m0xEE @m0xee@librem.one

@ThatCrazyDude
Japan: everything is so hi-tech, even the toilet has electronics in it 🤩
Also Japan: insert disk labelled "#5" into drive A: 🤪

@iska
Get a serious software dev job and you would hate computers with passion for the rest of your life 😂
Tinkering with computers is fine as hobby, but when you start depending on it… It's a unique kind of despair: you start hating computers, hating yourself, hating people using computers, hating everything… The burnout is severe, every time I resigned, I promised myself to never do it again, but as time passes I start thinking of it as of fun hobby again 🤪

@kravietz
I have zero hope for this happening gradually — it didn't happen with the dissolution of USSR and now that the state institutions are in an even more dire condition.
And if so — the centralisation will return with time and history will repeat itself. But… parts of USSR that became independent — sure, most didn't become wealthy countries, but they aren't that bad either (again, at least most aren't waging wars on their neighbours 😏).
So… Is historical Russia even worth preserving? 🤷

@kravietz
: it's easier to hold negotiations when there is one point of authority, not when there are dozen of them — and last, but not least, there is smaller risk of someone unpredictable (yes, even more unpredictable 🤭) taking control over the nuclear arsenal…
But I'm not sure it's such a good idea — it would probably get messy if Russia dissolves, it might become a total clusterfuck… But at least with time there is a chance for proper decentralisation and strong local governance.

@kravietz
If he fails to deliver on the battlefield, the so-called "vertical of power" might start faltering.
True, there is Prime Minister, there is Parliament, there is Security Council even — but do those have any power over actors like Kadyrov? I highly doubt that!
The outcome of him losing authority might indeed be very unpredictable. The international community — every other state in fact, including China even, is probably interested in preserving Russia's statehood.

@kravietz
As much as I hate do admit it, I think this is one of the rare occasions when he's speaking the truth.
> Putin is Russia and Russia is Putin, so Putin’s strategic failure spells the end of Russia as we know it today
Sadly, that IS so — that's the result of hierarchy he had himself built. Currently, all the disputes are resolved through him, there are no institutions to replace him with — he had eliminated them all.

@Hyolobrika
And of course this never gets investigated, unless said official misbehaves at at later time and has to be punished — in this case yes, a big anti-corruption investigation. This is exactly how they are held in line: you go against the system — you lose everything, remember?

@kravietz @moffintosh @tml

@Hyolobrika
Then the value of the land in public registries grows significantly without any obvious reasons. Suddenly — there is a road to be built on this land — or some other public infrastructure and the owner has to be compensated generously.
The road? It might never get built 😂 There is no chance that a random nobody can do it — they would be stripped of all the rights immediately and might even get assassinated, this always gets approved by someone high up.

@kravietz @moffintosh @tml

@Hyolobrika
…but is a tool of those in power, there is a very popular corruption scheme — again, corruption is a rather meaningless term, usually it means that the state doesn't work like it's supposed to e.g. when it gets exploited for private gains, but in Russia it means that it works exactly as expected.
This is often used to reward officials: a member of his or her family buys land — usually for pennies…

@kravietz @moffintosh @tml

@Hyolobrika
In the end you should still be compensated, but at property's market value or below it — but this shouldn't be the source of profit. Again, this has nothing to do being seized for "extremism" — completely different legal practice and I'm actually a strong proponent of it, because obviously I do not support rent-seeking.
Russia is a rather twisted special case even here: as the state isn't a social institution that exists for the benefit of the citizens…

@kravietz @moffintosh @tml

@Hyolobrika
Driving a vehicle that isn't registered is outright dangerous — if road police stops you, you'd probably have to solve this with a bribe.
Eminent domain is a more interesting case — but I think we can all see the reasoning behind it: to prevent rent-seeking. There is a road to be built — but you don't want to sell your land because your expect the price to increase drastically.

@kravietz @moffintosh @tml

@Hyolobrika
If you can confirm the source of funds the property is to be returned to you — confirming the origin is normal practice even in finance, it helps fight corruption on international scale. In Russia, if you get apprehended in a car that you do not own (should be confirmed documentally) or aren't authorised to use by its legal owner — there is a very good chance there would be no procedure at all.
@kravietz @moffintosh @tml

@Hyolobrika
Sure, that might happen anywhere, but there is a world of difference between being apprehended with a pile of cash that you can't confirm the origin of (civil forfeiture), and being deprived of property that is legally yours and which is well documented just because you've been… declared extremist — that's what the case that I have linked earlier was about.
AFAIK civil forfeiture is still a legal procedure…

@kravietz @moffintosh @tml

@moffintosh
This guy is the head of Constitutional Court, the equivalent of SCOTUS, and he has been occupying this position for decades.
You can say that one was socialist system and the other one is capitalist — but to me these terms are meaningless when applied to Russia: there was always the almighty state and there was you who never had any rights, including the right to have private property, you only have your rights as long as you comply — that was my point.
@Hyolobrika @kravietz @tml

@moffintosh
And lack of private property in both systems. Very few differences — that is why the transition in a lot of cases went butter-smooth.
And what we have now is the continuity of the same oppressive "tradition", they even wish they could reestablish the serfdom, which was eliminated in the later Soviet period (at last!): https://www.businessinsider.com/valery-zorkin-pro-serfdom-2014-9
@Hyolobrika @kravietz @tml

@moffintosh
But I'm not trying to prove that Russia was never socialist, I simply don't care enough — again it only matters if you care about semantics. Essentially, it was all the same shit under different names: old brainwashing based on Orthodoxy into new "communist" ideology — which people had zero control over and rejecting which was forbidden
Tsarist serfdom into new soviet one, with propiska, when you couldn't travel freely. Rural communes to collective farms…
@Hyolobrika @kravietz @tml

@moffintosh
What is?
@Hyolobrika @kravietz @tml

Punks not dead!
(Just a little bit hungry 😹)

#cats #fediCats

@koteisaev @rvps2001
Sex Dwarf by Soft Cell starts playing in the distance 🎶
The line "I would like you on a long black lead — you can bring me all the things I need" hits particularly hard!
Oh, man, this is too funny 🤣