cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/536301

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The Russia’s State Social University (RSSU) has launched a “social rating” platform that claims to build a person’s “social portrait” with possible applications in future government policies.

Named “We,” the platform promises to determine a user’s comparative “social status” based on a survey that includes questions about income, family status, benefits, creditworthiness, criminal record, lifestyle and state awards, among others.

“The social rating figures don’t affect [a person’s] life, the availability of services or the career trajectory in any way,” RSSU said on the platform’s website. “But who knows what these figures will mean for you in the future?”

Observers on social media compared the platform’s name “We” to the highly influential 1921 dystopian novel of the same name by Russian author Yevgeny Zamyatin. [The novel “We” describes a world of harmony and conformity within a united totalitarian state. It inspired British author George Orwell to write his own novel, “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, which was published in 1949.]

  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    We are totally not going the China way

    The thing that allows China (and increasingly Russia) to function is the domestic industrialization and steadily rising standard of living that makes these governments popular back home. Their surveillance states exist to gatekeep access to the higher ranks of industrial control and economic authority.

    The NATO block has largely divested of its industrial base and focused entirely on industrial imports to sustain the respective economies. Our surveillance state is far more concerned with enforcing a social caste system and propping up an increasingly fragile financial system.

    Russia is a maffia state

    I’ve heard it described as a glorified gas station. But that was 20 years ago, when the Russians were pivoting to mirror the Saudi petro states. Now that they’ve been cut off from the US/UK banking system and the third world cheap labor import network, they’ve heavily reinvested in aerospace, automotives, and other manufactured goods.

    The end result is a Russian economy that is outpacing all other “advanced economies” according to the IMF, with the fastest industrial growth its enjoyed in 18 years.

    They’re not just a bunch of aging mafiosos shaking down local businesses for spare change. They’re a trillion dollar economy with vast mineral wealth, enormous capital stocks, and a highly educated labor force. And they’re reasserting themselves in a way they haven’t done since glasnost and the end of the USSR.

    • Alborlin@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Are you joking or are you a shill? All of Western world has multiple protections and amenities in place firmly yet. If you talkn about economy, where is the money? I mean we would not have stories about soldiers being asked to use tampons, dealing with North Korea out of all countries. Are you sure you are talking about v same russia we are seeing in 2024?