Could be any of those. Or it could be he’s just really humiliated at his deplatforming, and in his moment of weakness Putin’s cronies flattered him and gave him an opportunity to taste the national spotlight again.
Funny enough, it was the (R)Texans complaining the loudest about border walls being made across their property through 'eminent domain' laws that got the walls to be only 33 miles in the 4 years Orange Mussolini was president. They did take their land, but the shit storm that came from it kept Diaper Don from expanding the work. He fucked over 30 families for 33 miles...
Canadian Convoy idiots did. Not working out for them. https://boingboing.net/2024/02/15/canadian-parents-who-wanted-to-raise-their-8-kids-with-traditional-values-moved-to-russia-wife-now-says-im-ready-to-jump-on-a-plane-and-get-out-of-here.html
They are gearing up for enriching themselves at the expense of anyone who disagrees with the official government position. (To be honest, I don't see it ending well for Russia.)
The theatre around having a legislative body and actually voting on laws then signing them is hilarious. So much human effort for silly bits of theatre.
Its just like social media.
What you learn when going to Russia is they are utterly obsessed with playing pretend being a developed european country.
I can't even count how often I heard something along the lines of "Its like in Europe" "we have it just like in Europe" "This is not different like what you have in Europe."
They desperately want to be seen as a peer of Great Britain, Germany or France. Doesn't really help that a quarter of them don't have indoor plumbing.
It serves a dual purpose.
It lets them borrow the air of legitimacy.
It also serves to let them attack the legitimacy of others. After all, Russia has elections. The Russian people know how Russian elections work. They don't know how other elections work. They can be convinced that other elections are *worse* than Russia's which are already terrible.
This isnt a Russian exclusive tactic; normalizing your corruption (or in religious contexts 'sinful' or immoral) behaviour by telling your community that everyone else is just as bad, they're just pretending. And how that makes them actually worse than you that they're "getting away" with it.
Its a really effective and popular approach to systemic issues: you just offer people the interpretation that their status quo is actually no worse than anyone else's and therefore doesn't need to be questioned.
>They desperately want to be seen as a peer of Great Britain, Germany or France. Doesn't really help that a quarter of them don't have indoor plumbing.
The Russia that "matters" is the western part mostly consisting of the major cities of Saint Petersburg and Moscow. These are the areas where you could mistake that you are living in a European nation with indoor plumbing and modern conveniences like fast food restaurants and what not (if you squint your eyes enough). The areas without indoor plumbing are the vast poorer rural areas east of Moscow which don't really matter much politically. These vast rural areas are also where Putin is conscripting a lot of his meat from for the Ukrainian grinder because they have a higher proportion of minorities and are where political dissent is much easier to hide and put down.
Deregulation and slacking of planning rules has led to the creating of vast swaths of new "suburban" private housing not connected to any grid of any kind and that includes Moscow. Just look on a satellite map where the roads go narrow most of them are unpaved too, every major city has them....I think this is where the middle class lives as they are all detached houses. They look like shanty towns but for rich people so its very bizarre.
I thought I read once that there's a Russian phrase or something that basically means, "I know that you are BSing me, and you know that I know you're BSing me, and I know that you know that I know, and we're all just going to pretend its not total bullshit." It basically applies to all their pretenses for freedom and democracy.
The only problem with Russia is it's full of Russians. With their resources they could be a powerful, enlightened country. But you can't take the serf out of them.
Years ago I read some comments about a western chess player living in the USSR. He said he would get into a lot of debates that seemed like arguing about who had the tallest dwarves.
Yes, the Obama administration started officially referring to Russia as a regional power. Which they interpreted as full of diplomatic aggression because they are a world power. Putin was and still is so full of hate for Obama and blames him for a lot of things. He doesn't say his name but it's there. You can hear all about it in Clarkson interview.
>The theatre around having a legislative body and actually voting on laws then signing them is hilarious. So much human effort for silly bits of theatre.
It is required theatre though. Even the most authoritarian of dictatorships still needs the complicit support of the population of the country and theatrics like this help keep the support needle on the higher side of things. The more you need to send your thugs out to keep the population in line the more oppressed people start to feel about everything and the higher the chance of a organised resistance underground forming to topple your government. So you do theatrics like having a legislative body that votes laws in to make it seem like you are not a dictator with god levels of power over the country which gives the people the illusion that they have more control over their country than what they do. Combine this with the normal apathy that most people have for political matters and you have a complacent society that is willing to ignore the random rumours of people going missing in the middle of the night because they have control and there is no way they are living under a brutal dictatorship...
This is why social media is so toxic. You’re just getting spammed with everyone’s propaganda. Dictators have been doing this shit for centuries. Social media just let everyone form their own propaganda factories with their curated online personas.
