oligarch said:
Do you equate patriotism with unquestionable, unwavering support for the country's media? I can see who is right and who is wrong on this issue, no need to get personal. Believe me, when I started looking into politics I was vehemently anti-Russian, until I actually acquired some knowledge.
And I was very pro-Russian after being technically born there and having lived in Belarus in my early years, I loved my family and parts of the culture but then with more knowledge I've come to hate what it stands for. My entire family was in the military there of course, we've had some relatively reputable people in my family and there were some others with more of a shadowy history (you can probably guess what that consisted of back in the USSR), seeing the corruption first hand from the likes of Lukoshenko and seeing exactly how "exclusive" the political realm was in Russia as well as Belarus I've come to realize just how how messed up it is. I've had my relatives, parents and grandparents talk about it and boy was it a rude and shocking awakening for many once the facts were fully in the open after the parastroika. There were always a lot of family rumors about how certain relatives suddenly died back in the 70s and 80s.
I'm sure you'll like it in Belarus should you go there, no Anastasia for anything at and below minor surgeries, lack of healthcare in general, not being able to afford to eat "meat" in many cases, still a minor dose of radiation from Chernobyl especially in specific areas (making much of the farming land useless without expensive equipment...), absolute poverty and I hope you enjoy spending the rest of your working age saving up for a cheap car and if you're incredibly lucky a one room apartment and enough money to replace the tires down the road. Much of that didn't have to be like that, but because of the dictatorship there and the idiotic leader things are very bad and have been for a long time. I'm not going to bother telling you just how hard it was to get out of there and how slim the chances were in so many areas. I remember waiting 20 hours in a line up just to buy new furniture and taking turns with family members to stand there through night, morning and day. The market isn't as desperate as it was back then, but it's still very bad. My only hope is that it gets stronger ties with the West and gets rid of that dictator, it pisses me off that so many of my family have to go through that BS.
You're bloody well blind and all you seem to aspire to be is a wannabe-Communist (or if you want it put nicely "socialist") not listening much of other peoples views. I'm sorry but reading over your arrogant posts really pushed me to say this, it's been ticking me off for a while seeing how clueless you are on just how corrupt and despicable the leadership there is, only serving itself and giving the citizens nothing.
No country is perfect, but if you want to play a game of who's been more humane in every respect you'll find that the USSR came up "very" short. There was only one voice in the USSR and that was the one of the KGB, you do not get "anywhere" on the political stage unless you are involved and not that much has changed in that respect. Wake up. God forbid anything like the USSR gets created again, but it certainly looks like that's what Putin wants.
