With all the money going into the Ukraine war and other ventures since Putin came to power, I imagine there’s a lot of stuff he could’ve done to make the world a better place and Russia a formidable world power.

  • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
    266·
    3 days ago

    Try to establish a proper western-style liberal democratic system and culture in Russia. They have a constitution that is nominally liberal democratic, but they are so used to authoritarian rule that they can’t really manage to keep it that way.

    • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
      613·
      3 days ago

      You see, the shape of the asiatic brainpan predisposes the slav to authoritarianism. Russians just have an authoritarian culture. They’re taught to hate freedom and democracy from 2 years old.

      • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
        143·
        3 days ago

        You’re trying to make them sound racist but that’s really not it. Russia has never been a democracy. They don’t have the culture build by more than a century of democratic rule like America, France or Britain. They don’t have the culture that leads to more than a century of democratic rule. You make it seem comical by saying “they’re taught to hate freedom”, but cultures do vary in how predisposed they are to obeying authority or rebelling against it, among a variety of other things. I mean, just take a look at this. See this if you’ve never seen these terms before.

        Anyway what I’m trying to say is that it takes a lot more work and good faith to keep a democracy going in a country like Russia and China than in Western Europe, where people are more used to and comfortable with fighting authority.

        • Justin@lemmy.jlh.name
          81·
          3 days ago

          Yeah most Americans think that democracy/liberalism is just the natural state of the world and doesn’t need any effort to maintain. That is very much not the case in Russia.

          • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
            14·
            3 days ago

            That is very much not the case in Russia.

            Or most of the world, really. Source: Am Middle Eastern and don’t like being told what to do. Sometimes it feels like either I or everyone around me is crazy.