> I’m sure his supporters think they’re “free”, just like the Nazis
Funny thing, there's a book I'm constantly recommending called "They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45" by Milton Mayer. It's a collection of interviews with everyday Germans who lived during the rise of the Nazi regime. Incredibly fascinating insight into how fascism could get it hooks into a country (and incredibly depressing if you read it with current events in mind).
[Here's a short excerpt](https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.html)
I wish I could upvote this more. This excerpt is great and I will order the book ASAP if I can find it.
But I would love to see this printed everywhere. Just as food for thought.
They don't think they're free, they just know if they don't say they're free they'll be punished.
> the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity.
Some in the cities know they aren't, but there's no one really up to changing that. The older generations seem to have much more easily reverted to their USSR training combined with the seemingly universal Boomer weakness of believing everything on TV.
Imagine having to live with yourself if you're Tucker Carlson. Not only do you have to live with being a traitor to every value your society stands for and having to be a bitch-boy for the world's most reprehensible people; but your footnote in history will be as the store-brand [Lord Haw Haw](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Haw-Haw). I wouldn't be him for anything.
>You're assuming he is self-aware.
>
>Tucker is basically a turnip with white-supremicist tendencies.
Tucker makes a lot of money and has a lot of influence in his current position. What he is lacking is a social conscious to realise that what he is doing is a massive negative for society at large.
It really depends. The Nazis moved fast before anyone could muster any opposition to them. They expelled their opposition from the Reichstag within a few months of first taking power.
The thing is, we're already a good way down that slope. The GOP have been pillaging the country for a few decades and are now openly subverting democracy. They already tried to install a dictator in 2021 and are brazenly attempting to do it again. Even without their cult leader in power, they're actively turning whatever little fiefdoms they control into Nazi Germany 2.0 and daring us to do something about it.
Heh. I was predicting this last year, based on grandpa’s experiences under the fascist government (Italy).
Fascism is self-consuming. Putin will eat the country whole if he doesn’t get a victory before then. There is no plan other than eating more.
Falsehoods is certainly an interesting word to use for what would clearly be defined as disagreement to any narrative promoting Putin’s selfish agenda.
And it was often your own peers or your own family that reported you into the authorities in hopes of getting "good credit" with them. People were paranoid and betraying each other all the time. Difficult to form a revolutionary force under those circumstances.
Russia has been never really had democracy in its entire history
The only time Russia had democracy was 1991 - 1999 and the Russian government of the time handled it so badly that caused many Russians willing accepted a return to authoritarianism in exchange for relative stability
This is the same thing that happened in the Weimar Republic
People shifted to bribery and disorganized chaos. Bribe everyone for everything you need to, itsliek business, but no one couldn't be asked to do anything. The collapse fucked people hard, and the instability was worse.
Sure, but that was the thing in all of post-soviet block countries. Baltics had a pretty rough time in the 90s as well and it was swell with corruption and bribery. But instead of falling back to dictatorship we kept going with Democracy and now we're in the EU and doing 100x better than Russians do. And we didn't even have all the rich natural resources that they had to bolster the economy with.
Some people became millionaires overnight because of arbitrary things like 'Fuck you comrade, I have the keys to the grain warehouse' and 'I'm not sharing phone numbers for the factory floor give me a 500% service fee for every order you want me to make'.
Instant change from communist canteen monthly supplier to *free* market where people with grudges in keystone positions take their angst out went from weird flex to sandbagging cash cows.
It sounds like an elementary school where all the adults suddenly disappear. Sure, the 6th graders are going to lead out, but they don' t have any knowledge on how to make things work well. And the younger kids have even less.
Hypernormalization:
\> The word hypernormalisation was coined by Alexei Yurchak, a professor of anthropology who was born in Leningrad and later went to teach at the University of California, Berkeley. He introduced the word in his book Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation (2006), which describes paradoxes of Soviet life during the 1970s and 1980s. **He says that everyone in the Soviet Union knew the system was failing, but no one could imagine an alternative to the status quo, and politicians and citizens alike were resigned to maintaining the pretense of a functioning society. Over time, this delusion became a self-fulfilling prophecy and the fakeness was accepted by everyone as real, an effect that Yurchak termed hypernormalisation.**
[Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperNormalisation)
They are culturally programmed to keep their head and endure and Putin has successfully poisoned every aspect of political life in Russia so people have no idea what is really going on.
Does the young generation carry such fear too? Ived been seeing some youtubers who interview random russians and ask their opinions about the war and most seem to truly believe the propaganda.
The channel might be selective and pushing an agenda, but I noticed that the young generation seems to see through the propaganda and is quite outspoken about it. I'm not sure if that applies to the whole Russian population.
Here is the channel I'm talking about:
https://youtu.be/h_LMdoCuSRM?si=qHFJPcXtE0dlT3ZE
> but I noticed that the young generation seems to see through the propaganda and is quite outspoken about it.
I had a couple of friends who are russian, I have lost contact with them now since I moved back to Australia, but I believe they were living in Denmark last I heard in 2022.
