"Core of American Freedom Propaganda" - Soviet Poster, 1973

"In America, there is freedom

For those who strangle the people.

But the working people there

Are “free” from freedom."

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The Soviets would have known: it takes one to know one.
Having said that, the message was correct, even though the messenger wasn't exactly in a position of higher moral authority.
- The Soviet union was absolutely in a position of higher moral authority having been the champion of actual tangible human rights. Learn some history so as not make a clown of yourself in public. The Soviet Union was a leader in human rights, particularly in advancing women's liberation and supporting decolonial movements. The USSR set significant precedents for progressive social policies.
  Here are just a few examples. The USSR implemented a system of free education accessible to all citizens, regardless of gender or class. Women were encouraged to participate in politics and professional fields, challenging traditional gender roles. USSR was first to enact policies ensuring equal pay for equal work, provided maternity leave and free childcare, and promoted gender equality and support working families. A comprehensive healthcare system was established, providing free or low-cost medical services to all citizens. The USSR undertook large-scale housing projects to address the post-WWII housing shortage, providing affordable and state-provided housing options for millions of citizens. Pensions, disability benefits, and other social safety nets were introduced to support elderly individuals, those unable to work, and families in need. The government supported cultural activities and arts, ensuring that all citizens had access to cultural events and education, promoting inclusivity and enriching social life. The Soviets actively supported anti-colonial movements and advocated for decolonization, providing assistance to newly independent nations and participating in international human rights efforts.
  
  The Soviet union absolutely in a position of higher moral authority
  I stopped reading right there.
  One acronym: GULAG.
  
  I stopped reading
  Sums up why you hold the views you do. You also go on to suggest Communists are equivalent to Nazis, which has roots in Double Genocide Theory and originated as a form of Holocaust trivialization. For more on that, read Blackshirts and Reds.
  Ultimately, the Soviets absolutely hold a higher moral standing than the US ever did and its numerous genocides against Vietnamese, Korean, and Cambodian peoples, and its attempted crushing of Cubans, all in the same time. Meanwhile the Soviets played a liberatory role in all of those areas and fought for Palestinian liberation and Algerian liberation.
  
  And people like you are proof that gulags are necessary.
  
  You tankies are seriously messed up in the brain. It's quite amazing the amount of patently crazy history rewriting and BS you lot can spew out without flinching.
  Hint: saying "you are proof that gulags are necessary" under any circumstances puts you in the same category of despicables as neo-Nazis, and a total waste of oxygen.
  
  Have you ever read a history book that wasn't assigned to you by your government?
  
  I did better than that: I talked to people who lived in the Soviet Union.
  
  I lived in the Soviet Union, and you clearly don't want to hear what I have to say. It's pretty clear that the only thing you care to hear is a narrative that supports your biases. You're very transparent.
  
  I lived in the Soviet Union
  I'm sure you did.
  The only people I met who lived in the Soviet Union who missed it after its disappearance were military, police, and civil servants. They were treated fairly well. Either you were one of them, or - more likely - you have vivid dreams.
  you clearly don’t want to hear what I have to say.
  Indeed I don't.
  
