But it doesn’t have the same Valium-like effect on the voting populace when there’s just one dictator. So in the US they like to have two dictators with the exact same goals but different marketing strategies/identities to keep up the charade for those fools that are too comfortable or busy working four jobs to realize it.
I mean, its funny to hear "they don't kill the opposition in the US" while blinking past everyone from the Kennedy brothers, MLK, Fred Hampton, and Harvey Milk straight up to Clementa C. Pinckney (killed in the Dylan Roof mass shooting), Gabby Giffords, the plot against Gretchen Whitmire, or the repeated failed attempted on Donald Trump.
That's before you start counting the string of modern civil rights activists who were shot and burned in their cars (Darren Seal most notably) or protesters like Manuel Esteban Paez Terán who were killed by the police.
If you think USA is like Russia, you're way off. USA is a flawed democracy. Very flawed, but still a democracy, since your votes matter. Russia is an informational autocracy. It's ruled by a spin dictator who lies the country is a democracy whilst killing his real opponents and posing clowns as his real ones. Mind you, I am Russian.
Edit: Now that I'm looking at it again, US may be considered a capitalist oligarchy, I'm fine with that classification. I do, however, disagree about Russia being one, it's informational autocracy (hence "way off" to begin with)
Believe it or not, would still take what US has over what we have any day.
Is it a bad system? Yes, I hate it as much as the next guy. Is Russia's situation better? Fuck no. It's like what you have in that picture on the right, but nobody actually voted for these people.
Rather than voters choosing their representatives, gerrymandering empowers politicians to choose their voters. This tends to occur especially when line drawing is left to legislatures and one political party controls the process, as has become increasingly common. When that happens, partisan concerns almost invariably take precedence over all else. That produces maps where electoral results are virtually guaranteed even in years where the party drawing maps has a bad year.
Gerrymandering has a real impact on the balance of power in Congress and many state legislatures.
On the state level, gerrymandering has also led to significant partisan bias in maps. For example, in 2018, Democrats in Wisconsin won every statewide office and a majority of the statewide vote, but thanks to gerrymandering, won only 36 of the 99 seats in the state assembly.
Gerrymandering affects all Americans, but its most significant costs are borne by communities of color.
Targeting the political power of communities of color is also often a key element of partisan gerrymandering. This is especially the case in the South, where white Democrats are a comparatively small part of the electorate and often live, problematically from the standpoint of a gerrymanderer, very close to white Republicans. Even with slicing and dicing, discriminating against white Democrats only moves the political dial so much. Because of residential segregation, it is much easier for map drawers to pack or crack communities of color to achieve maximum political advantage.
True that. Yet you still see either party win the elections. In Russia, however? 80% goes to Putin and United Russia. Every. Single. Time.
Even if the people you swap out are corrupt. It's no comparison to how blatantly corrupt a person can be when he knows he'll be in power on practically every election cycle.
It’s ruled by a spin dictator who lies the country is a democracy whilst killing his real opponents and posing clowns as his real ones.
Russia needs to defend itself against NATO is not spin. That some corrupt remaining Yeltsin cronies sometimes say Russia should not, is not "useful democracy". Navaltny caught on video soliciting funds from MI6 to diminish Russia is not useful democracy.
That west needs to have war on Russia, Iran, Syria, China is more spin than opposing war.
The fact that you would see it this way as a Russian makes sense. Unlike Russia, the American information space has at least retained the facade of being free and generally accurate. What you are missing is that the Republicans have been gutting our educational system for over 50 years, media consolidation has given the political establishment significant control over what ideologies are or are not given favorable coverage, and social media algorithms have been tuned to favor establishment information sources. For those with the time and inclination, it is certainly possible to be informed, and I'm sure it's easier than in Russia, but most Americans don't have the time or media sophistication to understand anything but establishment narratives. Those of us who are informed get absolutely swamped out by misinformed or outright delusional voters.
I'm aware that that's been happening in US, yes. Although I don't actually know to what extent.
What I mean by "votes actually matter" (as I assume that's what you're responding to) is that election results aren't pre-determined (not on a federal level, at the very least). Basically, it's a night and day difference between US and Russia.
Technically speaking, they matter in Russia too, even though they don't affect the results. In short, it's all because of public opinions. It's better people be disillusioned elections were falcified than be ignorantly believe they weren't. Not to mention, it, at least till recently, was also possible for opposition to win on municipal or regional level.
As for the establishment narrative, people believing in it, and media control. First two aren't unique to US, happens pretty much everywhere. I can tell that media in US is mostly controlled by conservatives. In Russia, on the other hand, there is no space for opposition on TV, which is mostly watched by older people, which are the majority of voters. Ever since Putin's first became the president, he's been silently killing off all independent news media till there was nothing left. Now he's trying to do the same with internet media, although he's much more illiterate when it comes to the internet.
Do you have any clue what living in an actually undemocratic country is like? That isn't to say you should tolerate the bs your own politicians put you through, quite the opposite, actually. The mere fact you're able to protest should not be taken for granted.
What OP said is that the US is a capitalist oligarchy like Russia, which is correct. OP did not say or imply that the US is identical to Russia, or similar to Russia in any other way, or that Russia is better than the US. So there’s no need for all the b-b-but in this thread.
Oh thanks for schooling me on figures of speech, completely missing the point of my comment.
You know sir, you are a man. Just like Trump, Jeffrey dahmer and Hitler. Just saying, food for thought out there. Being very smart here, don’t get upset at my simile if you can.
A smile? Was the post supposed to be ironic and I missed it? If so I’m relieved.
I’m not angry, I’m just appalled at the stupidity of even comparing USA and Russia on the basis of rich people having power, as if that’s something of a novelty rather than how societies have been for the past few millennia.
Not saying it’s fair or anything, just that it’s a stupid argument.
Let’s all hate on RuPaul’s drag race! They put so much effort in how they dress, like you know who else? THE NAZIS
We can talk about this stuff without dragging in Russia. “We are not that different” is one of their propaganda pillars, let’s not do them any favours.
And every single dime from billionaires supported Israel first rule over America. While some of them are single issue Israel first, all of them go with the flow to get their pet corruption/"pro business deregulation" agenda items.
Of all Trump promises, no tax on tips or SS benefits, have 0 chance of getting through. Corporate tax cuts and destroying oligarch disruptive energy to protect O&G oligarchs are "first day" items.
That was my second sentence. The oil oligarchy repeated ADL messages. Darren Woods, of Exxon, said no one from Texas Universities that had BDS protests would ever get hired. And ADL, in its weekly prime time news media platforming, decried "woke climate alarmists" as being funded by Hamas/Iran. They and DNC all aligned to fund/promote Trump victory.
We used to like Russia when we had our CIA man Yeltsin in power. He gave away much of the country to US financed oligarchs of all nations. Putin reigned in oligarchy's control over the country. That's why Russia is enemy again.
Putin reigned in oligarchy’s control over the country
He reined in liberal aligned oligarchs so he could distribute their assets to his friends. It was a pure power grab.
United Russia is just as full of white nationalists and authoritarians as the GOP. The US opposition is largely just a tug of war over Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
He reined in liberal aligned oligarchs so he could distribute their assets to his friends. It was a pure power grab.
I can't know anything that says none of that could have happened, but it is a very easy accusation for goobers to believe.
I do know, that in response to war, he raised taxes on oil companies, he doesn't overpay for weapons, and stopped diesel exports for consumer benefit. None of that is remotely considerable in US.