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28·2 years agoAlso one of the dumbest names ever.
3.5 or GPT-4? I can run the latter if need be.
51·3 years agoI’d say that it’s substantially about the cultural revolution and imo gives it an overall negative treatment that happens to align with the present transition away from hardcore Maoism in China. Cultures are not so monolithic as to be functions of their local propaganda. Much like, say, the US is producing a lot of good science fiction despite having an unhealthy love of capitalism.
R.i.p. and fuck Putin and his cronies.
8·3 years agoYup, there is. And it’s not a democratic system. But the point is that, even to the autocratic cannibals that are currently in power, it matters to keep a sizeable chunk of the population just content enough to be a majority supporter of the status quo. Thus, elections matter. They are a way to gauge the stability of the system. I have no doubt that, prior to the elections, the party will expend a lot of its resources to placate, inspire, threaten, confuse the population in its favor. Stuff like further mobilisations and austerity measures will come after the elections.
Russian politics isn’t primarily about rigging the elections. That alone will create a dissatisfied populace, you don’t want this. You want complacency, fear, ignorance, apathy, patriotism, pragmatism. Ideally you want to maintain a strong authentic base that will preserve the status quo and keep you in power. Alternatives, in such a system, need to be destroyed, discredited, or assimilated, they can’t become a loudspeaker for growing dissatisfaction with the status quo.
Makes sense! The value of an equalizer, and maybe a sense of mutual vulnerability. I guess it’s a bit like being the only one actually wearing a costume at a costume party.
Hmmm, in my experience the discomfort goes away quickly and you stop caring about your own or other people’s genitalia, or lack thereof, in plain view. But I appreciate the game theory approach 😺 Given the nonrationality of many social things, I’d wager that it’s just a convention whose true meaning matters less than the fact that “it is the way it is”.
True! But dried fish is very common as a beer snack in Russia, so it’s a bit of a default.
Can confirm re: Germany. It’s often explicitly framed as a hygiene issue. That said, there are saunas where you may wear stuff, it’s usually designated. Plus you have “women only days” in a good number of public saunas.
In Russia it’s also common to eat dried fish and drink beer/sometimes vodka in the room next to the sauna.
Yup. The idea is that it protects your head from overheating. You wear it so that there is a pocket of air between your head and the hat, so it’s basically insulation.
It’s literally the opposite of what the top comment said. Very likely ChatGPT.
I’d say that a proxy war that penetrates onto Russian territory (Kursk Oblast) and borders EU countries is a little hotter than Afghanistan.