Russia under Vladimir Putin has seen a dramatic rollback of civil liberties, including free speech and free press. The government has little tolerance for anyone voicing opposition views, but the most recent action after a board game reached a new low for the Putin regime. The game is Kolejka or “Queue” which widely popular as a type of “Communist Monopoly.” It requires players to fight for limited resources under the prior Polish communist regime. In an ironic move, the Putin regime has banned the game for its critical depiction of communism — thereby showing the striking similarity between Putin’s regime and the one depicted in the game.
In the game, you try to buy everything on your shopping list. Yet, everything is in short supply in the planned, centralized economy. The game includes historical materials as well as the black market that raged in the Soviet economy.
Russia’s consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor declared the game “anti-Russian” and excessively critical of the Soviet system. The government told the company, Trefl, to either remove the direct historical references from it or risk getting the product banned. The company (operating under the name IPN) declined and the game was pulled from Russian shelves.
So a game that depicted the authoritarian rule of the Soviets have been banned by centralized authoritarian rule of Putin. That certainly makes a point.
The current PC culture is far more rigid and orthodox than the 1950s ever were.
The punishment of dissent is swift and fierce, involving all levels of government.
For example, the IRS becomes involved in national politics by attacking people espousing conservative views.
The 1950s were never that much of a police state in comparison.
We disagree on what should happen with potential Muslim immigrants, but suggesting that’s an example of rigid thinking is facile and risible.
IMHO, the children of the 50’s (the Boomers) rebelled against the strait jackets of their time, and embraced every form of zaniness, perversion, and undifferentiated weirdness as a really good thing because it was sooo much more interesting.
Now, we all get to live in a madhouse where the nuts are running things.
Thanks, Boomers!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Steve, your diagnostic skills are impaired.
Thankfully, you’re a lawyer, so the damage to others is limited.
The only one who sees just two sides to the issues is you.
Like most lefties, those that disagree with you are evil and stupid, by definition (i.e., it must be so because they disagree with you).
Conservative thought is not black-and-white.
To believe that means you’ve never bothered to read anything on the subject.
That is, you’re just like any current Emory student.
KC and his black and white band writes, “Conservative thought is not black-and-white. To believe that means you’ve never bothered to read anything on the subject. That is, you’re just like any current Emory student.”
Your position that banning all Muslims from entering the country belies your statement above. Your stuck in the separate but equal era and it’s only you who doesn’t see it.
stevegroen – are you off your meds? You are not thinking straight. Do not work with clients today.
MY Boomerang won’t come back!
My boomerang wooont come back.
I’m the biggest disgrace to the aborigine race..
My boomerang won’t come back.
I …. can…
Ride a kangoroo!
Eat slick too.
I’m the biggest disgrace to the aborigine race.
My boomerang won’t come back.
–Dick Cheney
KCFleming: Living in black and white is probably best for you and your group, but the rest of us have accepted color. It is an improvement unless one lives in Pleasantville.
Ah yes, the unending horror of the 1950s.
Was there any worse time on Earth?
In contrast, we moderns embrace the multicultural diversity of Islamic suicide bombers that rip arms and legs to shreds, trans-women who skulk in public toilets, and college students afraid of the names of presidential candidates written in chalk.
What an improvement.
All hail Non Sequitur Maximus, slayer of straw men, champion of the tu quoque.
All hail bow ties and Pleasantville:
Free speech is so important that I support the right of KCFleming to be so squeaky clean in his conservatism that you could fry an egg on his arse.
“ll the Republicans in Washington want to buy all the products for Americans in China.”
Apple, Microsoft and Google, 3 of the largest US companies, all actively deal with China.
All are run by liberal Democrats.
Quite trading with these autocratic, communist countries if they are so bad. Why are my underwear made in Vietnam? That offends me. Why was this computer made in China? All we need from China is tea. All the Republicans in Washington want to buy all the products for Americans in China. Go figure. Guys like Mitch now blame Obama.
@Olly: HA!
If this touches a nerve for Putin, I would like to see Obama’s reaction when the caliphate version of Risk comes out.
Those crazy Russkies.
In America, we just sic the IRS on people the government wants to destroy.
Send Putin to the …
If you want this game, just go to the alley to meet your local black market sales associate who can assist you with your purchase.
The black market provided stellar exchange rates for Rubles back in the mid 80’s. Exchanging US$ and Rubles at state banks provided a paltry $1.17 per ruble. But, your friendly black market teller would give you seven rubles per dollar.
If you had good old fashioned greenbacks back in the Soviet days, the Oblast was your oyster.
Maybe the Obama’s should be sent a version of the game. He seems to thinks all economic systems are the same.
2nd poster: There is a pretty substantial gap between the government using its power to ban something based on its perceived political content and a private movie festival deciding against airing a supposed documentary about the widely discredited autism-vaccine connection. Even people who still hold to Wakefield’s claims have to admit that Tribeca isn’t obligated on some general principle to show the film. (I have no idea what contractual obligations they might have.) If some pharmaceutical company had created a one-sided docuganda film about how heroic drug researchers were working tirelessly for the betterment of mankind, should Tribeca feel obligated to show that film?
Meanwhile, I haven’t seen evidence that anyone who wants to see the film in question will be prohibited from doing so when it is released.
If the U.S. government had come out and said, “We will not allow citizens to see this movie because it portrays us in a negative light [or even just because we don’t agree with the science in it]” most of us would agree the government was in the wrong. But, a private company isn’t obligated to show the film. And, failing to promote something isn’t the same as prohibiting that thing; not helping is not the same as harming.
Interesting twist. Thank you for sharing this. I’m always interested in Monopoly-eqsue connections to real world economics.
Censorship in the west? Try Tribeca Film Festival banning the documentary “VAXXED”. Seems the Hollywood-medical-biotech complex don’t want anything negative about vaccines too close to home.
Naively, I was thinkng that even if a product was blatantly wrong or of poor quality it would stand or fall by its message.
Maybe Milton Brothers better keep a close watch on the direction political parties in the U.S. go?