lost.

I'm sure it was a value to at least some people. Nothing of value would be lost for me if Fox News was banned. It's still censorship.

They moved on to Instagram and X.

I can't tell the difference between CNN and Fox. They're all liars.

Re: Russia Bans Roblox

#139

Post by defrost »

cosmicgadget wrote: post #130
defrost wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No straw of any size is being grasped here. The GP comment asked for examples of censorship in the US. Examples were provided.

Wikileaks isn't censored in the US. To say that government employees being instructed to respect the classification of public documents is... certainly one interpretation of censorship. Libel isn't media that is censored in the US and available internationally.

Was the statements made by Jimmy Kimmel Libel?

Did senior figures in the crrent US administration successfully (temporarily) have the entire show pulled?

The US practices censorship - it's not overt, the fish can't see the water, but it's there via manufactured consent.

Returning to the actual question I addressed:

> Could you share an example of some censored media in the US that's available elsewhere?

Wikileaks is a clear example of material censorered by the US Government that was restricted from common US employees despite appearing in newspapers and not being restricted from the eyes of other peer military and goverment personal in many other countries.

Re: Russia Bans Roblox

#140

Post by throwaway290 »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #135
throwaway290 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

contractors are getting paid VERY good money relatively. Imagine you live in a village, your education is so so. You live in an old house with parents. How much do you earn? Anything? But now you go to war and you/your family gets 200000 monthly. You can buy a cheap car for that money AND buy a flat in a city (first mortgage payment) after first month. Not counting signup bonus.

How many contractors do you think there are relative to the size of population, so that the previous poster was claiming that was flooded with wealth?? This is just plain nonsense. Mercenary payments have extremely limited impact on the overall 'lower class' wealth. (And you somehow forget about the little insignificant downside of a mercenary career that you might be a bit dead or maimed, oops)

if you consider that almost all contractors are from poorer families it affects them disproportionately, you need to exclude upper middle class and up from your percentage calc.

I agree that "flooded lower classes with wealth" is an exaggeration but I think it is not completely wrong.

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