MeanwhileOnGrad
"Oh, this is calamity! Calamity! Oh no, he's on the floor!"
Welcome to MoG!
Meanwhile On Grad
Documenting hate speech, conspiracy theories, apologia/revisionism, and general tankie behaviour across the fediverse. Memes are welcome!
What is a Tankie?
Alternatively, a detailed blog post about Tankies.
(caution of biased source)
Basic Rules:
Sh.itjust.works Instance rules apply! If you are from other instances, please be mindful of the rules. — Basically, don't be a dick.
Hate-Speech — You should be familiar with this one already; practically all instances have the same rules on hate speech.
Apologia — (Using the Modern terminology for Apologia) No Defending, Denying, Justifying, Bolstering, or Differentiating authoritarian acts or endeavours, whether be a Pro-CCP viewpoint, Stalinism, Islamic Terrorism or any variation of Tankie Ideology.
Revisionism — No downplaying or denying atrocities past and present. Calling Tankies shills, foreign/federal agents, or bots also falls under this rule. Extremists exist. They are real. Do not call them shills or fake users as it handwaves their extremism.
Tankies can explain their views but may be criticised or attacked for them. Any slight infraction on the rules above will immediately earn a warning and possibly a ban.
Off-topic Discussion — Do not discuss unrelated topics to the point of derailing the thread. Stay focused on the direct content of the post as opposed to arguing.
You'll be warned if you're violating the instance and community rules. Continuing poor behaviour after being warned will result in a ban or removal of your comments. Bans typically only last 24 hours, but each subsequent infraction will double the amount. Depending on the content, the ban time may be increased. You may request an unban at any time.
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I acknowledge that laws exist. I don’t respect or follow the bad ones. The laws were written, as in many countries, to prevent self governance by the people. This is always and everywhere the greatest fear of the powerful.
Your comment is self-contradictory. A dictatorship that governs with emergency powers and no elections is in no way democratic.
It’s clear from your comment that you think this kind of dictatorship is a good idea. I think you should defend this idea instead of acting confused about what I mean when you clearly understand what I’m talking about here.
I sincerely doubt that you don't follow "bad" laws. Dictatorial powers are granted as part of emergency, with conditions that must be met. Conditions that were explained earlier, again, you can't ignore laws like your country constitution (if there is one) unless the next step planned is dissolution of your nation.
My personal opinion on granting or not granting whatever powers are irrelevant. That's how laws work.
Your claims of there being a lack of democracy weren't explained, enlighten me. I can't understand your position on elections because you have a very warped idea what war means. At best there are multiple air raid alerts in every big city, at best every day hundreds of people are being either killed or being injured. Every industry is either completely destroyed or partially destroyed, absolute majority of critical infrastructure objects are at least partially destroyed. At least a million people are in armed forces with more than a half being on the front lines, they can't drop everything and go vote. Ballistic missile can arrive in 1-2 minutes after being detected, some can in less then a 1, and public events are usual r*ssian targets, you don't want your election start with multiple places being struck with ballistic missisles with cluster munition. Can you explain how to hold elections in this situation, the logistics of the operation and a purpose?
Some bad laws I obey, some I don’t. Depends on the level of enforcement. But I’m just an ordinary person, not a leader of government. The rules are quite different for me.
Constitutional law is violated or ignored all the time when it’s convenient to the ruling powers. It’s only when it’s inconvenient to them that it suddenly becomes a sacred institution. But regardless, they could easily get around this issue by pausing martial law during the election, or confining it only to regions of intense fighting.
My claims were explained and substantiated. There are no elections, little press freedom and these restrictions go far beyond the conditions necessary given the situation there. Do you dispute this or do you think these conditions are those of a free and democratic society? I truly don’t know what more you are asking for. Maybe you can be more specific?
Otherwise your comment is an exaggeration of conditions there. Ukrainian industry is rapidly recovering from the initial invasion period (when there was more widespread fighting). Most of the casualties are happening at the front lines, involve soldiers, and will not significantly interfere with elections elsewhere. For soldiers fighting, absentee ballots are widely used in similar situations across the world.
Could Russia target election sites? Perhaps, but much of the world has developed a robust mail-in ballot system as a result of covid, and there is therefore no need to have in person voting if that is impossible. However, at least when I have voted, sites can be split into many small locations such that large gatherings are not needed—I typically see a few dozen people at most when I go to vote. As you can see in this video, such gatherings are safe enough, despite occasional air raids. https://youtu.be/SvTtHc_Gua4. It’s clear that despite some obstacles, Ukraine is perfectly capable of running elections if they wished to. They simply don’t wish to.
The purpose is to give people a voice in the leadership and direction of their country. Many impactful decisions are being made during wartime that may affect their lives greatly, they should have a say in that. It is the same justification for democracy anywhere.