• ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    Boooooo I’m tired of this argument. I’m not even going to read the post, but after reading the first line of Anatolians comment, did I summarize the argument close enough?

    If you haven’t lived under communism then you are a LARPing moron who is aesthetics worshipping and knows nothing of the real world and the horrors of communism. You don’t know how real communism looks so you only love it from the privilege of a non-communist state, or wealthy western state. Also any research that you do is fake and you are making it all up as you go, as all your direct sources are just communist propaganda and nothing about the states you are talking about can be true, even if your sources are western. You are also blatantly “ignoring basic facts” that were probably taught in American high school and are pure propaganda.

    Also from the opposite angle:

    If you have lived under communism, your family has lived under communism, or you have moved to a socialist state, then you a brainwashed moron who is a paid bot shill from the CCP or Russia that is attempting to undermine and destroy the Great American Projects that have brought prosperity and democracy to millions worldwide.

    • PostingInternational@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      As someone who lived in socialism and now have pretty decent living standard in a capitalist country with one of the highest standards of living in the world, I can tell you I enjoyed socialism far more. Even at the worst of times.

      There is something special about not seeing a homeless person ever in your life, then visiting supposedly rich capitalist countries and being shocked by all the people suffering in the streets.

        • PostingInternational@lemmygrad.ml
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          1 year ago

          Socialist Yugoslavia. The difference with current leftover republics is incredible. What used to be a happy and secure place for the people, where they didn’t have to worry about their future or current existential problems, now turned into a poor, depressing capitalist hellscape, where most of the people are stressed out, insecure, depressed and angry. It’s literally the remnants of socialist Yugoslavia policies, like the free-housing, that keeps the people’s head above the water.

      • Parenti Bot@lemmygrad.mlB
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        1 year ago
        The quote

        In the United States, for over a hundred years, the ruling interests tirelessly propagated anticommunism among the populace, until it became more like a religious orthodoxy than a political analysis. During the Cold War, the anticommunist ideological framework could transform any data about existing communist societies into hostile evidence. If the Soviets refused to negotiate a point, they were intransigent and belligerent; if they appeared willing to make concessions, this was but a skillful ploy to put us off our guard. By opposing arms limitations, they would have demonstrated their aggressive intent; but when in fact they supported most armament treaties, it was because they were mendacious and manipulative. If the churches in the USSR were empty, this demonstrated that religion was suppressed; but if the churches were full, this meant the people were rejecting the regime’s atheistic ideology. If the workers went on strike (as happened on infrequent occasions), this was evidence of their alienation from the collectivist system; if they didn’t go on strike, this was because they were intimidated and lacked freedom. A scarcity of consumer goods demonstrated the failure of the economic system; an improvement in consumer supplies meant only that the leaders were attempting to placate a restive population and so maintain a firmer hold over them. If communists in the United States played an important role struggling for the rights of workers, the poor, African-Americans, women, and others, this was only their guileful way of gathering support among disfranchised groups and gaining power for themselves. How one gained power by fighting for the rights of powerless groups was never explained. What we are dealing with is a nonfalsifiable orthodoxy, so assiduously marketed by the ruling interests that it affected people across the entire political spectrum.

        – Michael Parenti, Blackshirts And Reds

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