Source:BBC News - Belarus country profile
Fuck. If you’re going to extol the glories of socialism why don’t you discuss Sweden? Is it because they weren’t part of the glorious people’s revolution and they’d punch you for comparing them to the USSR? Why the hell are you singing the praises of “Europe’s only remaining ‘outpost of tyranny’”?
I take it back. Apparently you are that obtuse.
I think he’s doing pretty good. I’d have broken character by now.
Did you notice how the OP didn’t bother to respond to the question of the necessity of the Wall of Berlin?
How about the necessity of the gulags? Or did he even mention them? How about allowing criticism of the state?
You are part of the Rebel Alliance, and a Traitor.
The only reason the Wall and the Iron Curtain in general existed was because vast numbers of people wanted to escape. When the Wall and Curtain started to collapse floods of people started leaving; that wasn’t because they liked life under Communism.
3.5 million Germans fled East Germany before the Wall was elected. That isn’t just a few “utopians”.
You lack an argument here. So, there are state-owned newspapers and TV stations, and we must hence piss ourselves in fear? Why? We’re socialists; we subsidize things. As long as there are opportunities for alternative media distributors to get their message out (and you admit that there are), this does much to help our people and absolutely nothing to harm them. Go cry “wolf” elsewhere.
Once again, I’m unconcerned. Keeping track of online actions? You mean the exact same thing that ISPs already do, anyway? The exact same thing that the US government can easily subpoena using a National Security Letter as provided for by the Patriot Act? Did you know that the US government currently uses these NSLs tens of thousands of times a year? Are you shaking in fear now?
Frankly, when I’m online in Belarus, I feel a lot safer than when your DOJ and FBI dogs are involved.
Also, to drive one final nail into your weak argument’s rotting coffin, don’t forget that computer clubs are widely available, highly popular, and quite cheap in Belarus. Anyone that requires complete privacy can drop a couple cents for a session therein. That way, the actions logged by the ISP cannot be matched back to any individual.
Oh, and you’re going to tell me which forms of socialism I should support now? I happen to believe that Sweden, while socialist, corrupted a central tenet of our philosophy by embracing multiple parties in its political system. This makes it weak, and weakness makes it unimpressive.
Also, I only ever hear the “only remaining outpost…” and similar slurs from people that would like to see a Europe completely dominated by capitalist dogma. Face it, it’s not our politics you don’t like - it’s our unrepentant love of socialism. Don’t let your biases and your hate blind you, my friend.
“Gulag” is a derogatory term mostly used by the West (we would call it a “colony,” “camp,” or a “zone”). Anyway, you’re asking about the necessity of maximum-security prisons, right? I would say they’re pretty damn necessary, and I would also say that your people seem to agree. San Quentin was still there last time I saw it… Unless you would rather we simply shot all our convicts, prisons are somewhat a modern necessity. Let me know when you come up with a better system, though.
As for criticism of the state… I see nothing wrong with it. Free speech is more or less harmless, so I would grant it as a freebie.
I live in China, BTW…
Oh, come ON, people! What does he need to do, start complaining about the Three Billy Goats Gruff trampling on his roof?
You can vote for walls?
Well, it’s not like there aren’t already plenty of politicians who are as thick as a brick. The wall has them beat on volume at least.
You can. Don’t blame me, though - I voted for Kodos!
Calling Belarus a “powerhouse” is a bit of a stretch - I mean, it ranks 61st on the UNDP Human Development Index. That puts it in the “high human development” category, right below Serbia and above a few European democracies (Georgia, Ukraine, Bosnia, and Macedonia). It’s also, amusingly, slightly above Russia (at 65th).
But the overwhelming majority of European states, even Eastern European states, clear the top 40 of the HDI. For a European country, even a former Soviet state, Belarus is underperforming badly.
It’s also interesting to note that the Belarussian model doesn’t seem to be very good at eliminating income inequality. The UNDP figures (http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/) put Belarus’ Gini coefficient at 28.8. The important thing about this figure is that is measures income inequality - the gap between rich and poor. It’s a comparitive figure - that is, you can have a very poor country that still has a very low GINI coefficient, which would tend to suggest (at least in your view) a highly equitible and just distributino of resources.
I’ll freely admit that the American Gini coefficient is wretched, at 40 - this is something we need to fix. However, the interesting thing is that Norway - which, incidentally, tops the UNDP HDI - has a Gini coefficient of 25.8. In other words, it manages to maintain a very high level of income equality while maintaining multi-party democracy and capitalism (albeit with more socialism than we’d tolerate in the US). Belarus clamps down hard on the democratic process and private sector, and still doesn’t manage to match free and capitalist Norway in eliminating income inequality.
Kodos for “The Conscience of the King” reference.
Tell them they can’t leave? Why would a society do that?
I never made 171 deaths seem drastic. I made it seem more like state sponsored murder I thought.
And yes. I’d love to compare the relative number of deaths in 28 years. Given the fact that we don’t turn automatic weapons lose on our citizens for crossing the border, I think you might lose this one. In fact, we don’t do much more than round up those entering our country illegally, give them water, feed them, provide any medical care necessary, then send them back to their own country.
Compare that to executing someone for climbing a fence and lets talk some more about the high ground.
Subsidize does not mean the same thing as state-controlled. NPR is subsidized, but not state-controlled. And this particular tangent was about Belarus not having freedom of the press. It doesn’t. But the main point of my first post that you’ve studiously ignored was that Belarus is a festering pit of human rights violations.
Yes, they can get their message out by publishing abroad? In general most people don’t take “having to leave the country in order to talk about the government” as a sign of freedom of speech or freedom of the press. Especially if Belarus decides to take you up on the belief that people leaving the country should be shot.
Okay, how often do you log on from Belarus? By your own admission you are a permanent resident (and most likely a naturalized citizen) of the United States of America currently, and for quite some time, living in the United States. I’m guessing this is entirely hypothetical on your part.
Oh, hey! Is the real reason you’re still in the Evil Empire ™ that you hate so much because you’re afraid we’ll shoot you if you try to emigrate? It’s cool, we aren’t East Germany.
What, they charge? That’s worse than the Evil Empire ™. Even us capitalist pig-dogs can get free internet at public libraries. Clearly we’re better at providing for the common good of the people.
Yeah, I pretty much am. One of the two is a country that ranks at the top or near it in every outside measure among all the nations in the world. The other is the worst in the Western world. Here’s a hint, Sweden isn’t known for massive human rights violations.
And it’s neat that you’re openly going with the dictatorship as the only good form of government. Even Lukashenko holds rigged elections to pretend otherwise.
Nyet, comrade. Someone needs to practice their Russian. Gulag, or more properly GUlag, is a Russian acronym. Glavnoye upravlyeniye ispravityel’no-trudovih lagyeryey i koloniy is the name of the Soviet agency that administered those happy fun camps.
Oh SNAP!!!
I knew someone who spent time in a gulag. If you think it was the equivalent to San Quentin, you’re even dumber than I thought. (I think I’ve mentioned before, he was accused of being an American spy and taken there, without any evidence)
Then why the hell was it forbidden back in the good ol’ USSR?
[sub]Yeah, the guy may be a troll, but who gives a shit, this is fun[/sub]