[benreesman]

By all accounts it was like this at the end in the USSR too: infinite nepotism, no accountability, crashing standard of living near the median, deaths of despair attached to crazy levels of dangerous substance use.

This is what happens when bad people capture the levers of power.

https://youtu.be/IUJMyTJ9gyI

[nradov]

There has never been a time in the history of the greater Russian Empire when good people captured the levers of power.

[eltondegeneres]

I didn't watch this talk but I read the article it's based on.

When an Iraq War supporting Tory like Niall Ferguson criticizes the US military for being both bloated and stretched thin by underfunding, it gives away that the critique is just disingenuous contrarianism.

[jjkaczor]

... and look how well that has turned out for the average Russian citizen (or journalist, or competing business-person who stands too close to a window anywhere but the first floor)...