zonkhttps://blog.witch.academy/@/zonk@autizmo.xyz/atom.xml2021-07-20T18:10:20.132823+00:00<![CDATA[The (Not So) Good Doctor]]>https://autizmo.xyz/~/Zonkspace/the-not-so-good-doctor/2021-07-20T18:10:20.132823+00:00zonkhttps://autizmo.xyz/@/zonk/2021-07-20T18:10:20.132823+00:00<![CDATA[<p>On the 26th of April 2021, a completely unknown person burst onto the Russian political scene. Armed with a seemingly unlimited advertising budget, breathless praises from Kremlin mouthpieces, and an army of volunteers hired to spread his face everywhere they could, Alexander Rumyantsev, affectionately called “Doctor Rumyantsev” by his own agitprop, won the ruling party’s primaries in Moscow’s 209th election precinct by a massive 14,828 votes. Who really is the good doctor, and what can Western observers learn from his guerilla marketing campaign?</p>
<h1>From Medicine To Politics</h1>
<p>Alexander Rumyantsev was a liquidator at Chernobyl’s nuclear reactor meltdown, is currently a pediatrician and the director of an children’s oncologic hospital, and is also a member of the Presidium of the RAS (Russian Academy of Sciences), an extremely prestigious organization.<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#postcontent-1" rel="noopener noreferrer">1</a></sup> He has, undoubtedly, done a lot of good for the medical community and for the tens of thousands of children that he has cured. Despite that, every Russian knows that, in Russia, being a selfless Samaritan is not enough to get the government to bankroll the construction of your hospital. Federal funding is incredibly hard to come by without the right connections, and there are plenty of doctors who have done far more for the Russian people at large without even having a chance to work at one of the nation’s prestigious medical centers.</p>
<p>Therefore, Rumyantsev must have some sort of link with the ruling party (United Russia), or at least had one when he successfully petitioned Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, to construct his hospital. This link can be found with a quick Google search: he was one of the three leaders of Putin’s 2018 campaign.<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#postcontent-2" rel="noopener noreferrer">2</a></sup> Rumyantsev’s connection with the government most likely played a role in his decision to run for office, although no outside observer can tell who wanted the doctor to replace his incumbent in the 209th district – the Kremlin or Rumyantsev himself.</p>
<p>A little about the senator the doctor is replacing: Dmitry Morozov was elected in 2016 to the Russian parliament with the minimum percentage of votes required (21,07%), where he became head of the committee of health. He was also the co-author of 16 bills. including the highly controversial bill 4411399-7, “Measures to influence (counteract) unfriendly actions by the United States of America and other foreign States”, which imposed an embargo on medicine manufactured in the US and other states (the bill passed without conflict in the Russian parliament). By looking into Morozov’s voting history, we can gain an insight into what Rumyantsev will most likely vote for in parliament.</p>
<h1>Money</h1>
<p>United Russia has a well-documented history of aggressively pushing their pawns in local elections. For starters, let’s look at Rumyantsev’s marketing campaign. It is unknown who exactly bankrolls it (the Kremlin, an oligarch, or United Russia), since Rumyantsev does not publish his financial statements. However, we can prove the money for his campaign doesn’t come out of his bank account.</p>
<p>The range for a clinic director’s earnings in Moscow is 20,000 – 600,000 RUB (~267 – 8,034 USD) per month. Taking the maximum amount possible into account, Rumyantsev earned a gross salary of 7,200,000 RUB (~93,372 USD) in 2020. According to my calculations, his campaign spent a minimum of 10 million roubles (~133,850 USD) printing newspapers, flyers, advertising banners and paying to have them installed in apartment buildings, billboards, and on bus stops. Even if we pretend that he doesn’t pay taxes, he still has to pay his campaign staff somehow. Given that the advertising budget was practically unlimited during his campaign period, as more and more posters were printed as old ones were torn down, it’s safe to say that these expenses weren’t being funded from his personal savings account.</p>
