I gave maybe an oversimplified answer. I agree with you that a single person doesn't control everything. But the government system is built to control what political entities are allowed to exist and express their views publicly. So, again naturally, the only parties that remain exist only because they follow president and party lines.
All independent parties have been stripped of the party registration or removed from all elected positions. Independent politicians get "foreign agent" status, forced to immigrate, get jailed or killed.
Rigged elections don't let almost anyone to be elected without government approval.
If we focus this discussion on LGBTQ topic, then I agree that many people in Russia are not "allies", but as you mentioned yourself it might be caused by media (which is also far from being free) and the fact that there are laws in Russia making support of LGBTQ a crime.
However, even with that, according to 2021 survey about a 1/3 of people there believed that LBGTQ people should have equal rights.
Here is the link to that survey, they also have some details on trends of public opinion on the topic: https://www.levada.ru/en/2021/10/19/the-attitude-of-russians-to-the-lgbt-community/
Anyways, don't judge people living in totalitarian state for the lack of progressive views.
But the government system is built to control what political entities are allowed to exist and express their views publicly.
You are absolutely correct on this point. The same of course applies in any other country. That is just the nature of state power. It is always a dictatorship of one class. Nonetheless parties with differing and competing interests can and do exist within any system.
Rigged elections don't let almost anyone to be elected without government approval.
don't judge people living in totalitarian state
Russia is no more totalitarian than any Western "liberal democracy", their elections no more rigged than ours. So let's not engage in this finger pointing, we are all adults here, and i should hope that no one here believes the childish myth that western countries have free and fair elections or that our media is independent and not carefully curated state propaganda.
There are a myriad ways in which a political system is controlled and adherence to the status quo is ensured, and Russia's is of course no exception. Their methods may perhaps appear superficially slightly different but the result is the same.
Russia is no more totalitarian than any Western "liberal democracy", their elections no more rigged than ours.
Ahahaha.... Very funny. Can you please tell me how many politicians are imprisoned for their dissent in western democratic countries? Maybe there is a liberal democracy where the same person has been a president for 20 years plus 5 years as a prime minister? Or a democracy where a single party held majority in federal parliament for 21 years with last 8 years having more than 2/3 votes? By the way, it allowed them first to increase a presidential term from 4 to 6 years to let that one president to rule longer between elections, then to change Constitution to let that one president to be elected for his 5th term and potentially for 6th. Hey, what about a country where it is a crime to publicly say something about armed forces that contradicts what government tells people via government owned media? Up to 3 years in prison for that, you know... Like in any other western democracy, right? And that country has quite a few more laws criminalizing various public activities.
I get what you are saying about ruling class status quo, etc. Maybe from a perspective of someone who wants a radical change of the political system, Russian system might look not that different from western democracies.
But totalitarian state feels very differently for people living in one. There is no political freedom, no freedom of speech, no choice, no chance to protest. Say something wrong and go to jail. It's not an exaggeration, there was at least 3.5k prosecutions for social media posts or sometimes even for likes. The situation with freedom got much worse in last couple of years since the war with Ukraine began.
Can you please tell me how many politicians are imprisoned for their dissent in western democratic countries?
Which politicians are imprisoned for their dissent in Russia? It's funny you mention dissent cause the US has no trouble trying to quell dissent when it comes to Israel or its own war crimes and actions overseas.
Your long tirade about Russia not being exactly how you think it should be is what's pretty funny honestly, considering in the US, elections never decided by popular vote, laws are passed without our consent via Congress and the Supreme Court, and there are no ways for people to put forward successful changes via voting.
There is no political freedom, no freedom of speech, no choice, no chance to protest. Say something wrong and go to jail. It's not an exaggeration, there was at least 3.5k prosecutions for social media posts or sometimes even for likes. The situation with freedom got much worse in last couple of years since the war with Ukraine began.
I'm sitting here trying to figure out where you've been in the last few months where the US had thousands of students arrested for protesting genocide, or how the government is trying to outright ban TikTok for more propaganda reasons that have all been disproven.
Why do you believe Western propaganda? Is it because it's comfortable? Is it because it makes you feel more comfortable about living in a "democracy"? Also better yet do you think the conflict in Ukraine just started in 2022? Cause that would explain everything.
And UK just recently arrested a journalist covering the Gaza genocide and then they raided and arrested a peace activist. And the EU banned Russian media. And now the US has just gotten Meta to ban a bunch of anti-imperialist channels. And in numerous European countries you can get arrested for supporting Donbass or the Palestinian resistance. And they have frozen bank accounts and threatened to jail journalists for covering what was happening in Donbass. And in Germany Merkel was chancellor for 16 years straight. Also in Germany any non-systemic parties are labeled "threats to the constitution" and put on lists to be watched by state agencies, and anti-war politicians are ruthlessly smeared by the mainstream media in the most grotesque ways. And in the US they blatantly rig primaries and use lawfare to exclude third parties from even being on the ballot. And, and, and...
