A little story · 11:00pm May 22nd, 2022
So, I feel the need to say something, but I can't use real things, because there are people here who's job is to search certain keywords and if they were written by citizen that citizen goes to jail and torture, I can't risk it. So, I will tell you a little story. About ponies. (also the subject is very painful for me, so talking through ponies will make this talk a bit easier for me)
There was once an empire. Big and strong. It was called Red Empire. There was no dynasty, khans were chosen after previous' khan's death by lesser khans in vicious battle. The khans knew that Magic of Friendship is their death sentence, and did everything to prevent ponies of Red Empire from developing connections with each other. Divide and conquer, as they say. They instilled deep mistrust in their people by making some of them "tellers" that tell them if someone thinks khans are bad, or joking about them. Ponies disappear after tellers told officials about them. Sometimes they come back decades later, broken. Sometimes their bodies will be sent back to living relatives. But mostly forever disappear without a trace. Oh, and also any attempt of organizing anything by themselves was swiftly shot down, even if it was something completely harmless, like theater or volunteering for street cleaning. Any initiative not started by government would be destroyed, and ponies will disappear.
That empire was destroyed. But not by Magic of Friendship the khans feared. It was the overwhelming corruption that killed the empire. And the last khan saw that coming, and to avoid rivers of blood allowed the empire to be divided into independent countries. The main part of empire became The Land of Birch, because birch trees was abundant there. And there were lesser parts, one of them called The Land of Fields, because of their agricultural inclination.
So let's skip a couple decades forward. After the Last Khan was the Alcoholic Khan, who tried to instill democracy in the Land of Birch. He had a semi-good heart, but overdid booze, so lesser khans used this weakness to influence him and eventually pushed him from the throne. On his place sat Pa Khan. He was small, he came from special services, and he was lucky. He was a compromise between factions of lesser khans. They used their influence over mass media to advertise him to the sky, so ponies of Land of Birch happily voted for him. It was their last semi-free vote. He started, slowly but surely, the process of dismantling democracy and returning full power to the Khan. Absolute power. First he destroyed free mass media. Then empowered special forces and started using them against people. All votes was falsified to make him or his minions "win". Ponies tried to protest - Pa Khan used police to beat them up. He changed the main law of Land of Birch, Constitution, to allow himself unlimited reign. He poisoned many ponies he thought of as dangerous for his reign, such as political rivals, opposition leaders, poets that wrote "wrong" poems about the situation, free writers, uncontrollable journalists and many, many others. He made torture a norm for police. He made corruption one of the bases of his power: his ladder of minions sucked money from ponies via bribery, blackmail, torture, racket and intimidation, then next level of minions sucked money from suckers, and so on, so on, till all money comes to him. He became the richest in the Land of Birch! And now he can bribe the leaders of other nations to do his bidding! What a power for the little old colt! So much power! But he was bitter and jealous. Bitter because he thought that the end of Red Empire was a terriblest geopolitical catastrophe of the century, and jealous of The Land of Freedom that won the non-hot war and helped speed up the end of Red Empire. They can start wars, they can end wars, they can bomb others with terrible Dark Magic bombs! They destroyed two peaceful cities of The Land of Reed with just two bombs! They can influence world's politics so much! They are so cool! So little old colt Pa Khan, with his bitterness and jealousy, tried to be like them. He started a war, he attacked Land of Fields, and threatened the world with his own Dark Magic bombs to prevent their help for Land of Fields.
Other countries used sanctions to try and stop him, to strangle economics of Land of Birch, so Pa Khan would stop the war, because, I dunno, maybe lesser khans will count their lost profits and strip him of his power, or ponies of Land of Birch revolt from hunger? I don't think it will work, though: Pa Khan already suppressed lesser khans, even before wars, and hold them with iron hoof. And ponies of the Land of Birch are slaves without weapons, they can't do anything. They are divided and big part of them are victims of propaganda and misinformation, because all mass media are controlled by Pa Khan. He destroyed all free media, and those that fled the Land of Birch to try and speak to ponies through Magic Information Net are marked as "Foriegn Agents" and blocked.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, the story ends. I don't know what will happen next. Hope he will stop, die or something, I dunno. Just stop the war, stop the oppression, stop killing innocent people, in both Lands.
I never voted for him. And I don't know anyone who voted for him.
I was beaten up when I protested. My friend was tortured with electricity. We both don't protest anymore because we fear. We're not heroes.
People of Land of Birch are forced to be divided and alone, like in the times of Red Empire. By the same methods.
It's all terrible. I want to flee the country, but don't have enough money for it.
A couple days ago I spoke with a man from Land of Freedom. He's a great writer. He's also a descendant of Land of Fields. I asked him a favor, and he said no, and that he don't want to support Land of Birch's economy, because they invade Land of Fields.
I snapped. I shouldn't had, but I felt like he's punishing me personally for something I had no influence over. For something I fought to stop and failed. I said that it's unjust to blame me for this. I could blame him like this too for living in a land of killers, said about bombs and genocide of Native LandOfFreeders. It was terrible of me and I regret it very much.
I hope he will forgive me sometime later.
I hope Pa Khan will stop.
I hope.