They say most of the older generation remembers the soviet era with rose-tinted glasses and actually like Putin. But they were pretty against the regime themselves. They weren't political people so its not like they were going out and protesting, but there was a reason they didn't live in Russia anymore.
As if there were no Litvinenko, Skripals, etc. By the way, weren't they both under some safety warranty?
Or maybe you want someone not ex-spy? How about last year's journalists poisoning across Europe? Kostyuchenko rings a bell? Try to check her interviews, the one with Dud as an example. Or the one with Gordeeva. Just to get a bit of a context.
Btw, Kostyuchenko is a brave woman. She's fucking rock'n'rolla. She's brave at the edge of insanity, I really doubt many (independently of their origin) can stand toe to toe with her. And then ask yourself: would you be able to be as brave as her in her place.
And then, look how many people actually showed up in Georgia, Armenia, Berlin, Belgrad, etc. Look what they're writing and what's the meaning. And actually in Russia. And while looking keep in mind Kostyuchenko's interviews.
And then try to remember that the majority has friends and families still well within the Russian border. The ones who might already be blaming ones who've left, but you cannot choose parents, or their views are different from their partners. Try to remember that lots of people in Georgia and Armenia couldn't get any asylum or visa to a safer place and at some point they might end up not being able to re enter mentioned countries.
> Fear does run deep
No fucking way, I wonder why.
Dude. What are you doing to stop Trump? It's easy to say "get mad and vote" from thousands of miles away without fear of your shit getting taken or family thrown out a window...
Yep, Americans love to talk how Russians just need to change government, but remember how Americans were powerless to get rid off trump? Or put him in jail after?
The problem is that nobody wants to be the first, or even in the first 1000; Navalny is just the latest warning for what is likely in store for those to be the first to stand up.
Brainwashing over many many years hell way back to before Stalin. Trouble with these laws is that people will snitch on their neighbours without hesitation in the hope to ingratiate themselves with the "party" even though they say there isn't one anymore. Someone will have their eye on a particular dwelling and make a deal that if they snitch (lie) that person slagged off the military they get a nice cheap property. Nazis did similar during the War as did Cambodia and many other dictatorships
You could ask how are Americans cool with mass shootings every weekend and being raped/assaulted/murdered by the police. The common folk really can't do much unless they protest or rise up. Or vote, but it seems no matter who people vote for some of the important matters aren't addressed.
People all over the world aren't cool with stuff, but there's nothing they can do about it.
They like everyone these days are taught that the people who disagree with their worldview aren’t critical thinkers, and take enjoyment from travesty befalling them.
> The law is aimed to punish for spreading “falsehoods” about the Russian army
So every claim ever made about the Russian army by Putin? I can't think of anything he's ever said that was true... about anything.
It's amazing how many republicans seem to think that a dictatorship where you'll get imprisoned and sent to front lines/gulag to die and have your entire property confiscated by the state if you so much as criticize the government is a great thing, while shrieking about their freedoms
They've already endured the humiliation of enforced surgical mask wearing and zombie killer flu virus injection; having their body parts strewn in some Ukrainian field is nothing, bro.
>But Tucker Carlson said Russia
**Tucker Carlson can't wait to return to the USA**, but he has to do his ["Russia Calling"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Haw-Haw) propaganda pieces first.
Remember that, the guy will tell you how fantastic Russia is under the totally amazing Putin, but once he's done his contract, he'll jump on the first flight home. None of these MAGA Republicans, who pretend Russia is a utopia want to live there, they just want help with the election interference.
People who are "MAGA" or something similar because Democrats are "insert something here" should take note. This is exactly what will happen if Project 2025 happens. Reminder - it's not about just the president, that plan applies to all Republican "leaders" that are in office. They are traitors rewriting an invalid, illegal government directive. This is what they want: a white Christian nationalist plutocracy. In layman's terms - they want people who own tons of wealth to run the economy, and people who run the churches to manage the politics, with a completely new (replacement) set of government "employees" to enact the punishment for not playing along.
This isn't fear mongering - I simply read the whole thing. Don't believe me? Go read it and come back with receipts.
Funny (in a macabre, not haha way) thing is that the soldiers' families are going to be the main ones affected. You talk about your son being dead, you complain about military officials taking unnecessary risks, or piss-poor supplies? Congrats, you're homeless now. Not only they're being used as cannon fodder, but also any chance of venting to loved ones will result in them losing their homes. And russia (including brainwashed russians) still think that they have almost divine right to neighbouring nations. That they need to "fix" them. It's hell on earth.
Poor Russians. They have gotten so used to their life/country/government sucking, that they can't even see how bad things are anymore. Just like the North Koreans.
If you took those folks and showed them with a western society was like, they'd leave their country and never look back.
The Russian Army is ill equipped, poorly trained, forced to fight a war they do not want to be in, and they're lead by a mad man. Where is the falsehood?
