It’s worth noting that the USSR ended the Gulag system in the 1960s while capitalist countries like the united states continue to use prison as a means for cheap (practically unpaid) forced labor. Soviet prisoners were also paid comparable wages to free workers not only out of principle but so they would not be severely disadvantaged once out of prison.

It feels like you are struggling to understand historical events and entities as parts of historical processes. Yes the USSR did stuff we look back at and go, wow that was fucked up huh. That’s to be expected as we have historically progressed from the point they were at. The USSR wasn’t gonna undo centuries of social conditioning in a decade, that was not feasible. You can’t thanos snap homophobia from existence by royal decree. I would have loved if the Soviet Union spawned into existence with all the values I have today but it didn’t. It was birthed with all the prejudices of working people in Czarist Russia and had to eat away at them over time. Not only this, it came about in a world of prejudices and was consistently surrounded by them. They weren’t going to have an ideological epiphany that severely broke from their tradition and world culture for no reason.

You’re doing historical anachronism

It depends on the circles you run in. I’m getting my history degree at an American university and tbh it’s often

All over the world, wherever there are capitalists, freedom of the press means freedom to buy up newspapers, to buy writers, to bribe, buy and fake “public opinion” for the benefit of the bourgeoisie.

– Lenin

Indeed 😔

I’m told it is an edit 😔

I don’t even use reddit. I use lemmy, newpipe (subscription only feed so I choose what I see), and downloaded music from artists who my friends have recommended. If I can’t discover something through word of mouth I simply won’t discover it simple as. Keeps me from being on my phone forever.

The real answer is I don’t use anything with recommendation algorithms and blocked all the lemmy users that post AI

Lowkey it was funny though, haven’t heard that one before

I know in my heart this picture was taken in Serbia

Damn, Idk if he was ahead of his time or if it has just always been like this

If I am not already on a list I’d be very upset tbh

Okay that’s admittedly fair

Sure but I can’t be removed from the memories of the participants

This guy doesn’t know the lore

It is for pecking at their lenses

Of course, I don’t like the term “elite” either and honestly should have altered the meme

Fascist don’t “revolt” because they do not inact revolutionary change. They preserve the existing dominance of capital. They also aren’t the majority of people, they only seem that way in the western context. Most people do not live in imperial core nations. The next big revolutions will come out of Africa, Latin America, and Asia. These revolutions will weaken the imperial states to the point that they to can be revolted against (imo)

There is a reason we identify bourgeoisie through their direct connection to the system of production as owners of the means of production. You can’t swap out elite for “any other group” because the reasoning would be gone. “Any other group” is not directly responsible for the impoverishment of the imperial periphery, for their acute destitution. “Any other group” is not funding paramilitary death squads to control resources that make number go up. “Any other group” doesn’t knowingly uphold the system that makes homelessness necessary. “Any other group” doesn’t regularly commit genocides. If you are comfortable trying to vote these people out of existence feel free to walk into that swamp but don’t try convincing others to do so.

I understand your fear. I am also scared. I’m deathly fucking terrified of revolution. I am terrified of what the state will do to me for daring to challenge them. I am terrified of what they will do to the people I love. I am terrified of what it will take for the average American to fight back. I desperately want to run and flee the country but we are beyond that epoch. There is no safe place to run to. It is cowardice to blind yourself and believe we can simply ask them to stop. Hell, it isn’t just cowardice, it’s dangerous. The longer we wait to end this system the more people it will slaughter. I fear the state but my fear is outweighed by the shame of doing nothing while I watch it commit unspeakable acts in my name.

Revolution is not a tea party or a bed of roses. Any revolutionary will tell you this, all of them know it. I know in my heart I won’t live to my parents age. I know in my heart I will see and experience horrors they have never suffered. Most likely I die a miserable lonely death not even knowing the fates of those I love. And I’m angry about it.

Collapse is already coming, climate change is going to fuck us. If we are going to collapse anyway why not revolt and save those who can be saved. They certainly won’t be saved by our current leadership.