It’s funny. My dad worked for Exxon in the 1970s. He’d go to St. Petersburg on business during the Detente Era. Learned the language. Had a bunch of Russian friends. Promised to take us there when we were older, because he had a real dream of a world united in peace and prosperity.
But then the 1980s happened, the price of oil tanked, projects were cancelled, the USSR collapsed, Dad got laid off, we had to downsize our quality of life significantly, and all those dreams went up in smoke.
Dad got a lower paying job in Houston. He started watching Fox News. His opinions on foreigners, on socialism, and on world peace soured significantly. He got incredibly angry when I went off to college and started learning world history, particularly “Marxist” history that failed to venerate the US. He also became a QAnoner and COVID denier. His last years were incredibly rough.
I guess I learned a lot watching his opinions shift over 50 years of life. Idk if it was “Communism Bad” though.
Promised to take us there when we were older, because he had a real dream of a world united in peace and prosperity.
My father did the exact opposite, and miraculously managed to get permission to leave the country to work abroad, and be “exploited” by these filthy capitalists at 10x wage he’d earn for the same job in socialist “paradise”. Then state fucked him over with income tax, then he fucked them back by asking for tax payment plan spread over two years. Inflation that state falsly claimed to be very low eaten most of the debt within first year. Welcome to Poland in the 80s, country that couldnt design their own car so they had to license fiat 500 design from the 50s to be produced from mid 70s onward.
Your father didnt live in that system, he just saw very tiny piece, that wasn’t representative of the whole.
It’s funny. My dad worked for Exxon in the 1970s. He’d go to St. Petersburg on business during the Detente Era. Learned the language. Had a bunch of Russian friends. Promised to take us there when we were older, because he had a real dream of a world united in peace and prosperity.
But then the 1980s happened, the price of oil tanked, projects were cancelled, the USSR collapsed, Dad got laid off, we had to downsize our quality of life significantly, and all those dreams went up in smoke.
Dad got a lower paying job in Houston. He started watching Fox News. His opinions on foreigners, on socialism, and on world peace soured significantly. He got incredibly angry when I went off to college and started learning world history, particularly “Marxist” history that failed to venerate the US. He also became a QAnoner and COVID denier. His last years were incredibly rough.
I guess I learned a lot watching his opinions shift over 50 years of life. Idk if it was “Communism Bad” though.
My father did the exact opposite, and miraculously managed to get permission to leave the country to work abroad, and be “exploited” by these filthy capitalists at 10x wage he’d earn for the same job in socialist “paradise”. Then state fucked him over with income tax, then he fucked them back by asking for tax payment plan spread over two years. Inflation that state falsly claimed to be very low eaten most of the debt within first year. Welcome to Poland in the 80s, country that couldnt design their own car so they had to license fiat 500 design from the 50s to be produced from mid 70s onward.
Your father didnt live in that system, he just saw very tiny piece, that wasn’t representative of the whole.