I hate that people whitewash the USSR so much. It was a hellhole for some people, and they basically were using slave labor through the gulag system. Information was tightly controlled. You had no such freedom of speech we see today.
I had a friend who grew up behind the iron curtain in Ukraine. He moved here to the US after it collapsed. He would tell us how lucky we are we can vote, that we can even talk shit about our leaders… from a very young age you learn it’s “bad” to say disparaging things about powerful people. You just dont. It’s scary and bad, and everyone gets worried that you’ll get snatched.
We might suffer under capitalism but i think it’s still important we consider how lucky we are in some of those respects… but it is getting worse. They want it to be like that here. The whole “Trump Derangement Syndrome” idea is basically testing the waters. And RFK Jr threw out the idea of sending people to an organic farm gulag… it can happen under capitalism too. Capitalism/socialism, both can support corrupt oligarchies.
The existance of USSR forced the new deal in US, and liberalism/Johnson/Nixon’s social programs. Post Reagan/USSR, only pure eonomic naziism exists in US, and its colonies. Just minor accelerationism under Trump. Even NDSAP/Hitler needed to pretend it was “communism lite socialist label” despite the pure oppression of labour, and Reagan’s trickle down oligarchism with that socialist name. The existence of USSR made the world less explicitly nazi.
The domestic labor movements across the US were heavily inspired by the recent successes of the Bolsheviks, and the capitalists were terrified of the same repression the workers bestowed upon them in Russia happening across the US Empire as well. The Russian Revolution fundamentally changed the entirety of labor struggles around the world.
The Gilded/railroad barron age, did create a progressive movement in US that would eventually lead to income tax in 1913. Global leftists breathed/shared the same air. 1929 stock market crash wiped out republican representation, leading to new deal. Nazis took back control of supreme court to block progressive legislation until the 1960s. Though GI bill was republican led progressiveness (except for racial discrimination mostly in south).
Without the USSR, and especially after its collapse, pure nazi economic oppression would/did rule. USSR was/is a nazi enemy, and global influence had to moderate the naziism to maintain democratic illusions. There needed to be respectful of social welfare because of USSR. After Reagan any concern for people was “trying to turn the US into a failed communist state”.
In diverse economies the ruling class almost always has to implement policies to appease the populace. Obviously the extent to which this happens varies based on a variety of factors (especially political organizations that have economic bargaining power) but I don’t really see evidence the USSR was in any way responsible for this.
I hate that people whitewash the USSR so much. It was a hellhole for some people, and they basically were using slave labor through the gulag system. Information was tightly controlled. You had no such freedom of speech we see today.
I had a friend who grew up behind the iron curtain in Ukraine. He moved here to the US after it collapsed. He would tell us how lucky we are we can vote, that we can even talk shit about our leaders… from a very young age you learn it’s “bad” to say disparaging things about powerful people. You just dont. It’s scary and bad, and everyone gets worried that you’ll get snatched.
We might suffer under capitalism but i think it’s still important we consider how lucky we are in some of those respects… but it is getting worse. They want it to be like that here. The whole “Trump Derangement Syndrome” idea is basically testing the waters. And RFK Jr threw out the idea of sending people to an organic farm gulag… it can happen under capitalism too. Capitalism/socialism, both can support corrupt oligarchies.
The existance of USSR forced the new deal in US, and liberalism/Johnson/Nixon’s social programs. Post Reagan/USSR, only pure eonomic naziism exists in US, and its colonies. Just minor accelerationism under Trump. Even NDSAP/Hitler needed to pretend it was “communism lite socialist label” despite the pure oppression of labour, and Reagan’s trickle down oligarchism with that socialist name. The existence of USSR made the world less explicitly nazi.
No, the domestic socialist/labor movement did that. The USSR was a distant concern pre-WWII.
The domestic labor movements across the US were heavily inspired by the recent successes of the Bolsheviks, and the capitalists were terrified of the same repression the workers bestowed upon them in Russia happening across the US Empire as well. The Russian Revolution fundamentally changed the entirety of labor struggles around the world.
The Gilded/railroad barron age, did create a progressive movement in US that would eventually lead to income tax in 1913. Global leftists breathed/shared the same air. 1929 stock market crash wiped out republican representation, leading to new deal. Nazis took back control of supreme court to block progressive legislation until the 1960s. Though GI bill was republican led progressiveness (except for racial discrimination mostly in south).
Without the USSR, and especially after its collapse, pure nazi economic oppression would/did rule. USSR was/is a nazi enemy, and global influence had to moderate the naziism to maintain democratic illusions. There needed to be respectful of social welfare because of USSR. After Reagan any concern for people was “trying to turn the US into a failed communist state”.
In diverse economies the ruling class almost always has to implement policies to appease the populace. Obviously the extent to which this happens varies based on a variety of factors (especially political organizations that have economic bargaining power) but I don’t really see evidence the USSR was in any way responsible for this.