this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2024
275 points (96.9% liked)

Memes

4036 readers
59 users here now

Good memes, bad memes, unite towards a united front.

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] cfgaussian@lemmygrad.ml 37 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Turns out Russia is the real free speech haven. Snowden isn't the only American who went to Russia to escape political persecution...

[–] ArsenLupin@hexbear.net 55 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

In all seriousness, Snowden didn't go to Russia. He was on his way to South America (probably Bolivia, Ecuador, or Venezuela) when his passport got cancelled and he got stuck in Rudsia. The EU even grounded Morales' presidential plane thinking Snowden was in it!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evo_Morales_grounding_incident

[–] Assian_Candor@hexbear.net 40 points 10 months ago (2 children)

It’s so dumb that we can’t just like… go places

Oh, no no no, you can’t cross the invisible line without your little stamperino

[–] lorty@lemmygrad.ml 24 points 10 months ago (2 children)

It's wild to think that about 100 years ago is when passports started being a thing.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml 15 points 10 months ago

Yes, but both internal and external travel restrictions are as old as the states themselves.

[–] idkmybffjoeysteel@hexbear.net 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Ah yes, remind me what happened almost 100 years ago

[–] lorty@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 10 months ago

Photographs and WWI, basically. It's a bit hard to identify people with just written descriptions, and the war gave a reason to discriminate against certain groups for "spying" or whatever.

[–] Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

What makes it even more fucked up is that in a lot of cases border control was created to turn back jewish people who were fleeing the nazis.

[–] cfgaussian@lemmygrad.ml 26 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

And it's lucky that he did. If Julian Assange had gotten stuck in Russia too instead of trusting the Ecuadorian embassy to protect him he would be a free man today.