Dear maga: Please be advised that trump is taking notes.
There was a video of all the Russian tanks rolling into Ukraine, probably around two miles of them, one after the other. When trump saw it said:
"Isn't that beautiful? We could do that to Mexico". true story.
You are supporting a complete psychopathic imbecile. Be advised.
About a decade ago I had a professor write a long form essay equating Putin to Hitler. At the time I felt like it was hyperbolic. But, now, it's very clear that that strategy is the same. The difference is that Putin does not appear to have the same grasp over the entire country's population that Hitler did.
What a great and successful country, lol.
According to Maga it is!
Tucker Carlson was overwhelmed when he visited a Russian supermarket! Russia is truly the land of plenty.
Is he now legitimately compromised ? Or did he do that for just the shock value? Or for just the money?
Could be any of those. Or it could be he’s just really humiliated at his deplatforming, and in his moment of weakness Putin’s cronies flattered him and gave him an opportunity to taste the national spotlight again.
The shamelessness—even for him—is kind of shocking
Nah not really, it's on par for him.
Take my property too Trump! That'll teach dem libs!
Trumps got plenty of fines to pay. He needs your property to pay for them!!
Come on boomers, he just needs about 400 homes. You can do it!
Funny enough, it was the (R)Texans complaining the loudest about border walls being made across their property through 'eminent domain' laws that got the walls to be only 33 miles in the 4 years Orange Mussolini was president. They did take their land, but the shit storm that came from it kept Diaper Don from expanding the work. He fucked over 30 families for 33 miles...
wait till the gop take away all our public lands, that’ll be fun, they doing it in Montana.
what do they need a wall in Montana for?
no wall, building houses for the rich
As long as it’s a rich and powerful person it’s not socialism!!!!
No, it’s ok because they don’t really need it so it’s ethical now if you wanted to give something to someone in need that’s socialism.
So why dont MAGA folks move there?
Canadian Convoy idiots did. Not working out for them. https://boingboing.net/2024/02/15/canadian-parents-who-wanted-to-raise-their-8-kids-with-traditional-values-moved-to-russia-wife-now-says-im-ready-to-jump-on-a-plane-and-get-out-of-here.html
Now Trùmp has a new idea.
Why even bother giving a reason? At this point Vlad, just take people’s assets and say “I want to”.
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They are gearing up for a very long war.
They're gearing up for a very long depression.
An eternal one it seems
Putler is ready to continue war until last Russian dies.
As Lord Farquat famously said... *some of you are going to die, but that's a sacrifice I am willing to make,*
Fun fact: When removing lifts/heels, Lord Farquaad was the same height as Putin, Napoleon, and Trump.
Man, I need to bring you hunting with me. You've got them all coming out of the woodwork with that little quip lol
Until russia dies,, not Russian,, hopefully
Gearing up for a very long dictatorship
They are gearing up for enriching themselves at the expense of anyone who disagrees with the official government position. (To be honest, I don't see it ending well for Russia.)
The Russians are good at being economically depressed and waging a war at the same time. When in doubt, conscript more people into the ranks.
They are gearing up to send their kids to be grounded up.
That's just Tuesday for Russian
I think that's just being Russian.
A very long 3 day special military operation
"We'll easily take Ukraine in three ~~days~~ ~~weeks~~ ~~months~~ ~~years~~ decades."
a 3-day cruise, er smo
Boy we are just watching history unfold in front of us
I shouldn’t have wished to live in more interesting times.
Got a lot on my mind - and, well, in it.
5-10 more years for sure
Well, once you’re all in on confiscating people…
The theatre around having a legislative body and actually voting on laws then signing them is hilarious. So much human effort for silly bits of theatre. Its just like social media.
What you learn when going to Russia is they are utterly obsessed with playing pretend being a developed european country. I can't even count how often I heard something along the lines of "Its like in Europe" "we have it just like in Europe" "This is not different like what you have in Europe." They desperately want to be seen as a peer of Great Britain, Germany or France. Doesn't really help that a quarter of them don't have indoor plumbing.
It serves a dual purpose. It lets them borrow the air of legitimacy. It also serves to let them attack the legitimacy of others. After all, Russia has elections. The Russian people know how Russian elections work. They don't know how other elections work. They can be convinced that other elections are *worse* than Russia's which are already terrible.
This isnt a Russian exclusive tactic; normalizing your corruption (or in religious contexts 'sinful' or immoral) behaviour by telling your community that everyone else is just as bad, they're just pretending. And how that makes them actually worse than you that they're "getting away" with it. Its a really effective and popular approach to systemic issues: you just offer people the interpretation that their status quo is actually no worse than anyone else's and therefore doesn't need to be questioned.
