As the Russian government intensifies its grip on the internet, censorship circumvention tools like Tor are more critical than ever. Here's the latest on Tor censorship in Russia and how you can help by running WebTunnel bridges.
No, not all Russians are evil and deserve to die. But closing your eyes and playing oblivious to what’s happening out there, just believing the state propaganda and living in a position “oh it’s just the bad leader” is not a morally OK position.
If there is a dictator in your country you have some moral duty to find out at least a bit about the truth.
How do I know?
I’m German.
My grandparent’s generation was the one that actively closed their eyes, that actively looked away, that everything that happend was someone else’s problem. They were the Generation that arranged themselves, that did good business as long as it wasn’t them that were deported, killed or fought at in the war.
This is not a position that is morally OK, but this is what I see of a lot of Russians. Not all, but a lot.
If there is a dictator in your country you have some moral duty to find out at least a bit about the truth.
How do I know?
I’m German.
Last time I heard, your government openly supported the genocidal state of Israel.
Also I’d say many Russians in 1996 wouldn’t expect a war on Ukraine.
My grandparent’s generation was the one that actively closed their eyes, that actively looked away, that everything that happend was someone else’s problem. They were the Generation that arranged themselves, that did good business as long as it wasn’t them that were deported, killed or fought at in the war.
See, somewhere around the year I was born (1996) in Russia it became a social consensus that something is wrong and that these new “democrats” are not in fact democratic in any way, and that they also commit enormous crimes. In 1993 it kinda slipped, because the parliament opposed to Yeltsin had an unhealthy concentration of Communists, neo-Nazis, bandits and hybrids of them.
And, well, then the society with that consensus learned that “the civilized world” considers legitimate the people with whom it does business. No exceptions for authoritarianism or genocide.
There were widespread protests, you know? It was common to treat the Russian government like shit since then and till early 00s too, on TV and in private conversations and so on. But that government endured the storm, and somehow by that time the most important figures not associated with it were dead.
This didn’t happen the same way as it did in Germany where people looked the other way because they were generally fine with everything Nazi. This happened because people got tired of looking the right way. It’s apathy, not hypocrisy.
I like how you just conveniently ignore the part about a dictator oppression.
The key word here is oppression.
A country that is closing its eyes and deserves what they’re going to get is the US. In 20 or 30 years when the US is an authoritarian oppressive State then at that point the people don’t have a choice, just like they don’t in Russia today.
Authoritarian oppressive states don’t just let the people think what they want to think. You are groomed and indoctrinated the moment you receive education until the day you die. The easiest way to control a populace is for the populace to not even know they’re being controlled.
A key factor to that is limiting and restricting access to outside information. Which is what Russia does which is why the Tor project is so important
So Germany didn’t have dictator oppression in the 30s and 40s? You think we didn’t have propaganda and we didn’t just kill people for another opinion? And we had access to outside information?
I’m talking about a moral duty to oppose, to inform yourself in spite of all that. And I know it is not easy. We Germans failed that miserably.
The plabook Putin is playing, we’ve been through it and it is was what lead to WW2.
Germany also had that in the 20s, if we are being honest. It wasn’t an imperfect democracy and, ahem, it’s been ~35 years since USSR feeling really unwell, and ~25 years since Putin coming to power, and ~20 years since people started suspecting he’s not going to leave, and ~15 years since Medvedev becoming a president and Russians splitting into the half realizing that they’ve just been assraped, and the half deceiving themselves with some expectations, and ~10 years since every Russian being assraped again, Crimea and Donbass.
When Hitler came to power, it was just about 10 years since finalizing the mess that happened in Germany after end of monarchy.
No, not all Russians are evil and deserve to die. But closing your eyes and playing oblivious to what’s happening out there, just believing the state propaganda and living in a position “oh it’s just the bad leader” is not a morally OK position.
If there is a dictator in your country you have some moral duty to find out at least a bit about the truth.
How do I know?
I’m German.
My grandparent’s generation was the one that actively closed their eyes, that actively looked away, that everything that happend was someone else’s problem. They were the Generation that arranged themselves, that did good business as long as it wasn’t them that were deported, killed or fought at in the war.
This is not a position that is morally OK, but this is what I see of a lot of Russians. Not all, but a lot.
Last time I heard, your government openly supported the genocidal state of Israel.
Also I’d say many Russians in 1996 wouldn’t expect a war on Ukraine.
See, somewhere around the year I was born (1996) in Russia it became a social consensus that something is wrong and that these new “democrats” are not in fact democratic in any way, and that they also commit enormous crimes. In 1993 it kinda slipped, because the parliament opposed to Yeltsin had an unhealthy concentration of Communists, neo-Nazis, bandits and hybrids of them.
And, well, then the society with that consensus learned that “the civilized world” considers legitimate the people with whom it does business. No exceptions for authoritarianism or genocide.
There were widespread protests, you know? It was common to treat the Russian government like shit since then and till early 00s too, on TV and in private conversations and so on. But that government endured the storm, and somehow by that time the most important figures not associated with it were dead.
This didn’t happen the same way as it did in Germany where people looked the other way because they were generally fine with everything Nazi. This happened because people got tired of looking the right way. It’s apathy, not hypocrisy.
I like how you just conveniently ignore the part about a dictator oppression.
The key word here is oppression.
A country that is closing its eyes and deserves what they’re going to get is the US. In 20 or 30 years when the US is an authoritarian oppressive State then at that point the people don’t have a choice, just like they don’t in Russia today.
Authoritarian oppressive states don’t just let the people think what they want to think. You are groomed and indoctrinated the moment you receive education until the day you die. The easiest way to control a populace is for the populace to not even know they’re being controlled.
A key factor to that is limiting and restricting access to outside information. Which is what Russia does which is why the Tor project is so important
So Germany didn’t have dictator oppression in the 30s and 40s? You think we didn’t have propaganda and we didn’t just kill people for another opinion? And we had access to outside information?
I’m talking about a moral duty to oppose, to inform yourself in spite of all that. And I know it is not easy. We Germans failed that miserably.
The plabook Putin is playing, we’ve been through it and it is was what lead to WW2.
Germany also had that in the 20s, if we are being honest. It wasn’t an imperfect democracy and, ahem, it’s been ~35 years since USSR feeling really unwell, and ~25 years since Putin coming to power, and ~20 years since people started suspecting he’s not going to leave, and ~15 years since Medvedev becoming a president and Russians splitting into the half realizing that they’ve just been assraped, and the half deceiving themselves with some expectations, and ~10 years since every Russian being assraped again, Crimea and Donbass.
When Hitler came to power, it was just about 10 years since finalizing the mess that happened in Germany after end of monarchy.
Oh, the populace knows it’s being oppressed. It’s apathetic.
Russia is ruled by very unpleasant people, not very efficient, not very intelligent, but capable of curbing all threats to their power.
I’m confident that if ever the government in Russia changes, rooting out that mafia group will last for another century or more.