love my Oma, she's turning 90 next week (born 1934!) and was the first person I came out as bi to. Defo hanging one or two of these up in my dorm

Whenever people imply communism = lack of incentive for human greatness, I think about how my grandparents had lower class parents and were extremely poor (even starving) in their post-war childhood, but ended up leading pretty impressive lives, despite knowing they wouldn't live much above the material reality of their neighbors for it.

My grandma was an interior architect and my grandpa an astrophysics professor and professional photographer. Both were gymnasts in their 20's (my grandpa has a couple medals below). They didn't do any of that shit for luxury, they figured they'd lead a modest life in the standard plattenblau housing block as the other working people of their town (small but cute and cozy apartment, I was there not too long ago), and that's what they wanted.

They never needed to drive a car in their lives, and often visited countries across the Eastern Bloc by bike/public transit. My grandma always had a thing for making fruit preserves and cool pottery (still killing it), and my grandpa for art from wood carving (he was also a mountain climber). They had a nice community garden they always tended to too. It's a beautiful town with a lot to see, honestly can't wait to visit again

My mom was 19 when the Berlin Wall fell. She studied english abroad when everything went to shit under capitalism. Ended up moving to the US just because she met my dad. Usually when she tells an American she grew up in the DDR, they look all shocked and ask some insane shit like if she was starving to death, or if she knew anyone who was shot and killed trying to climb the wall (💀⁉️). Certainly no one was starving by the 70s/80s. My mom and all her friends and acquaintances had great childhoods. She had a small town, middle of nowhere school system that pushed sports, music, art, multilingualism, sciences, etc. on her heavily (when I did track and field in high school she always told me how her school's facility was 10x better lmao). The DDR fostered genuine human greatness. But ig they didn't have bananas at grocery stores and a hundred car brands like the west 🤷‍♂️

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  • Mokey [none/use name]
    ·
    4 个月前

    Was grandpa one though? What reference did he have for disliking it since Germany in his lifetime was never good

    • jupyter_rain@discuss.tchncs.de
      ·
      4 个月前

      What about "No" do you not understand? You just had to look to west Germany and would see an economically easier life. Also DDR was not exactly a real demoncary, so this was frustrating, too.

      • Mokey [none/use name]
        ·
        4 个月前

        Grandpa was wrong if he couldnt see how and why West Germany got that money

        • jupyter_rain@discuss.tchncs.de
          ·
          4 个月前

          Could be. Still wrong to imprison people just for wanting to leave. Also it's not like DDR was perfect with handling their workers, they did shit things, too

          • Mokey [none/use name]
            ·
            4 个月前

            DDR were probably justified if the alternative is becoming a capitalist colonialist puppet state

                • jupyter_rain@discuss.tchncs.de
                  ·
                  4 个月前

                  Then please show me west german colonies. Both east and west germany might have benefitted from their colonial past in which both were involved. To my knowledge germany lost all of it's colonies in first world war. Also why do you think the GDR was not a puppet state itself?

                  Also hot Take: Mods removing my comment but not others which aim to be insulting on a personal level is problematic.

                  • Mokey [none/use name]
                    ·
                    4 个月前

                    The US government pumped West germany with reconstruction money which in turn came from mass exploitation of any part of the world that could not resist it. Also, please note that Germany still has many American military bases, Germany is a puppet state and the money the US pumped into it wasn't done out of good will and the greatness of capitalism. It doesnt matter if it does or doesnt have a colonies itself its a willing participant in the oppression of the global south and is a dog of the US.

                    No one cares. This isnt the place to humor liberalism.

                    • jupyter_rain@discuss.tchncs.de
                      ·
                      4 个月前

                      But the US does still pay a lot of countrys aid. Does that make them colonialist? Every country on the list in the link down below?

                      https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/countries-that-receive-the-most-foreign-aid-from-the-u-s

                      And I think there has to be more influence in a country than some military bases to be a puppet state. See list of US military bases: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_military_installations All of them puppet states?

                      I am unsure what you want to say with your last sentences, but I am sure that you do not speak for all people. So a sentence like "No one cares." is just ignorant and dishonest. :)

                      • Mokey [none/use name]
                        ·
                        4 个月前

                        All of them puppet states?

                        Yes exactly, what do you think happens if those countries suddenly remove those American military bases?

                        • jupyter_rain@discuss.tchncs.de
                          ·
                          4 个月前

                          I think this differs very much from the term puppet state. If there has been some agreement you can not easily draw back, this is clear.

                          Definition of puppet state from Wikipedia: "Puppet governments are usually kept in power by military force provided by an occupying country and are strongly controlled."

                          So please prove that all of the countries, in which the US hast Military bases, have governments which are only upheld by the force of US military.

                          Also, a lot of countries have Military bases in different countries. Are all of these countries now automatically puppet states? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_overseas_military_bases

                          You can also see in this list, that Germany has another active Military Base from UK. Please decide now to which country Germany is a puppet state, UK or US? Oh and France has one, too. Maybe Germany is governed by France? All of them?

                          • Mokey [none/use name]
                            ·
                            4 个月前

                            All of them, why are you being so naive?

                            Its a western bloc run by the US, all of these countries went to Iraq when they had zero reason to go

                              • jupyter_rain@discuss.tchncs.de
                                ·
                                4 个月前

                                To frame my answer differently:

                                How is it naive not to believe someone on the internet who isn't even backing up arguments with sources?

                                Also: Please show me participation of germany in iraq war.

                                And please answer to my argument of the military backed government. If you do not accept the definition of puppet state I posted, please provide another.

                                Furthermore: You do not need to be a puppet state to go to war together. You can simply be allies or have the same interests.

                      • WittyProfileName2 [she/her]
                        ·
                        4 个月前

                        All of them puppet states?

                        Do yourself a favour and look up what happened when the Australian PM tried to close the Pine Gap military base.