[throwaway290]

Calling people "complete idiots" because they follow the law, because they don't have $$$ to spend on fines, because they are unlucky to be doing a job society actually needs like a teacher or cleaner or bus driver instead of vibe coding ai saas, will not help you convince people about the change you want to see

A normal person follows the law. It's bad when that law is forced by dictator but you should get off your high horse sometimes. If you think of regular public as complete idiots you should not be surprised when they vote for putin. Similar thing happened in america where democrats alienated as many people as possible by looking down on them like they're stupid

And why it is logically not true: an idiot is by definition a person with abnormality. If you are saying 90% of people are abnormal... idk what to tell you

> I personally give access to my vpn server to ~100 users for free, and so far the access is stable enough

yeah I often talk to a friend who does the same. depending on your region it won't be too stable for long.

> you won't be content with being blocked from the information you seek

You don't know what you don't know. If you don't know it is, you don't seek it. That's why censorship works

[Andrew_nenakhov]

You aren't from Russia, aren't you? Yes, anyone in Russia who still doesn't have VPN access IS a complete idiot. This is the reality on the ground that I observe every day. Nannies in kindergartens have them, teachers at school have them, salespersons in perfume store have them, all students have them, schoolchildren have them.

And it has nothing to do with the law — currently, using vpn isn't breaking any laws.

[throwaway290]

Where is that, Moscow? I guess you aren't from Russia)

[Andrew_nenakhov]

No, Chelyabinsk. You want a photo proof of me standing in the street?

[throwaway290]

Must be nice. Now imagine living not so close to "center" (the mostly white west of the country). They test more advanced blocking in the regions first because people don't complain so much. Same logic with contractors, most people are recruited to the war from these regions. Why? because they are poor and watch tv. What even is VPN? another ploy by anglo-saxons?;)

Basically I'll tell you it's like this:

60% chance you have some VPN apps, if you are not old or if you have a child to explain it to you. The main use: whatsapp or telegram which are semi blocked, and if you are young and fashionable or your fashionable son sends you these links then youtube-instagram-tiktok which are blocked. Regularly VPN fails (ISPs block them fast) so you turn on another one and keep doing like this until one works. Fun fact, paid ones are blocked faster so it is more reliable to use free VPN. (Remember that you won't hear about VPN by random people or teachers at school because it is very illegal)

And you should know that outside of tech bubble the most popular media in the country is by far VK, Telegram and maybe Whatsapp. Youtube/instagram/tiktok are minority. Telegram/whatsapp are legit why many people use VPN, but it is not required (probably the only reason they are not fully blocked is to discourage VPN use). And even then only until everybody switch to Max which is already required by many schools and in all budget jobs. Remember that most most people in Russia support the government and do what they are told.

So ask yourself how many people have a reason to bother with all this. And actually who of them is bigger idiot, who is using free VPN (safe like used condom) or who is not using VPN.

But OK, you can call everybody complete idiots, that's fine. Just don't expect people to take you very seriously while you are looking down on them.

[Andrew_nenakhov]

> Now imagine living not so close to "center" (the mostly white west of the country)

You seem to have a very limited understanding of Russia.

First, nobody in Russia ever thinks of its population in racial terms like 'white'. At most, there are ethnic terms like 'russians', 'caucasians' [0], 'tatars', 'yakuts', etc. -- there aren't even any genuine Asians here but the students from China.

And no, thanks to the soviets, the cultural influence between most of these ethnic groups is next to unexistent.

More, you say 'the white west' of the country, but this is again a misconception: the closer you get to the 'west' (or, more correctly, to the center, like Moscow and Saint Petersburg), the less 'russian' it is. The percent of ethnic russian population is far higher in eastern parts of the country and on the outskirts than in Moscow, where the percent of ethnical russians is the lowest.

> Remember that most most people in Russia support the government and do what they are told.

Yeah, Putin once again thanks you for your service. You have no idea what real Russia looks like, as I've proven above when I disproved your misconceptions, yet, you go out of your way and still spread Putin's narrative how popular he is.

In reality, Putin stays in power because he has an army of paid thugs who'll kill anyone who opposes him. If Putin would participate in any honest elections vs just about anyone who is not one of his cronies, he'd lose such elections in a landslide. That's why he will never do the Lukashenko's mistake of allowing even a simple housewife to run against him, which ran, and won, so Lukashenko had no blatantly falsify the election results and suppress the protests to stay in power. Genuinely popular leaders do not need such precautions. Putin knows he is deeply unpopular, Russians know he is deeply unpopular, and only unwitting Putin's henchmen from the West spread Putin's narrative that he is a very popular leader. Lol.

[0]: No, not 'caucasians' as americans understand the term, but people from actual Caucasus region, like Chechnya, Dagestan, Armenia, Georgia -- the actual Georgia, not the one which is next to South Carolina :-D

[throwaway290]

I think you are living in a different Russia.

There is a good reason to use the term "white" and that is because non-whites (you know what I mean) are discriminated. I have various stories but I won't go in detail. I don't blame you, I didn't really think about it in that way for most of my life.

And if you talk to more normal people you may find out that it's not just force, many people follow "party line" because they think the government says truth. Control of information is a magical thing