Russian Teen Exchange Student Wants to Defect to US

[Elegiac]

What if journalists follow public opinion knowingly and willingly rather then blindly? You know, ratings, views, advertisements; or even truth and only truth but from the right side and at the right angle, because, you know "can't have supporting Ukrainian Nazis that burn people alive on my conscience"...

Then they're guilty of a lack of integrity since journalists have an ethical responsibility to report the truth without making a value judgment.

And why stop at two? How about requiring three? Why are there no significant third party in US? :P

Because the US electoral structure is incapable of sustaining third parties for extended periods. It isn't intentional, it's a systemic byproduct.

But government actually does what we want; why would we need to keep it in check more then we already do? So far wishes do coincide, and Putin has shown remarkable talent in listening and then acting on what he hears.

The fun thing about autocracy is that when you put your political structure at someone's whims, then they can easily do something you disagree with at a whim.

Showing a talent for populism and demagoguery does not make him any less of a despot - point in fact, most despots are popular to start with.

If Russians were more willing to question their government they'd recognize Putin's 'reforms' as what they are - political smokescreens. Economic recovery at the cost of civil liberty, foreign conflict to distract from insoluble problems at home, and blaming other countries for domestic woes. It's happened many times before throughout history, and the end result is invariably the same.

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2) bbc?! hah yeah most uncorupted source "sarcasm" just like Wikipedia

BBC is quite impartial on its world news; but then again, that is why I watch multiple news sources.

3) no. they are nazis not coz of that...you alright?!

Nor was what defined them was a realist view of international politics.

6) if so. then america can become much worse.

It could, but it probably won't. It doesn't have a history of chronic autocracy like Russia.

chechens?! ehm...hirosima. perl harbor and the whole east says hi to you too

Declared total war is total war, go figure.

japan can forget about their samurais same as america can forget about their all honor. isolation from others agressors?! no problem...better this then ukrainians crysis. got many known people who would like to return to this time so?! they are not normal?! they like that time much more then todays modern capitalism...so old ussr"s dictatorship or capitalistic democracy?! and if there are many people who prefer the old ways means...capitalism isnt really such a good idea...

Or it means that people are very susceptible to indoctrination. Western style democracy is leaps and bounds preferable to Soviet style dictatorship, for both rich and poor.

If the rebels in Ukraine like autocracy so much then why don't we simply deport them to Russia.

[May90]

Is almost every channel in US is like RT? :P No, not really. Same for Dozhd. There is not much demand for real dissent.

And pro-republican or pro-democrat doesn't really matter to me if they are all pro-war.

Oh, you are wrong in both points. Every single channel in the US criticizes government more than your channels criticized Yeltsin in 90-s. And Republicans and Democrats are totally different; Democrats, actually, are generally against wars, and that might be your saving grace right now; if the president was Republican, say, John McCain, then you would probably be already looking at massive American forces assembling in Ukraine and Baltic.

What if journalists follow public opinion knowingly and willingly rather then blindly? You know, ratings, views, advertisements; or even truth and only truth but from the right side and at the right angle, because, you know "can't have supporting Ukrainian Nazis that burn people alive on my conscience"...

If journalists in any way introduce their own opinion into the news they report (note: they can do it in their articles or special programs, like Amanpour or Oprah (not exactly a journalist but still), but not in the news themselves), then they are dishonest and shouldn't be called journalists. And if they praise the government in most of their reports, then it is only reasonable to assume that they do it because they benefit from it, not because they actually like the government - and this is where propaganda starts.

In fact yes it can. There are many situations where any functional society unites around some idea. See US post-9/11 for example.

Actually, after 9/11 American society split into two big groups, one claiming that it is time to restrict personal freedoms for the sake of safety and another that it is unacceptable; the second group kind of won in the end, although the first group did lead to somewhat higher level of government involvement in people's personal lives.

We have them; they just failed to prevent United Russia getting majority in last elections.

Oh yeah? How come most votings in GosDuma end up being like unanimous or at 98% majority? They don't even try to hide that they are all in this together.

