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Man im pretty socialist who lives in ex east germany with my parents actually being parz of that time and i gotta tell you, with what i hear from them, it was horrible
"Throughout Eastern Europe and the former USSR, many people grudgingly admitted that conditions were better under communism (New York Times, 3/30/95). Pro-capitalist Angela Stent, of George- town University, allows that "most people are worse off than they were under Communism . . . . The quality of life has deteriorated with the spread of crime and the disappearance of the social safety net" (New York Times, 12/20/93). An East German steelworker is quoted as saying "I do not know if there is a future for me, and I'm not too hopeful. The fact is, I lived better under Communism" (New York Times, 3/3/91). An elderly Polish woman, reduced to one Red Cross meal a day: "I´m not Red but I have to say life for poor people was better before .... Now things are good for businessmen but not for us poor" (New York Times, 3/17/91). One East German woman commented that the West German womens movement was only beginning to fight for "what we already had here... We took it for granted because of the socialist system. Now we realize what we [lost]" (Los Angeles Times, 8/6/91)." Michael Parenti - "Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism".
A new book by Kristen Ghodsee, an anthropologist at the University of Pennsylvania, argues that women have better sex under socialism.
If that sounds strange to you, consider this: A survey of East and West Germans after reunification in 1990 found that Eastern women (the socialist side of Germany during the Cold War) had twice as many orgasms as Western women.
What in the world accounts for such a wide gap?
According to Ghodsee, it’s about social safety nets. If, she argues, you build a society that supports women and doesn’t punish them for having children or devalue their labor, it turns out they’ll be happier and have better sex.
But it doesn't matter how many studies or surveys or policy differences you point to -- some guy always has an old relative whose story outweighs everything.
What exactly are these quotes supposed to prove? This was what, a few months or a few years after reunification? Any social change that large is going to cause some turbulence. And of course Parenti has an agenda, so he wouldn't include someone lauding their new experience.
ahhh yes... horrible as in:
- guaranteed housing and employment
- a non-discriminatory education system
- 0% unemployment
- low taxes
- an actually functional railway network
- a highly developed health care system that didn't discriminate on basis of class
- guaranteed childcare
- womens rights way more advanced than in western germany at the time
- and most importantly no fascists in government
and no, i dont wanna say that there were no deficiencies, but it is rather obvious to me that it was quite the opposite of "horrible"!
also, what the hell do you mean by "pretty socialist"?
Ah yes the oh so good DDR with exciting features such as
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no freedom of movement
-
constant shortage of any goods
-
being a dictatorship
-
(contrary to your first point) a housing shortage
-
a culture so dictated by work that people had little to no free time
-
political pressure
-
control over the media
-
the fucking stasi
And what i mean by pretty socialist is: everyone gets equal opportunities no matter what race, religion, gender, political views, etc. I want that chad - who just lost all his belongings - has the same chance to live a fulfilled live as elon musk has. I abhorr the fact that there are billionaire's or even just millionaire's while other people have to choose between paying rent or eating, and those people not even being in the worst situation compared to others.
I want almost, but not completely, communism
Love how you counter concrete, material facts like "guaranteed housing, employment, and childcare" with fact-free scare mongering like "political pressure" and "control over the media."
There's never any analysis about what this shit really means. "The fucking stasi" gets thrown out there like "the boogeyman" without even a thought towards how the U.S. security state violently repressed a nationwide movement against police violence in 2020, or how right now that same security state is violently repressing people protesting the genocide we're supplying. You're supposed to belive the stasi is the worst thing possible without ever digging into how it functioned, and certainly without asking how it compared to other states.
no freedom of movement
Source?
- constant shortage of any goods
Think about why this might be, Friend. Really think hard about it. What large geopolitical things were happening at the time?
- being a dictatorship
Yes, of the proletariat
- (contrary to your first point) a housing shortage
Again, source? Also, wondering what you think happened before East Germany existed that might have contributed to this. Surely this changed over time
- a culture so dictated by work that people had little to no free time
Because people working 3 jobs under capitalism have so much free time? What does this even mean?
- political pressure
Again, what does this mean? All Political cultures and institutions exert pressures on their population... That's how politics works.
- control over the media
I'll agree that the siege mentality of much of former socialism led to a lack of press freedom, which was ultimately detrimental, but again... Why might this have been?
- the fucking stasi
Quick, name the West German secret police!
Let's assume for a minute that everything you've said is entirely true. If we're to be thoughtful about this. East Germany was a historically poorer, agrarian, region of Germany, much less industrialized, artificially lopped off from the west (not by the USSR, btw, who wanted a unified, nonaligned Germany, like the allies had done with Austria), it was heavily sanctioned, had been bombed to shit, much like the rest of Europe, but was made to pay the USSR reparations, that it wasn't as capable of paying, as a unified Germany would have been. The USSR even dismantled entire east German factories and shipped them back to rebuild their own industrial base.
How do you expect any country to not come out of that with considerable problems?
And the GDR did have considerable problems. I think you and I would disagree on what those problems were, but in the broad strokes, that much we can agree on.
But I would contend that, even with that in mind, East Germany ended up being a much more positive socialist experiment in many respects then say, Romania, which suffered a much more severe centralization of power, and cult of personality issues, then East Germany did.
In fact, looking at the makeup of the East German Parliament and its mass organizations, there was a much greater degree of representation of various social cleavages then in some other Eastern Bloc states.
While you could say argue that this was only 'on paper', that really depends on what period of East German history you're looking at, as the electoral system was altered a handful of times.
Regardless though, this was an expression of the fact that East Germany had a more open Political culture due to its institutions being establisehed as part of an intended nonaligned, unified, German state. And due to the fact that it had received the socializing effects of industrial capitalism that gave it things like an incredibly progressive Queer movement, that other Eastern Bloc states, which were formerly feudal backwaters, hadn't developed.
