Atheist Forum

Hydra009 wrote: Fri Aug 21, 2026 12:28 am

Cassia wrote: Thu Aug 20, 2026 2:06 pm I remember when Russians took to the streets to protest Yeltsin's dismantling of parliament. Moscow was a war zone. It led to a violent military crackdown and the consolidation of absolute executive power under a new constitution. Protest made their lives even worse. Kinda adds up why they just let the dictator do his thing.

It's definitely a lose-lose situation. But the long-term consequences of society being "apolitical" during a dictatorship is that the dictator has a free hand to do some seriously heinous stuff, mostly to the host county. We've seen the populace of whole countries struggle against a dictator (Hungary comes readily to mind) and we've seen countries quietly acquiesce to them (Russia, North Korea, etc). The latter is worse by any conceivable metric.

I've often heard conflicts summarized as a "struggle for freedom" but painting it in such abstract terms does it a real disservice - we're really talking about the people in a country having a say in how they are governed, to choose their own leader and own political agenda, to have a say in their own future. Often, we're also talking about the ability to live without being attacked by secret police, without having people being abducted, etc. And not just freedom from unjust rule and arbitrary harm, but the ability for normal people to live peaceful and prosperous lives connected to the rest of the world. These conditions change the course of the lives of millions and also the future of the world as a whole. It's lamentable that dictators ever successfully convince the people to part with such truly valuable things.

Hydra009 wrote: Sat Aug 22, 2026 3:22 pm Not many even western units would hold fast in such a situation.

When asked what he meant by "exotic" proposals, Putin refused to clarify.