When I see shit like this I'm painfully reminded of this article
How We Sold Soviet Union And Czechoslovakia For Plastic Shopping Bags
Both represented something essential in the Communist planning, a system that you were taught, by the Western propagandists, to hate.
Leningrad is one of the most stunning cities in the world, with some of the greatest museums, opera and ballet theatres, public spaces. In the past, it used to be the Russian capital.
Pilsen is tiny, with only 180.000 inhabitants. But when I was a kid, it counted with several excellent libraries, art cinemas, an opera house, avant-garde theatres, art galleries, research zoo, with things that could not be, as I realized later (when it was too late), found even in the U.S. cities of one million.
Life was good, meaningful. It was rich. Not rich in terms of money, but rich culturally, intellectually, and health-wise. To be young was fun, with knowledge free and easily accessible, with the culture at every corner, and sports for everyone. The pace was slow: plenty of time to think, learn, analyze.
But, it was also the height of the Cold War.
We were young, rebellious, and easy to manipulate. We were never satisfied with what we were given. We took for granted everything. At night, we were glued to our radio receivers, listening to the BBC, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and other broadcasting services aiming at discrediting socialism and all countries which were fighting against Western imperialism.
Czech socialist industrial conglomerates were building, in solidarity, entire factories, from steel to sugar mills, in Asian, Middle East, and Africa. But we saw no glory in this because Western propaganda outlets were simply ridiculing such undertakings.
Our cinemas were showing masterpieces of Italian, French, Soviet, Japanese cinema. But we were told to demand junk from the U.S.
Music offering was great, from live to recorded. Almost all music was, actually, available although with some delay, in local stores or even on stage. What was not sold in our stores was nihilist rubbish. But that was precisely what we were told to desire. And we did desire it, and copied it with religious reverence, on our tape recorders. If something was not available, the Western media outlets were shouting that it is a gross violation of free speech.
They knew, and they still know now, how to manipulate young brains.
At some point, we were converted into young pessimists, criticizing everything in our countries, without comparing, without even a tiny bit of objectivity.
Does it sound familiar?
We were told, and we repeated: everything in the Soviet Union or Czechoslovakia was bad. Everything in the West was great. Yes, it was like some fundamentalist religion or mass-madness. Hardly anyone was immune. Actually, we were infected, we were sick, turned into idiots.
We were using public, socialist facilities, from libraries to theatres, subsidized cafes, to glorify West and smear our own nations. This is how we were indoctrinated, by Western radio and television stations, and by publications smuggled into the countries.
In those days, plastic shopping bags from the West became the status symbols! You know, those bags that you get in some cheap supermarkets or department stores.
When I think about it at a distance of several decades, I can hardly believe it: young educated boys and girls, proudly walking down the streets, exhibiting cheap plastic shopping bags, for which they paid a serious amount of money. Because they came from the West. Because they were symbolizing consumerism! Because we were told that consumerism is good.
In many ways, we were much freer than the West. I realized it when I first arrived in New York and saw how badly educated were local kids of my age, how shallow was their knowledge of the world. How little culture there was, in regular mid-sized North American cities.
Two wonderful countries which used to be my home were betrayed, literally sold for nothing, for pairs of designer jeans, and plastic shopping bags.
What was not sold in our stores was nihilist rubbish.
Oof. I like a lot of that music lol.
They have Special Economic Zones or something similarly named that are almost completely unregulated and capital is allowed to run rampant. Theyre intended to attracted foreign investment so China can acquire foreign currency and steal their trade secrets.
Yeah but that's not exactly what is suggested though. China uses the Zones to interface more closely with international investors. The very correct suggestion above, on the other hand, is to create isolated ancap reservations that are fenced off from the rest of the country. There would be no flow of goods between the main economy and the reservation, there would be literally zero laws imposed by the party. You could also up the ante and say that people inside who've had enough are only allowed to be extracted once a year so as to enjoy the unfolding horror in all its splendour and become inoculated for life if they survive. The required service for 18 year olds might not be a good idea because of great danger of developing PTSD, getting murdered or worked to death, and succumbing to Stockholm Syndrome, when most 18 year olds would not have a yearning for such an "adventure". Rather it should be a honeypot for all the contrarian cranks, greedy leeches hoping to make a quick buck, unrepentant sadists and such. It might actually even be good to have 3 such reservations: 1 for ancaps, 1 for monarchists and 1 for anprims. Most will get cured really fast of their malaise, the rest will die miserable deaths at the hands of their own stupidity. The only interfacing exceptions could be made for documentary teams going in to show the rest of the country what capitalist restoration and romanticising of the past really entails.
I know what your thinking, and yes, the first McDonald's in the USSR was indeed not American but actually Canadian owned :ussr-cry: :kanada:
selling out to Nixon was not the right move either
What are you referring to? The USSR or China? Because the West successfully split China off from the Communist bloc, leading to communist infighting across the world and the economic isolation of the USSR sphere, which contributed heavily to its eventual decline.
It made sense for Chinese own interests to sell out to Nixon - and it was in response to Khruschyov trying to reform away from communism, but it did undermine the overall communist project. China became a factory for capitalism, which eventually made it a world economic leader, but it killed off any international communist movements for at least two generations.
What did the soviets lose in selling out to Nixon? I'm an American. I don't know these things.
fast food and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race
fast food
fast...for bourgeois accumulation. Wasn't espresso a symptom of Italian factory workers needing a quick stimulant drug boost
I had a coworker who was born in the USSR but her parents defected when she was young taking her with her. She said people just wanted more as everything felt 10 years behind the west. I can understand this, but man these kids didn't realize what horror they would be given. Also McDonalds? Really y'all? Like I can understand wanting to see the bands, but man fast food sucks.
Images like this look worse than what they actually show. In a collectivist society, people do everything in crowds. If the government opens a new thing, if it's allowed and approved of - it must be good, everyone should go. And why not? It's new, it's advertised, it's worth a try. Having to wait in line just shows other people want it - and you trust other people to want good things, because you don't have knowledge of popular bad things.
It's not the same as having experience with the stuff, understanding that it's cheap unhealthy food meant to minimize labor and material costs and maximize profits. You need to be inoculated with the germ ahead of time to develop the defenses against it.
What is going on with that roof though? It's bothering me.
