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[Tack]

So how many presidents have there actually been since Gorbachev?

Edit: I'm wondering if there ever has been a communist or socialist state which maintained freedom of speech and freedom of the press without a democratic revolt.

[KittyTac]

Or may be cliche to say that your freedom levels are insufficient, but your freedom levels are insufficient.
Complaining about the government as loudly as you please aughta be a human right, I say. People should both be allowed to think whatever they like, and say what they think.

Well, it's not like I care about whether or not my freedom levels are sufficient. I won't feel any happier with freedom.

[CABL]

So how many presidents have there actually been since Gorbachev?

Edit: I'm wondering if there ever has been a communist or socialist state which maintained freedom of speech and freedom of the press without a democratic revolt.

Yeltsin; an incompetent drunkard of a successor. His incompetence and drunk escapades have played a large role in the people's leaning towards Putin and wanting more security.

Also, modern Russia is not a Communist/Socialist country by any measure. It's ruled by Putinists, whom I prefer to describe as socially reactionary, economically neoliberal.

[Tack]

I mean I enjoy reading and watching comedy news, and that almost exclusively involves parodying the choices our leader has made.
So that's one happiness you maybe wouldn't get.

But fair enough, I imagine people can be content with a lot less.
Does Russia have internet censorship either?

[CABL]

I mean I enjoy reading and watching comedy news, and that almost exclusively involves parodying the choices our leader has made.
So that's one happiness you maybe wouldn't get.

But fair enough, I imagine people can be content with a lot less.
Does Russia have internet censorship either?

Yup, and sometimes reaching some ridiculous results. I've once posted somewhere in General Discussion that some providers block web.archive.org, cuz it has an ISIS propaganda video. Granted, we don't have Great Russian Firewall yet, but the government is highly interested in more censorship/better user tracking.

[KittyTac]

AFAIK they censor LGBT porn, anti-Putin stuff, and pirated games. Could be worse, right? Especially since the censors can be bypassed.

[CABL]

Actually, the gubmint is really bad at enforcing anti-piracy laws down here. There's almost no risk involving torrenting stuff.

[KittyTac]

Actually, the gubmint is really bad at enforcing anti-piracy laws down here. There's almost no risk involving torrenting stuff.

That's what I meant by "bypassed". It's like that law Britain had until 1961(!) that lets it burn witches. It's there, but nobody in the gubbermint takes it very seriously.

[Yoink]

On the one hand, I think Putin's for the most part a bro and can understand a government's perfectly natural desire to root out individuals that mock its leaders; on the other hand most/all modern governments have far, far more power than they ever ought to have gained and would be better off destroyed.



My WTF: accidental nap in the evening leads to me waking up at the time I usually go to sleep. Now what? I'm supposed to get up early today to go deal with some pointless menial bullshit.
Not sure if I should go back to sleep and risk melting my precious brain or stay up for a while and hope the unplanned sleep I just got is adequate enough to get me through seven hours or so of bullshit later on.

I mean, on the one hand, being ultra tired whilst dealing with this sort of thing can sometimes be helpful, since it basically involves just sitting in a room with a bunch of people triggering my social anxiety all day and there is a lovely sweet spot of tiredness where I just DGAF, but on the other hand it is easy to miss said sweet spot and greatly worsen my anxiety instead.

Maybe I'll just lie here and read for a while until I'm ready to doze off. I'll probably get hungry if I stay awake too much longer, though.

[Tack]

Damn it, Yoink. It’s my first night off work since forever and now i’m going to be up until 7am and every human I know (even the gamers) are fast asleep and from the trials of my late-night-forum-roaming you just up and appear.

Edit: Also Anarchy, including An-Cap, are terrible ideas. You want Woolworths to start burning down its competitors, that’s a fun way to start.

[KittyTac]

I would really hate it if, for some weird reason, Russia underwent an anarchist revolution that completely destroyed the government. I would probably move ASAP (I don't like anarchism (or its relatives) at all).

[Yoink]

Damn it, Yoink. It’s my first night off work since forever and now i’m going to be up until 7am and every human I know (even the gamers) are fast asleep and from the trials of my late-night-forum-roaming you just up and appear.

Edit: Also Anarchy, including An-Cap, are terrible ideas. You want Woolworths to start burning down its competitors, that’s a fun way to start.

I'm sorry. ;_;
I feel only half- or three quarters-awake at best, if that's any consolation.

As for anarchy, I'm definitely not an "anarchist", since that implies seeing anarchy as an end goal. Really it would just be a temporary state of flux before new dominions and governments formed, far less OP and all-encompassing than the ones that came before.
AnCaps... AnCaps are pretty cooked. Basically just rabid cyberpunk fans who for some reason swapped out their sci-fi novels for political texts.

[KittyTac]

Here's the shtick: the new governments would be exactly the same (if not worse) than the ones that came before them. There's nothing stopping them from becoming oppressive again.

[bloop_bleep]

I somehow feel that replacing the current government with a brand new one fleshed out of the chaos would pretty much nullify whatever shreds of democracy, freedom of speech, and liberalism that remain.

Quickedit: Dammit, ninja’d.

[Yoink]

Here's the shtick: the new governments would be exactly the same (if not worse) than the ones that came before them. There's nothing stopping them from becoming oppressive again.

...How do you figure?
If there was some cataclysmic event that destroyed a government, I doubt whoever's left picking through the remains is going to somehow form a new, identical government just as powerful from what they can salvage.