Singapore is notorious for having extreme penalties for relatively minor crimes
this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2026
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"Eating a meal? A succulent Chinese meal?!"
Sound of firing squad loading rifles
"This is democracy manifest!"
firing squad fires
The cannabis seized from Omar is sufficient to feed the addiction of about 144 abusers for a week.
What the hell is up with this bizarre line in the article? "Addiction"? "Abusers"? Is the the article writer fucking serious with this Reefer Madness shit? What a god damn clown.
As someone who has smoked weed for nearly 10 years now, it is addictive and can be abused.
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It's an Asian outlet. They never really had much sympathy for them.
Those hopeless addicts are consuming a bit over 3 grams of weed per week. Definite threat to society there.
And of course the guy being executed is not from the Chinese elite, he's a Singaporean Malay.
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Here I am in Canada, Just finished a perfectly legal grow for my own personal use and got 28 oz from it
784 grams is wiiild :o
Singapore - "we straight up kill drug smugglers to death and have done so for 50 years". Drug smuggler - "I'm sure they're exaggerating"
Singapore loves to pretend it's a modern country with it's gardens and fancy buildings.
But beneath the surface is an overworked population ruled by a family dictatorship.
family dictatorship.
It's effectively a single party state with an elected dictator, but AFAIK their prime ministers and presidents don't come all from the same family.
You're right it's not a dictatorship like North Korea, but it's elections are also not as clean and fair as other modern democracies.
The same ruling party has dominated since independence, and maintained structural imbalance suppressing the ability for any meaningful opposition to rise.
While leadership in Singapore isn't hereditary, the nation has been guided by a very small political elite originating from Lee Kuan Yew.
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William Gibson (author of Neuromancer among other things, not all of them good) published an article about Singapore 30 years ago. It's titled Disneyland with the Death Penalty.
33 years later and much of this is still very relevant. It has dated somewhat, but accurately reflects what I experienced in Singapore during work travel over the past few years.
At the least, if you're interested in what dystopian science fiction writers think about Singapore it certainly dropped some puzzles pieces into place for me.
Disneyland with the Death Penalty
I've also heard it referred to as China Lite.
Long ago, I dated a Singaporean woman, closely connected to the ruling elite, educated at British public schools and a top-tier university. According to her, along with the relentless propaganda claiming Singapore is a meritocracy, there is also a deep underlying culture of corruption. It's bad for your health and future income to compete in business against ruling-family-connected ventures. When bidding on major contracts, you'll need insiders or their proxies to be partners or you'll be frozen out. There's nothing as vulgar as open bribery happening, but self-dealing, conflicts of interest and biased courts deliver the same outcomes. And whatever you do, don't be a prominent member of an opposition party if you value your livelihood and freedom.
And if you're a Singaporean Malay, know your place or you'll end up in deep trouble. There are a few tokenism opportunities if you don't rock the boat.
I've been there on business a few times. At least it seems they're not persecuting gay people as much anymore, and civil society is a bit more open than it was a couple of decades ago. They even seem slightly less obsessed with caning and massive fines for minor offences than they used to be. But "less stifling" is far from the same as "free."
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