And why stop at two? How about requiring three? Why are there no significant third party in US? :P

Because system of two major parties is stable and system of three is unstable. Why are there only NVidia and AMD on GPU market? Why are there only Intel and AMD on CPU market? Because two competing entities push each other to limits while being in similar situations in terms of pressure, so when one gets a bit behind, another pulls it back. Three competing entities will inevitably lead to a situation when two of them turn on the third and it will be crushed under double pressure, leaving only two as real competitors.
You can see that in most democratic countries two parties are way ahead of all other parties. On the other hand, not a single one of them has one totally dominating party.

http://www.kas.de/wf/doc/kas_35530-1...f?131025103842
Fig. 12 - Chancellor Merkel does her job:
Well: 80%
Badly: 17%
Guess Germany is not democratic after all!

Well, in this particular case approval of Merkel as a person has nothing to do with political approval; Merkel represents a party as political force (notice: she is not a president, she is the chancellor), and you can read in Wikipedia that "A poll in August 2011 found her coalition with only 36% support compared to a rival potential coalition which had 51%.[63] However, she scored well on her handling of the recent euro crisis (69% rated her performance as good rather than poor), and her approval rating reached an all-time high of 77% in February 2012 and again in July 2014.[64]".

Oh god, even US is no longer democratic...
https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-...on/498/actions

Why do you compare one instance in the US Congress with hundreds instances in Russian parliament?

You should educate yourself on how North Korea actually does their elections, it might be enlightening :P
They even have independent candidates elected!
...not much resemblance to Russian elections really.

That's kind of what I meant: they can say that they are democratic due to these facts, which you perfectly well know they aren't. Don't you see parallel with Russia?

But government actually does what we want; why would we need to keep it in check more then we already do? So far wishes do coincide, and Putin has shown remarkable talent in listening and then acting on what he hears.

Because you probably don't want to end up like a Hitler's Germany where people approved of their leader and then got wrecked because of it. If you want, be my guest, but then don't blame the West in your demise: you brought it on yourselves.

[Independent voter]

HBO's “Hunted: The War Against Gays in Russia”

hbo_documents_russias_war_on_gays

HBO documentary about gays in Russia. That's some crazy stuff. Hunting people like animals.

[Kasierith]

HBO's “Hunted: The War Against Gays in Russia”

hbo_documents_russias_war_on_gays

HBO documentary about gays in Russia. That's some crazy stuff. Hunting people like animals.

And also complete bull when looking at the country as a whole. It's the equivalent of someone doing a documentary on every school shooting in the US and saying "see? Those Americans are barbarians! their entire culture is one of violence and every single person is in imminent danger of being shot!"

Does violence against homosexual individuals happen in Russia? Yes. Is it even a fraction of a percent to the extent that western media portrays it? Not even close.

[Independent voter]

Yeah, and there is still violence against gays in the US but it's a lot more rare than the old days.

[May90]

And also complete bull when looking at the country as a whole. It's the equivalent of someone doing a documentary on every school shooting in the US and saying "see? Those Americans are barbarians! their entire culture is one of violence and every single person is in imminent danger of being shot!"

Isn't that what your mass media do though?

[bison91]

Then they're guilty of a lack of integrity since journalists have an ethical responsibility to report the truth without making a value judgment.



Because the US electoral structure is incapable of sustaining third parties for extended periods. It isn't intentional, it's a systemic byproduct.



The fun thing about autocracy is that when you put your political structure at someone's whims, then they can easily do something you disagree with at a whim.

Showing a talent for populism and demagoguery does not make him any less of a despot - point in fact, most despots are popular to start with.

If Russians were more willing to question their government they'd recognize Putin's 'reforms' as what they are - political smokescreens. Economic recovery at the cost of civil liberty, foreign conflict to distract from insoluble problems at home, and blaming other countries for domestic woes. It's happened many times before throughout history, and the end result is invariably the same.

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BBC is quite impartial on its world news; but then again, that is why I watch multiple news sources.



Nor was what defined them was a realist view of international politics.



It could, but it probably won't. It doesn't have a history of chronic autocracy like Russia.



Declared total war is total war, go figure.



Or it means that people are very susceptible to indoctrination. Western style democracy is leaps and bounds preferable to Soviet style dictatorship, for both rich and poor.

If the rebels in Ukraine like autocracy so much then why don't we simply deport them to Russia.

