Pierre121000
And you may be interested to know what kind of government Taiwanese had until 1987(, as well as Hong-Kong before 1984), or not, i'm just saying. Bye :)
Once again diprount_tomato was talking about countries outside of the u.s.s.r., those inside were there before, sometimes for centuries. But even inside the u.s.s.r., they weren't forced to stay once it dislocated, despite being much more integrated than the u.k. ever was, not sure we could tell the same about the u.s.a. if one of your states decided to leave
For Finland, you're absolutely right for the first link you provided about the Winter war, thank you very much for the correction, i already knew about the Molotov cocktails named after their enemy so i should have remembered, seems like they were still salty about this loss of territory, i.d.k., yet i also provided arguments in favor of an initial "hunky dory" relation, it's possible that it degraded over time for reasons other than merely territorial, perhaps like in Ukraine, i wouldn't be surprised if Finland was used as an anti-communist spearhead and that security reasons weren't that much of an excuse. Some further reading would need to be done.
As for the baltic states, they were in the russian empire as well, before the u.s.s.r., you can't blame them for refusing to destroy everything once they took power, we wouldn't have done so in their position.
And once again Poland wasn't part of the u.s.s.r., cf. my remarks on the puppet states if that's the road you want to take. I could agree that states of the Warsaw pact were influenced by their leaders just like countries in the n.a.t.o. are influenced by their american leader.
What you called soviet invasion and american liberation would have been called exactly the opposite by the french communists.
Why would it be b.s. to start with China ? You do know that they would have recovered Taiwan more than 70 years ago if it wasn't for the american naval forces ?
But whatever, i can't force you to open your eyes, do what you consider to be just, and thanks for reading my comments.
I included these graphs because people are saying that communism doesn't work, which is why we have to sanction them to death, for their own good(, and also because all of our enemies are dictators, what a coincidence, that's a manipulation easy to disprove, old allies are suddenly depicted as authoritarians as soon as they change allegiances, while true authoritarians aren't talked about, N.Chomsky and many others already proved this over and over).
Freedom has always been our sole argument, without which we have nothing left to defend our side. And it's not even a good one since poverty is slavery, "freely" working to fatten our annuitants lord capitalists. The entrepreneurial freedom isn't that bad though, we all have to learn from each other and i would prefer for all ideologies to cohabit together instead of only one of them imposing his unique view. Think it was Hegel who said that theses need antitheses in order to evolve into better syntheses.
I haven't lived under the Stasi's threat so for all i know i may be wrong and you may be right about the accusations of authoritarianism. It's easy to prove that their paranoia wasn't delusional though, they faced more powerful countries(, remember McCarthyism when the u.s.a. still thought that they were in a dangerous position, kinda isolated/outnumbered ? As stupid as it may seem, i quickly read the short comic "superman : red son", and was pleasantly surprised to see that the author depicted an authoritarian u.s.a. once it began to lose the cold war, with economic difficulties, state separatism, ..., that's an honest take which should probably be kept in mind when discussing the soviet's alleged authoritarianism, the only thing we remember about their society)
And our representatives were elected by a population who believed our propaganda when it celebrated the west achievements while omitting the soviets ones, when it vilified the soviet's actions and omitted our numerous misdeeds, ...
My point about authoritarianism is that it isn't inherent to communist ideals(, on the contrary, "democratic socialism in deeds and not in words" has a meaning), and since «whomever wants to drown his dog accuses him of rage», i'm almost certain that they were exagerated, Solzhenitsyn wasn't celebrated around the West for humanitarian reasons.
When you see how many impossible odds the u.s.s.r. had to face before the second world war you can understand their authoritarianism, understandable in war conditions, and the Moscow trials were during the Spanish civil war, Trostkyists were indeed traitors collaborating against communists, including in Asia, while the black book of communism with its 100M death claims has been abundantly debunked, gulags were a sad thing of course but opposing communism "because freedom" is idiotic, i'm sorry.
