[Abyss]

Morgoth, on 20 August 2013 - 10:19 AM, said:

I don't think anyone here has seriously argued that the developments in Russia are not at least tentatively supported by the majority. I even pointed out earlier in the thread that the homosexuality laws are widely supported.

Rather, we are condeming (and rightfully so) the gross violations of human rights and democratic principles going on in Russia. We watch in dismay at Russia regressing back into just another totalitarian crackpot state, with no long term prospects of finding their way back into the civilized world.

...and we're pissed that the Olympics are essentially rewarding this behavior.

[QuickTidal]

The oddest thing about the whole shebang....the times when LBGT lifestyles were most accepted in Russia...hasn't been since it's had democracy.

The Tsar's (beginning with Peter the Great) made it illegal. Kings ruling over their subjects, deeming what's okay and what's not...nothing new here. Peter was a shithead obviously.

Lenin, on the other hand made it not only legal to be in homosexual relationships, but made equality paramount even within his own government.

Stalin made it illegal again, but after his death the laws got lax and all the way through Gorbachev the old law wasn't enforced. Stalin apparently only made it illegal again because the orthodox church deemed it against god, and he needed their wide support in his communist rule, and not at all because the general wind was blowing that way since people had been quite accepting under Lenin.

It's now being freshly enforced under the democratic gov't.

So oddly enough, the communist era's were the most tolerant and seeking of equality. Which I guess makes sense in the whole Marxist idea of common ground and utopian society ect...it just seemed incongruous to communism in my head as I'd gone and assumed it would have been worse under someone like Lenin.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 20 August 2013 - 06:43 PM

[Blend]

This was amazing!

[Blend]

Haven't touched this too much since the initial hype quieted, but I've been keeping an eye on what's been going on in relation to the gay propaganda laws in Russia. Well, something just happened that makes me sick to my stomach:

Moscow gay club attacked with poison gas

So they are now resorting to biological warfare against the gays, and we're still just going to look the other way while they host the 2014 Winter Olympics? I'm disappointed. So let me reiterate this fact - I for one will not be watching anything having to do with the Russian Winter Olympics. It's a shame, I actually enjoy the Winter Olympics more than the Summer Olympics, but I would not feel right if I just looked the other way like the rest of the world is going to. It makes me sick to my stomach.

[QuickTidal]

Blend, on 26 November 2013 - 04:13 PM, said:

Haven't touched this too much since the initial hype quieted, but I've been keeping an eye on what's been going on in relation to the gay propaganda laws in Russia. Well, something just happened that makes me sick to my stomach:

Moscow gay club attacked with poison gas

So they are now resorting to biological warfare against the gays, and we're still just going to look the other way while they host the 2014 Winter Olympics? I'm disappointed. So let me reiterate this fact - I for one will not be watching anything having to do with the Russian Winter Olympics. It's a shame, I actually enjoy the Winter Olympics more than the Summer Olympics, but I would not feel right if I just looked the other way like the rest of the world is going to. It makes me sick to my stomach.

Agree. My personal boycott won't do much...but it will allow me to sleep at night.

[Abyss]

Yep.
And this irks because Canada tends to do well at the Winterpics and i even enjoy watching some of the events (hockey, downhill slalom, ski jump), but fuck that this year. CBC and their advertisers get zero eyeball time from me. It may be a feeble gesture, but it's mine.

[Stormcat]

I will not be watching and none of my friends and family will either.

[Ukjent]

Of course I will watch, it is cross country skiing. Bet the Russians are cheating anyway..

[QuickTidal]

Http://www.americabl...ay-russian.html

Huh, the major sponsors are already into the hot water, and the Games haven't even started.

I'ma sit back with my popcorn and watch the news roll in as Coke tries to spin this.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 24 January 2014 - 04:00 PM

[Aptorian]

Considring that Coca-Cola has been involved in plenty of crimes against humanity all across the third world, I don't think Coca-Cola's executives are going to lose sleep over busting up some queers. The press prelease will probably involve the words chechnian terrorist and pepsi-assassin and nobody will be any the wiser.

[QuickTidal]

This is the Olympics...it's a global unity event...the chances Coke could ignore this without spin....slim.

Aside from this, Coke has removed photos of protests against them from their internet presence (why it was there to begin with, I don't know)....so they clearly CARE about their image in this.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 24 January 2014 - 04:43 PM

[Blend]

Heh, I knew there was a reason I was a Pepsi drinker....

[D'iversify]

Some cool pictures of Circassians (the original inhabitants of the area around Sochi, ethnically cleansed by Tsarist Russia in the 1860s) returning to Sochi.

http://www.theguardi...ics-in-pictures

[Blend]

Olympic Sponsors are starting to feel the heat

[QuickTidal]

It's funny how many people around me who seem to think that my statements to them that the Olympic sponsors are in hot water falls on deaf ears, or their inclination to believe that personal boycotts and protestations won't have any effect...

...and the fact that a simple social media hashtag can (in 2014) be turned on its creators like that proves that this is no longer an age in which this kind of thing can be just ignored by major corporations. McDonalds and Coke think they can do as they always have and win out, business as usual...but this is going to have long-term ramifications that their old business model won't be able to forsee methinks. Social media has a short memory, sure...but it never forgets totally, and while twitter SHOULD (in any other year/hosting country) be alight with the buzz of Olympic Sport grandeur and peaceful co-play...it will instead be dominated by hastags and tweets that note Sochi's volatile political issues instead.

I miss Vancouver already.

[Crux]

Ugh, those articles made me sick to my stomach...

Back to reading Malazan so i can cheer up. :'(

[Blend]

Briar King, on 06 February 2014 - 12:00 AM, said:

Woot I can't wait till tomorrow I love Winter so I esp love Winter Games so I ESP love the Winter Olympics!!!

So... someone basically has missed the whole point of this thread.........

[A Demon Llama!]

This post has been edited by A Demon Llama!: 06 February 2014 - 11:55 PM

[King Lear]

Could decide whether to put this here or in the sports thread. I figured people reading this thread might appreciate the schadenfreude more

https://twitter.com/SochiProblems

Also, the google logo is currently rather rainbow-y

[Cause]

Wow I just watched a ten minute clip about olympic corruption. Now corruption in my country is a national past time but it seems Russia has elevated it to an art.

Is anyone on this board Russian, whats the mans view in the street about this debacle?