Тег: Goals

Claims against Navalny

Supporters of political stability have many grievances against Alexei Navalny. If you ignore the anecdotal stuff, like “State Department agent” and “he would have stolen even more in their place,” and start asking in more detail, something curious emerges. If Navalny had overthrown Putin back in 2012, simply by preventing him from taking a third term, kicked both him and Medvedev out of the Kremlin, sat on the throne himself, befriended Europe, refrained from lending to Yanukovych, refrained from seizing Crimea, stopped inflating spending on the security forces and directed it toward social welfare instead—then in 2018, they would have voted for his second term and been champions of stability, asking “who, if not Navalny?” And they would have grumbled about gay parades in hushed tones, because there would be no reason to rock the boat.

In short, the main grievance “vatniks” have with Navalny is that he is weak and indecisive, and therefore unworthy of sitting on the tsarist throne. Instead of allowing himself to be beaten in the squares, he should have smashed the Kremlin with tanks; then he would be a respected man, not some lowlife. It is easy to see that this position is very close to the position of the well-known liberal extremist Arkady Babchenko, who still reminisces about the warm December of 2011 and expresses readiness to return to Russia only in an Abrams tank as part of a NATO peacekeeping contingent.

Alexei Navalny returned to Russia not at the head of a loyal guard, but on a shitty low-cost carrier; he was immediately punished for this stupidity, and rightly so. And if our leader is so dear to us, why the hell haven’t we freed him yet, and instead boast that on January 23rd the police seized a record number of people? Are we masochists? Is this why we went out? What do we actually plan to do to free Alexei? Where is the storming of Matrosskaya Tishina? Or do we think that they, the supporters of political stability, will defend Putin? No way! If Akela cannot protect himself, he has no business leading the pack.

That is the kind of interesting conversation I had recently, and I was unable to give my interlocutor satisfactory answers. Not only because I am not great at oral debates, but because essentially I have nothing to object with. Navalny and his team behave as if they haven’t even considered overthrowing the regime; Navalny seems perfectly content to spend another ten years playing Mandela and wait until Putin either dies on his own or becomes completely decrepit, hands over the throne, and his successor engages in national reconciliation by releasing Navalny and allowing him to run in the elections. Because even if they are looking at the Belarusian scenario, there was no need to return to Russia for that—hang out with Tikhanovskaya, meet with world leaders, push for sanctions, push for the freezing of the accounts of Putin’s cronies, rather than sitting in a cell. The cell is for Putin, not for you.

When Navalny and his associates try to explain why the hell Alexei rushed back to Russia, they bleat about moral duty. It is roughly like riding out on a white horse into machine-gun fire just to wave a papakha hat and send the army into a psychological attack because “the truth is on our side,” meaning we’ll overwhelm them by throwing hats at them.

So, I’ve suddenly found this touching unity with the supporters of the “strong hand.” As for tomorrow, I will try to post my thoughts on what I would like to see at the upcoming Sunday action.

Us. Here. Power!
Putin. Resign!
Give us. A Constituent. Assembly!

What will happen to the channel once you explain all aspects of libertarianism and the questions run out? (meanwhile, I am doing everything possible to make sure they don’t)

…And justice for all

Lately, indeed, interesting new questions have begun to appear less frequently, so soon I will need to devote more attention not to new answers, but to structuring what has already been accumulated. The results of the survey indicate precisely that people wish to see not so much regular fresh posts, but rather a certain new quality.

In general, the long-term goal of the project is the formation of a community of people who have a clear understanding of libertarianism, are ready to convey their ideas to those around them, and arrange their lives in accordance with libertarian principles. So I very much hope that gradually more stories about successful libertarian practices will appear here, and not at the level of “somewhere far away something was done, I read it in a questionable article,” but rather “our readers implemented such-and-such a mechanism and are telling us how they navigated the pitfalls.”

What pleases me is that the view that it is time to work as a team is leading in the survey. Great, let’s expand.

Translators for “The Mechanics of Liberty” are very much needed. A polished literary style is not mandatory; accuracy of work is far more important. I will be editing the submitted text anyway. So, if anyone feels they have the strength and desire to participate in the translation, take any unoccupied chapter—and go for it.

There is quite a high demand for a guide on the promotion of libertarianism, so I will have to pay quite close attention to this. If you have ideas about what the structure of this text should be, please suggest them; it is easier for me to work with a semi-finished product than to invent it from scratch.

As for building a convenient catalog of previously created posts, I think I will create a more detailed category system and move it to a separate page. I hope this will make it easier for you to find something valuable in this mess.

You’ll agree, it looks quite similar to my channel: many useful things very compactly in one place, but in terms of usability, it’s far from a masterpiece.

Libertarian orders will probably not be here for some time, and (few believe that they are) true. But does the DPR have any goals closer and more understandable to the people, the achievement of which would yield a tangible result?

anonymous question

I apologize in advance if the text seems a bit mundane, but that’s always the case with immediate goals.

Currently, all opposition parties are utilizing the government’s aggressive policies to convert people’s dissatisfaction into their own influence. Therefore, I currently have two immediate tasks.

First, to organize protest actions throughout the country, or at least in Moscow, that are no worse than those of RB-chan. April 30th with Telegram went well; July 29th should be just as successful. This is a demonstration of organizational muscle, a push for the influx of new people and finances into the party, as well as an excellent start for my candidates in Vnukovo and Kokoshkino.

Second, to hold the Adam Smith Readings in November on a new organizational level — the old cozy format has stopped accommodating everyone who wants to attend. It is not enough to simply get hold of a crowd of dissatisfied people; it is important to give them an understanding of libertarianism. I am also looking for ways to make the format of regional educational conferences, which are currently held under the “Many-Faced Freedom” brand, more effective. For example, in August in Novosibirsk, it will be expanded to two days and conducted in a more festival-like format — I suspect that values are better absorbed in more free communication.

But perhaps in your question, you didn’t mean what I am doing for my own development, but what I am doing for real changes in the country. The most noticeable thing here is the initiative to abolish the transport tax — for now in Moscow, then the experience can be transferred to the regions. Each of my municipal deputies also has their own goals, of which there are only three so far, but this autumn their number will likely increase, with your help. These are outlined in their programs; I won’t overload the post with details.

To summarize, wherever I gain significant organizational capacity, I organize pressure on the government toward the abolition of levies and the deregulation of the economy. If we recall the famous example of cannibalism in the description of how the Overton window works, I am currently at the stage of “experts talk about the numerous positive effects of cannibalism, minorities protest for the decriminalization of the phenomenon” — agree that this is already a fairly significant shift from the complete tabooing of the topic.

I publish the address of my bitcoin wallet here every time: 1A7Wu2enQNRETLXDNpQEufcbJybtM1VHZ8

I should probably say what I want to do with this money first. First, I want a new little dress. I’ve been told repeatedly that for a chan I’m not anime enough, and this whim, in general, is not hard to fulfill, and not expensive. Second, I’m thinking about a video blog.