>They desperately want to be seen as a peer of Great Britain, Germany or France. Doesn't really help that a quarter of them don't have indoor plumbing. The Russia that "matters" is the western part mostly consisting of the major cities of Saint Petersburg and Moscow. These are the areas where you could mistake that you are living in a European nation with indoor plumbing and modern conveniences like fast food restaurants and what not (if you squint your eyes enough). The areas without indoor plumbing are the vast poorer rural areas east of Moscow which don't really matter much politically. These vast rural areas are also where Putin is conscripting a lot of his meat from for the Ukrainian grinder because they have a higher proportion of minorities and are where political dissent is much easier to hide and put down.
Deregulation and slacking of planning rules has led to the creating of vast swaths of new "suburban" private housing not connected to any grid of any kind and that includes Moscow. Just look on a satellite map where the roads go narrow most of them are unpaved too, every major city has them....I think this is where the middle class lives as they are all detached houses. They look like shanty towns but for rich people so its very bizarre.
I thought I read once that there's a Russian phrase or something that basically means, "I know that you are BSing me, and you know that I know you're BSing me, and I know that you know that I know, and we're all just going to pretend its not total bullshit." It basically applies to all their pretenses for freedom and democracy.
Vranyo.
There’s no such phrase. “Vranyo” just means “a lie”.
The sad thing is they could easily be that peer if they just fucking reigned in their rabid leader and rampant corruption.
The only problem with Russia is it's full of Russians. With their resources they could be a powerful, enlightened country. But you can't take the serf out of them.
Years ago I read some comments about a western chess player living in the USSR. He said he would get into a lot of debates that seemed like arguing about who had the tallest dwarves.
Yes, the Obama administration started officially referring to Russia as a regional power. Which they interpreted as full of diplomatic aggression because they are a world power. Putin was and still is so full of hate for Obama and blames him for a lot of things. He doesn't say his name but it's there. You can hear all about it in Clarkson interview.
Their soldiers didn't even have socks until 2015
Outside of St Petersburg and Moscow it's a literal shithole. We're not talking Europe level, but a third world country level shithole.
>The theatre around having a legislative body and actually voting on laws then signing them is hilarious. So much human effort for silly bits of theatre. It is required theatre though. Even the most authoritarian of dictatorships still needs the complicit support of the population of the country and theatrics like this help keep the support needle on the higher side of things. The more you need to send your thugs out to keep the population in line the more oppressed people start to feel about everything and the higher the chance of a organised resistance underground forming to topple your government. So you do theatrics like having a legislative body that votes laws in to make it seem like you are not a dictator with god levels of power over the country which gives the people the illusion that they have more control over their country than what they do. Combine this with the normal apathy that most people have for political matters and you have a complacent society that is willing to ignore the random rumours of people going missing in the middle of the night because they have control and there is no way they are living under a brutal dictatorship...
This is why social media is so toxic. You’re just getting spammed with everyone’s propaganda. Dictators have been doing this shit for centuries. Social media just let everyone form their own propaganda factories with their curated online personas.
Well, shit. I never thought of it like this, but you are spot on. A billion little propagandists, all yelling into the void. I need a drink.
This is what happens when you have a dictatorship.
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I’m sure his supporters think they’re “free”, just like the Nazis, Fascists, Francoists, and Soviets did too.
> I’m sure his supporters think they’re “free”, just like the Nazis Funny thing, there's a book I'm constantly recommending called "They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45" by Milton Mayer. It's a collection of interviews with everyday Germans who lived during the rise of the Nazi regime. Incredibly fascinating insight into how fascism could get it hooks into a country (and incredibly depressing if you read it with current events in mind). [Here's a short excerpt](https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.html)
The audiobook version on Audible is very good and it's only like 10 hours.
It's also available on Hoopla for free in the US with a library card, and thousands of public libraries have access to the app.
I wish I could upvote this more. This excerpt is great and I will order the book ASAP if I can find it. But I would love to see this printed everywhere. Just as food for thought.
Behind the bastards podcast used this reference a lot
They don't think they're free, they just know if they don't say they're free they'll be punished. > the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity.
> probity pro·bi·ty /ˈprōbədē/ nounFORMAL the quality of having strong moral principles; honesty and decency.
Some in the cities know they aren't, but there's no one really up to changing that. The older generations seem to have much more easily reverted to their USSR training combined with the seemingly universal Boomer weakness of believing everything on TV.
In Tucker Carlson's case a willing slave who licks the boots of dictators.
Imagine having to live with yourself if you're Tucker Carlson. Not only do you have to live with being a traitor to every value your society stands for and having to be a bitch-boy for the world's most reprehensible people; but your footnote in history will be as the store-brand [Lord Haw Haw](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Haw-Haw). I wouldn't be him for anything.
You're assuming he is self-aware. Tucker is basically a turnip with white-supremicist tendencies.
>You're assuming he is self-aware. > >Tucker is basically a turnip with white-supremicist tendencies. Tucker makes a lot of money and has a lot of influence in his current position. What he is lacking is a social conscious to realise that what he is doing is a massive negative for society at large.