The amount of examples one could give of reality not aligning with the idealized picture that liberals have of the West vs the supposed "totalitarian" Russia is endless, but frankly there is no point because factual arguments don't work against vibes based belief systems. Some people just have to do some growing up first and become a little less naive before they can digest reality.
I gave maybe an oversimplified answer. I agree with you that a single person doesn't control everything. But the government system is built to control what political entities are allowed to exist and express their views publicly. So, again naturally, the only parties that remain exist only because they follow president and party lines.
All independent parties have been stripped of the party registration or removed from all elected positions. Independent politicians get "foreign agent" status, forced to immigrate, get jailed or killed. Rigged elections don't let almost anyone to be elected without government approval.
If we focus this discussion on LGBTQ topic, then I agree that many people in Russia are not "allies", but as you mentioned yourself it might be caused by media (which is also far from being free) and the fact that there are laws in Russia making support of LGBTQ a crime. However, even with that, according to 2021 survey about a 1/3 of people there believed that LBGTQ people should have equal rights. Here is the link to that survey, they also have some details on trends of public opinion on the topic: https://www.levada.ru/en/2021/10/19/the-attitude-of-russians-to-the-lgbt-community/
Anyways, don't judge people living in totalitarian state for the lack of progressive views.
You are absolutely correct on this point. The same of course applies in any other country. That is just the nature of state power. It is always a dictatorship of one class. Nonetheless parties with differing and competing interests can and do exist within any system.
Russia is no more totalitarian than any Western "liberal democracy", their elections no more rigged than ours. So let's not engage in this finger pointing, we are all adults here, and i should hope that no one here believes the childish myth that western countries have free and fair elections or that our media is independent and not carefully curated state propaganda.
There are a myriad ways in which a political system is controlled and adherence to the status quo is ensured, and Russia's is of course no exception. Their methods may perhaps appear superficially slightly different but the result is the same.
Ahahaha.... Very funny. Can you please tell me how many politicians are imprisoned for their dissent in western democratic countries? Maybe there is a liberal democracy where the same person has been a president for 20 years plus 5 years as a prime minister? Or a democracy where a single party held majority in federal parliament for 21 years with last 8 years having more than 2/3 votes? By the way, it allowed them first to increase a presidential term from 4 to 6 years to let that one president to rule longer between elections, then to change Constitution to let that one president to be elected for his 5th term and potentially for 6th. Hey, what about a country where it is a crime to publicly say something about armed forces that contradicts what government tells people via government owned media? Up to 3 years in prison for that, you know... Like in any other western democracy, right? And that country has quite a few more laws criminalizing various public activities.
I get what you are saying about ruling class status quo, etc. Maybe from a perspective of someone who wants a radical change of the political system, Russian system might look not that different from western democracies. But totalitarian state feels very differently for people living in one. There is no political freedom, no freedom of speech, no choice, no chance to protest. Say something wrong and go to jail. It's not an exaggeration, there was at least 3.5k prosecutions for social media posts or sometimes even for likes. The situation with freedom got much worse in last couple of years since the war with Ukraine began.
Which politicians are imprisoned for their dissent in Russia? It's funny you mention dissent cause the US has no trouble trying to quell dissent when it comes to Israel or its own war crimes and actions overseas.
Your long tirade about Russia not being exactly how you think it should be is what's pretty funny honestly, considering in the US, elections never decided by popular vote, laws are passed without our consent via Congress and the Supreme Court, and there are no ways for people to put forward successful changes via voting.
I'm sitting here trying to figure out where you've been in the last few months where the US had thousands of students arrested for protesting genocide, or how the government is trying to outright ban TikTok for more propaganda reasons that have all been disproven.
Why do you believe Western propaganda? Is it because it's comfortable? Is it because it makes you feel more comfortable about living in a "democracy"? Also better yet do you think the conflict in Ukraine just started in 2022? Cause that would explain everything.
And UK just recently arrested a journalist covering the Gaza genocide and then they raided and arrested a peace activist. And the EU banned Russian media. And now the US has just gotten Meta to ban a bunch of anti-imperialist channels. And in numerous European countries you can get arrested for supporting Donbass or the Palestinian resistance. And they have frozen bank accounts and threatened to jail journalists for covering what was happening in Donbass. And in Germany Merkel was chancellor for 16 years straight. Also in Germany any non-systemic parties are labeled "threats to the constitution" and put on lists to be watched by state agencies, and anti-war politicians are ruthlessly smeared by the mainstream media in the most grotesque ways. And in the US they blatantly rig primaries and use lawfare to exclude third parties from even being on the ballot. And, and, and...
The amount of examples one could give of reality not aligning with the idealized picture that liberals have of the West vs the supposed "totalitarian" Russia is endless, but frankly there is no point because factual arguments don't work against vibes based belief systems. Some people just have to do some growing up first and become a little less naive before they can digest reality.
Well said, comrade.