Thread: Does Communism still have a role to play, or is it dead?

Are you serious? That is disgusting!

And a serious comment: People might think I have taken the position of the USSR in this discussion. I am doing that because I think that many people who are not Russian have misguided or incorrect information about the USSR, based on propaganda and exaggerations. I think it helps if a native English speaker (more or less) who has no sense of old patriotism etc invested, like me, takes the opposite perspective. Plus I genuinely do think there were some good sides to the USSR.

USSR is not the same as communism though. It was more a rather rigid type of socialism... or maybe "state capitalism" as my dad said. If there is ever a country that manages to achieve communism, it probably won't look anything like the USSR. It would probably be a very small country and a people with quite different national characteristics from the Russians.

However this kind of thing really makes me dislike aspects of the USSR!

Freezerbox Magazine - Inside the Zone

Ruthless, uncaring and incredibly unfair treatment of good people who had done absolutely nothing to deserve it. Their own citizens. This was the kind of stuff that came out in the 1990s with a new horrible story every week. Growing up. I had considered myself marginally socialist before then, without even reflecting on it much. But this kind of stuff made me turn my back for a very long time!

While talking about world peace, solidarity and lots of rosy ideals, decent people were allowed to die in what almost certainly must have been an experiment in the effects of radiation.

I know that the USA has been doing stuff like this too, including cruel experiments on their own citizens. But I do think that the USSR did this on a bigger scale than the USA did, and more respect for its own citizens. (The US tends goes abroad for their evil deeds.) The USSR did stuff like this right in their own backyard and people had no fair chance to find out the truth and do something about it, or even protest.

Originally Posted by Hanna

(The US tends goes abroad for their evil deeds.) The USSR did stuff like this right in their own backyard

Are you serious? What's the difference between the presence of the US in Afghanistan and the presence of the USSR in Afghanistan?