Point of view. A look from the other side.

I have not written anything for a long time, it's a lot of work, it's not enough time But now in Russia there is really an epic battle, which is little reflected in the Western media, so I will note it shortly. There is such an Instant Messenger, Telegram. It is much more functional than WhatsApp, and although its popularity is noticeably lower, in Russia it is used by very many, about 15 million people or every fifth Internet user. In this messenger there is a secret chat function that allows you to encrypt the correspondence from user to user, so that it can not be intercepted by the server or the provider. Last year there was a loud terrorist attack, when in St. Petersburg terrorists blew up the subway car. During the investigation, it turned out that the terrorists were planning and preparing the terrorist attack, communicating in Telegram. The FSB decided to get the messenger's developers the opportunity to access the correspondence of individuals. The developers refused, citing the technical impossibility of intercepting e2e communication. The FSB through the court reached a decision on the blockade of Telegram in Russia. A week ago, Roskomnadzor began to implement the decision.

And then the circus began.

Telegram uses several, as practice, very effective way to protect against locks, using a large number of different and constantly changing subnets of cloud providers. Roskomnadzor attacks with massive blocking of subnets. At the moment, Russia has blocked 17-19 million IP-addresses (~ 0.5% of the world's Internet!). Almost all services related to AWS do not work. Many Google services are blocked. There were problems with MS Office 365, Xbox, PSN, etc. Last night, even google.com and gmail.com was banned, but at the moment they have already been unlocked.

The funniest thing is that Telegram with all this works: D

In Russia, now this duel is the number one news, after which people are having fun with popcorn But in fact, the process is not very rosy. In fact, Roskomnadzor is experimenting in the area of mass locks. And the Russian Internet can turn into an analogue of the Chinese, hiding behind the Great Firewall :-/

 

Russia is trying to put Pandora back in the box. It will only inspire more innovation.

 

It's a great shame that people in the West know almost nothing of the complex, living reality of Russia, which, like all modern societies, is full of contradictions and conflicts, and is in the process of rapid change.

If the human race can avoid a big war during the remainder of this century, things are going to get a lot better for our species. If.

 

I'm a little drunk and listening to my favorite music. This is a state in which you always want to share what you like. And why not share music with foreign acquaintances. But there is a problem. For me, always text means an order of magnitude more than music or, especially, video. And most of the things that I love will be simply not clear to foreigners. But sometimes there are songs that have a pretty good performance and a visual video. I'll try to share such. Here is the song of the group "Motor-roller" under the title "About obedient boys". Literally - a song about how the boy was summoned to him by some external force (the Moon), as he obeyed her false call and went to her on the heavenly staircase. And how society (relatives and friends) began to call him back. He obeyed, returned to the people, but somewhere in the sky he dropped his heart. And it remained there to shine a star, like other similar heart-stars. Who is right, who is to blame? The song does not give an answer.



Motor-roller is an unusual group. This is a rock band from Kazakhstan, who sings a songs in Russian. One of the shards of the former USSR. People whose nationality is not Kazakh and not Russian, but Soviet.

The music video is not professional, shot by amateurs.

 

Once I came to American forums, in an attempt to throw a small bridge of understanding, as people did in the late 1980s during the Perestroika period. But now I dropped my hands and think that it's pointless. Those who have such an understanding do not need my information. And who has no understanding, will not receive my information, because it contradicts everything that they are inspired But I still continue to write on the forums. A stupid trait of character, when I start to do something, I usually do not stop without weighty external reasons. And loss of interest or even defeat in the fight is not a weighty reason I can write rarely, I can write superficially. But I will still write sometimes

 

Balancer: The more that Russians and non-Russians interact on forums, the better.

It is NOT the case that no one ever changes their mind. They just don't change it overnight, and they NEVER say to someone with whom they have been arguing, 'Hey, I've decided I am wrong, and you are right.' People change their minds slowly, as they are exposed to more and more little pieces of evidence which undermine their previous assumptions.

I once did an informal survey, about ten or twelve years ago, on a couple of American political-debate forums, asking if there was anyone who had once been a liberal, but was now a conservative, or vice versa. And why had they changed? I got a number of very interesting answers. What they almost all had in common was that it was the experiences of several years which had led them to change from the views they had had as young people.

Typically, young conservatives, raised in religious, often rural homes, went to university, were exposed to liberal ideas and ways of life, and become more liberal. Young liberals didn't change until they had graduated from college, and started having to earn a living and pay taxes, and realized that their previous beliefs about 'the poor' etc were somewhat naive. (However, my survey was not a random sample, and not a large sample. I just offer it here for whatever it's worth.)

People learn from experience -- sometimes that experience is hearing other views, and the evidence presented by others. Most often it's 'Life' which teaches. As the Russians say (or some say) "You can't fool life."

I have very conservative relatives in the US -- good people, but not politically sophisticated. For many years, they would have automatically, reflexively, supported any war the American government got into, any military intervention it chose to make, anywhere in the world.
Not so any more. Iraq/Afghanistan has changed their perception of the world. (And it helped that they are the social class that actually has to drive the APCs and carry the M4s, as opposed to the pundits in Washington and New York.)

Trump briefly reflected this skepticism about the American duty to be the world's policeman, but sadly seems to have abandoned it.

