1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Is the United States the best?

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Tweener, Jan 10, 2020.

  1. Scout

    Scout Well-Known Member

    https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/quality-of-life-rankings

    There is a shit toneof these online.
     
  2. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    Thank you for providing a perfect example of "gross misrepresentation."

    Navalny unfailingly is called "opposition leader" by the Western media. It's why you even know who he is.
    He carries 2% support in the country. He doesn't "offer up any sort of challenge" to anything any more than Tulsi Gabbard did.

    Pavel Grudinin carries 11-12% support. Wanna know why you've never heard of him? Why the Western media doesn't call him "opposition leader"?
    He's the Communist Party leader.

    About Navalny's "arrests" . . .

    Protests are perfectly legal in Russia. As in America, however, you have to have a permit, and the city tells you where you can stage the protests because it involves deploying security and re-routing traffic and closing streets. Complicated stuff. This is called a "sanctioned" protest.

    Navalny deliberately holds his rallies where he has not been given permission. He does it because he knows he will be arrested for an "unsanctioned protest" and Western headlines will shout "Opposition leader Alexei Navalny arrested at demonstration in Moscow." You can set your watch by it.

    And speaking of Navalny . . .

    Remember last July when his doctor claimed he was poisoned? NYT eagerly published stories about the accusation.

    Fears of Navalny Poisoning Are Rooted in Previous Attacks on Kremlin Foes

    But when hospital officials announced he wasn't poisoned? Crickets. Only the Wall Street Journal published that story.

    Putin received exactly 3.3% more support in the Russian election of 2018 than Volodymyr Zelensky did in the Ukrainian election of 2019.

    Funny, I don't recall Zelensky's opponents referred to as cartoon characters or that election to be viewed as illegitimate.

    Putin's approval rating is 63% (which is actually quite low for him). In 1996, Boris Yeltsin had a 6% approval rating but, with American help, won that election, which was deemed perfectly legitimate.

    [​IMG]

    America even cheered Putin's first election victory in 2000. Said Bill Clinton, "The people of Russia demonstrated again their intense commitment to democracy. Roughly 70 percent of eligible Russians voted."

    That, of course, is when Russia was on its knees and America thought Putin would be another Yeltsin.

    And that concludes my first Ragu-length post.
     
    Last edited: Apr 30, 2020
  3. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Re: Alexei Navalny. I don't think you even understand how abdurd it is to tell me that protests are allowed in Russia. But Navalny can't protests or even be on the ballot because he doesn't get proper permission to protest.

    No, it is not a little permit issue. It's a "you dared to try to stir up opposition to Putin" issue.

    Navlany has been arrested a bunch of times on fabricated embezzelement charges. Just about every human rights organization in the world considered him a political prisoner. He was subject to punishment without a fair trial or due process. He was placed under house arrest and not allowed to communicate with others. He was not allowed on the ballot against Putin.

    But somehow, I am supposed to respond to a post about Pavel Grudinin, like he has anything to do with actual opposition that might exist if Putin didn't keep that country locked down and controlled.

    Just to reiterate, Russia is not a democracy. All media is controlled by a strongman, by force, so there is no visible opposition that gets to the masses. A great deal of opposition that would present itself in an actual democracy is effectively stifled, because as much as people want basic human rights, they also have an aversion to being arrested, being beaten, being threatened or being poisoned. Nothing about the elections in Russia are unsanctioned, including who exactly is going to oppose Putin. And that is designed to: 1) give an appearance of an actual election, and 2) Get Putin a win with 65 percent of the vote.

    What everyone actually sees is not fake news or a media construct. But that does sound familiar.
     
    Last edited: May 1, 2020
  4. BTExpress

    BTExpress Well-Known Member

    TV media is basically state-controlled.

    Tons of print and internet media criticize Putin all the time. But how does anyone in the US know this if they do not speak or read the language? Our media sure won't tell you. It's 2020, for crying out loud. "Opposition" in Russia is only a mouse click away, and you can spend all day reading it if you want. Cделай это!

    Navalny is made to be SO MUCH bigger in the US than he really is. It's downright comical how so many here take his actions seriously and how so few in Russia do. Complaining about his treatment is like me complaining that the DNC didn't allow Tulsi Gabbard on the debate stage. You're at 2 percent! You don't fucking matter!

    I wouldn't rank Russia all that high on the "democracy" scale. But it's every bit the democracy today --- if not more so --- than it was in the 1990s (when Yeltsin ordered the military to shell the parliament) or when Putin was elected in 2000, during which time America beamed with pride about the democratic Russia that it helped create. And that obviously tells you one thing: America will consider you a democracy AS LONG AS you abide by America's wishes. Frankly, that's shit criteria.

    And if America ain't all that crazy about Putin, well guess what? YOU helped put him into power. All because you were scared that Yeltsin's initial heir apparent --- Yevgeny Primakov --- might bring back ideas of "communism" because he wanted to institute some kind of government control to a corrupt economy that had gone completely Wild West in the 1990s and had looted the state and thrown 75 percent of the people into poverty.

    This Putin obsession is amazing to me. All through the Cold War, America did not try to hide its hate for the Soviet system. But it was always the SYSTEM they hated. It wasn't Khruschev, or Brezhnev. Russians have FAR more rights and freedoms today and live so much better, yet Putin is demonized.

    And finally . . . if this chart does not tell you why Russians became supporters of Putin --- and why they're scared shitless of another Yeltsin --- nothing I can say will ever accomplish it. To understand Putin's appeal, you must understand WHAT CAME BEFORE HIM. Without that understanding, it's pointless:

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: May 1, 2020
  5. RARist

    RARist Member

    You've come a long way, baby

    [​IMG]
     
  6. 3_Octave_Fart

    3_Octave_Fart Well-Known Member

    I hate to sound like a Facebook Mr. Rogers meme, but look around at the people who are rising to the occasion. Not the peckerwoods.

    We had white trash in 1682, 1742, 1852, 1962, 1992 and we'll have them 50 years from now and evermore. Forget about them- they're outnumbered.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page