this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
1207 points (93.8% liked)

Memes

48600 readers
2835 users here now

Rules:

  1. Be civil and nice.
  2. Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] vfreire85@lemmy.ml 16 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (3 children)

you know, i tell you what. i'm fed up with all this gringo self-righteousness when you talk about "oh communism was bad, oh people where killed, oh people had no food, oh people had no liberty, oh people could not buy ataris, oh our countries are so democratic". your countries were democratic during the cold war in the first place because you had people to sort things out for you here in the global south. for each person complaining about how the food rations in eastern europe were not tasty enough, there were 10 dying of hunger or malnourishment here in the global south. for every person complaining they had to wait 5 years in a queue to buy a trabant or an oka, there were 10 who got no school in a range of 50 km. for every person complaining that their 8 hour shifts in state owned factories were overwhelming, there were 10 who were indentured workers. for every person complaining about how the stasi, kgb or the stb had bugged their apartment, there were 10 suffering the most horrific tortures inside black sites of the military of u.s. allies here in the "third world". for every person complaining about dull standard apartment blocks in mikrorayons, there were 10 who lived in mud shacks and slums, and those are just who were lucky enough to have a roof over their heads. finally, for everyone complaining about chinese sweatshops, which are indeed a problem, there are 10 americans who work and yet cannot afford proper housing.

you wanna complain about how communism was bad? go ahead. you wanna complain how your parents lived under communism and could not drink coke? do so if you wish. but there are still millions of people down here who would give an arm and a leg to have a polish ration, an apartment in a russian gray building, or a yugoslav job. and while the chinese maoist red guard was bad, surely it won't be an inch closer to the harassement people endured on a daily basis by our police forces.

again: you wanna complain? be my guest. but for me that's an encyclopedic example of white privilege.

[–] galanthus@lemmy.world -1 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

Why would you not compare european communist countries woth european capitalist countries? Sure, africans and asians were poorer, but that goes without saying, honestly, what does that even have to do with this matter?

East Germany was poorer than west Germany. That tells us something. The fact that Ethiopia or whatever was poorer does not really tell us much about ehich economic system is better.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 hours ago

West Germany had almost all of the industry of Germany, and East Germany was made to pay harsh reparations for the immense devastation the Nazis wrought upon the Soviet people and countries. Moreover, West Germany was never de-Nazified, and the US and Western Countries heavily invested into its development as a means to destabilize the relations with the East, even threatening to put NATO nukes in West Germany.

[–] missandry351@lemmings.world 4 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Loool it’s easy to say East Germany was poorer when they had to deal with all the sanctions. But be my guest, how many homeless people in USA and how many in Cuba?

[–] galanthus@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

If only there was a superpower leading a blok of nations rivaling the west that could have supported east Germany...

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Hard to do so in the aftermath of World War II when the Nazis destroyed half your buildings and murdered 20 million of your people. The Soviets did 80% of the combat against the Nazis.

[–] galanthus@lemmy.world 1 points 58 minutes ago* (last edited 54 minutes ago) (1 children)

So you claim the USSR did not support East Germany because of anti-german sentiments, while the west invested quite a lot into the reconstruction of FRG. I am afraid I am not qualified to assess how accurate that claim is(the former half of it, specifically). But I am deeply skeptical about this, since it would be quite a useful propaganda tool both domestically and in the west. Also, the east had a communist government and it distanced itself from it's past. The internationalist ideology of the USSR should have triumphed over the nationalist sentiments that might have existed.

However, I should say, that the main point of my original comment still stands. Of course, there are always many factors at play and it is not the case that the disparity between the east and the west can be attributed to the economic system alone. However, this does not mean that such comparisons are not valid, and I still would say that comparing european countries to underdeveloped countries to say that life in eastern Europe "wasn't that bad" is quite absurd.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 2 points 43 minutes ago (1 children)

I didn't say the USSR didn't support East Germany, I explained the unique struggles East Germany faced compared to West Germany.

[–] galanthus@lemmy.world 1 points 37 minutes ago (1 children)

Well if you didn't I do not know how I can possibly explain your previous comment.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 3 points 26 minutes ago

East Germany was the side with practically no industry, and the Soviets de-Nazified it and made it pay reparations, as the Soviet Union, unlike the US, emerged from the war with massive reconstruction costs and tens of millions of lives lost. It was not in a position to offer the same kind of support the US gave to West Germany, it had to build itself up first and then help out more. Later on, the DDR was much better and support increased.

In addition, the DDR provided free, high quality education, while the West offered higher pay, meaning a lot of educated workers could get the "best of both worlds" by getting educated in East Germany and defecting to the West.

The East had a good system, but it was bogged down by sitiational problems.

[–] turnip@sh.itjust.works -3 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

"Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite."

[–] Muehe@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

So.. "man doesn't exploit man"? Sounds good!

[–] turnip@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Muehe@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 hours ago

I'm gonna be real with you, I don't know who or what that is and I deliberately chose to ignore the likely sarcasm, but feel free to enlighten me.