  You don't have to take my word for it dullard, you can go read about how people who lived in USSR feel now that they got a taste of the alternative.
  A remarkable 72% of Hungarians say that most people in their country are actually worse off today economically than they were under communism. Only 8% say most people in Hungary are better off, and 16% say things are about the same. In no other Central or Eastern European country surveyed did so many believe that economic life is worse now than during the communist era. This is the result of almost universal displeasure with the economy. Fully 94% describe the country's economy as bad, the highest level of economic discontent in the hard hit region of Central and Eastern Europe. Just 46% of Hungarians approve of their country's switch from a state-controlled economy to a market economy; 42% disapprove of the move away from communism. The public is even more negative toward Hungary's integration into Europe; 71% say their country has been weakened by the process.
  The most incredible result was registered in a July 2010 IRES (Romanian Institute for Evaluation and Strategy) poll, according to which 41% of the respondents would have voted for Ceausescu, had he run for the position of president. And 63% of the survey participants said their life was better during communism, while only 23% attested that their life was worse then. Some 68% declared that communism was a good idea, just one that had been poorly applied.
  Glorification of the German Democratic Republic is on the rise two decades after the Berlin Wall fell. Young people and the better off are among those rebuffing criticism of East Germany as an "illegitimate state." In a new poll, more than half of former eastern Germans defend the GDR.
  A poll shows that as many as 81 per cent of Serbians believe they lived best in the former Yugoslavia -"during the time of socialism". The survey focused on the respondents' views on the transition "from socialism to capitalism", and a clear majority said they trusted social institutions the most during the rule of Yugoslav communist president Josip Broz Tito. The standard of living during Tito's rule from the Second World War to the 1980s was also assessed as best, whereas the Milosevic decade of the 1990s, and the subsequent decade since the fall of his regime are seen as "more or less the same". 45 percent said they trusted social institutions most under communism with 23 percent choosing the 2001-2003 period when Zoran Djinđic was prime minister. Only 19 per cent selected present-day institutions.
  75% of Russians have expressed increasingly positive opinions about the Soviet Union over the years. Only a small portion of those surveyed said they had negative associations with the Soviet Union. The economic deficit, long lines and coupons were named by 4% of respondents each, while the Iron Curtain, economic stagnation and political repressions were named by 1% each, the Levada Center said.
  Former Soviet Countries See More Harm From Breakup
  That's the real world as opposed to your deranged fantasies.
  
  Ooh, tell me about that. How did you meet?
  
  I would tell you but I know how this conversation will probably end: you're going to tell me I met the wrong people and I have no idea what really went on in the Soviet Union, and I should learn the real history of the USSR and whatever nonsense flies in the face of decades of evidence and Occam's razor here on Lemmy. So no, sorry, I'm not going with the sealioning.
  
  You plugging your ears and yapping is not the own you think it is. You clearly know nothing of the Soviet Union nor of the Gulags, and instead of actually engaging in good faith you just dismiss everyone as evil tankies.
  Either provide proof of your claims or have the humility of listening to those that clearly know better than you.
  To dismiss all the advancements in the USSR and to equate them to the Nazis is beyond baffling, it's disgusting, it's ahistorical, and spits in the face of the people that actually defeated Nazism.
  
  I think I'll use Occam's Razor myself - you're probably just lying.
  
  If I'm trying to make a point, I try to substantiate it with evidence, not just generalizing about how I imagine the conversation is going to go. I've never talked with anyone from the USSR, but have known some from Cuba (as well as researchers who've worked there for an interval). There's some variety in the perspectives, some are more negative, but there's a clear throughline: even where the state takes a repressive position, these socialist countries are miles ahead of their comparable Western counterparts in all areas of social development. There's a reason that after the fall of the USSR, there was a marked decrease in women's rights, acceptance of queer people, and the safety of ethnic or racial minorities in the region. We can talk about the USSR's shortcomings at serving these groups' needs, but the myth of the USSR as a monolithic, socially conservative "redfash" state is laughable. It is simply untrue and any conversation with people who resided in the USSR or any socialist state, or just picking up a book by someone who isn't sponsored by the Victims of Communism organization, should show that these minorities have benefitted from the proactive socialist state's initiatives for their benefit much more than they've been held back by certain missteps (to be clear, there have been missteps).
  
  Didn't take long for the horseshoe theory to rear its head. I love how all the dronie bots run on the same script. 🤣
  
  Idiots advocating murderous concentration camps and wishing people where imprisoned and died in them can be found left and right of the political spectrum. They're not the same thing, but they have three things in common:
  They like dictactorships and things that dictatorships do, whether it's a fascist of communist dictatorship.
  They don't know history, or cherry-pick what suits their crazy narrative.
  They're nauseating.
  And you're one of them.
  The only horseshoe here is the one that obviously hit you in the head when you walked behind the horse and it reared, probably.
  
  idiots making straw man arguments when they have nothing of value to say
  
  I can tell by your vocabulary that you are british therefore your opinion is worthless.

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