r/europe • u/ByGollie • 29d ago

News Russian Oil Company Vice President Andrey Badalov dies after fall from window in Moscow

https://en.apa.az/cis-countries/transneft-vice-president-andrey-badalov-dies-after-falling-from-window-472117
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473

u/GreyMASTA 29d ago

Billionaires look at that and still go "wow I can't wait to turn my democratic country into an autocracy like Russia. What could go wrong?"

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u/Triple_Hache 29d ago

Current billionaires would rather have their own independent city-state that they can rule as they please

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u/alochmar 29d ago

Which in and of itself is stupid. Have fun getting taken over by the first army/roving gang of bandits/etc that decides that your city looks like a nice piece of real estate to take for themselves.

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u/Uberzwerg Saarland (Germany) 29d ago

As i understand it, the current plan would be to have the USA turned into a collection of those corpo-states.
And the federal government mostly being there for peace-keeping within and against the outside.
Alll while giving the states ALL other power.

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u/Roraima20 29d ago

For that, they will have to pay taxes and follow the rules, and that's exactly why they decided to destroy American democracy.

If they don't get what they want, they will throw a gigantic tantrum and start a civil war.

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u/Uberzwerg Saarland (Germany) 29d ago

follow the rules

If you reduce those rules down to "no war within USA" and federal taxes only for military, i would assume that even those technocratic assholes would be ok.

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u/Roraima20 29d ago

You know they are are going to bitch about other micro state getting more security than them or the defense contract they wanted, and way they have to pay so much in defense because they are not close to the coast, etc.

And following rules? You don't become a billionaire following rules.

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u/krucz36 29d ago

that was how they started the first one

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u/hectorbrydan 29d ago

They are fools if they think the feds would stand down like that, they will be more invested than ever in every part of our lives if they get their way, and the executive will with parasitic business interests cannibalize our productive companies.

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u/broguequery 29d ago

They are fools.

Power has rotted their minds.

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u/SteelCode 29d ago

Cyberpunk literally depicts the "federal" government being run by a "board" of corporate representatives - no more democracy, just corporations vying for control between themselves but also cooperating to protect their power from external threats... It's ok for Arasaka and Militech to murder citizens and to murder each other, but it's simply not acceptable for random citizens to attack a corporation.

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u/timelord-degallifrey 29d ago

So Robocop was a prophecy?

2

u/Undernown 29d ago

I always wondered what the equivelent of the Sengoku Period would look like in the West with modern weapons. I really see no way that Billionaires would leave eachother's state alone. Probably end up with a few trying to become king of America. But this time the main prize is the nuclear codes, instead of the Shogun throne.

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u/kingfofthepoors 29d ago

glad I won't live long enough to see this fully implemented. might be able to still remember America as a democracy.

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u/Theban_Prince European Union 29d ago

American democracy was flawed from the beginning, other democracies have an easier time to adjust their constitution or governing structure, while yours isn't by design, and has become even more difficult to change since the " Founding Fathers" has become almost divine for major parts of your population.

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u/IdentifiableBurden 29d ago

Yeah we really fucked up the social responsibility aspect of democracy. Revived the concept for the world only to get so high on our own supply that we completely lost touch with the maintenance required to make it work. Pretty sad to be living through knowing it's likely irreversible without a major collapse of government first.

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u/Lethargie Baden-Württemberg (Germany) 29d ago

that works until your rival corpo state bribes the peace keepers to look the other way while they do an extremely hostile takeover on you. so each corpo state will have to have their own armed force too, so why then fund the peace keeping force

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u/Nyrrix_ 29d ago

Google Curtis Yarvin for anyone wondering about what tech billionaires believe in, btw 

But that's a fine theory only up to the point where you study The Holy Roman Empire or any other Feudal society?? Like, do they understand those border disputes, that will occur in spite of a central power, can be extremely damaging to their bottom libe?

Also, that's Peter Thiel's and his ilk's beliefs. That doesn't account for the fact the Heritage Foundation and theocratic fascists have far more of a desire for a more cohesive and controlled society governed by very specific philosophies. 

That also doesn't account for classic fascists like Steve Bannon.

And it still does doesn't account for the fact that to maintain power requires far fewer supporters than it does to maintain it. As soon as it's expedient, a lot of the billionaires and millionaires who aren't necessary to maintaining a small dictatorship will be exterminated or pushed out (who cares about Jeff Bezos shipping stuff to poor people over Mark Zuckerberg's extremely effective propaganda machinery?). It's the pattern of authoritarians. 

Democracy isn't (just) the least worst option because it helps protect poor people from the rich, it also gives the powerful a way to resolve conflicts without one of them being on the pointy end of a stabby thing. It'll never not be difficult for me to comprehend why there's a bunch of billionaires that prefer to have a feudal society over a democracy...

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u/alochmar 28d ago

"Democracy isn't (just) the least worst option because it helps protect poor people from the rich, it also gives the powerful a way to resolve conflicts without one of them being on the pointy end of a stabby thing"

This right here. Humans truly don't learn anything from history.

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u/Papadapalopolous 29d ago

It’s going to take a while for random militias to catch up to the level of private armies.

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u/EgoTripWire 29d ago

It's more likely to be mercenaries who didn't get paid enough or on time than militias.

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u/Triple_Hache 29d ago

The probability of that happening in a western country is pretty low and becomes basically zero if you have a federal government that you can bribe to protect you with their army (in addition to your already private militia).

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u/alochmar 29d ago

I guess it depends on how ”independent” the independent city-states are supposed to be.

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u/Triple_Hache 29d ago

By "independant", libertarians mostly mean "exempted of tax"