Political funny pictures thread, part V *** If I don't laugh, I'll cry***

[JettaKnight]

Nancy says you can get that mail order even during the siege.

Yup.

The multi-name online retailer* next door to me has been doing business like gang busters.





* I think they have several Amazon "storefronts"; they just get pallets of crap, re-box it, and ship it out.


EDIT: Just looked at the thread title - sorry for the chatter. Here's a picture from The Bee:

 

[Dimik]

You got a place to live and a job... it probably sucked and you couldn't change it.
There was list to get on for a car - your name might come up before you die.


Now let's talk about supermarkets and the selection of ice cream...

Yes and no. You had a place to live, but it was the same as a place everyone lived. Jobs were quite diverse - depended on your education, just like here.
Cars, for sure, were a luxury. Outrageously expensive with long wait periods. Again - a result of total government control and lack of competition.
Same thing with food variety. Yes, it was there. No, people didn't starve. But that's what you get with government control.
I'm not saying it was the best place on Earth, but it wasn't this awful hellscape people here imagine.
People get so aggressive when you tell them that. Just like some people go ballistic when you tell them Trump is not a dictator...

 

[Dimik]

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.

Oh I forgot about guns. Sorry.
Basically all you had to do to buy a gun was join a local hunting club. Handguns were out of the question, as they had never been legal and still aren't. But that's all you had to do to get a shotgun. These days you have to go through an examination at the psychiatrist, get workplace recommendations, have an interview with a local police officer and so on and so on. If you look at old soviet books for children, a grandpa with a double barrel was basically a ubiquitous character.

That's another thing people here don't get. We always tend to think of socialism as not being allowed to bear arms. Well that's just not true. Look at Yugoslavia. Look at Bulgaria. You could freely own guns. Actually in Bulgaria you could buy full auto rifles up until 2009. It's not a socialism thing, it's a crappy government thing.

 

[nonobaddog]

Yes and no. You had a place to live, but it was the same as a place everyone lived. Jobs were quite diverse - depended on your education, just like here.
Cars, for sure, were a luxury. Outrageously expensive with long wait periods. Again - a result of total government control and lack of competition.
Same thing with food variety. Yes, it was there. No, people didn't starve. But that's what you get with government control.
I'm not saying it was the best place on Earth, but it wasn't this awful hellscape people here imagine.
People get so aggressive when you tell them that. Just like some people go ballistic when you tell them Trump is not a dictator...

Oops, all of your opinions just got devalued to poppycock.

 

[2A_Tom]

You have to understand that people who left USSR or post-Soviet space right after the collapse, have a tendency to view it in very negative tones. Not unjustifiably so, of course, but they tend to gloss over the good parts.
Yes, housing was essentially free. The government was constantly building apartment buildings and the apartments were assigned to people. That's why it was not uncommon to have a high-up party functionary living next door to a school teacher or a plumber. That was a normal state of affairs. Those buildings still exist. In fact, the ones built under Stalin are now considered as luxury prime real estate and cost millions of dollars after they got privatized in the 90s. People still think it's ridiculous that you have to pay rent or that the government doesn't clean your buildings or paint your fences. Really.
Mandatory employment was a thing as well. It was illegal to be unemployed. There was a section in your passport or other ID that stated where you were currently employed. If you were not, the police (militia) would literally come knocking on the door. If you persisted being unemployed, they would literally force you to work at a local factory or something. USSR was a very heavily industrialized entity, much like the Rust Belt used to be. And it suffered the same fate as the Rust Belt after the collapse.
Medicine was (and still is) basically free. As much as conservatives here (of whom I am a part for sure) hate this fact, but yes it was. And it worked. And it was of good quality. They even managed to develop pharmaceuticals, which they can't do now. Again, all part of government regulation. The problem with it is not that everything goes to crap, but that everything is very limited and slow in regard to development.
Same thing with the economy. There was an economic boom where salaries basically doubled in the 70s under Brezhnev. Of course the guy really responsible for it... gosh I forget the name, the minister of the economy or whatever the position was, achieved that by releasing the government control over manufacturing and allowing partial free market. The old party members didn't like that so the whole thing only lasted a few years and went back to stagnation after the guy was removed.
Education was really good, and also free. Both school and higher education. Since it was free, there was actually an incredible competition to get into colleges. The entrance examinations were very harsh. That's what progressives don't get, you can't have universal free education. Just doesn't work. Soviet politicians understood these things. As for highschools, soviet middle school special ed program was roughly what the current US honors highschool program is. Maybe harder, actually. For example - while USSR had universal literacy, the US had to drop literacy requirements for joining the military during WWII. Just food for thought.
Essentially, USSR was a giant welfare state, but not in a modern american sense of it. Basically the government controlled most parts of your professional life, but it basically covered all your needs. Yes everything was taken care of for you, but you couldn't just lie on the couch and fantasize about art and smoke weed, like our domestic progressives imagine. You had to work. People who didn't work were outcasts of the system who'd either be forced to get a job, or would go to prison and work there. No unemployment or welfare for people who don't work. Yes there was mass incarceration early on because you had to force people to accept the system as well as to build all the industry. Essentially mass slave labor force. But the longer it went, the less of it there was. Of course such a system can't last, and it didn't. Am I saying Stalin was a good guy? Of course not. But you can't deny his historic role and that he took a bankrupt agrarian country and turned it into an industrial and nuclear super power. Do I agree with his means? Come on, who would? Never mind, there are actually millions of people who do, but I'm not one of them. But it's just not right to deny the objective reality. How do you think a country could survive this long if it was this hell on Earth? Things don't work like that. But a lot of people in the post-Soviet space look back with fondness at that time. That's just the reality of it. And they do have things to miss. Also makes it easier to understand why they view capitalism in such negative colors. To them it represents the crime and lawlessness of the 90s and early 2000s because if Russia is good at anything, it's at screwing up reforms.
I'm only arguing for objectivity. It's not right to say USSR was hell on earth. Just like it's not right to say the US is a horrible country to live in.

