• conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Had a Russian exchange student who told me that you would straight up get arrested for holding a blank sign, and rainbow flags are straight up go directly to jail illegal. I mean, I’m sure you don’t get hard prison for it, but it was enough that we joked with him about getting rainbow stuff to send back with him.

          • chayleaf@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            actually, the only times I know blank sheets were used weren’t for Photoshop (makes no sense to use it for Photoshop tbh imo, I don’t think it was ever the case in Russia at least for any remotely relevant protests), but as an anti-war protest, where explicit anti-war slogans were clearly banned, so some people tried going out with blank sheets because it’s obvious what their message is. There were funnier loopholes, like someone claiming “НЕТ В***Е” (no to w*r) was meant to say “НЕТ ВОБЛЕ” (no to some specific kind of fish) because the protester particularly hates that kind of fish, and it miraculously worked, but she later got a 30k fine after wide media coverage.

          • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            We need to oppress people because of Photoshop but it’s okay when we do it because the west is evil is a new one for me.

              • taiphlosion@lemmygrad.ml
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                1 year ago

                Because they see reality like fucking Marvel movies. I’d love to believe that it’s propaganda but honestly it’s just because their privilege allows them to be insulated from real world shit.

              • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
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                1 year ago

                Btw. Mordor was not less real than Gondor and Rohan, there are snippets of lore here and there about it having a functioning economy, society and international relations, just in the book we mostly see the volcanic wilderness and hot war-condition military infrastructure in its west part.