Yes, its the reputation that holds america only. coz many stil remember how russia was a dictator country. today isnt same.
Rebels fight for their homes. deport to russia?! if you had war like this in your continent would you be simply deported to another place?!

[Slant]

Not sure if a kid in his teenage years should be allowed to simply abandon his family like that. Despite all the gay stuff happening, it's just wrong if his family is intact. They should move the entire family to the US if it's that much of a problem to be gay in Russia.

[Rukentuts]

Not sure if a kid in his teenage years should be allowed to simply abandon his family like that. Despite all the gay stuff happening, it's just wrong if his family is intact. They should move the entire family to the US if it's that much of a problem to be gay in Russia.

A 17 y/o can seek legal emancipation, even in the states.

[Slant]

A 17 y/o can seek legal emancipation, even in the states.

Still think it's got a bad taste to it. When I read about the gay couple spotting him for a harvard education... I thought something fishy is going on. Nobody meets a gay couple, suddenly proclaims he's gay and then gets a harvard education out of their pocket. I have no idea how much Harvard is, but it's not cheap... Something's really fishy about this. Hence my saying they should let the family come over to live with him in the states. At least that way someone responsible is there to watch what's going on. Because the US law enforcement authorities sure as hell won't keep watching this kid in 3 months...

[Elegiac]

Yes, its the reputation that holds america only. coz many stil remember how russia was a dictator country. today isnt same.

The only difference is economic; it's as kleptocratic as in the Soviet regime, but has the semblance of function.

Rebels fight for their homes. deport to russia?! if you had war like this in your continent would you be simply deported to another place?!

Population exchanges work, contrary to popular belief. Greece, Turkey, India, Pakistan, Israel before the Six Day War.

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Not sure if a kid in his teenage years should be allowed to simply abandon his family like that. Despite all the gay stuff happening, it's just wrong if his family is intact. They should move the entire family to the US if it's that much of a problem to be gay in Russia.

Implying the family is accepting of him.

[Rukentuts]

Nobody meets a gay couple, suddenly proclaims he's gay and then gets a harvard education out of their pocket.

Socially rejected people that finally found acceptance might.

[Ejmis]

Yeah, I think Putin might have to invade the US to "rescue" the child.

Well. It's a bigger explanation than Putin gave when he invaded Krim.

[Deleted]

Seems a none issue - 16 y/o boy wants to immigrate, sexuality is irrelevant

[Rukentuts]

Seems a none issue - 16 y/o boy wants to immigrate, sexuality is irrelevant

No, it's completely relevant for his claim of asylum.

[Deleted]

No, it's completely relevant for his claim of asylum.

Was more referring to the couple tbf...

[Deleted]

Without Von Braun the American rockets would have sucked who cares that he was a nazi responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands slave prisoners and civilian targets of his rockets.

Stop shit talking people without any real evidence to back up the statement.

And if inventors were supposed to be responsible for killings made by their weapons, we all know who is the biggest mass murderer in the history then.

[Tydrane]

The fact that Americans are willing to ignore international agreements and essentially allow kidnapping of underage kid by illegally putting him up for adoption while he has actual family in other country (even if he himself agrees he is still underage in both Russian and American legal systems) just to strike points against Russia is certainly not going to win them any sympathy.

Sympathy? No. But I feel this weird sort of pride, and I'm not even American. So the kid doesn't want to queue up for his beet rations, big deal.

[May90]

Stop shit talking people without any real evidence to back up the statement.

And if inventors were supposed to be responsible for killings made by their weapons, we all know who is the biggest mass murderer in the history then.

Maybe Cybran is right here, who knows who would finally make it to the Moon were it not for Von Braun... But then you can say the same about, say, Korolev, who designed first Soviet launching system.

It is funny how Russians like to look at the world from "what if" perspective. They lost space race, but "What if it were not for Von Braun? We'd have won". Their Soviet Union died with a massive fart? "Were it not for American plot against our great country, USSR would have made it through". Alas, there is only the real world, everything else is imagination. Russians lost space race, and that's all there is to say; instead of coming up with petty excuses, strong people would accept that they've lost and move on, trying not to lose again in the future. Only very-very weak people put the blame on someone else and use it as an excuse not to do shit.