Demand is the procedure for making one or another decision at the “gangway” (i.e. at a meeting of criminals) in relation to the offender. It can be directed both at the “bastard” (one who deliberately goes against the law of thieves), who, as a rule, is “shot down” by a “torpedo” (prison executioner), and at the address of a simple offender, equal or unequal in “suit” ( a certain caste in the underworld).
If the matter concerns a thief in law, then the gang consists of thieves in law. If the matter does not involve a thief, then the presence of a steward or a very authoritative prisoner is sufficient. As a rule, the demand varies, as does the verdict of the people meeting on it. The last point is called "get". According to the law of thieves, it is possible to obtain money from a person who has committed this or that act only after a decision has been made by the gang.
Answer a question with a question
Use your interlocutor's weapon and interrogate him with passion. For example, ask why he is asking and what will change your answer.
If you maintain friendly intonations, the degree of rudeness in this method is almost zero. At the same time, you squeeze the questioner out of your territory back to neutral. If you're lucky, the person will understand that the question is tactless.
— Are you going to buy an apartment at all, or will you continue to live in a rented apartment until you get old?
- Will my answer affect anything? Or why are you interested?
Transform the question
An uncomfortable topic can be directed in the right direction if you clarify the subject of the conversation before you start answering. It is important to navigate quickly so that the interlocutor does not have time to bring you back.
- Do you have a groom, or will you die surrounded by cats?
- Do you mean that cats scare away suitors? What are you saying, my cats are very friendly, because I took them from a shelter. By the way, I advise you too, a cat is always useful on the farm. Moreover, the cats from the shelter are so grateful.
Fashionable, expensive, reasonable
The concept of “casual” comes from Britain. In the same seventies, football fans often started mass fights, threw smoke bombs during matches and behaved aggressively. The police quickly learned to recognize such individuals and catch them while approaching the stadium. In order to pass through security without arousing suspicion from the police, fans began wearing expensive designer items. A whole subculture called “casual” has emerged.
Pour water
Answer verbosely not to the question asked, but to one very close to it, keeping the main subject of the conversation unchanged. The method does not provide a 100% guarantee, since the interlocutor may not be so easily confused, but it works. At least among politicians.
If nothing comes to mind, start answering the question from afar. By the time you get to the point, the topic will fade away by itself.
- Why haven’t you been promoted yet? You've been working at this place for a very long time.
“As a child, I always looked at the adults who were returning from work in the evening, and thought that one day this would happen to me too. Then it seemed to me that this was great, because at work you don’t have to sleep and eat semolina porridge. What a fatal mistake!..
Why these brands?
The fact is that in the distant seventies of the last century, T-shirts of Tommy Hilfiger and Fred Perry were chosen by skinheads. Now fashion has returned, and such clothes can raise a lot of questions among teenagers who are in the know. Ordinary people don’t buy Rubchinsky’s clothes, if only because they are very expensive. For simple pants you will have to pay about 20 thousand rubles, and for a denim jacket - all forty. But even such clothes can be counterfeited. However, we will talk about this in detail a little further.
Pay attention to those who try to pester you with these questions. Roll ups on jeans mean that a person is aggressive and ready to get into a fight. It is better to stay away from such people and not enter into useless discussions with them. Having figured out what it means to “explain about clothes,” we move on to the last point - casual.
Ask for advice
If you need to distract your interlocutor, give him the opportunity to talk about what he (in his opinion) understands. Ask for advice and listen carefully to the answer.
Just under no circumstances ask questions related to the main topic of the conversation. If you ask, for example, how to find a spouse, in response to the question why you are not married, then you run the risk of reporting at each meeting how the search is progressing. So switch your interlocutor to the most abstract topic possible.
— Are you going to look for a normal job or will you continue to freelance?
“For now, I’m preoccupied with the repairs.” By the way, you recently re-floored the rooms. Now is it really possible to cover the floor with a board or does it cost like a cast iron bridge? What did you choose? And why?
Explain the gear: what it means and how to explain it
Officials and casuals (see “KP Dictionary”) gather for fights or wars in the forests - this is what teenagers call agreed-upon wall-to-wall fights. The distinctive sign of office workers is the compass patch, the Stone Island emblem.
Photo: YouTube
WHO IS OUT OF THE TOPIC IS AGAINST US
When you're fifteen, everything matters: who you are, who you're friends with, what you're wearing. Always and at all times. If earlier there were dudes, hippies, anarchists and pacifists, then the most fashionable youth trend today is office or casual (see KP Dictionary).
Both of them are aggressive towards everyone who is not in the know - not dressed properly.
Explain about your clothes - with such a call, office workers and casuals approach other peers on the streets of the city. And this is not a way to meet people at all. What does it mean to explain your clothes: translated from slang, this is literally the following - explain what right you have to wear what you’re wearing now, and if you can’t, we’ll beat you. They can also beat you for counterfeiting.
