cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/536301

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The Russia’s State Social University (RSSU) has launched a “social rating” platform that claims to build a person’s “social portrait” with possible applications in future government policies.

Named “We,” the platform promises to determine a user’s comparative “social status” based on a survey that includes questions about income, family status, benefits, creditworthiness, criminal record, lifestyle and state awards, among others.

“The social rating figures don’t affect [a person’s] life, the availability of services or the career trajectory in any way,” RSSU said on the platform’s website. “But who knows what these figures will mean for you in the future?”

Observers on social media compared the platform’s name “We” to the highly influential 1921 dystopian novel of the same name by Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin. [The novel “We” describes a world of harmony and conformity within a united totalitarian state. It inspired British author George Orwell to write his own novel, “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, which was published in 1949.]

  • Justin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 month ago

    Observers on social media compared the platform’s name “We” to the highly influential 1921 dystopian novel of the same name by Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin.

    They actually couldn’t choose a different name than the novel that was written specifically about this very dystopian subject? Did they use it as inspiration? Because that seems more than coincidence…

  • katy ✨@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 month ago

    The social rating figures don’t affect [a person’s] life, the availability of services or the career trajectory in any way

    unless you’re gay…

  • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    1 month ago

    …but who knows…

    Yeeaaaahhhhh, about that. We are totally not going the China way, its just that we are because fuck you.

    Russia is a maffia state and should be dismantled, prove me wrong.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      We are totally not going the China way

      The thing that allows China (and increasingly Russia) to function is the domestic industrialization and steadily rising standard of living that makes these governments popular back home. Their surveillance states exist to gatekeep access to the higher ranks of industrial control and economic authority.

      The NATO block has largely divested of its industrial base and focused entirely on industrial imports to sustain the respective economies. Our surveillance state is far more concerned with enforcing a social caste system and propping up an increasingly fragile financial system.

      Russia is a maffia state

      I’ve heard it described as a glorified gas station. But that was 20 years ago, when the Russians were pivoting to mirror the Saudi petro states. Now that they’ve been cut off from the US/UK banking system and the third world cheap labor import network, they’ve heavily reinvested in aerospace, automotives, and other manufactured goods.

      The end result is a Russian economy that is outpacing all other “advanced economies” according to the IMF, with the fastest industrial growth its enjoyed in 18 years.

      They’re not just a bunch of aging mafiosos shaking down local businesses for spare change. They’re a trillion dollar economy with vast mineral wealth, enormous capital stocks, and a highly educated labor force. And they’re reasserting themselves in a way they haven’t done since glasnost and the end of the USSR.

      • Alborlin@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Are you joking or are you a shill? All of Western world has multiple protections and amenities in place firmly yet. If you talkn about economy, where is the money? I mean we would not have stories about soldiers being asked to use tampons, dealing with North Korea out of all countries. Are you sure you are talking about v same russia we are seeing in 2024?

      • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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        1 month ago

        China is about to dive into a shitshow of unseen proportions thanks to its 1 child policy in the past. The Chinese populace is set to shrink to 800 million in the next 50 or so years which will cause a shitload of economical problems for China. It’s the single biggest reason why China is prepping to invade Taiwan now because it’s either now or never, as in a decade from now it won’t be able to financially support said invasion. China could grow like crazy because of its cheap labour but those times are gone. Wages rose, wealth rose, and the advantages they had are gone. Now they will face a rapidly aging work force with way WAY too little people to replace the retirees that need taking care of.

        Russia is fucked. If they win the Ukraine Invasion, they are fucked, if they lose it, they are fucked. If they win, they’ll get an utterly destroyed country that needs some half trillion dollars of investment to be able to repair itself. Take with that that the Ukrainian people hated eachother before the war, yet now are more United than ever. Russia will face terrorism from there for a long time to come. If they lose, the world will keep blocking them until they pay said billions for Ukrainian repairs, and it will cost Putin his head.

        Meanwhile they had a huge outflux of knowledge and experience with loads of capable men fleeing the country to escape roundups to be sent to the front lines. They are currently running a war time economy which keeps them afloat until this war is over, then shit will start hitting fans everywhere.

        My take: China will slowly fade to a medium player over the next decades, Russia is on the brink of a heavy collapse. India is a big contender of being the next evil empire with its current leadership being a bunch of extremists.

        It would be nice if people toxoukd stop with the imerialistic bullshit and just start caring about all the people in the world. Listen to scientists, elect government officials that are actually responsible. Don’t go for crazy growth, it will come back to bite you in the ass.

          • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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            1 month ago

            Ooohhh you must be one of those tankies i keep hearing about…

            Lets not read the comment, lets just post a meme…? Great argument.

            None of what I said is particularly controversial, the Chinese population distribution is a shitshow in the making. But lets post a meme.

            You know what, good boy, you get an extra social point !

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              Ooohhh you must be one of those tankies i keep hearing about…

              the Chinese population distribution is a shitshow in the making

              A thing people have been repeating for centuries.

              • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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                1 month ago

                How about: no.

                Also how about: even China admits is a shit show, and they’re desperately trying to fix the issue by not only loosening the baby laws, they are actively pushing people to have babies and for some “unknown” reason they don’t wanna.

                Seriously, all toundo is post dumb memes and slogans.

                Are you 14 or something? I thought I was talking to an adult but I seem to have been mistaken

                • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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                  1 month ago

                  even China admits is a shit show

                  Go ahead. Lets see your work. Are you referring to a specific statement or is this bluster?

                  they’re desperately trying to fix the issue by not only loosening the baby laws, they are actively pushing people to have babies

                  They’ve been ratcheting and loosening their One Child Policy (now closer to a 2.3 Child Policy) for half a century. But then so has every other country with a functioning census bureau.

                  all toundo is post dumb memes and slogans

                  Westerners were outright panicked about “Overpopulation” for half my adult life. Then the 2008 financial crash happened and someone noticed a change in the second derivative of population trends. And now we get an article a week about how we’ll be entirely babyless inside the next generation.

                  Are you 14 or something?

                  That would make me, what? Three years your senior? Show some respect.

  • Dragomus@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Well this sounds a bit familiar…

    Next step is adding a scoring system with penalties for certain behavior and it will be quite similar to the social system that is rolling out in China…

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
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      1 month ago

      That’s probably the inspiration, but like hell they’ll manage to actually build something as functional.

      • silkroadtraveler@lemmy.today
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        1 month ago

        I wouldn’t underestimate the engineering competence of Russians especially when it comes to autocratic surveillance tools. There are plenty of Russian-built tools and web apps that function quite well - Yandex, VK, etc. The west does not have a monopoly on innovation.

  • Gsus4@programming.dev
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    1 month ago

    Named “We,” the platform promises to determine a user’s comparative “social status” based on a survey that includes questions about income, family status, benefits, creditworthiness, criminal record, lifestyle and state awards, among others.

    Criminal record: putin’s scoreboard of excellency https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/3174724/russias-putin-decorates-army-unit-accused-ukraine-war-crimes

    How many putinpoints do they get for using a 3 to 13million$ Kh-101 cruise missile to bomb a children’s hospital chemo ward?

    • eldavi@lemmy.ml
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      1 month ago

      approximately the same thing an idf soldier gets for doing the same thing.

        • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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          1 month ago

          Nah, probably just that idf and the Russian army are both filled with ear criminals.

          • Gsus4@programming.dev
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            1 month ago

            But why do you need to go fetch Israel as the ultimate measure that you need to understand the egregiousness of what russia is doing to Ukraine…when what russia is doing to Ukraine is both the crimes of Israel and hamas combined:

            the crime of Israel’s brutality without regard for human life

            and

            the crime of hamas’s terroristic persistent attempt to destroy their neighbour at the expense of its own people

            …there is no comparison here.

            • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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              1 month ago

              The comparison is that they both have large amounts of war criminals. You can compare sections of subjects, you know.

              • Gsus4@programming.dev
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                1 month ago

                If you’re going to do that, you may as well just jump to american war crimes e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunduz_hospital_airstrike or hamas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas_war_crimes I’m just pointing out that with russia it clear to see that there is an aggressor and a victim. When you throw in Israel-hamas in the conversation, you muddy the waters by comparing it with a 76-year-old war with brutality and a lot of bad decisions on both sides that has turned the leadership on one side into morally-bankrupt fanatics and the leadership on the other side into genocidal fascists.

                Israel has neighbours telling them they should disappear every day and those neighbours will not settle for anything less, even after palestinian statehood on the table multiple times, how do you resist that?

                On the other hand, nobody wants to make russia disappear, yet russia acts as desperate to destroy Ukraine, a sovereign nation as if they had been the ones invaded. It is much more despicable than hamas and israel.

    • uis@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      What’s wrong with RSS-- Oh. Well, Putinism is opposite of communism.

      • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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        1 month ago

        One could argue that the USSR as a dictatorship is not much different than modern Russia as a dictatorship, and that claims of communism contradict the reality of the Stalin era, but there are certainly a lot of nuance that I’m avoiding with such a statement.