Dystopia in the books has stark contrasts, great oppression, heroic moves. A boring real-life dystopia seems to mainly consist of tired people trying to cope with life while half-believing the propaganda and not upsetting themselves too much on one side, and equally tired people doing their best to rebel however they can on the other.

If the billboards in Ivanovo are to be believed, Russia’s really going places.

“Record harvest!”

“More than 2000km of roads repaired in Ivanovo Region!”

“Change for the Better!”

In this town, a four-hour drive from Moscow, a giant banner glorifying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine covers the entire wall of an old cinema. With pictures of soldiers and a slogan:

“To Victory!”

These posters depict a country marching towards economic and military success.

But there is one place in Ivanovo that paints a very different picture of today’s Russia.

I’m standing outside it. There’s a poster here, too. Not of a Russian soldier,

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/10665806

Crossposted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/13937769

Across the United States, hundreds of jails have eliminated in-person family visits over the last decade. Why has this happened? The answer highlights a profound flaw in how decisions too often get made in our legal system: for-profit jail telecom companies realized that they could earn more profit from phone and video calls if jails eliminated free in-person visits for families. So the companies offered sheriffs and county jails across the country a deal: if you eliminate family visits, we'll give you a cut of the increased profits from the larger number of calls. This led to a wave across the country, as local jails sought to supplement their budgets with hundreds of millions of dollars in cash from some of the poorest families in our society.

cross-posted from: https://lemmit.online/post/1013253

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/aboringdystopia by /u/Gilarax on 2023-10-04 23:34:28.

cross-posted from: https://lemmit.online/post/1011096

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/aboringdystopia by /u/HotHamBoy on 2023-10-04 17:35:50.