this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2024
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Late Stage Capitalism

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago

You're the worst Russian to English translator I've ever seen

[–] [email protected] 21 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

I can see where these things are coming, but it tries way too hard to use different terms for each side. Like Entrepreneur is definitely not the same as an Oligarch however one tries to twist it. Authoritarian - Law & Order comparison is a bit strange, since it would seem that you are implying that Authoritarianism to any kind of government. Every other term, hold Invasion, could have an asterisk attached to them.

[–] trollbearpig 5 points 8 hours ago

I agree with your point. But the way I read this is not like "An Entrepreneur in the USA is the same as an Oligarch in Rusia", instead more like "If we used the same standards we use to call Rusian Oligarchs Oligarchs (which they totally are), then in the USA there are Oligarchs too (Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Gates, etc). But instead we call them Entrepreneurs". Same with all the other examples, there are actions that when performed by Rusia, China, etc, are called Authoritarian, but when performed by the USA and European countries are justified as upholding Law & Order or similar bullshit.

Of course the reading here can't be the USA and europeans do the same, so we can't complain about Rusia/China/etc. Fuck that, fuck Rusia, fuck China, fuck all of them. To me, the point is that, from the outside, is pretty obvious that Rusia and co are fucking imperialist assholes. It's obvious that the Rusian people are being manipulated by propaganda to support the fucking invasion of Ukraine. But we must be careful that the same is happening in all our countries, maybe to a lesser degree (though IMO the USA is at least as bad as Rusia when it comes to imperialism BS, but I'm latin american so I'm biased hahaha), and maybe this way we can stop doing the same awful shit they are doing.

[–] wpb 1 points 7 hours ago

You're absolutely right of course, and that is exactly the point of the OP. These things are not the same, but the media uses the terms on the left for the baddies, and the terms on the right for the good guys (the US and allies), even though the media are referring to the same exact thing.

They'll refer to Elon Musk as entrepeneur, but were he Russian, they would refer to him as an oligarch. The thirteenth amendment allows for slavery as a punishment, and the US uses it, but you'll never see the media refer to prisons as labor camps (which they are), even though they do for the baddies. When the US was busy murdering hundreds of thousands of civilians in Iraq using cluster bombs and napalm, the media would refer to it as collateral damage (by now I believe that there are major outlets that use the term "war crime" for what the US did back then). When Russia does the same in Ukraine, the media immediately calls it out as war crimes.

[–] Bruncvik 28 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (1 children)

Military attack -> Kinetic military action

Torture -> Enhanced interrogation

[–] [email protected] 6 points 17 hours ago

Torture in prison -> not officially (Guantamano & similiar)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 17 hours ago

i will accept all this except authoritarian, my country would nev- aw shit man 😔

[–] [email protected] 60 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Well one difference is that the US still have free access to most of the internet.

We'll see if that changes in 2025.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Well one difference is that the US still have free access to most of the internet.

To most of the internet expect to the stuff that they don't want you to see.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavabit

"Lavabit is an open-source encrypted webmail service, founded in 2004. The service suspended its operations on August 8, 2013, after the U.S. Federal Government ordered it to turn over its Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) private keys, in order to allow the government to spy on Edward Snowden's email."

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

I mean to be honest, unless you live in a law-less society. There is no such thing as 100% freedom. You either choose from 100% censorship, 75% censorship, 50% censorship, etc...

I mean, I don't think that in most countries in the world, you can have easily access CSAM, or guides on how to build a nuclear weapon, locations of radioactive materials, how to launch a terrorist attack, etc...

I mean, even an anarchist society would probably censor things like CSAM. Freedom and Authoritarianism is not all or nothing, there's a scale in between.

Edit: And if you want to run a website (like a privacy service) without getting shut down, host it in switzerland, then the US would have to raid a foreign country, or try legal shenaigans internationally. Not impossible, but makes their job much harder.

See example: Protonmail survived.

[–] K1nsey6 43 points 1 day ago

They've been trying to censor our access to the Internet for about twenty years.

[–] Zachariah 22 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Texans can’t access Porn Hub already.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Lol thats not the government blocking them. That's PornHub giving the finger to red states and they blocked red states from accessing their website, because they didn't want to comply with a law to collect information on their viewers.

[–] Zachariah 29 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah, that’s still blocking but with extra steps and trying to avoid the blame.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Well other porn sites that complied are still accessible, and blue states and some purple states still have access to pornhub.

My former country PRC literally blocks all porn even if they involve consenting adults.

Cant even watch youtube or have access to like most foreign media (domestic tv shows and movies are boring af)

Not to excuse the shittiness of the US, but like that just shows the difference between the level of censorship different countries have.

[–] trashgirlfriend 6 points 23 hours ago

My former country PRC literally blocks all porn even if they involve consenting adults.

That's the end goal, they just can't go there too fast.

[–] tostos 4 points 22 hours ago

if you give your phone number you can watch porn on russian social media website vk.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago

Well one difference is that the US still have free access to most of the internet.

Not to tiktok, and I'm sure bans and censorship will be extended to other forms of media that manage are effective at counter-messaging US propaganda when they can't simply target the creators or dominate the platform with bots.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 17 hours ago

You missed one: Invade neighbours under the threat of nuclear war --> Collective defence against belligerent commies.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago

"Lethal Aid" honestly sounds worse than weapons to me. XD

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago

"Secret Police" .... in the US, they're called the FBI and CIA