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arguably my life would have sucked worse if USSR was a thing. not to mention all the infrastructure that was built and left in shambles
The infrastructure is in shambles because the USSR fell and neoliberalism replaced it.
I don’t think you can read.
The infrastructure STARTED in shambles under communism. Do I also blame the execution of bookwriters, of scientists, of priests, of many people on “neoliberalism” too?
Or maybe do I blame the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people from their homes because the government back then wanted a building on neoliberalism? (P.S: it was the homes of ethnic minorities mainly! isn’t that sweet?)
Or maybe the forced labour camps if you didn’t do well enough in school/if you criticised the system/etc. I’m sure lots of neurodivergent people LOVED failing school due to things outside of their control, and instead of getting supports built in place and any form of aid, they got sent to dig and mine and farm.
Or maybe the forceful movement of populations from rural areas to urban centers and it’s consequences on agriculture. The examples are endless (might vary per country), you just gotta open a damn history book.
Or maybe waiting in line at 5am to get food, or the scheduled blackouts at 10pm, or maybe the closed borders. I’m sure these were great lovely aspects, right?
And before you misread again, I am not saying whatever the hell is going on now is perfect or does not do similar things. But you seem to be under the false impression that USSR was this nice little union, with it’s nice little system. It wasn’t, unfortunately.
Meanwhile I can look towards countries that were under capitalism in that same era, and it seems most of them are thriving (see: most of western Europe), whereas it’s only been the last decade or so eastern Europe has been getting a foothold.
So don’t tell me people sacrificed their lives against this system because it was too good and nice. People don’t go spilling their blood on the streets to change a system they like, do they?
Meanwhile I can look towards countries that were under capitalism in that same era, and it seems most of them are thriving (see: most of western Europe)
Your daily reminder that western liberals don’t consider non westerners to be people
???
Capitalism requires Infinite growth in a finite world which historically frequently leads to powerful capitalist countries competing for who can colonize and brutalize other countries and peoples in search for resources and new markets. Western capitalism is built on top of the bodies of those who aren’t western or benefiting from capitalism. Hence the claim you don’t consider us human, otherwise you’d consider that even though almost every country out there is capitalist most countries are extremely poor and overexploited.
I see.
My main point was limited to Europe and vicinity of the USSR. I did not mean for it to come off as dehumanising.
I am more than aware of the faults and harm or capitalism, I am aware of how colonialism wrecked anything in it’s path.
To clarify: I was trying to explain how my country was poor, exploited and abused under soviet rule. I was trying to point out how these things did not just magically start after a change of regime, and that they were not happening before.
Thank you for the clarification
My main point was limited to Europe and vicinity of the USSR. I did not mean for it to come off as dehumanising.
Deciding to arbitrarily ignore the largest most sophisticated immiseration machine in history to only look at the benefits for the core of the empire is disingenuous at best and very clearly dehumanising to the millions who suffered so the core could enjoy those benefits.
You hate infrastructure?
i hate not having proper infrastructure. Do you love shit infrastructure?
Capitalist invaders neglected your infrastructure, but you said it’d be worse if the socialist state still maintained them.
But also, you hate neglected infrastructure.
Therefore, my logical conclusion is that you hate functioning infrastructure even more.
(Or one of your statements is wrong, which would make way more sense)
Upon further reading, it does seem I was mistaken in saying that the infrastructure built was miserable. However, in my case, it started spiraling downwards long before the capitalism took over.
in my case, it started spiraling downwards long before the capitalism took over.
Wow first 60+ year old Lemmy user
not 60+, just meant to say “in the case of my country”
Lmfao. Bro, pack it up. You’re either a fed or a bootlicker
I’m gonna bet author of this post never lived anywhere near anywhere near actual USSR.
I get it, I hate capitalism too. But USSR was dictatorship that murdered milions and didn’t care about the little “you”. Stop glorifying authoritarian regimes.I grew up in USSR, but do tell me more how terrible my life was.
100% serious and sincere question: could you say more about what growing up in the USSR was like?
One great thing was how safe it was. My parents just left me alone when they went to work, and I’d hang out with friends after school. Everything was really convenient as well cause all the things you needed were in walking distance. You didn’t even need public transit most of the time.
In summer, my family timeshared a coop dacha with a couple of other families and I’d hang out with their kids.
We only had a black and white TV though, even in the late 80s. And there weren’t a lot of shows to watch. But my parents got me reading at an early age, and I ended up loving sci-fi which is still my fav genre today.
There wasn’t any consumerism, and no ads blasted in your face. You didn’t buy stuff often, and things like clothing or gadgets all the time. Stuff was generally meant to last. There were no malls really either. There were a lot of parks though, and my parents really liked going for walks. So it’s another habit I’m glad I developed.
School was pretty intense. You had to juggle a bunch of subjects, and that was pretty tough.
Otherwise, life is just life.
In summer, my family timeshared a coop dacha with a couple of other families and I’d hang out with their kids
Of course an affluent Russian family would remember USSR childhood foundly lol.
(Oh, sorry, no, it was called “lucky”, not “affluent”).
It was literal labour benefit vacation in state owned or coop resorts for which most of workforce was legible, which you would know if you actually read that one line instead of fixating over the word “dacha” like the pavlov’s dog fed on anticommunist propaganda.
And if you knew how to read both comments and statistics, you’d be able to tell that in the 80’s access to coop dachas had… What, from 3 m in 1970’s to 8 million families by the end of 80s - So about 5-12% of population? (Source: T.G. Nefedova’s 2012 article “Gorozhane i dachi”)
But no, instead you focus on your imagination that I must’ve mean luxury villas like in the 50s?
You clearly do, since from my memory (granted, from Poland, not USSR) i never met any worker or worker children who was not going to vacations yearly before 1989. So either Poland was vastly better than USSR or your article is shit, or the definition of “dacha” and “vacations” vastly vary.
Sounds more like the time you grew up in and less about where you grew up.
You could be describing my childhood in canada
Likely yeah, my family moved around a lot after the collapse. And that’s the main thing I noticed, people aren’t that different wherever you go. We all have the same needs and drives. We hang out with friends, do stuff to pass the time, go to school, work, etc. But there are some important differences that come from having guarantees in life. For example, nobody in USSR worried about losing their job and ending up on the street or not being able to retire in dignity. These were a category of thoughts that simply didn’t exist because these were considered to be inalienable human rights. Today, living in Canada, I always have the thought of what will happen if I lose my job in the back of my mind. It’s an ever present worry hanging over you. You can be making good money, and like you work, and then the company you work for could go out of business, or you can get laid off because some a spreadsheet didn’t line up the way investors want. I’d give anything to have the guarantees my parents had back in the Soviet days.
That gives me a much more meaningful idea of what you experienced. Thanks for doing that
