It's fine to be optimistic, but Russian people I've talked with have such vastly different impressions of what was admirable about the USSR. I should read the survey to see if the researchers accounted for that.
A whole lot of Russian people will say they preferred the USSR for seemingly non-political reasons, like they'll say people worked harder, or the music was better, or people exercised more. A non-insignificant amount will talk about how they liked having a huge military or they'll have brainwormed ideas about Russian national pride.
The optimistic part of me says that once socialism hits America, a lot of our chuds will go through a metamorphosis and support socialism for completely harebrained reasons. The pessimist says that post-Soviet Russia went through some kind of postmodernism speedrun where misinformation and confusion became so rampant that nothing means anything anymore.
I mean, I'd love to go back in time and actually sit some folks in this era down with Soviets from that era. It's not like Khrushchev's USSR was somehow devoid of bad politics. It was still socially regressive, economically underdeveloped, and full of cops. The Soviet Union was a marvel of its era because it transformed a rural backwater state into a technologically advanced continent-spanning superpower through mass mobilization of its people. Not because it was some kind of FALGSC Utopia.
The optimistic part of me says that once socialism hits America, a lot of our chuds will go through a metamorphosis and support socialism for completely harebrained reasons. The pessimist says that post-Soviet Russia went through some kind of postmodernism speedrun where misinformation and confusion became so rampant that nothing means anything anymore.
Meh, at the end of the day, "Its the Economy Stupid". Russians idolized American wealth (or, at least, the appearance of it) and got suckered into become a client state for a few years. Then they rebelled when Yeltsin's promise of supermarkets on every corner failed to materialize and defaulted to Putin as the new Brezhnev.
If Americans ever work themselves up into Doing A Socialism, it'll likely before for similar reasons. America endures a sustained economic downturn overseen by incompetent bureaucrats who lose control in the face of a well-organized Vanguard opposition. The Vanguard imposes new economic rules that reverse the economic collapse, and the new spike in quality of life sets off a virtuous cycle of revolutionary change. Chuds will be along for the ride, because American Lenin brings back the NFL once electricity and running water have been restored. They'll love him because he gave them back their treats.
The pessimist says that post-Soviet Russia went through some kind of postmodernism speedrun where misinformation and confusion became so rampant that nothing means anything anymore.
That's what Yeltsin said he was going for, word for word :corn-man-khrush:
It's fine to be optimistic, but Russian people I've talked with have such vastly different impressions of what was admirable about the USSR. I should read the survey to see if the researchers accounted for that.
A whole lot of Russian people will say they preferred the USSR for seemingly non-political reasons, like they'll say people worked harder, or the music was better, or people exercised more. A non-insignificant amount will talk about how they liked having a huge military or they'll have brainwormed ideas about Russian national pride.
The optimistic part of me says that once socialism hits America, a lot of our chuds will go through a metamorphosis and support socialism for completely harebrained reasons. The pessimist says that post-Soviet Russia went through some kind of postmodernism speedrun where misinformation and confusion became so rampant that nothing means anything anymore.
I mean, I'd love to go back in time and actually sit some folks in this era down with Soviets from that era. It's not like Khrushchev's USSR was somehow devoid of bad politics. It was still socially regressive, economically underdeveloped, and full of cops. The Soviet Union was a marvel of its era because it transformed a rural backwater state into a technologically advanced continent-spanning superpower through mass mobilization of its people. Not because it was some kind of FALGSC Utopia.
Meh, at the end of the day, "Its the Economy Stupid". Russians idolized American wealth (or, at least, the appearance of it) and got suckered into become a client state for a few years. Then they rebelled when Yeltsin's promise of supermarkets on every corner failed to materialize and defaulted to Putin as the new Brezhnev.
If Americans ever work themselves up into Doing A Socialism, it'll likely before for similar reasons. America endures a sustained economic downturn overseen by incompetent bureaucrats who lose control in the face of a well-organized Vanguard opposition. The Vanguard imposes new economic rules that reverse the economic collapse, and the new spike in quality of life sets off a virtuous cycle of revolutionary change. Chuds will be along for the ride, because American Lenin brings back the NFL once electricity and running water have been restored. They'll love him because he gave them back their treats.
That's what Yeltsin said he was going for, word for word :corn-man-khrush: