You're being downvoted because while the substance of what you're saying is fine, your first line (and thus ostensibly your thesis) is an emotional rejection of preserving the USSR/AES: "Pretty meaningless".
Like, yeah, this doesn't mean 80% of the Soviets were committed Marxists. But most people in most places aren't ever going to be ideologically committed to anything. They do just care about having basic stability and their needs being met.
But 80% of the Soviet people had associated a Communist government with a basically good life (DESPITE the late 1980s being an era of reaction and every scandal in the history of the USSR being aired).
When neoliberals win elections today they throw it in our faces - "We won! You lost! Nobody supports Sanders/Corbyn/Varoufakis!" And the media agrees with that - "you're a minority of radicals who'll never succeed in the real world, gtfo". But they only win because enough people associate the status quo with a basically good life.
So when we do win - it's not "meaningless". It's something to embrace, to celebrate. Don't be a defeatist.
You're being downvoted because while the substance of what you're saying is fine, your first line (and thus ostensibly your thesis) is an emotional rejection of preserving the USSR/AES: "Pretty meaningless".
Like, yeah, this doesn't mean 80% of the Soviets were committed Marxists. But most people in most places aren't ever going to be ideologically committed to anything. They do just care about having basic stability and their needs being met.
But 80% of the Soviet people had associated a Communist government with a basically good life (DESPITE the late 1980s being an era of reaction and every scandal in the history of the USSR being aired).
When neoliberals win elections today they throw it in our faces - "We won! You lost! Nobody supports Sanders/Corbyn/Varoufakis!" And the media agrees with that - "you're a minority of radicals who'll never succeed in the real world, gtfo". But they only win because enough people associate the status quo with a basically good life.
So when we do win - it's not "meaningless". It's something to embrace, to celebrate. Don't be a defeatist.