71–80 of 239 posts
I’ve been a paid subscriber of FT for years. It’s horrifically expensive and worth every penny.
I had to check pricing after reading your comment. $375/year! That sounds crazy.
"I believe, however, that Putin and the siloviki (though not many in the wider elites) welcome this isolation [from the west]. They are becoming impressed with the Chinese model: a tremendously dynamic economy, a disciplined society and a growing military superpower ruled over with iron control by a hereditary elite that combines huge wealth with deep patriotism, promoting the idea of China as a separate and superior…
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yes, definitely not "hard men", more like what you described, except various intelligence agencies who don't always wear a gun, are also included.
We get what you are trying to say, but people carry guns, they don't wear guns.
Although you can put on a holster. ;-)
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I'm thankful that HN is (kind of) remaining an island of politics-light STEM discussion, differentiating itself from the angsty college protestor vibe of places like Reddit. The response is muted because 1) increased maturity, and 2) moderation.
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I know this is a selfish perspective but the Ukraine/Russia news cycle has been hitting my mental health pretty hard. Its nice to come here and see the usual interesting techy stuff and get a break from the horror. Not that I disagree with your point. This is a place of intelligent discussion which could perhaps benefit Ukrainians better.
Yes HN is supposed to be about intellectually interesting ideas. And the fight against war and fascism needs those because otherwise we are in deep sh*t. So why not combine the two? The situation with Russia is much about information. HN is about information and IT, no? HN could be the primary forum to discuss ways to counter MIS-information. There seems to be a deep problem in Russia, its citizens are mostly duped b…
Sure, some people are hoodwinked by the propaganda. However, a weird misunderstanding is that "if they new what the Truth was, they would surely relent".
From what I've gathered growing up in Russia, that's not quite the case. I don't know why, but a lot of people here have a very apathetic view on politics. In that even if they knew all the "real truth", they wouldn't go into "fight mode", but would instead go into "man, same shit as usual, our life's about to get harder" mode.
I've just chatted with some friends who don't support the war effort in any way and are just as dismayed as your average European Joe (Giuseppe??) (and they have relatives in Ukraine too). What struck me really hard is that once again I had a glimpse of this weird mentality, whereby the person laments being in bad circumstances and start doing a lot of planning (and hoping) on how to deal with the coming misfortunes. Taking control of the change and nipping the said misfortune in the bud is just plain out of sight!
With this in mind, the problem that needs to be solved, in my opinion, is the "victim mentality" in the population, rather than the "misinformation", since "solving" misinformation would seem to push people into the usual victim loop.
Just my 2 cents, and I'm no one and my opinion is based solely on more than a decade of life in Russia.
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What were you hoping the readers of your comment would gain from your comment? Apologies if this comes off abrasively. This is a genuine question that thought to myself when I read your comment. I can't think of a better way to phrase it.
Edification. Nobody says "wear a gun". It doesn't sound right. Was assuming the commenter was a non-native english speaker and was helping him out.
I like this usage right here:
> A gun holster is an accessory which is designed to allow someone to wear a gun on his or her body.
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Well, FSB is an intelligence agency, and they wear guns or at least have a license to wear gun. Though I cannot argue. I rely on my intuitive knowledge of Russian which is hard to use as a rational argument. This knowledge tells me that "силовые структуры"/"structures of force" are organizations that use force to solve problems. And I think that all of them wear guns. But I may be wrong with that last statement, and…
> FSB is an intelligence agency It is a security agency, a.k.a. the “secret police.” (It does, of course, spy on the populace.)
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yes, definitely not "hard men", more like what you described, except various intelligence agencies who don't always wear a gun, are also included.
We get what you are trying to say, but people carry guns, they don't wear guns.
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Building and exporting weapons is illegal (without lots of government approval). Attacking computer systems of other countries is illegal (even if they're Russia). Russians already have all the tools they need to bypass censorship. Do you have any ideas?
I’ve been a paid subscriber of FT for years. It’s horrifically expensive and worth every penny.
I had to check pricing after reading your comment. $375/year! That sounds crazy.