• @[email protected]
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    167 hours ago

    The irony of all this is that the US wanted to turn Russia in a US like country after the end of the cold war. Turns out it is now the US that’s turned into Russia.

    • Alphane MoonOPM
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      186 hours ago

      Excellent point.

      As someone who has lived for many years in both the US and russia (I also speak russian), I think the root cause of the challenges in both countries is a shallow belief in exceptionalism. It really allows the average person to make bad decisions and thugs to manipulate society.

      I would speculate this is true for China as well, albeit I’ve never lived there and I don’t speak Chinese. But from my understanding, imperial revanchism is very prominent in Chinese society.

      • @[email protected]
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        86 hours ago

        I really think you hit the nail on the head. Authoritarianism is predicated on a false sense of exceptionalism and a foreign (or domestic, nsdp created one) enemy to distract from domestic issues.

    • Alphane MoonOPM
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      118 hours ago

      Not if kickbacks (and other benefits) are provided to Musk’s business and the damage is focused on competitors.

      This is pretty standard stuff for high level oligarch corruption.

      • deepfriedchril
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        188 hours ago

        Something about the price of eggs I reckon.

    • @TrickDacy
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      27 hours ago

      I’m not sure how he even thinks this could possibly not backfire.