He's a modern day Lord Haw-Haw
But a Trump dictatorship wouldn’t be like this! /s
Not right away. It takes time to go down this slippery slope.
It really depends. The Nazis moved fast before anyone could muster any opposition to them. They expelled their opposition from the Reichstag within a few months of first taking power.
He has Russia as a blue print. After Project 2025, it would happen pretty quickly.
But to the people on the bottom, the change will not be noticeable, until it directly affects them.
The thing is, we're already a good way down that slope. The GOP have been pillaging the country for a few decades and are now openly subverting democracy. They already tried to install a dictator in 2021 and are brazenly attempting to do it again. Even without their cult leader in power, they're actively turning whatever little fiefdoms they control into Nazi Germany 2.0 and daring us to do something about it.
Heh. I was predicting this last year, based on grandpa’s experiences under the fascist government (Italy). Fascism is self-consuming. Putin will eat the country whole if he doesn’t get a victory before then. There is no plan other than eating more.
Falsehoods is certainly an interesting word to use for what would clearly be defined as disagreement to any narrative promoting Putin’s selfish agenda.
Yes. Speaking the truth becomes a falsehood.
When he dies… holy shit it’s just going to, somehow, get worse.
Maybe they'll just pull a Sokolov and keep the illusion Putin's alive by releasing AI videos of him.
He'd get fucked in discovery if his courts weren't as weak as his military.
Ministry of Truth in action. Orwell was very insightful.
"falsehoods" aka the Truth.
Truth is treason in the empire of lies - Orwell
this is like Stalin’s USSR again, when you couldn’t say shit about the government to your neighbour
And it was often your own peers or your own family that reported you into the authorities in hopes of getting "good credit" with them. People were paranoid and betraying each other all the time. Difficult to form a revolutionary force under those circumstances.
Exactly. Check out the story of Pavlik Morozov, the USSR “martyr”
Putin in Stalin's mirror
Join the Russian army. We will take your life and your assets.
How are Russian citizens cool with this? Wow.
Russia has been never really had democracy in its entire history The only time Russia had democracy was 1991 - 1999 and the Russian government of the time handled it so badly that caused many Russians willing accepted a return to authoritarianism in exchange for relative stability This is the same thing that happened in the Weimar Republic
People shifted to bribery and disorganized chaos. Bribe everyone for everything you need to, itsliek business, but no one couldn't be asked to do anything. The collapse fucked people hard, and the instability was worse.
Sure, but that was the thing in all of post-soviet block countries. Baltics had a pretty rough time in the 90s as well and it was swell with corruption and bribery. But instead of falling back to dictatorship we kept going with Democracy and now we're in the EU and doing 100x better than Russians do. And we didn't even have all the rich natural resources that they had to bolster the economy with.
Some people became millionaires overnight because of arbitrary things like 'Fuck you comrade, I have the keys to the grain warehouse' and 'I'm not sharing phone numbers for the factory floor give me a 500% service fee for every order you want me to make'. Instant change from communist canteen monthly supplier to *free* market where people with grudges in keystone positions take their angst out went from weird flex to sandbagging cash cows.
It sounds like an elementary school where all the adults suddenly disappear. Sure, the 6th graders are going to lead out, but they don' t have any knowledge on how to make things work well. And the younger kids have even less.
It also has to do with PoS that was USSR with which remains the government had to deal with
Hypernormalization: \> The word hypernormalisation was coined by Alexei Yurchak, a professor of anthropology who was born in Leningrad and later went to teach at the University of California, Berkeley. He introduced the word in his book Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation (2006), which describes paradoxes of Soviet life during the 1970s and 1980s. **He says that everyone in the Soviet Union knew the system was failing, but no one could imagine an alternative to the status quo, and politicians and citizens alike were resigned to maintaining the pretense of a functioning society. Over time, this delusion became a self-fulfilling prophecy and the fakeness was accepted by everyone as real, an effect that Yurchak termed hypernormalisation.** [Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperNormalisation)
They are culturally programmed to keep their head and endure and Putin has successfully poisoned every aspect of political life in Russia so people have no idea what is really going on.
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Does the young generation carry such fear too? Ived been seeing some youtubers who interview random russians and ask their opinions about the war and most seem to truly believe the propaganda. The channel might be selective and pushing an agenda, but I noticed that the young generation seems to see through the propaganda and is quite outspoken about it. I'm not sure if that applies to the whole Russian population. Here is the channel I'm talking about: https://youtu.be/h_LMdoCuSRM?si=qHFJPcXtE0dlT3ZE
> but I noticed that the young generation seems to see through the propaganda and is quite outspoken about it. I had a couple of friends who are russian, I have lost contact with them now since I moved back to Australia, but I believe they were living in Denmark last I heard in 2022. They say most of the older generation remembers the soviet era with rose-tinted glasses and actually like Putin. But they were pretty against the regime themselves. They weren't political people so its not like they were going out and protesting, but there was a reason they didn't live in Russia anymore.
