You'd be surprised how many of them still yearn for the *right* kind of authoritarianism and at their mental acrobatics skills to justify the current moment.
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tbh i might be *better* positioned to learn it as a general lesson than they are. they mostly gave me a lot of really good Things That Mean Bad Shit, i have no affinity for them whatsoever. whereas they maybe still have some reflexive concept that this was not completely a terrible idea
aug 30, 2025, 5:52 pm • 1 0 • view
to me, it's just a series of horror stories, there is no nostalgia whatsoever
aug 30, 2025, 5:52 pm • 1 0 • view
Relatedly, what blackpilled me regarding the purported immunity of American system against cults of personality is that, even though the fall of the USSR was in part precipitated by so many powerful exposés of the horrors of Stalinism, they decided, nah, they still want personalist dictatorship.
aug 30, 2025, 5:57 pm • 2 0 • view
Seven decades of Soviet rule led to a deeply ingrained cynicism which, somehow, transitioned to willingness to believe any charismatic charlatan on the teevee. What @hannahgais.bsky.social described in this article I witnessed firsthand as a teen in Russia. thebaffler.com/latest/psych...
aug 30, 2025, 6:01 pm • 5 0 • view
Yeah a good portion of my family are insane trump folks and their specific reasoning is that he’s a strong leader who can crush the communists
aug 30, 2025, 5:53 pm • 7 0 • view
They lesson they took was not to hate authoritarians, just anything that reeks of communism
aug 30, 2025, 5:54 pm • 5 0 • view
Where, it should be noted, their definition of communism has lost any anchor in reality and can mean whatever they want it to mean.
aug 30, 2025, 5:57 pm • 6 0 • view
it means foreign policy that is insufficiently belligerent and any domestic policy they do not like, ez
aug 30, 2025, 5:58 pm • 1 0 • view
But now it also includes culture war slop.
aug 30, 2025, 6:05 pm • 3 0 • view
Yeah the definition of communism is incredibly broad for the folks I know
aug 30, 2025, 7:23 pm • 2 0 • view
Lawless expropriation of stakes in large industrial enterprises at the commanding heights of the economy, in return for public money: not communism (Right Intel?)
aug 30, 2025, 5:59 pm • 5 0 • view
Sorry to interfere, really I recommend trying European-style social democracy (old style)
aug 30, 2025, 7:26 pm • 2 0 • view
We can have a bit of state capitalism, as a treat.
aug 30, 2025, 6:02 pm • 5 0 • view