That was my point though. Soviet / post-soviet countries are effectively very hyperindividualistic despite enforced societal conformance. There’s this perceived ingenuity where people will go great lengths to come up with clever ways of skirting the law. It’s what makes it incredibly hard for society to become mature enough to rely on systemic solutions to problems and gives way to authoritarian rule.

Piracy is fine and mostly harmless but I don’t like idolizing it because there can be a really dark undertone to it.