weird

They take their religion more seriously over there than you'd expect

Not in Russia.

Also if you want to hold an anti-government protest, you can, but you have to apply with the city you live in, and if the city approves you're pretty much gauranteed that you'll be having your little protest right on the edge of the city limits, not in the town square

Yeah, that's the smart way to suppress dissent

If you're Orthodox, Russia takes it seriously

If you're not Orthodox, there's a good chance you're fucked

*rummage*

I'm glad they take their own stuff seriously

not to the point of punishing people for speaking out against it

that's fucked

it's the sort of thing we're fighting against in the west

http://www.newsweek.com/putin-goes-war-russia-free-churches-482730

Even if it's fucked up from a freedoms/rights perspective, it's a nice change from people trampling each other to be the first to spit on their own culture

Not endorsing it, just a nice change of pace

@radeon oi you free now?

I wouldn't call "spitting on your culture" nice, but I wouldn't call arresting people for mocking your glorious State Religion 'nice' either

I'm not saying it's nice or that I'd want to live with it, just that seeing the grass on the other side is a breath of fresh air

He's even cracking down on Orthodox churches that don't step in line with him

```The law that Putin signed on July 6 restricts religious proselytizing and imposes heavy fines for doing so. While the law exempts the Russian Orthodox Christian Church, opponents point out that exemption only extends to the Moscow Patriarchate critics say has been entangled with the Russian government since the Soviet era. ```

sucks for them

Wait, Patriarchate?

wat

it's really called that?

Oh, that's their pope

you seem... oddly surprised

I didn't know that was the title

I thought it was something like Primus

Orthodox has patriarchs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYDfwUJzYQg

So my VPN is set to Finland
And the ad playing is for Finnair

and it's in English with Finnish subtitles

lol

Why Finland reaps?

Was seeing if I could work my way around something

Then forgot it was still on Finland 👌

Finland reminds me of something

finnish peeps are good peeps

@MountainMan
So far, haven't met a finn who wasn't a nice person

Mongolian throat singing?

So far...

Big fan of finnish people. They're pretty hardworking from my experience. And I can relate a lot to the culture.