You write like an M1 clip.

https://images.app.goo.gl/KtAdbLvaKvPn5QTC6

 

[Dimik]

You write like an M1 clip.

https://images.app.goo.gl/KtAdbLvaKvPn5QTC6

And yet I know the difference between "were" and "we're". I also happen to be fluent in three languages, and hold three advanced degrees, one of which is a PhD.
And M1 is cool! We can all agree on that regardless of historic opinions.

 

[2A_Tom]

Yes and no. You had a place to live, but it was the same as a place everyone lived. Jobs were quite diverse - depended on your education, just like here.
Cars, for sure, were a luxury. Outrageously expensive with long wait periods. Again - a result of total government control and lack of competition.
Same thing with food variety. Yes, it was there. No, people didn't starve. But that's what you get with government control.
I'm not saying it was the best place on Earth, but it wasn't this awful hellscape people here imagine.
People get so aggressive when you tell them that. Just like some people go ballistic when you tell them Trump is not a dictator...

You don't know what party member means, but speak authoritatively about living conditions.

They didn't starve. Tell that to the Kulaks.

 

[2A_Tom]

And yet I know the difference between "were" and "we're". I also happen to be fluent in three languages, and hold three advanced degrees, one of which is a PhD.
And M1 is cool! We can all agree on that regardless of historic opinions.

Credentials! He got credentials!

 

[nonobaddog]

Doesn't know what party member means - can't tell the difference between the President of the United States and a dictator - I'm thinking dim-bulb test.

 

[JettaKnight]

And yet I know the difference between "were" and "we're". I also happen to be fluent in three languages, and hold three advanced degrees, one of which is a PhD.
And M1 is cool! We can all agree on that regardless of historic opinions.

You must be new to INGO - having advanced degrees won't win you any points.


If we were closer, I'd relish the opportunity to sit and listen to you - it sounds like you've experienced things I dream about and try to see into the past (All of my vacation are now in former communist countries).



However, this is the Political Picture thread, so chatter (like this) is strongly discouraged.
If people want to continue, find another thread, or start a new one.

 

[jamil]

I don't really see a reason to attack. Inquire, sure. If you doubt the claims made, just make your case instead of whatever it is you guys are doing.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Doesn't know what party member means - can't tell the difference between the President of the United States and a dictator - I'm thinking dim-bulb test.

I think you guys are reading right past what he's saying. He says "Just like some people go ballistic when you tell them Trump is not a dictator..."


You know there are liberals and even Never-Trumpers that do just that if you claim that Trump is not a dictator.

Sounds like he lived there and has first hand experience and prefers it here. I don't get all the objections to what he's saying. Now granted, some of it is not very convincing (like saying that they did get to own a shotgun) - I mean there are certainly people in this country that would be fine with that, and they claim that they're 2A supporters. Doesn't make me want to live in the old USSR for sure, but again, that's not what he's trying to do. I think he truly is pointing out some of the things that many westerners incorrectly assumed about life there. He's freely admitting that there was a lot of suckage too.