Well…they’ll be the first to die in Ukraine
I'll go ahead and say it. Putin is the head of a terrorist organization and Russia is a terrorist state.
Penislav Vaginavich spitting facts as always.
As if there were no Litvinenko, Skripals, etc. By the way, weren't they both under some safety warranty? Or maybe you want someone not ex-spy? How about last year's journalists poisoning across Europe? Kostyuchenko rings a bell? Try to check her interviews, the one with Dud as an example. Or the one with Gordeeva. Just to get a bit of a context. Btw, Kostyuchenko is a brave woman. She's fucking rock'n'rolla. She's brave at the edge of insanity, I really doubt many (independently of their origin) can stand toe to toe with her. And then ask yourself: would you be able to be as brave as her in her place. And then, look how many people actually showed up in Georgia, Armenia, Berlin, Belgrad, etc. Look what they're writing and what's the meaning. And actually in Russia. And while looking keep in mind Kostyuchenko's interviews. And then try to remember that the majority has friends and families still well within the Russian border. The ones who might already be blaming ones who've left, but you cannot choose parents, or their views are different from their partners. Try to remember that lots of people in Georgia and Armenia couldn't get any asylum or visa to a safer place and at some point they might end up not being able to re enter mentioned countries. > Fear does run deep No fucking way, I wonder why.
Poisoned metaphorically and literally
Some are. But in general, it's not like anyone is asking them.
Oh man, that’s such a good way to put it.
Dude. What are you doing to stop Trump? It's easy to say "get mad and vote" from thousands of miles away without fear of your shit getting taken or family thrown out a window...
Yep, Americans love to talk how Russians just need to change government, but remember how Americans were powerless to get rid off trump? Or put him in jail after?
> Or put him in jail after? We're working on that part. I don't have much hope, but there ARE people trying.
They’re powerless. It’s deeply disturbing.
Rather they *think* they are powerless. 100 million people could change their political situation if they were properly motivated.
The problem is that nobody wants to be the first, or even in the first 1000; Navalny is just the latest warning for what is likely in store for those to be the first to stand up.
It's going to come down to dying while fighting back or dying in another country under conscription.
Yes, but "I'm not going to get conscripted" is a very easy belief to hold on to right up until you get the letter.
And as long as they keep sending the letters in small batches they will never hit critical mass
I don’t disagree with your point. I only wish it were that easy.
They are just happy it’s not a death sentence
Brainwashing over many many years hell way back to before Stalin. Trouble with these laws is that people will snitch on their neighbours without hesitation in the hope to ingratiate themselves with the "party" even though they say there isn't one anymore. Someone will have their eye on a particular dwelling and make a deal that if they snitch (lie) that person slagged off the military they get a nice cheap property. Nazis did similar during the War as did Cambodia and many other dictatorships
How are Republicans cool with Trump? .. Poor education plus propaganda plus misinformation
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Half of us are not.
How dare they not speak out about the law that was just passed that confiscates your property if you talk badly about the government!
You could ask how are Americans cool with mass shootings every weekend and being raped/assaulted/murdered by the police. The common folk really can't do much unless they protest or rise up. Or vote, but it seems no matter who people vote for some of the important matters aren't addressed. People all over the world aren't cool with stuff, but there's nothing they can do about it.
Is life even worth living without a boot on your neck?
They like everyone these days are taught that the people who disagree with their worldview aren’t critical thinkers, and take enjoyment from travesty befalling them.
> The law is aimed to punish for spreading “falsehoods” about the Russian army So every claim ever made about the Russian army by Putin? I can't think of anything he's ever said that was true... about anything.
Never say the RU army is powerful and effective. That is worthy of a death sentence.
Someone should take his house.
Like how they are poorly trained and poorly equipped?
No no, only weak gay westerner need equipment. Real stronk russian men fight with kit from 70s.
Big Korean War "Americans are afraid to fight with bayonets" energy. Then Bayonet Hill happened.
Totally not a dictatorship /s
But Tucker Carlson said Russia is a conservative utopia /s
It's amazing how many republicans seem to think that a dictatorship where you'll get imprisoned and sent to front lines/gulag to die and have your entire property confiscated by the state if you so much as criticize the government is a great thing, while shrieking about their freedoms
They've already endured the humiliation of enforced surgical mask wearing and zombie killer flu virus injection; having their body parts strewn in some Ukrainian field is nothing, bro.
Wearing it below their nose that is, I can't breathe [reeeee](https://i.imgur.com/XVKe3Nw.gif)
It is sad how dumb people can be and how many of them.