<p>One way Alexander Rumyantsev saved some money was by not having a campaign office. Of course, there were people overseeing his campaign behind the scenes, but he has no public point of contact or even a legal address. For a 74-year-old parliamentary representative, he seems awfully progressive – no phone number, no email address. The only way to contact him is via Instagram or VK.<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#postcontent-3" rel="noopener noreferrer">3</a></sup> Even finding his social media pages is no small feat, let alone trying to get him to respond to a message. I attempted to contact him directly three times: once through VK and twice through Instagram. He posts on all social media sites daily, but somehow my messages always end up being left on read. His supporters exhibit the exact same pattern of communication (radio silence). I attempted to contact three of his supporters, and they never got back to me. </p>
<p><img src="https://autizmo.xyz/static/media/A6D9F94F-686D-7D46-2D27-D86A1DD40E56.png" alt="Message history with Rumyantsev and his supporters, with none of them replying to me. Message text and dates redacted for my own privacy."></p>
<p><img src="https://autizmo.xyz/static/media/930CAC8B-6DD1-4D07-48FD-272928533BB5.png" alt="One of Rumyantsev’s supporters."></p>
<p><img src="https://autizmo.xyz/static/media/F830BD73-465D-83A5-34D3-1FE7ECF2AD10.png" alt="One of Rumyantsev’s supporters - “Head of the Youth Division of United Russia of the Lomonosov District of Moscow”"></p>
<p>Digging a little deeper, we can see that his supporters are either members of the medical community or ambassadors for United Russia’s youth division. I attempted to contact United Russia’s youth division directly, pretending to be a teenager interested in becoming a volunteer for Rumyantsev, and received this response: “Send your full name, phone number, email address, and passport number to this number, and we’ll get back to you.” Rumyantsev’s call center, which is staffed exclusively by a single mother with incredibly loud kids, offers the same response. Unwilling to dox myself, I left random details I found on the internet. No one got back to me. Some of Rumyantsev’s agitators in the streets offered similarly vague explanations for how they got their job. One lady, who was handing out leaflets near my metro station, said: “I don’t know how to get in touch with them. They call me, I go to work.”</p>
<p>In the end, I never got past the human wall guarding Doctor Rumyantsev’s staff. To this day, we’ll never know who exactly manages his social media accounts, or makes large targeted ad buys online and offline. My bets are on the campaign office of United Russia in my district, though. That being said, I don’t think I have to say how unusual it is for a representative to not have a direct line of contact with his constituents. I guess that’s what happens when you’re accountable to the Kremlin instead of the people you supposedly serve.</p>
<h1>Playing Politics</h1>
<p>Doctor Rumyantsev’s connection with the Kremlin has yielded another important tool in the Kremlin’s propaganda machine: positive coverage from government media agencies. From the day his campaign started, media outlets of all sizes started churning out articles about what a good person Rumyantsev is en masse. Massive federal outlets like Konsomolskaya Pravda joined small regional newspapers to spam up Google’s results with nearly identical articles.<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#postcontent-4" rel="noopener noreferrer">4</a></sup> The main point of this campaign, along with the endless barrage of posters in apartment buildings, is to:</p>
<ol>
<li>Make the voter aware of all the good deeds Rumyantsev has done.</li>
<li>Use celebrities to manipulate voters into voting for him (“Doctor Rumyantsev is my choice!” )</li>
<li>Make sure the voter is constantly exposed to Rumyantsev wherever he goes, so he’s the only person a voter can think about when they get to the ballot box.</li>
</ol>
<p><img src="https://autizmo.xyz/static/media/390F026C-5081-8275-D43E-DA4743BECF00.png" alt="Government media agencies reporting on Rumyantsev’s exercise event."></p>
<p><img src="https://autizmo.xyz/static/media/0712D048-BA41-FBF9-4CA7-23244E54F53F.jpg" alt="“Doctor Rumyantsev is my choice!”, “91.3% of his patients defeated cancer”; Rumyantsev’s agitprop found hanging in my apartment building."></p>
<p>The Kremlin’s tradition of using the media for their own personal goals goes back to the Soviet Union, and Rumyantsev’s propaganda is no exception. Any time he farts, he is surrounded by government press who immediately report on it. Every article about him is the same: a quick introduction, a mind numbingly boring description of his righteous deed, and a conclusion that reminds the reader to vote for him.</p>
<p>The press also covers “events” attended by the doctor. The funny thing is, these events are always premeditated by Rumyantsev’s team. No public announcement is made, and yet the press magically shows up wherever the doctor goes. No mortal can get anywhere close to him, neither to relay any legitimate concerns to their potential senator, nor to participate in his political campaign. His staff keep him away from the common folk at arms’ length, under no circumstances letting him communicate with anyone. It is unknown if this is a PR strategy or a way to keep Rumyantsev from giving away the fact that he’s not a real politician, but the real reason is probably a mix of both.</p>
