I'll vouch for you being open-minded and balanced. Such people are almost always moderate and sawing back and forth, issue to issue. I applaud your honesty and greatly respect you for it.
Maybe that's why you only saw only young or old women. Some of those young ones will drink themselves to death by 40 and the ones that don't get to be old women.
This is 2024. Not everything is binary. Oh, except on this board where unless you rage against Russia you’re a Putin troll.
I don't claim to know how the Russian people truly feel about Putin. I know that in America, we see countless daily examples of American citizens and politicians openly mocking and insulting Trump and Biden, accusing them of all sorts of corruption and crimes (which may or may not be true). Are such attacks on Putin common in Russia and in the Russian media? If not, are we to believe that Putin is just so wonderful and loved that he doesn't have a significant number of detractors? Or is it dangerous for Russians who don't like Putin to publicly attack him? For the record, if this is the case, I'm not saying Putin/Russia would be unique in that regard. It's apparently dangerous to make accusations against the leaders in China and Saudi Arabia China as well. I wouldn't trust the polls from there either in terms of how they truly feel about their leaders.
I personally know one of the top biomathematics groups moved their group and operations from Moscow to Germany last year.
There certainly is a tendency, on this board, to rush to the assumption that open dissent is not tolerated in Russia and that therefore Putin’s trust rating in the 80’s is not to be taken seriously. Why ? What’s the basis ? Funny, awhile back someone posted a YouTube by this young fellow who interviews Russians on the street and leads many (I think) into giving the answer he wants. Whatever the case, there are no shortage of Russians who say they oppose the war. Are they all in prison ? The article cannot confirm that they are. My suspicion is that, on balance, Moscow is no more oppressive than is Washington, DC and that most Russians hold Putin in high regard. One Russian Who’s Trying to Let Muscovites Say What They Think
They’d better mind their p’s and q’s … German Govt's Witch-Hunt Against AfD Paves Way To Dictatorship | ZeroHedge
I think general opposition to the war might result in a different outcome than openly mocking, insulting, and attacking Putin. Are they allowed to do that like we do in America? Anyway with respect to Ukraine, in particular, what I've read is that journalists are banned from even characterizing it as a "war." Is this true? I don't know. It's obviously tough for me to objectively evaluate this stuff since even if I were to watch Russian media or read Russian laws, I have to rely on the translations of others. Critics of Ukraine war could have property seized under new Russian law How the Russian Government Silences Wartime Dissent
I somehow doubt that you’d go to jail for anything short of loudly advocating for Putin’s overthrow and gaining a following for it. Sure, we can say bad things about our government. Just try and change it though. As far as the “don’t call it war” thing, I only know that Duma members and the Russian media were bandying about the verboten term shortly thereafter. I think it needs to be said, however, that we Americans cannot seriously conceive of a foreign adversary being a true threat to our existence. Picture China configuring Mexico or Canada as well-armed and exhaustively supplied proxies.
If there are Russian media outlets that openly mock, insult, and criticize Putin, it'd be interesting to watch. I haven't seen that but haven't looked for it either to be fair. Even a "doubt" about where that line might be would result in the chilling of speech since who wants to roll the dice with how they're going to draw the line and of whom they choose to make an example? With respect to the American government, yeah it's hard to change structurally, although we have amended the Constitution lots of times. Within our constitutional framework, we've certainly seen the party in power lose many times. Do you think Putin is realistically susceptible to being defeated in a Russian election any more than the Cuban people could have decided to replace the Castros with somebody else? Edit to add: Apparently there is a presidential election in Russia next month. I didn't know. I wonder if Putin is working around the clock and sweating over the polls or whether he feels pretty confident. Does he have legitimate competition or controlled opposition? 2024 Russian presidential election - Wikipedia
If by "binary" you mean Russia or America, yes, its binary. Russia is an authoritarian oppressive regime which exploits its people. America is not, or strives not to be, though increasingly against pressure from the far right, which increasingly seems to want to cozy up to and emulate Russia. In my mind, that must be vigorously resisted lest we become like Russia. So yes, many on the far right are effectively Russian "trolls" by not "raging" against that system.
I'm very fond of thoughtful and introspective people who seek to approach each issue on its merits, ever vigilant about one's motives and biases in reaching one's opinion about it. That's the best any of us can do. Most of us, including myself, tend to be knee-jerk.
I don’t understand how you missed the radical differentiator. See: Canada or Mexico example. It’s not a hypothetical for Putin and Russians. Owing to its long-standing aim of “Full Spectrum Dominance”, it is well known that U.S. has had designs on seeing Putin ousted and his country weakened for many years now.
Our government can’t possibly make the case that it’s opposed to authoritarian regimes. At last check, of the 12 countries in which homosexuality is a capital offense, our government has been selling weapons to 11 of them.