In arguing one's case in a public forum, it helps enormously not to be seen as an apologist, someone who is unable to criticize his own side, unwilling to see the other fellow's point of view. When someone invariably and always takes the side of one particular government, or one tribe, I tend to quickly skim over their posts: people who are fiercely partisan are not usually honest, so I can't trust what they say: they're not really sincere, except in wanting 'their' side to win, no matter what.

What Americans need to see is what the world looks like to a Russian. To understand how the ordinary citizen of another country or coulture thinks, does not mean automatically to believe everything their government or movement does is right. You might still be a staunch opponent of their government. But ignorance never did anyone any good, as Marx said.

So please keep posting. I personally believe that you have, like many Russians I know, an overly-positive view of the old Soviet Union. In some ways it was an easier life for ordinary people, no question about it! But it had deep, organic failures -- in particular the lack of personal political freedom -- which meant that its passing was a good thing. It's a great shame, for the entire world, that the West did not take the opportunity to help pull Russian into its rightful place as a leading European nation, but I think it will get there eventually.

I was also sorry to see you call the martyred leader Boris Nemtsov a 'loser'. It's true that the new, democratic movement in Russia was no match for the old Communist/gangsters who made a smooth transition from bureaucrat to oligarch, helped in their looting of the Soviet peoples' property by Western banks. But it's on people like Sakharov and Nemtsov, in every country, despite their flaws, that the future of humanity depends.

 

Another accusation against Russia failed. But in the Western media, of course, it will not be written widely

Rodchenkov's evidence is hearsay with limited probative value’ – CAS

 

For a long time did not write on this forum. A lot of different things. Bears hatched cubs. Vodka for the winter should be done (Winter is coming!). The samovar broke down, you also need to repair it. And the KGB did not want to give out coupons for the Internet. I even missed the 2018 World Cup with comments Although, on the other hand, I looked at the American forums at that time and did not see much interest in the championship there. Although for Russia it was a very loud event, which will be remembered for more than one year.

And now I looked and was amazed at the scale of discussion of the meeting between Trump and Putin. I even got the impression that the Americans are discussing this topic even more actively than Russians. And certainly - much hotter. In Russia this meeting is perceived, rather, as something natural, a little positive, but nothing more. Yes, there is a lot of news on it, but the flame is not enough.

Here is something like a meeting in Russia represent caricaturists:

 

What percentage of the world's population has access to the Internet? Map of 2017.

 

I did not write anything here during the World Cup 2018. But I found an interesting lot. Should I flood here on this topic or not?

For example, in such an atmosphere of mutual hatred, fans of Israel and Iran met.

 

Now caught such a visual video of the number killed during the WWII in different countries.

 

.....what is your point?

 

Just a visual representation of the number of victims.

 

The Western agenda today. Chinese version.

 

And?

 

A bit depressing statistics.

 

I have not written anything on the military subject for a long time. So I'll start right away with the new info. In the Zhukovsky (Moscow suburb), the MiG-31 was seen with, presumably, an anti-satellite missile or its mock-up. Although this is only a plausible version. There are also assumptions that this is a modification of the "Kinzhal" ("Dagger") missile with a radar homing. Also there is an assumption that this is a deliberate leaks of information.

 

You make many good points on this thread. As a tax-paying American, I have long realized that my government is a belligerent and deceptive one, especially as regards its Russia policy. My government is essentially controlled by the neocons and Israeli government, so I understand the reasons for the belligerence.

Our western media is a large part of the problem, and serves the interests of war mongers.

Just a few days ago, for example, the New York Times ran a smaller headline declaring "A journalist who spread conspiracy theories will oversee Italy's state television". Such hypocrisy with just one short sentence that is critical of the Italian policy. Good heavens, NYT has spread and defended more official conspiracy theories than one could count. Funny, in a strange way.

 

U.S. would destroy banned Russian warheads if necessary: NATO envoy

Let someone tell her that, unlike the defenseless Yugoslavia, Libya or Iraq, Russia, in response to the destruction of objects on its territory, can destroy the United States. I don’t know how it looks from America, but from Russia more and more often it seems that only crazy people remained in the US government. And it undermines the last remnants of confidence in America from ordinary Russians. America no longer looks like a country of reason, justice and freedom, which we wanted to be like in the 1980s and 1990s.

 

I did not know where to put this photo. Whether in your topic with photos, such as photoblog, or in politics, because to some extent shows the Russian reality I decided, nevertheless, in politics. Recently in the store in front of me on the counter I saw such a still life. Just a classic Once I photographed the same way as a bottle of vodka and a pack of gum, which looked even steeper. But this option, with processed cheese, more classic

In fact, in the last 10–15 years, Russia began to drink alcohol several times less than before, Russia even dropped out of the top of countries-consumers of alcohol per capita, but still, this happens. With that, in my opinion, the maximum sobriety was somewhere in 2015-2016. Now again began to meet more drunk on the streets.

 

We have an emergency. In the Far East (the city of Svobodny) the bridge collapsed. No harm done. Although the driver of this truck was born with a caul

 

It's all part of the insanity which has struck the West. As a point of possible interest, when the Russia-gate thing started up, I became interested in Russia and its culture, and the more I learnt the more I fell in love with that country. It occurred to me that I have more in common with Russia than I do with the West, whose culture is based upon arrogance, delusion, and vulgarity. I now confidently predict that some idiot will post 'Well if you like Russia that much why don't you move there?'

 

So you are not from Russia? For some reason I thought you were Russian

 

Cool, I've been following this one.
That old crate is probably still the worlds best fighter today.

 

I forgive you comrade!