Liza Eliseeva is 16 years old, she agreed to go with our correspondent to a party of office workers. Fred Perry sneakers were once the identifying mark of skinheads. But they have long gone among the people.
Photo: Dina KARPITSKAYA
ABOUT FOOTBALL
The dangerous fashion of “fights over clothes” has swept all of Russia. Including thanks to the Internet.
“If you’re wearing a Fred Perry or Tommy T-shirt or NB sneakers, then just answer that you’re not in the know, but you like quality clothes,” 20-year-old video blogger Sergei Martyshov teaches teenagers.
His videos have more than a million views, and the blogger himself calls this topic “sore.”
-What's wrong with the brands of these T-shirts? - Martyshov continues. — These brands were popular among skinheads in the 70s, and that’s why the bad reputation remains. But now everyone wears them. They can ask for such clothes only if in some villages (“to ask” translated from teenage language means to beat. - Ed.). Stonics (as the clothes of the cult company Stone Island are affectionately called. - Ed.) are a more defiant option. They won't just put it on. Turn-ups (turned up jeans - Ed.) also came into football fashion from skins. Don't be surprised if you're asked to explain them - wearing pants this way means you're ready to get into a fight. In general, if someone picks on you on the street, behave confidently, answer the question with a question. Understand that if they approached you, then it’s not so much about your clothes, but about you.
“Sputnik 1985” T-shirts were invented by Sergei Pakhotin: “Sputnik” is one of the most famous words in the world, and 1985 is the year of birth of the brand’s author. But you can’t just wear them. They were created for the punk crowd. Among teenagers, only the “chosen ones” wear them.
Photo: Dina KARPITSKAYA
ARE YOU THE ONE ON THE LEFT OR THE ONE ON THE RIGHT?
The topic “how to explain for clothes” is tearing up all the ratings on the Internet. Full of videos with fights and showdowns. Teenagers beat each other mercilessly, and girls also take part in the beatings. What are they asking? “Are you right or left?” or “Who do you stand for?” The right is an aggressive person, an anarchist and fascist, and the left is an anti-fascist. But this is also extremely conditional.
“Few people understand all these rights and lefts,” says 16-year-old Liza Eliseeva, an athlete and Russia’s Olympic hope in synchronized swimming. She comes from a good family, but is also in the subject due to her age. “It’s just a reason to find fault with someone whose appearance you didn’t like.” If you answer that you are left, they will suddenly turn out to be right, and vice versa. In general, this political topic is rare. More often than not, fans of one or another football team ask for an explanation for their clothes.
Although Lisa is not the most ordinary teenager and spends almost all her time training in the pool, she also knows what to answer in such cases:
- Yes, now all teenagers know this. It’s easy to identify office workers - they walk in groups, wear camouflage Panama hats, black T-shirts with strange inscriptions, and roll up their jeans. There are many of these at VDNKh, at stations of the upper part of the gray metro line, in Otradnoye, in some parks and near MCC stations.
Among office workers, rolled up jeans, or tucks, mean readiness for battle.
Photo: vk.com
FASHIONABLE VERDICT IN THE PARK
It was to these places that Lisa and I went, deciding to experiment with forbidden clothes. We bought the most fashionable T-shirt with the gloomy inscription “It’s not customary to cry in this country” and put on red Fred Perry sneakers.
- They can beat you for counterfeiting too. Football players believe that by wearing a finger* (see “KP Dictionary”), you insult their subculture,” Lisa explains to me.
- How do they distinguish them?
— Oh, the Internet is full of videos explaining how to distinguish a fake from the original. If you run into such a palpatrol, then at a minimum they will force you to take off your low-quality gear, and at maximum they will beat you. But if you have an original, then, on the contrary, they will respect you.
Of course, because “original” jackets and sneakers cost a lot of money. The same Gosha Rubchinsky (a very fashionable Russian designer among office workers. - Ed.) has pants from 20,000 rubles, jeans from 40,000.
We have no luck at VDNKh. We meet only two officers - and they are peaceful.
“So celebrate today on the roof, not far from here,” the guys sipping beer shrug their shoulders. - Everyone hangs out there.
Holi (we'll explain again for those who are not in the know) is a festival of colors, an Indian holiday that is very popular among young people - when you can throw multi-colored coloring powder at each other. The fun is much more fun and enjoyable than fighting, so everyone forgot about the explanation.
We are going to Otradnoye, where there are always a lot of soccer players near the large shopping center. And indeed there are a lot of young people here. Many are dressed according to the theme - black T-shirts, camouflage, many smeared with paint - also from the holiday. Everyone, without exception, smokes - so much so that even on the street you can’t breathe. The first to jump up to us was a nimble, short boy, about 12 years old:
A teenager from Otradny explains “for his sweatshirt”: “Crossed knives means you’re ready for battle.” “No one is innocent” - everyone has their own criminal article...
