Comment by t8sr | Hacker News Reader

Comment by t8sr | Hacker News Reader

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You are claiming multiple things that are just plain false. Some of these countries were full democracies before they became Moscow's satellites. The amount of censorship and self-censorship was staggering. And no, your communication today is not constantly taped and listened to in most of Europe.

You are either a Russian troll, someone with an undisclosed agenda, or a naive 13 y/o. The things you're saying are a mix of straight up lies and misdirection and a classic example of historical revisionism that should be called out everywhere we see it.

Concrete points:

- I don't think racism is a peculiarity of socialist countries. Slavs have always been a culturally xenophobic culture, still are.

This is racist bullshit - "slavs" are not inherently xenophobic. 30-40 years of progress just didn't happen in Central Europe because Moscow didn't like big social changes.

- Your communications are still constantly taped and listened on unless you're naive to think the opposite.

Not in the same way, and I have a feeling you know that.

- Never my family was afraid of who we talked to. Moreover, what was to be afraid of, unless you were plotting something?

Being careful about who you talk to about what is literally the thing most people remember right after "we couldn't travel." If you didn't feel this, you were either a small child, politically aligned with the party, or extremely sheltered.

Agreed. Three things that stood out:

- "You had nothing to fear unless you were plotting something": someone overhearing mild criticism or a politically charged joke was enough to ruin lives, get yourself or relatives kicked out of universities, lose jobs, homes, and so forth. It's impossible to describe living a day after day for decades under that constant anxiety to a person who has always had the freedom to say whatever they want. Even rural potato farmers knew to keep their mouths shut unless they were in a circle of people they trusted.

- "Alcoholism is worse now": oh god no. For starters, it was socially acceptable to drink and be drunk at work, even if you worked with heavy equipment (farms, factories). If you caused an accident, then being drunk was a valid excuse and lessened the punishment.

- "Corruption is widespread everywhere": given the contant shortage of goods, everyone in positions of power always had the attitude of "what's there in it for me?". Everywhere you went to ask for something, be it officials, nurses, dentists or teachers, had the expectation of getting something in return. The whole society ran like a giant "one red paperclip" experiment, with people constantly exchanging bribes and favors and looking for best deals for themselves without any regard for laws and fairness.

> You are either a Russian troll, someone with an undisclosed agenda, or a naive 13 y/o.

Woah, the personal attack because someone has a different opinion and had a different experience than you.

My family never had it bad during communism, still they didn't love it and large parts of my family emigrated to western Europe between the 70s and 80s.

But that doesn't make socialist countries the miserable dystopias you paint, that was just never our experience.

The reason why parts of my family emigrated is simply because life in western Europe was more comfortable and enjoyed more freedom (of movement especially).

If anything it seems that _you_ are the one spewing falsehood.

I suspect part of the reason for the incorrect (in general) things you say is that you seem to be german from your profile, and yes, Eastern Germany was way more controlled and the epicenter of the things you describe. But cross the border to Poland, Yugoslavia or Ukraine and none of the things you describe were anywhere part of the average person's life.

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