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

Archived link

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.]

  • Vanth@reddthat.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    4 months ago

    These students either designed it as a subtle protest or they are in serious need of some dystopian literature in their curriculum.

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      4 months ago

      It’s likely both. A compromise between hoping to build something real in the half-assed world that is Russia, and between wish to protest against its half-assed totalitarianism.

    • uis@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      4 months ago

      Best explaination of why Putinism as bad as capitalism.

  • Alphane Moon@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    4 months ago

    Seems like RSSU is fishing for the government’s money.

    It’s probably very badly implemented and doesn’t work as described. In a sense this is good, but my point stands.

  • Gsus4@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    edit-2
    4 months ago

    How many putinpoints do they get for using a 3 to 13million$ Kh-101 cruise missile to bomb a children’s hospital chemo ward?

    • uis@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      4 months ago

      What’s wrong with RSS-- Oh. Well, Putinism is opposite of communism.

      • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        4 months ago

        One could argue that the USSR as a dictatorship is not much different than modern Russia as a dictatorship, and that claims of communism contradict the reality of the Stalin era, but there are certainly a lot of nuance that I’m avoiding with such a statement.

        • uis@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          4 months ago

          One could argue that the USSR as a dictatorship is not much different than modern Russia as a dictatorship

          Totalitarian and autoritarian dictatorships work differently. USSR promised better future and mostly delivered with occasional purges during Stalin era, while Putinism promises stagnation at best. First was ultrareformist, while second is ultraconservative, even regressional. First collapsed from stagnation of 80-ies, second is still going.

          and that claims of communism contradict the reality of the Stalin era

          Indeed, Stalin era is opposite of being soviet(parlamentary) and socialist.

  • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    4 months ago

    …but who knows…

    Yeeaaaahhhhh, about that. We are totally not going the China way, its just that we are because fuck you.

    Russia is a maffia state and should be dismantled, prove me wrong.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      4 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.

      • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        4 months ago

        China is about to dive into a shitshow of unseen proportions thanks to its 1 child policy in the past. The Chinese populace is set to shrink to 800 million in the next 50 or so years which will cause a shitload of economical problems for China. It’s the single biggest reason why China is prepping to invade Taiwan now because it’s either now or never, as in a decade from now it won’t be able to financially support said invasion. China could grow like crazy because of its cheap labour but those times are gone. Wages rose, wealth rose, and the advantages they had are gone. Now they will face a rapidly aging work force with way WAY too little people to replace the retirees that need taking care of.

        Russia is fucked. If they win the Ukraine Invasion, they are fucked, if they lose it, they are fucked. If they win, they’ll get an utterly destroyed country that needs some half trillion dollars of investment to be able to repair itself. Take with that that the Ukrainian people hated eachother before the war, yet now are more United than ever. Russia will face terrorism from there for a long time to come. If they lose, the world will keep blocking them until they pay said billions for Ukrainian repairs, and it will cost Putin his head.

        Meanwhile they had a huge outflux of knowledge and experience with loads of capable men fleeing the country to escape roundups to be sent to the front lines. They are currently running a war time economy which keeps them afloat until this war is over, then shit will start hitting fans everywhere.

        My take: China will slowly fade to a medium player over the next decades, Russia is on the brink of a heavy collapse. India is a big contender of being the next evil empire with its current leadership being a bunch of extremists.

        It would be nice if people toxoukd stop with the imerialistic bullshit and just start caring about all the people in the world. Listen to scientists, elect government officials that are actually responsible. Don’t go for crazy growth, it will come back to bite you in the ass.

          • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            4 months ago

            Ooohhh you must be one of those tankies i keep hearing about…

            Lets not read the comment, lets just post a meme…? Great argument.

            None of what I said is particularly controversial, the Chinese population distribution is a shitshow in the making. But lets post a meme.

            You know what, good boy, you get an extra social point !

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              4 months ago

              Ooohhh you must be one of those tankies i keep hearing about…

              the Chinese population distribution is a shitshow in the making

              A thing people have been repeating for centuries.

              • phoenixz@lemmy.ca
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                0
                ·
                4 months ago

                How about: no.

                Also how about: even China admits is a shit show, and they’re desperately trying to fix the issue by not only loosening the baby laws, they are actively pushing people to have babies and for some “unknown” reason they don’t wanna.

                Seriously, all toundo is post dumb memes and slogans.

                Are you 14 or something? I thought I was talking to an adult but I seem to have been mistaken

                • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  0
                  ·
                  4 months ago

                  even China admits is a shit show

                  Go ahead. Lets see your work. Are you referring to a specific statement or is this bluster?

                  they’re desperately trying to fix the issue by not only loosening the baby laws, they are actively pushing people to have babies

                  They’ve been ratcheting and loosening their One Child Policy (now closer to a 2.3 Child Policy) for half a century. But then so has every other country with a functioning census bureau.

                  all toundo is post dumb memes and slogans

                  Westerners were outright panicked about “Overpopulation” for half my adult life. Then the 2008 financial crash happened and someone noticed a change in the second derivative of population trends. And now we get an article a week about how we’ll be entirely babyless inside the next generation.

                  Are you 14 or something?

                  That would make me, what? Three years your senior? Show some respect.

    • tudor@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      edit-2
      4 months ago

      You see, in the States, your credit score is an indication of how likely you are to be responsible and comply with the terms of a loan or other bank-related contract. If you have a low score, you don’t get a loan, because the bank sees you as a risk that you will not give their money back. You can still live your life normally, even with a low score, and possibly even rebuild your score over time. Only what you do with money influences your credit score.

      In China, the social credit score is an indication of how loyal you are to the regime. A low social credit score, which is earned by disrespecting the regime or not following the silliest of laws, forbids you from using public transport, buying stuff, or getting education.

      You can’t miss that contrast.

      • DRStamm@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        4 months ago

        While you’re right that there’s a vast difference between a credit score and a social credit score, I would argue that the US credit score system does have a bigger impact on one’s life than just not being able to get a loan. It is used to deny housing and employment and makes purchases more expensive due to higher payback rates. Since so much of our economy is built on consumer spending without the needed growth in wages over the last fifty or so years, some kind of personal debt is needed especially for people with low incomes who have to cover essentials one way or the other. It creates a self-reinforcing spiral that keeps poor people poor.

        Things have improved here and there with the CFPB and some anti-discrimination ordinances at the local level, but it’s hardly enough to narrow the effect as you described. Heck, it took us until the Biden administration to propose to ban medical debt from affecting credit scores.

        In both cases, these scoring systems are part of a suite of incentives to get people to play by the rules of the power structures that exist: social credit for national authoritarians hierarchies and TransEquiSperiFax for the authority of capitalist hierarchies.

        Again, you’re not completely wrong and I don’t want to claim that one system is anywhere close to being as pernicious as the other, but the US system not quite so harmless as you say. Sorry for making this so US-centric but that’s where I have the most perspective.

      • RecluseRamble@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        4 months ago

        Every banking system has some kind of credit score. Social scoring is what’s relatively new and has to keep us on edge because also governments of mostly free societies have a natural interest in such systems.