Photo: vk.com
— Will there be a cigarette? Are you standing (translated from teenage language - rooting for some team. - Ed.), or what? - he turns to Lisa. She explains that yes, she is a fan of CSKA.
Then everyone else slowly starts pouring in to join us. They didn’t bother to fight, as they later explained, they were scared off by the presence of an adult woman, that is, me.
- And besides, we are not reckless hooligans. So, some people are sick, but for the most part the party here is peaceful, everyone is their own,” says one of the teenagers.
“You should have gone to Holi, there was such a mess,” another guy picks up. - And put on a more serious T-shirt, like what I’m wearing.
The teenager is wearing a black sweatshirt with a white circle inside of which there are some numbers and two crossed knives and an inscription.
- What does all this mean?
- Crossed knives - ready for battle. “No one is innocent” - everyone has their own criminal article. The numbers 13 - 12 are the letters of the English alphabet ACAB, which stands for All Cops Are Bastards. The skull is death to garbage, the bolts on knives are thieves' stars, and the circle unites everything.
- Wow! Are you hanging out with prisoners?
“No,” the teenager laughs. - This is the topic.
- What are you explaining to them here? — some painted girls enter into conversation. - Quite a sucker, or what? They'll have to figure it out themselves. Otherwise they walk around here, take pictures and sniff around. Maybe they are from the cops...
To be honest, I felt as if I was not in my hometown, but as if I was in a scene from a movie about American gangsters from bad areas. To really avoid running into a fight, Lisa and I retreated. Lisa did not dare to go home wearing a Sputnik 1985 T-shirt and gladly put on the Olympic team jacket with the inscription Russia on top.
“They definitely won’t beat you in this one,” she finally told me.
Even classic Adidas sneakers can raise questions.
Photo: vk.com
EXPERT'S COMMENT
Child psychologist Oleg TROPAR:
Nowadays people get into bad company through social networks.
— The topic of self-identification among adolescents is one of the most pressing. Who am I? Who am I with? Who am I for and, most importantly, against whom? All these questions concern children during puberty. And if the parents did not take care of answering them in advance, then the child has a high risk of figuring everything out on his own, with the help of the street. Now many sections have been closed, sports are too expensive. There are not enough moms and dads for tutors, without whom it is difficult to pass the Unified State Exam, let alone for any additional education. And the Internet, consider it free. It has become much easier to get into bad company - through social networks. And the more your children are left to their own devices, the more foolishness they have in their heads.
Teenagers are not supposed to wear paramilitary jackets and NAPAPIJRI parkas.
Photo: vk.com
DICTIONARY "KP"
1. Explain - the word came from prison slang, where from time immemorial they have been asking for explanations for tattoos and friendship with this or that.
2. Officials (offers) - football fans.
3. Casuals are fashionistas who make sure that all clothing brands are not counterfeit.
4. Pal - fake clothes bought at the market or ordered from Chinese websites.
5. Palpatrol - a group of guys who catch teenagers in fake clothes.
6. Slaughter or vines - fixed fights in sparsely populated places. They are filmed and posted on the Internet.
OUTFIT IN THE RISK ZONE
By wearing such clothes, a teenager seems to be challenging and declaring himself a representative of some subculture. This means he must be ready to “explain” who he is and for whom.
For these things you will definitely be asked to explain:
✔ “Sputnik 1985” T-shirts
✔ paramilitary jackets and parkas NAPAPIJRI
✔ camouflage in any variant
✔ sticker patches (compass patch)
✔ clothes of Russian fashion designer Gosha Rubchinsky (widely known in narrow teenage circles)
✔ “No Innocent” T-shirts
✔ Stone Island T-shirts and windbreakers (“stonics”).
You will have to answer for these things less often , since brands have become too popular among everyone, and not just among representatives of subcultures:
✔ Tommy Hilfiger T-shirts
✔ Adidas sneakers (classic with a white stripe, Christmas trees - in the jargon).
Laugh it off
Unless you're a sparkling stand-up comedian, it's best to prepare in advance. The irritating questions are usually the same, so you can come up with a witty answer to each and deliver it every time someone steps onto the slippery ground of tactlessness.
- Why don’t you have children?
- You know, I ask myself all the time, why don’t I have children. But in the end I can’t come to an agreement with myself, I quarrel and even stop talking to myself. Apparently, we will have to wait a little longer, otherwise we will have to part with ourselves on this basis.
Ignore the question
This option will require some acting skills on your part. Continue the conversation as if you didn’t hear the question. When the interlocutor repeats it, continue to pursue your line. Sooner or later he will get bored.
If you feel like you can’t handle it, avoid the question in the literal sense of the word. Say you need to go away for a minute. Come back with a prepared topic for conversation.
- When will you finally marry Masha?
- Sorry, just a second.
—Have you seen Tarantino's latest film?
