nonobaddog
Grandmaster
Not sure but I don't think you are supposed to suck on your mask.
Not sure but I don't think you are supposed to suck on your mask.
Not sure but I don't think you are supposed to suck on your mask.
Love all these funnies.
What vaguely bothers me is that people in the US imagine communism as some sort of hellscape resulting from 80 years of uninterrupted Democratic rule. I don't know the intricacies of NK, PRC, Cambodia, etc, but I do know quite a bit about the USSR. Yes, it wasn't a good system, but it wasn't a creepy weird fantasy people post pictures about or depict in movies.
Love all these funnies.
What vaguely bothers me is that people in the US imagine communism as some sort of hellscape resulting from 80 years of uninterrupted Democratic rule. I don't know the intricacies of NK, PRC, Cambodia, etc, but I do know quite a bit about the USSR. Yes, it wasn't a good system, but it wasn't a creepy weird fantasy people post pictures about or depict in movies.
Love all these funnies.
What vaguely bothers me is that people in the US imagine communism as some sort of hellscape resulting from 80 years of uninterrupted Democratic rule. I don't know the intricacies of NK, PRC, Cambodia, etc, but I do know quite a bit about the USSR. Yes, it wasn't a good system, but it wasn't a creepy weird fantasy people post pictures about or depict in movies.
Love all these funnies.
What vaguely bothers me is that people in the US imagine communism as some sort of hellscape resulting from 80 years of uninterrupted Democratic rule. I don't know the intricacies of NK, PRC, Cambodia, etc, but I do know quite a bit about the USSR. Yes, it wasn't a good system, but it wasn't a creepy weird fantasy people post pictures about or depict in movies.
It was creepy, weird, and I would add cruel and appalling. Flying out of Moscow in the 1980s was the only time I ever experienced the entire plane bursting out in applause as soon as we felt the wheels leave the ground.
Please tell us more. We're you a party member?
Yes, this. When the freed POWs left Vietnam on C-141s and were informed that they had just left N Vietnamese airspace, they burst into cheers and applause too, for pretty much the same reasons.
I had some interesting talks with former-enemy East German officers, and they had some very interesting insights, which I have mentioned elsewhere on this board, but worth repeating. One of their wives told me it was not so bad having a tiny hole in the wall apartment for them and their child (about like my dorm room in college) because if they got together in groups of more than four that Stasi would get suspicious and start spying on them, so they didn't have more than a couple guests over at one time. And she and her husband were communist party members.
At the end of my stay, on a Friday night, we went out to a local restaurant as a group, about half-a-dozen former DDR luftwaffe officers, their wives, and about four westerners. We ordered beers and food, talked, drank, had a good time. At 2100 the restaurant proprietor told us he was closing. We asked him why he was closing when he had a room full of paying customers (it was a small place and they were not getting many customers at all). He said he was closing because the previous regime mandated that restaurants close at 2100 and ... it did not occur to him to change. My west German friend told him the regime is gone, you need to start thinking like an entrepreneur, look after your customers. This was a big light bulb for him. So he said OK and we stayed until midnight, eating and drinking (and paying!).
The next Monday I was back at my home base when my German friend (a West German E-9 named Ebi) came running and said "You will not believe the phone call I just got. It was our friends in the east, and they were crying so hard I could not understand what they were saying at first. When I got them calmed down and asked why they were crying, they said 'Thank you for showing us how free people live.'" Ebi was confused by this and asked them what they meant. Turns out they meant the Friday night outing we had. They had all grown up in communist East Germany, were now in the 30s, and had never socialized like that Friday night. Then we remembered what they told us about never meeting in groups larger than 4 because of the Stasi.
THAT's socialist utopia as it works out in real life. It's why the same guys, the former east german defenders of the State and Communist Party members, were shocked when I told them there was a communist party in the United States. It's also why they told me very emphatically we should round up all the communists in the US and kill them.
Yes communism/socialism is creepy and weird and vile.
I don't know what that means.
Listen, I'm not denying that it wasn't a good system, but it wasn't this "everything is outlawed". For goodness sake, it was easier to get a gun than it is now. Housing was essentially free. Employment was mandatory (no, not in a GULAG) and there was always a place to work. Why do you think so many people think of USSR as a better country than present day Russia/Ukraine/Belarus/Kazakhstan etc is? Would I want to live there? Of course not. But fantasizing about it in terms of doom and gloom is blatantly false. Exactly like looking at Minneapolis and projecting that on the entire country. It's just not true.
Also about Estonia, and the rest of Baltic states. They only existed because the rest of the union basically fed and clothed them. Much like they do now - by collecting subsidies from the EU. They are not viable states for many reasons.
I don't know what that means.
Listen, I'm not denying that it wasn't a good system, but it wasn't this "everything is outlawed". For goodness sake, it was easier to get a gun than it is now. Housing was essentially free. Employment was mandatory (no, not in a GULAG) and there was always a place to work. Why do you think so many people think of USSR as a better country than present day Russia/Ukraine/Belarus/Kazakhstan etc is? Would I want to live there? Of course not. But fantasizing about it in terms of doom and gloom is blatantly false. Exactly like looking at Minneapolis and projecting that on the entire country. It's just not true.
Also about Estonia, and the rest of Baltic states. They only existed because the rest of the union basically fed and clothed them. Much like they do now - by collecting subsidies from the EU. They are not viable states for many reasons.
I'd be very interested in any sources or citations to support this. I may be ignorant on the topic, but I don't recall hearing anything along these lines from folks who lived under socialism or communism.
I'd be very interested in any sources or citations to support this. I may be ignorant on the topic, but I don't recall hearing anything along these lines from folks who lived under socialism or communism.
ETA: I Forgot this was a pic thread.