As a live-in tutor, I’ve watched rich families adapt to Vladimir Putin’s war | Hacker News Reader

As a live-in tutor, I’ve watched rich families adapt to Vladimir Putin’s war

economist.com

58 pointslxm13 comments

https://web.archive.org/web/20220422213436/https://www.econo...

Thank you

It takes a lot to get people to really care about wars fought on foreign soil. I mean, how many tried to stop the war in Iraq in 2003? And that was without the threat of fines or jail for speaking up.

In the UK, there were the biggest protests in british history. Tony Blair, the elected head of one of the world's oldest democracies, completely ignored them. He now has a knighthood.

tony be liar

“foreign soil” comparison isn’t really applicable here, it’s literally across the border, more like invading Canada. Ukrainians make up the second largest ethnicity inside Russia. And besides the war in Iraqi was off the heals of 9/11 and Afghanistan invasion, and still had saw many anti-war protests.

Most people aren't even aware of most wars and will likely follow whatever it's safe to support. The Irak war was safe to support until it was marginalizing to do so.

You want to look like a weirdo? Just tell your friends how worried you are about the war in Yemen, and how evil you think it is that USA is supporting Saudi Arabia. Most people will put you in the crazy conspiracy theories bucket.

The only reason people are so concerned about Ukraine is because it's all over the media and they're told they must be very opposed to it and very concerned. A week without this in the news, it'll be wiped out from their memories.

There were large protests in American cities.

That behaviour feels like what was described in the "Persuasion and the Prestige Paradox" [1]:

"In short, people have a mechanism in their minds. It stops them from saying something that could lower their status, even if it’s true. And it propels them to say something that could increase their status, even if it’s false. Sometimes, local norms can push against this tendency. Certain communities (e.g., scientists) can obtain status among their peers for expressing truths. But if the norm is relaxed, people might default to seeking status over truth if status confers the greater reward."

[1] https://quillette.com/2021/04/03/persuasion-and-the-prestige...

It sounds like there’s not much people can do and they are resigned to the situation to me.

>Certain communities (e.g., scientists) can obtain status among their peers for expressing truths.

I miss the days when this was more true.

Glad the clickbait headline wasn't used. The content was far more interesting than that suggested and gave a very different impression.

its all footage though. what to believe anymore? if u are sat somewhere in south-east asia tuning into this, does kiev really exist?

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