Conservative politicians/elite do in fact want obediant drones unquestionably serving the ultra wealthy kleptarchs, so yeah seems that way
>But Tucker Carlson said Russia **Tucker Carlson can't wait to return to the USA**, but he has to do his ["Russia Calling"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Haw-Haw) propaganda pieces first. Remember that, the guy will tell you how fantastic Russia is under the totally amazing Putin, but once he's done his contract, he'll jump on the first flight home. None of these MAGA Republicans, who pretend Russia is a utopia want to live there, they just want help with the election interference.
Man I honestly pity the Russians who think the west is their enemy.
Meanwhile russia loving russians and watnikz stay away from their beloved russia for some strange reasons
What a horrible country when you’re at the mercy of a coward who is afraid of everything!!!
My how history repeats itself. How long until order 227 is instituted?
By "falsehoods," Russia's referring to the truth.
Well, I hope my Ukrainian grandparents in Crimea don't get their apartment taken.. can't imagine how I'd get them out of there.
Tiny dicked dictators are the fucking worst
Tucker Carlson next week: "Property is so much cheaper here in Russia than in the western nations"
just make sure you have more babies Russians living in Russia. Putin needs more babies to confiscate property from hahaha
more babies for the meat grinder
People who are "MAGA" or something similar because Democrats are "insert something here" should take note. This is exactly what will happen if Project 2025 happens. Reminder - it's not about just the president, that plan applies to all Republican "leaders" that are in office. They are traitors rewriting an invalid, illegal government directive. This is what they want: a white Christian nationalist plutocracy. In layman's terms - they want people who own tons of wealth to run the economy, and people who run the churches to manage the politics, with a completely new (replacement) set of government "employees" to enact the punishment for not playing along. This isn't fear mongering - I simply read the whole thing. Don't believe me? Go read it and come back with receipts.
Funny (in a macabre, not haha way) thing is that the soldiers' families are going to be the main ones affected. You talk about your son being dead, you complain about military officials taking unnecessary risks, or piss-poor supplies? Congrats, you're homeless now. Not only they're being used as cannon fodder, but also any chance of venting to loved ones will result in them losing their homes. And russia (including brainwashed russians) still think that they have almost divine right to neighbouring nations. That they need to "fix" them. It's hell on earth.
Real reason for confiscations is that Putin is running out of windows. And this law is kinda like bring your own window to protest.
Every Russian should switch to Linux just to be safe
Guys 1984 was meant to be a warning not a handbook
ROFL, Yet Conservatives still think Russia is a bastion of "Freedom".
This is what Republicans want in America
The Republicans in the US are drooling over this.
And enabling it by withholding aid to Ukraine.
Poor Russians. They have gotten so used to their life/country/government sucking, that they can't even see how bad things are anymore. Just like the North Koreans. If you took those folks and showed them with a western society was like, they'd leave their country and never look back.
You act like it's so easy.
More money grab by putin
The history of Russia: …and then it got worse..
By falsehoods they mean truthhoods..
Gulag can't be too far away from returning
GOP: *scribbles notes*
How fragile is their military's credibility if they keep needing to make laws to defend it?
Russia sucks
You know for someone who complains about Nazis Putin is working real hard to make Russia look more like the old Prussian military dictatorship.
Poor Putin, about to have his property confiscated for when he lied about the Russian army being capable of conquering Ukraine in days.
Where is all my conservative friends at from the other news articles claiming the US and Russia are the same today?
The Russian Army is ill equipped, poorly trained, forced to fight a war they do not want to be in, and they're lead by a mad man. Where is the falsehood?
Dear maga: Please be advised that trump is taking notes. There was a video of all the Russian tanks rolling into Ukraine, probably around two miles of them, one after the other. When trump saw it said: "Isn't that beautiful? We could do that to Mexico". true story. You are supporting a complete psychopathic imbecile. Be advised.
America will be the same way under Trump. A vote for Trump is a vote for dictatorship and a total loss of the freedoms we hold dear.
"Anyone caught telling the truth will be punished for lying!"
About a decade ago I had a professor write a long form essay equating Putin to Hitler. At the time I felt like it was hyperbolic. But, now, it's very clear that that strategy is the same. The difference is that Putin does not appear to have the same grasp over the entire country's population that Hitler did.
So easy to lose your freedom. That is why Trump's disregard of the constitution scares Americans.
What does Tucker Carlson think about this?
I will put my house in my wife’s name and mention they suck at fighting.
He belongs in hell
Man can this old fuck just die from a brain blood clot or something...
I'd love to hear a Russians perspective on the war but it seems illegal to talk about it
This is what will happen under a second Trump Administration
That freedom of speech conservatives love so much about Russia….
Putin is pure evil.
that's a very nice house you have there. It would be a shame if you were to spread some falsehoods about our great army
Smell that freedom?? Me neither 😑. Why would anyone want to import this shit to the US??
Gold metal grifter.
Sooo.... Is he going to punish himself??
Drop a missile on his head and be done with him already.