As for Syria, we both share an insignificant portion of the pain felt by the syrians, but i blame the west for opposing Bachar al-Assad(, elected by his population), while you blame him for not submitting. Fortunately Russia helped, we wouldn't consider V.Putin a dictator if he was aligned with our actions around the globe, i could give you as many surveys as you want proving that he didn't ever needed to cheat in the elections, contrary to our usual propaganda about our enemies, etc.
They were a part of the Warsaw pact, not the u.s.s.r., if they called dibs over the territory they would have the same leader.
For the accusations of puppet states see the answer you replied to, i could say the same about n.a.to., the c.i.s., the e.u., ... How to be united in diversity is an interesting topic of conversation
As for Finland, not only was it not invaded by the communists, but they were the ones signing its independence from the russian empire.
Was the u.s.s.r. a country or a union ? Even modern Russia is a federation, we don't accuse the e.u. of having invaded other european countries, that's partly why this topic of "diverse yet united" is so interesting.
Yeah i know(, that it's a "far"-right political party(, not nazi, or else it's hidden)), people dissatisfied with the current situation are voting either "extreme"-right or "extreme"-left, because what they understand the most is that they want to experiment a new situation, hoping that it will be better than the current one, the famous "protest vote". That's why poor people are voting far-right against their own interests, as if it'd solve their socio-economic problems(, i'm obviously biased in this assessment).
As a german, you already know that communism was very popular in Germany during the 20s(, Marx&Engels came from there after all), and that nazis were fighting them in the street, there were deaths every week between them. Capitalist's medias saw the growing popular disdain for the center and took an easy choice.
WHAT ?
Oh man, it is the number one "policeman" by far. Here's an example :
Here's a longer list if you're interested : https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/us_atrocities.md
Here's a source from the congress itself, even if it doesn't include covert/unofficial operations it's still quite lengthy : https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/details?prodcode=R42738
I.d.k., what more proofs do you want ?
And were you still talking about Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary in your last comment ? Because they weren't in the u.s.s.r. but in a military/.. alliance, like n.a.t.o., the e.u., or the c.i.s. Is it because their republics were different than ours ? It'd be another talk then.
I've heard that their history books talk about european history(, Charlemagne, ...), that's insane, i didn't believed it at first(, and still suppose that it was exaggerated, and that their school books probably talk less about the history of Greece, Rome, and western Europe, than Africa and the rest of the world).
I can attest as someone living in France that we know much more about allied/useful countries like Japan and Korea(, and the u.s.a. of course,) than about other african countries that speak french, we can't expect them to seek a strong alliance/union with us if we don't know their cultures, these ties will fade if the french government does nothing linked to them except anti-immigration laws to preserve our so-called "french" "historic" culture, we could begin by t.v. shows partnering with them, but it only shows how our efforts to maintain these (cultural/.. )ties are close to none, we could have salvaged some connection with them(, not economic). We're living in a bubble, afraid of foreign "disinformation".
And while westerners forget(never learn) about our actions to preserve a favorable status quo, africans are more aware than us of what we did in their country, and probably also in Asia, the Middle-East, South America, and their own continent.
If we succeed in being united in uniformity, like we're fighting for, then does it mean that future schisms will be sanctioned ? Is it even worth fighting for hegemony if a diverse union is more desirable ?
Honestly he's right, the most ressources/..-rich continent is suspiciously the poorest, it can't continue like that, i've only theories(, protectionnism//liberalism, exportation of raw materials to import manufactured goods, crazy compounded interests, ..., i've started two posts on this topic this past year w/o ending them), but i certainly hope it'll change, as soon as possible.
And we(sterners) shouldn't simply stop benefiting from the global South, but actively help each other instead, to the point of slowing/stopping our growth for them, 'and then they'll help in return later if we need it'/'simply because we can&should'.
(That's partly how/why a union is still possible/desirable, and how 'a muslim/christian/.. behave'/'the Kingdom/City of God comes unto the Earth', if we 'seek the Supreme Good in deeds and not in words'/'take religion seriously')