<p>After all the effort made and tens of millions of roubles spent to prop him up, Doctor Rumyantsev earned a measly 23,193 votes at the primaries<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#postcontent-5" rel="noopener noreferrer">5</a></sup>, putting him on track to be the district’s United Russia candidate. He will be another useful idiot for United Russia spouting populist slogans like “We should double our healthcare spending”<sup class="footnote-reference"><a href="#postcontent-6" rel="noopener noreferrer">6</a></sup> and he’ll break his promises one after another just like the candidates before him. He supports Putin’s unconstitutional fifth term and will back whatever bill his overlords tell him to. It’s a shame that such a noble doctor has been reduced to a political prostitute for the very same party that has slashed healthcare spending year after year and is the world leader in corruption and oppression. I guess everyone has their price, especially if you’re pro-mass healthcare spending and you have a hospital in the very district you’re going to serve.</p>
<div class="footnote-definition" id="postcontent-1"><sup class="footnote-definition-label">1</sup>
<p>https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A0%D1%83%D0%BC%D1%8F%D0%BD%D1%86%D0%B5%D0%B2,<em>%D0%90%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B4%D1%80</em>%D0%93%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%B3%D0%BE%D1%80%D1%8C%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote-definition" id="postcontent-2"><sup class="footnote-definition-label">2</sup>
<p>https://tass.ru/politika/4865704</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote-definition" id="postcontent-3"><sup class="footnote-definition-label">3</sup>
<p>https://tap.link/doc_rumyantsev - Note the lack of official website or “contact me” link, only social media websites and links to articles.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote-definition" id="postcontent-4"><sup class="footnote-definition-label">4</sup>
<p>No citation needed. Just Google “Доктор Румянцев” and pick your poison.</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote-definition" id="postcontent-5"><sup class="footnote-definition-label">5</sup>
<p>https://pg.er.ru/results</p>
</div>
<div class="footnote-definition" id="postcontent-6"><sup class="footnote-definition-label">6</sup>
<p>https://vk.com/wall-204152840_146</p>
</div>
]]><![CDATA[Arrogance Month]]>https://autizmo.xyz/~/Zonkspace/arrogance-month/2021-07-01T12:33:45.258313+00:00zonkhttps://autizmo.xyz/@/zonk/2021-07-01T12:33:45.258313+00:00<![CDATA[<p>On the 27th of May 2012, Moscow police <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk2TZafLhaQ" rel="noopener noreferrer">dispersed a small crowd</a> protesting the city’s refusal to grant approval for a “gay parade”. About 40 people were arrested, most of whom were LGBT activists. Little did they know that in 13 months, the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses would be updated with Article 6.21, “Propaganda of non-traditional sexual orientations toward minors,” a piece of legislation that has effectively stopped any form of LGBT advocacy in Russia. Since then, no LGBT parades have been organized.</p>
<p>Even though about <a href="https://www.rbc.ru/politics/23/05/2019/5ce530039a7947172f79405d" rel="noopener noreferrer">47% of Russians support</a> equal rights for gay and lesbian people, the situation is getting worse in some regions. In 2017, <a href="https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2017/04/01/71983-ubiystvo-chesti" rel="noopener noreferrer">Novaya Gazeta</a> made the public aware of mass arrests and homicides of gay people in Chechnya, as well as special gay prisons. Nevertheless, most people are blissfully unaware of these issues, with about <a href="https://www.rbc.ru/politics/23/05/2019/5ce530039a7947172f79405d" rel="noopener noreferrer">45% of Russians</a> denying any knowledge of violence against LGBT people. The majority of Russian society is not accepting of gay people. Younger generations are more tolerant, but the vast majority of people aged 40+ are not.</p>
