Yeah, I don’t think these cameras are used to ID people routinely. Government already has my photo - I have passport anyways. However, face scan is much more sophisticated and they cannot take it with overhead cameras

I draw a line between a photo and biometric face scan. I have a photo ID, so my government already has my picture, but face scan that is tied to my identity and allows for accurate identification is something new

No, I think that many people in my line were first timers, so they did both

I think this is what home NAS systems evolved into already. It’s not a network storage anymore, it’s a server that has a bunch of available apps, both proprietary and free. And many of these little boxes have enough resources to actually run a few typical “home server” services for a family and maybe some friends. They are often even marketed as a “personal cloud” or something like that.

Why, for tracking of course!

Russia is no more totalitarian than any Western “liberal democracy”, their elections no more rigged than ours.

Ahahaha… Very funny. Can you please tell me how many politicians are imprisoned for their dissent in western democratic countries? Maybe there is a liberal democracy where the same person has been a president for 20 years plus 5 years as a prime minister? Or a democracy where a single party held majority in federal parliament for 21 years with last 8 years having more than 2/3 votes? By the way, it allowed them first to increase a presidential term from 4 to 6 years to let that one president to rule longer between elections, then to change Constitution to let that one president to be elected for his 5th term and potentially for 6th. Hey, what about a country where it is a crime to publicly say something about armed forces that contradicts what government tells people via government owned media? Up to 3 years in prison for that, you know… Like in any other western democracy, right? And that country has quite a few more laws criminalizing various public activities.

I get what you are saying about ruling class status quo, etc. Maybe from a perspective of someone who wants a radical change of the political system, Russian system might look not that different from western democracies. But totalitarian state feels very differently for people living in one. There is no political freedom, no freedom of speech, no choice, no chance to protest. Say something wrong and go to jail. It’s not an exaggeration, there was at least 3.5k prosecutions for social media posts or sometimes even for likes. The situation with freedom got much worse in last couple of years since the war with Ukraine began.

I gave maybe an oversimplified answer. I agree with you that a single person doesn’t control everything. But the government system is built to control what political entities are allowed to exist and express their views publicly. So, again naturally, the only parties that remain exist only because they follow president and party lines.

All independent parties have been stripped of the party registration or removed from all elected positions. Independent politicians get “foreign agent” status, forced to immigrate, get jailed or killed. Rigged elections don’t let almost anyone to be elected without government approval.

If we focus this discussion on LGBTQ topic, then I agree that many people in Russia are not “allies”, but as you mentioned yourself it might be caused by media (which is also far from being free) and the fact that there are laws in Russia making support of LGBTQ a crime. However, even with that, according to 2021 survey about a 1/3 of people there believed that LBGTQ people should have equal rights. Here is the link to that survey, they also have some details on trends of public opinion on the topic: https://www.levada.ru/en/2021/10/19/the-attitude-of-russians-to-the-lgbt-community/

Anyways, don’t judge people living in totalitarian state for the lack of progressive views.

Just ignore Mironov and his party. There are no independent parties in Russia, it’s all just a facade for Putin and his administration.

You still may find naive young members in Social Democratic, Communist, and even United Russia (the ruling party) that got ideas tey can do something but they either adapt to party lines or drop out over time. Mironov is a leader of the party and naturally he will say what Putin’s administration let him or tell him to say or what he thinks they like him to say.

Yeah, agreed. If I needed a filter for allergens I wouldn’t trust noname brand too

Air filters. For car, HVAC, etc. Branded or OEM stuff is usually overpriced.

Yeah, apart from what another person said about alternative apps… Events organized by local communities or businesses are often advertised in Facebook only. I know of a few local businesses in my area with Facebook being their only online presence.

Maybe it’s because they have to? Keeping in touch with older relatives, following local events, etc

Garmin. Works reasonably well without connection to the phone. Some models supported by Gadgetbridge

Edit: corrected app name

Do you talk to your friends in Russia? If so, what do they think about you leaving the country? Do they support you or envy you or hate you for that?

Well, they are saying they bring home $11k, not $17k a month, not sure where you got that number. With $11k of income, spending $5k on mortgage is less appealing. Especially if you consider a risk of layoff.

Still not Europe or Asia, innit?

Yeah… And the second source cited in article, VChK-OGPU “outlet” is an anonymous channel in Telegram, that published information from “an anonymous source”. Doesn’t sound trustworthy.

That’s what I love Lemmy for - a new perspective (and down votes, of course). Thanks for the link, it’s an interesting read. I also looked up details on their taxation system and it’s not that crazy, especially on business side. If someone wants it, here is the link to the article which compares Nordic countries tax system to US: https://taxfoundation.org/blog/scandinavian-social-programs-taxes-2023/

It seems that my opinion about lack of innovation was caused by me not knowing or hearing about big names of Nordic companies. No Scandinavian Apples or Googles around.

But as much as I enjoyed this conversation, I feel we have ventured way too far from Tim Walz…

I’m not saying you cannot have both. I’m saying that US and Nordic countries are like on opposing poles of economical systems spectrum. And in my opinion the better options are somewhere in the middle.

Yeah, CEO salaries are often outrageous. Wealth taxes should be implemented to curb that, and not just high bracket income taxes.

I stand corrected on this one.