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practical_romantic  2yr ago (text post)   3914 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 23, 2022

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To be honest that comment about chess is way more amusing and meaningful in the context. He was just firing back at Gary Kasparov who called Musk an idiot. Kasparov is a bit of a clownish autist figure (soviet chess hero spends his later years trying and failing to gain political prominence) and an easy target to bully. I chuckled when I saw that tweet.

I think Kasparov deserves some respect, taking a stand against Putin isn't clownish.

He is quite a bit more than a generic Putin opposition figure. Kasparov was one of the prominent cheerleaders of Yeltsin in his 1996 oligarch campaign.

For about a decade now he has been totally dependent on western establishment sponsors as well as some old timey oligarchs and just a mouthpiece for unlimited confrontation. Two quotes from Wikipedia:

About Sochi

Kasparov called upon politicians to refuse to attend the games and the public to pressure sponsors and the media, such that Coca-Cola, for example, could put "a rainbow flag on each Coca-Cola can" and NBC could "do interviews with Russian gay activists or with Russian political activists"

And current day

He said that Russia should be "thrown back into the Stone Age to make sure that the oil and gas industry and any other sensitive industries that are vital for survival of the regime cannot function without Western technological support."

He is play acting as member of some sort of cabinet in exile right now, controlled by Khodorkovsky. Probably the worst of the oligarchs that raped and destroyed Russia for incredibly shameless quick profiteering and ended any prospects of liberal democracy in Russia. So yeah, he is a clown and there is a reason nobody takes the guy seriously.

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