 

[Dimik]

You don't know what party member means, but speak authoritatively about living conditions.

They didn't starve. Tell that to the Kulaks.

Yes, dekulakization was one of those horrible things early on. That's what you get with collectivization, which is why anyone with a bit of sense and historic awareness can't support that stuff. It contributed to the collapse of the 20s for sure. But you can't compare USSR in 1927 to USSR in 1972, or even 1989. It's like comparing the Southern States during the Reconstruction to the present day South. That's playing historic revisionism.
As for me not knowing what a party member is... I have no clue what you mean by that.

 

[jamil]

You must be new to INGO - having advanced degrees won't win you any points.


If we were closer, I'd relish the opportunity to sit and listen to you - it sounds like you've experienced things I dream about and try to see into the past (All of my vacation are now in former communist countries).



However, this is the Political Picture thread, so chatter (like this) is strongly discouraged.
If people want to continue, find another thread, or start a new one.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

You must be new to INGO - having advanced degrees won't win you any points.


If we were closer, I'd relish the opportunity to sit and listen to you - it sounds like you've experienced things I dream about and try to see into the past (All of my vacation are now in former communist countries).



However, this is the Political Picture thread, so chatter (like this) is strongly discouraged.
If people want to continue, find another thread, or start a new one.

Da!

 

[printcraft]

I don't really see a reason to attack. Inquire, sure. If you doubt the claims made, just make your case instead of whatever it is you guys are doing.

Make the case that communism "wasn't that bad" with 100 years of history saying otherwise.

And GO!

 

[Dimik]

I think you guys are reading right past what he's saying. He says "Just like some people go ballistic when you tell them Trump is not a dictator..."


You know there are liberals and even Never-Trumpers that do just that if you claim that Trump is not a dictator.

Sounds like he lived there and has first hand experience and prefers it here. I don't get all the objections to what he's saying. Now granted, some of it is not very convincing (like saying that they did get to own a shotgun) - I mean there are certainly people in this country that would be fine with that, and they claim that they're 2A supporters. Doesn't make me want to live in the old USSR for sure, but again, that's not what he's trying to do. I think he truly is pointing out some of the things that many westerners incorrectly assumed about life there. He's freely admitting that there was a lot of suckage too.

Yeah exactly. US has a far superior system. USSR officials realized that all the way back in the 20s. Back before the cold war there was a lot of expects traveling back and forth between the two countries. USSR realized that socialism doesn't work by itself and constantly tried to make it work with reforms for which they used the US as an example. Even hot dog stand and carbonated beverages were borrowed. And during the Great Depression, USSR hired a ton of engineers from the US who later went back home. That's why there was the New Economic Policy in the 20s, and the free market experiment in the 70s.
As for shotguns, I'm not lying. You just went to a local club and became a member. Most people were not interested in guns because there is no gun culture in Russia. There just isn't. People are not interested in guns by and large, though some are. Even now, with all the regulations and 5 gun limit and having to wait 5 years after buying your first shotgun to be able to buy a rifle, there are quire a few gun owners. Some enthusiasts get around that by buying rifles where half the barrel is smooth and half is rifled because that counts as a smooth bore gun.
I just get annoyed when people have no idea what USSR was, but talk about it as some kind of Democrat-run idiocracy. It wasn't the Seattle CHAZ with people living in tents and growing carrots on a sidewalk. It was a very sophisticated entity and they did try to make it work within the constraints of the socialist ideology. It's just like Molotov (the only soviet official to meet Hitler) said about him - "He's a very intelligent man, but awfully limited by his idiotic ideology." Same exact thing.

 

[Bill of Rights]

Not sure but I don't think you are supposed to suck on your mask.

Notice the subpar mask placement

I see nothing at all wrong with Nutty Nancy wearing her mask that way.

 

[Bigtanker]

If we were closer, I'd relish the opportunity to sit and listen to you - it sounds like you've experienced things I dream about and try to see into the past (All of my vacation are now in former communist countries).


.

I'm closer. And that sounds like a great idea. Maybe a range day too!

 

[Thor]

Make the case that communism "wasn't that bad" with 100 years of history saying otherwise.

And GO!

Hey, what's wrong with tyranny, starvation and genocide? Let's do THAT again. YGBSM.

Wait a minute...