• kescusay@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Not half. Never forget that the insane, reactionary conservatives are a minority in this country. They’re just extremely loud.

      • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
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        10 months ago

        They’re only a “minority” because a third of the country will happily sit on the sidelines while they try to kill the other third.

      • scarabic@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        They’re a solid 30%. Which means they’re life or death for their party. Which means they get their way. They’re as influential as any other group, or even more successful than others with similar numbers. I don’t see how we can just wave that away as “they’re a minority.”

        • GoodEye8@lemm.ee
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          10 months ago

          US elections are mostly by state not by county. You can see states that voted blue despite being majority red on the county level. And Alaska is the opposite example where county level seems more blue but the state is red. It’s a misleading map because it doesn’t represent population density. Most of red counties are low population areas.

          The state distribution however is kinda BS, but the real reason republicans can have power with a clear minority is because of the FPTP voting that prefers a two party system instead of a multiparty system. GOP would be far more fringe party if more alternatives existed.

      • Dkarma@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Half the people who vote. Technically the others don’t matter to the system.

      • 4grams@awful.systems
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        10 months ago

        Oh, I know, speaking in euphemisms. Maybe I should have said half the electorate (which I know is still not completely accurate). Point is, there is a real chance he gets elected and if so, we’re fucked. I’m not taking chances by downplaying the danger.

      • uis@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        Why you call insane right-wing reformists conservatives?

          • uis@lemm.ee
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            10 months ago

            When someone wants turn your country into shithole that iy is they are reformists. Reformists and conservatives aren’t good and bad. In some countries (15-ish former republics) conservatives are left-wing.

            • Tinidril@midwest.social
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              10 months ago

              The conservative movement traces directly back to royalists following the French revolution. They looked at the same world as Marx and decided to go the exact opposite way. Ultimately, conservatives are feudalistic.

      • 4grams@awful.systems
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        10 months ago

        You are right, apologies, I’m talking from the US perspective but we aren’t alone, same could be said from several…

    • Phegan@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      We assumed way too much that our country is split in half. Conservatives are much less than half but due to gerrymandering and voter suppression tactics are not targeted towards them. They are cheating to make you think it’s half.

      • 4grams@awful.systems
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        10 months ago

        Right, but that’s what I’m talking about. It may not be half, but we need half to overcome it based on their cheating. I wasn’t speaking mathematically, more in terms of the power structure.

    • sizing743@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      “This country” This is world news thread, and even then is a UK news article. Americans and their damn elections …

      • 4grams@awful.systems
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        10 months ago

        You are right, and I apologize again. Once again through I will say, while it came from an (admittedly self centered) American point of view, there’s plenty of other places that it could have just as easily come from.

  • GiuseppeAndTheYeti@midwest.social
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    10 months ago

    He’s absolutely not Vladimir Putin but let’s not hail him as this shining beacon of truth just because he’s a martyr. He was still a Russia first nationalist that supported the Russians during the Russo-Georgian war and was vocally supportive of the annexation of Crimea. He even made a youtube video where he played a pest control specialist and explains how to rid themselves of immigrants while comparing them to fleas and cockroaches. In the video he is attacked by a figure presumed to be one of the muslim immigrants he is calling to be exterminated and shoots them twice in the chest.

      • GiuseppeAndTheYeti@midwest.social
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        10 months ago

        100%

        I understand that better needs to not be the enemy of perfect, but I don’t want people to think that Navalny was going to be some savior of Russia like they seem to. He was just an island of semi-sanity in an ocean of diarrhea.

    • drathvedro@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      It’s not “muslim immigrant”. It’s Shamil Basayev, a former Ichkerian guerilla fighter (which short existence was fueled largely by kidnappings and slave trade), who later turned terrorist and is directly responsible for numerous bombings and hostage crisises.

    • uis@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      Didn’t your boss explode on his plane? I guess Simonyan is your new boss.

      For those who don’t understand what happened here’s short version: he was opposing annexation back in 2014 when it started, and in video he talks not about immigrants(because they did not immigrate, Russia did. Twice.), but about certain Russian citizens - Chechen mafia.

  • Gork@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    I still don’t understand why Navalny returned to Russia. He knew he would be arrested, so why do it at all? Now he’s dead, quite conveniently for Putin.

    • goetzit@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      My assumption would be that he hoped he could at least become a martyr for the Russian people. It is one thing to be accused of crimes, and flee your country forever, it leaves space for Russians to think “well if he is an innocent man, why is he on the run? If he wishes to represent this country, how can he if he flees it?”. Maybe he hoped that by coming back and facing the ridiculous charges, it could at least give him some credibility with the citizens who would maybe see the absurdity of it all, and maybe spark some kind of political unrest. It obviously didn’t work, but in the face of the hopeless political situation in Russia, can you blame him for trying?

    • Daft_ish@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I don’t think he wanted to die. People like Alexei have a strong moral character. When they know their cause is good and right they will refuse to back down every time. That sense of righteous gives them strength to stand up to even the most horrible dictators. While short sighted in terms of self preservation many would rather die on the side of righteousness than live in a world that is inherently flawed. He died with his dreams in tact which many of us will never have. I don’t think he wanted to be a martyr he just never saw any other choice.

  • volvoxvsmarla @lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    I don’t get the focus on whether he was poisoned/actively killed or not. If he died of “just collapsing” the Russian regime is still 100% responsible for his death. They killed him either way. Putin killed Navalny, the means by which that happened are secondary.

    • quackers@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      10 months ago

      Because he very likely has been. Putin has a long history of people “mysteriously” dying. if it happens once in a blue moon, it’s a conspiracy theory. But it happens so damn often that it’s practically undeniable.

      • volvoxvsmarla @lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        I agree, but does it matter in this case? It feels like a potato potato discussion. Let’s assume for a moment he wasn’t poisoned. Was he not still killed brutally by Putin’s regime? From years of being mistreated and abused? What difference does it make whether he was poisoned, shot, or just exhausted to death? The means by which his death occurred are secondary, him dying by the hands of Putin is primary, isn’t it? Putin is his killer, one way or the other.

        And I think we are all in the clear that Putin and his regime like to kill off people that aren’t taking part in their shenanigans. Navalny’s death, even if officially proven to have been accelerated by direct means, will not change the minds of those who don’t believe in the government’s brutal killing spree.

    • UsernameIsTooLon@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      He was a dead man the moment he ran and he knew this. I hope his message reaches out to the citizens of Russia

    • brownchoc@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I agree something doesn’t feel right.

      1. His wife was at the Munich conference today, so close to his death. And she was with a new boyfriend too.

      2. The same world leaders towing the line of the Zionist lobbies with their joint statements after Oct 7 also all came out today with very similar statements.

      Somethings definately fishy.

      I think this was a way for the Americans to regain political initiative after the Tucker interview.

  • kandoh@reddthat.com
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    10 months ago

    General malnutrition plus weakened health from the previous poisoning is my guess.

  • Clbull@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    So what’s the verdict? Novichok? Polonium?

    This crap right here is why we need to keep Putin in check.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    10 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny - a vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin - has died, according to the prison service.

    The Federal Penitentiary Service for Yamal said in a statement: "On 16 February, 2024, in penal colony No 3, convict AA Navalny felt unwell after a walk, almost immediately losing consciousness.

    Nobel Peace Prize winner and campaigning journalist Dmitry Muratov, who is editor-in-chief of Russia’s most famous independent newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, described the death of Mr Navalny as “murder” and said he believed prison conditions had led to it.

    French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said Mr Navalny has paid with his life for his “resistance to a system of oppression”.

    "But it does seem very shocking that his health should have deteriorated to the extent that he’s dead now - given we have seen him in court videos, we have also had a lot social media presence from him via his lawyers where he is constantly seen upbeat and cheerful.

    "He was only recently moved to this prison colony up in the very far north of the country, and it is an absolute tragedy for any notion of a free Russia, a Russian democracy, which was all that Alexei Navalny devoted his life to since he burst onto the scene in 2012.


    The original article contains 669 words, the summary contains 213 words. Saved 68%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • randoot@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I wonder why it took this long. Did Putin just want to torture him? Why did Putin keep him around for this long.

    • TheSlad@sh.itjust.works
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      10 months ago

      No, the strategy is to let potential martyrs rot in prison until people forgot about them. THEN poison them. I guess Putin just felt like it had been long enough.

      • drathvedro@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        I guess the plan worked, his communications with his team and the public were severely hampered by his imprisonment and his team went in a different direction, effectively splitting Navalny’s name into the movement in his name and Navalny himself, but the latter is now dead and the former lost most of it’s traction due to his team’s actions, inaction, and general lack of charisma.

    • eran_morad@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      To send the sort of message that only the most dimwitted “conservative” could miss: “fuck with me and i will torture you to death, slowly and publicly”.

  • antidote101@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Death is just the last time someone loses consciousness… And lots of things can cause a loss of consciousness, in this case, maltreatment, abuse, and neglect.

  • THE MASTERMIND@feddit.ch
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    10 months ago

    The guy is named Vladmir putin for fucks sake of course he will leach the life out of people who oppose hin