this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2024
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The vast majority of Eastern Europeans wished the USSR never dissolved. Furthermore, the vast majority of people voted to retain the USSR, then it was dissolved anyways.
Why do you say "historically it has not worked," then vaguely gesture towards people who believe it very much did work better than their current Capitalism?
Wow, you're telling me the people who were brainwashed into believing their country is the best (not saying it doesn't happen nowadays (cough cough USA), voted to retain it?
In my country (Romania) the only point I hear people praising the communist regime about is infrastructure. Why? Because, as it turns out, it's much easier to build infrastructure when you have ~~slaves~~ prisoners which you don't have to pay. Of course, the corruption in our post-communist government doesn't help either.
I agree, capitalism is VERY far from ideal, but, please, stop glazing the USSR regime just because it was "communist".
"Brainwashing" narratives are false, thought-terminating cliches. The people supported the economic system that had free healthcare and education, doubled life expectancies, dramatic improvements in science, made it to space, rapidly industrialized, and dramatically reduced inequality. The idea that they were simply "brainwashed" is an idealist, anti-materialist analysis.
Even prisoners were paid in the USSR for forced labor, this is ahistorical.
I don't glaze the USSR, I dispel lies and myths about it in defense of Actually Existing Socialism.
Free healthcare still exists in all developed countries other than the US, life expectancies increased all over the world same with improvements in science, the space race was very close between the USSR and the US and the moon landing is very often brought up by US nationalists as well. I would say the industrialization was actually a bit too fast, people were, sometimes forcefully, relocated from rural areas to concrete boxes in cities. As for inequality, yes, there were no billionaires, and, while the quality of life for the poorest was maybe higher than it is today, I'd say the quality of life for average people was lower during communist time.
While this may have been true at the beginning, later on, there were no wages. Still, conditions were very poor.
Those Capitalist concessions are weakening in Social Democracies, and were only ever brought about by fear of revolt. The USSR paved the way for it.
Of course, there were good things which came out of the communist regime, but I wouldn't say that "it worked".
Why not? It absolutely did.