Comment by throwaway290 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by throwaway290 | Hacker News Reader

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Must be nice. Now imagine living not so close to "center" (the mostly white west of the country). They test more advanced blocking in the regions first because people don't complain so much. Same logic with contractors, most people are recruited to the war from these regions. Why? because they are poor and watch tv. What even is VPN? another ploy by anglo-saxons?;)

Basically I'll tell you it's like this:

60% chance you have some VPN apps, if you are not old or if you have a child to explain it to you. The main use: whatsapp or telegram which are semi blocked, and if you are young and fashionable or your fashionable son sends you these links then youtube-instagram-tiktok which are blocked. Regularly VPN fails (ISPs block them fast) so you turn on another one and keep doing like this until one works. Fun fact, paid ones are blocked faster so it is more reliable to use free VPN. (Remember that you won't hear about VPN by random people or teachers at school because it is very illegal)

And you should know that outside of tech bubble the most popular media in the country is by far VK, Telegram and maybe Whatsapp. Youtube/instagram/tiktok are minority. Telegram/whatsapp are legit why many people use VPN, but it is not required (probably the only reason they are not fully blocked is to discourage VPN use). And even then only until everybody switch to Max which is already required by many schools and in all budget jobs. Remember that most most people in Russia support the government and do what they are told.

So ask yourself how many people have a reason to bother with all this. And actually who of them is bigger idiot, who is using free VPN (safe like used condom) or who is not using VPN.

But OK, you can call everybody complete idiots, that's fine. Just don't expect people to take you very seriously while you are looking down on them.

> Now imagine living not so close to "center" (the mostly white west of the country)

You seem to have a very limited understanding of Russia.

First, nobody in Russia ever thinks of its population in racial terms like 'white'. At most, there are ethnic terms like 'russians', 'caucasians' [0], 'tatars', 'yakuts', etc. -- there aren't even any genuine Asians here but the students from China.

And no, thanks to the soviets, the cultural influence between most of these ethnic groups is next to unexistent.

More, you say 'the white west' of the country, but this is again a misconception: the closer you get to the 'west' (or, more correctly, to the center, like Moscow and Saint Petersburg), the less 'russian' it is. The percent of ethnic russian population is far higher in eastern parts of the country and on the outskirts than in Moscow, where the percent of ethnical russians is the lowest.

> Remember that most most people in Russia support the government and do what they are told.

Yeah, Putin once again thanks you for your service. You have no idea what real Russia looks like, as I've proven above when I disproved your misconceptions, yet, you go out of your way and still spread Putin's narrative how popular he is.

In reality, Putin stays in power because he has an army of paid thugs who'll kill anyone who opposes him. If Putin would participate in any honest elections vs just about anyone who is not one of his cronies, he'd lose such elections in a landslide. That's why he will never do the Lukashenko's mistake of allowing even a simple housewife to run against him, which ran, and won, so Lukashenko had no blatantly falsify the election results and suppress the protests to stay in power. Genuinely popular leaders do not need such precautions. Putin knows he is deeply unpopular, Russians know he is deeply unpopular, and only unwitting Putin's henchmen from the West spread Putin's narrative that he is a very popular leader. Lol.

[0]: No, not 'caucasians' as americans understand the term, but people from actual Caucasus region, like Chechnya, Dagestan, Armenia, Georgia -- the actual Georgia, not the one which is next to South Carolina :-D

I think you are living in a different Russia.

There is a good reason to use the term "white" and that is because non-whites (you know what I mean) are discriminated. I have various stories but I won't go in detail. I don't blame you, I didn't really think about it in that way for most of my life.

And if you talk to more normal people you may find out that it's not just force, many people follow "party line" because they think the government says truth. Control of information is a magical thing

You repeat this mantra 'Control of information is a magical thing', but it doesn't become true just because you repeat it. USSR controlled the information far more tightly, yet, nobody believed the government and laughed at them -- I'm old enough to remember that. See, propaganda has a hard time competing with an empty fridge and empty stomach, and in the end, empty stomach prevails. People see quite clearly that living in Russia becomes harder every day, and of course they link it to the unchangeable leadership of the country. After 25 years, people are simply tired of Putin, so any claims that he has 80% approval rating are simply laughable.

Regarding your other point, no, 'Non-whites' are not really discriminated. In fact, Russians themselves are the most underrepresented ethnic group in all levels of power in Russia -- and it always has been that way. It was so in Russian Empire, in Soviet Union, and stays true in Putin's Russia as well. What you're referring to is the cargo-cult practice by some ppl who try to mimic modern Western political tactics. Many have noticed that claimed victimhood is beneficial in the modern-day West, so they try to emulate that by pretending to be a victim of some oppression -- that's where your stories originate from.

> USSR controlled the information far more tightly

Not at the end. Also back then US had USAID

> Regarding your other point, no, 'Non-whites' are not really discriminated

I think you are not qualified to say that. Talk to more yakuts who live in the "center". I'm not basing my words on nothing.

> well. What you're referring to is the cargo-cult practice by some ppl who try to mimic modern Western political tactics

No I don't. This is based on real life data. you are sheltered from it. Good for you.

> Not at the end. Also back then US had USAID

1960s and 1970s are the end to you, really? USAID, really? You have already proven that you have a very remote understanding of Russia/USSR, please stop trying to bring this point even further.

> I think you are not qualified to say that.

I actually am.

> Talk to more yakuts who live in the "center".

By pure chance, I do have such contacts, they laugh at this decolonization crap. Also by chance, I knew Russians who lived in Yakutia in 1990s, and they did tell me stories of discrimination from the locals. Same as stories of discrimination of Russians in Kazakhstan, Baltic republics, etc -- both in soviet and post-soviet times.

> 1960s and 1970s are the end to you

USSR ended around 1989-90

> I actually am.

Citation needed

> By pure chance, I do have such contacts, they laugh at this decolonization crap.

What is "decolonization"? Tell us more.

Also I said discrimination against non white Russians. Actually I literally talked about this with Russian citizen who doesn't look fully Russian the other week, she was called черножопая a couple years ago interviewing for a job and for that reason didn't get it (this is not america so good luck complaining about it). So go ask your fellow yakuts, great you know multiple so you have a sample size more than 1, about racial unfairness they encountered living in the west of Russia? and come back here to tell us.

> Also by chance, I knew Russians who lived in Yakutia in 1990s, and they did tell me stories of discrimination from the locals.

I guess you should learn what Russians did there way before 1990s.

Keep pushing your agenda I am amused)

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