<p>Taking all this into account, the <a href="https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/06/25/us-western-embassies-fly-gay-pride-flags-in-moscow-a74345" rel="noopener noreferrer">recent actions</a> by Western embassies in Moscow feel like a slap to the face. The US, UK and Canadian embassies in Moscow hung rainbow flags on their buildings, and then proudly posted about it on <a href="https://twitter.com/USEmbRuPress/status/1408349294533414914" rel="noopener noreferrer">social media</a>. The Kremlin hasn’t issued a statement on this matter yet, and I hardly imagine they will. This hollow gesture does nothing except garner positive press coverage abroad and ridicule at home. The US Ambassador should be acutely aware of how little of a risk he is taking, due to the fact that the US Embassy is all but closed to us common folk. An ironclad fortress flying a hostile flag does nothing to the people on the ground who can’t seek refuge inside its walls.</p>
<p>Similarly pompous gestures can be found outside of Russia as well. This year’s pride parades have not gone without controversy, with left-leaning outlets tripping over themselves to promote kink at pride. “Homogenizing self-expression at Pride will do more harm to our children than good,” writes Lauren Rowello in an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/06/29/pride-month-kink-consent/" rel="noopener noreferrer">op-ed</a> for the Washington Post. To the casual observer, Article 6.21 doesn’t seem like such a bad idea, given that some pride parade attendees are all too willing to showcase their gimp animal outfits to children and onlookers.</p>
<p>As a personal aside, I cannot believe that some people are defending kink at pride. Wearing leather is not something unique to gay people, and certainly not something children with a malleable worldview should see. Pride parades are already teetering on the edge of what most people find acceptable, and without any strict uniform requirements, they descend into showcases of actions that should be performed in the bedroom behind closed doors, not in public. There is no need to turn a pleasant march into an obnoxious open-air orgy.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for the people actually fighting for LGBT rights, Western ideological zealots are all too happy to identify with the image they rejected not even a few decades ago, an image of degeneracy. I can’t remember how discussions I’ve had with some people that most gays just want to be left alone, that they’re not child molesting freaks hellbent on shoving their sexuality down everyone’s throats. I guess most LGBT activists are too determined to poison the well in regards to that discussion to stop and think about what they’re truly advocating for.</p>
<p>Hell, even morally reprehensible characters such as pedophiles are coming out of the woodwork to join the LGBT movement. By manipulating social discourse to be blindly in support of LGBT people, such characters are allowed to freely associate with the LGBT community. Pedos have no place in the gay community, and gay rights activists have spent an enormous amount of time fighting them. Nowadays, by calling out what is clearly an attempt to subvert a legitimate social movement, you are sadly labelled as someone who is being bigoted to and is discriminating against an oppressed social class. The LGBT movement has always been shackled to the political left, and with the downward spiral the mainstream left is currently on, so too will the mainstream LGBT movement go down with the ship.</p>
<p>This arrogance that a lot of Western LGBT activists have fully manifests itself during pride month. It is on display when they deplatform gay people who disagree with them, and it remains transparent when they corrupt the gay movement for their own personal gain. I did not ask these people to speak for me, nor do I want to be their token. I want issues that matter to me, i.e. actual discrimination and hatred back at home, to be resolved. I feel nothing but frustration when these people advocate for unchecked degeneracy, homegrown tyranny, and discrimination against straight and bi people. The way they claim to speak for me is nothing short of maddening, and all of their hollow words and parades undermine the very arguments they want to make.</p>
<p>Pride month is no longer about expressing who you are and helping raise awareness about the oppression gay people face in Russia, the Middle East, and other regions of the world. It is a celebration of degeneracy and lust, and nothing but a humiliation ritual for anyone unlucky enough to be caught in the path of this social movement. Because of this, I have taken to calling pride month “Arrogance Month”, and I hope that, one day, the nincompoops hijacking my social movement will be ejected out of it with the same swiftness Russian gay rights organizations are prosecuted in Russian courts. Feel free to join me in calling out people who damage the already fragile image of the gay movement, or to curse me out as part of the problem. Either way, I hope something changes soon, because the current trajectory of the gay rights movement is definitely not positive.</p>
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