Tl;Dr - this shit is a lot more complicated than listing off bullet points for "why East Germany was Evil", That I was taught in the 7th grade.
Many capitalist countries have a lot of that now.
The problem isn't capitalism or communism but people that exploit thos systems
I dont think capitalism is being exploited. I think its doing exactly what it was designed to do.
But when the same things happen under other systems, that's different.
im sorry but you seem to have been fed quite a few western myths about the gdr. you seem to be arguing in good faith though, so lets examine:
no freedom of movement
this is just plain wrong. tourism was possible and encouraged not only within the country, but also to fellow socialist states like czechoslovakia and hungary, as well as, albeit to a lesser extent the soviet union. such trips were enjoyed by virtually the entire population thanks to guaranteed vacation time.
constant shortage of goods
shortages were only a thing in the immediate aftermath of ww2, as well as during the 1980s. in the second case they were caused by the economic liberalization enacted at the time due to western pressure, as well as the general deterioration of conditions in the eastern block at the time, which happened for similar reasons. during the late 60s and 70s per capita consumption was more or less equal to the west.
being a dictatorship
every state is necessarily a dictatorship, as this is important for class preservation. just as liberal states will mercilessly crush revolutionary elements, so must socialist societies crush counterrevolutionary ones. please read engels on authority to understand this point better. it is a short read and very eye opening.
a housing shortage
any source on this claim? the only periods i can imagine this to be the case is in the beginning due to war era destruction and the end due to crisis.
a culture so dictated by work that people had little to no free time
this is in fact a valid point. a solution for this could have been found within the socialist system though.
political pressure
already answered previously in the point about "dictatorship".
control over the media
"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."
– v. i. lenin
the fucking stasi
the mfs was necessary due to the constant threat of counterrevolution going out from west germany. but its reach and capabilities are much overblown in western propaganda nowadays. in fact, the east spent much less on its intelligence apparatus than the frg while still managing to have a lower crime rate.
the goals you stated are extremely noble and i do in fact agree with every single one of them. you are being idealist though, which means that you absolutely need to read theory, especially lenin. a good reading list can be found here. if you would educate yourself properly you could become a great contribution to the communist movement.
"Every state is necessarily a dictatorship" good gracious me what a horrifying sentiment
why? thats just a fact. a liberal state is the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, while a socialist state is the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Or, you know, we could not have a dictatorship. Granted, pretty much every large country in the world is struggling with that step right now.
thats exactly what the dictatorship of the proletariat is for! after the exploiting classes are eliminated, the state will wither away, leaving a classless society, aka communism. this takes much time though.
-
This is bullshit. I will refute most of your points as someone who has lived in Socialist Hungary before the iron curtain.
- Housing was not guaranteed. You were assigned lodging based on need. If you had no children, you were staying with your parents and two siblings in the 1BR apartment. Once you got a kid, if you were a young couple, you got an apartment with an elderly in it, that you had to take care of along with your new born, until their death. After that the apartment would be yours. To overcome the shortages of housing, the government invested into building temporary housing called panel buildings. They were not meant to last for more than twenty years.
- Education was discriminatory in the sense that those favoured by the party got a pass. You have long hair? Your dad had long hair? You are a Gypsy? Yeah sure, you can pass elementary grade 8, but you sure as hell won't be allowed to go into a four-year highschool for your profession and graduation . Best you could hope for is a 2 year middle school for a manual labour job (szakmunkásképző). If at all. Often it's off to the fields for you to work at the communal fields.
- 0% unemployment because if you are unemployed you go to prison. Off to the fields or else!
- Sales tax (VAT) has been 25% even before 1988
- The railway system the country has was all built before the second world war. It got maintained during socialism, but the best they could do was put train drivers on concession show trials and execute them when accidents happened instead of actually improving the system. To this day the max speed on these rail lines is 120kmph and many of the smaller lines are falling into disrepair and unelectrified.
- Healthcare was universal, however it was not highly developed nor without discrimination. What was true for education was also true here. You better be a good party member or else. If you were lucky, you had a relative working in healthcare to skip waiting lines (I've benefited of this a lot)
- This one was a given. Although you still had to pay for meals for your kid at the daycare. But the times were also different back then. Those responsible for child care were not necessarily professionals and hitting children if they had misbehaved was still a thing.
- I don't think this had a measurable comparison in any way. How do you draw comparisons?
- Ahh yes, how nice. Went from nazi dictatorship to literal Russia planted dictatorships in both East Germany and Hungary ('56).
Standard tankie tactic of telling people that literally lived under Soviet regime that they're wrong about their own experience. Stfu man
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Grayjay
My family escaped to West Germany shortly after the war. They escaped starvation and joblessness. You are wrong.
so all youre telling me that after the county was almost completely destroyed during ww2, the situation was dire? no fucking shit, sherlock.
An actually ideologically socialist government wouldn't have made them feel the need to flee, and would have done better picking up the pieces
And much more so than the Allied controlled western side, hence the escape genuis.
Good luck getting any of that like healthcare or housing without bribing. Or buying tampons in a shop lol.
Are you 13 years old or just trolling? No one can be that brain washed.
why are reactionaries always assuming that their opponents are children? only because you are a teenager living within the imperial core, consuming nothing but nato propaganda, you shouldnt assume that everyone else is an equivalent.
No. it's just an immature position
in order to appreciate socialism, one must have studied capitalism. yet you liberals are so smug, having studied neither.
... would you be happy in prison, on the basis that there's food and housing and you can take correspondence courses?
- and most importantly no fascists in government
Like it matters what color the Secret Police's armbands are. But hey, your kids will be taken care of! Even if... something happens to you.