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A comment on 75-year-old woman with shovel accidentally took down Armenia's internet (2011). Parent comment

Re:75-year-old woman with shovel accidentally took down Arme... by STRML on Thursday April 23, 2020 @09:25PM (#22963669)
No, it's an argument that social programs are smart, and prevent pain in the future. Long-term benefits are not extortion.

Is eating healthy and exercising extortion? Is investing in education to get a better job extortion? Is saving money to take advantage of compound interest extortion? No, it's all just long-term decision making.

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Re:75-year-old woman with shovel accidentally took down Arme... by nickff on Thursday April 23, 2020 @09:36PM (#22963740)
You're describing a protection racket.
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Re:75-year-old woman with shovel accidentally took down Arme... by vmh1928 on Thursday April 23, 2020 @10:33PM (#22964055)
Only if the people getting the pennies demanded them in exchange for not cutting internet cables. Countries in the early 20th Century that did not have social programs, Russia, Germany after WW1, found large masses of discontented and starving people were fertile ground for populist messages. If those people had been well fed history might have taken a different course.
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Re:75-year-old woman with shovel accidentally took down Arme... by hkai on Friday April 24, 2020 @01:20AM (#22964905)
Somehow rich elites are fertile grounds for socialist message no less than the discontented starving people.
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Re:75-year-old woman with shovel accidentally took down Arme... by igorkraw on Friday April 24, 2020 @02:34AM (#22965255)
Well, not rich elites, mainly educated but not rich elites.

For some reason, being on the winning side of capitalism seems to inoculate people against ideas of socioeconomic justice

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