4 ms·

Why America Feels Like a Post-Soviet State

23 points by colinprince 6y ago

seibelj 6y ago
> One similarity that unites them, however, is radical inequality. In the Soviet Union, members of the Party élite lived in a different universe than the rest of the country. They had their own neighborhoods, schools, roads, resorts, stores, and, of course, their own health-care system. This is still true. A wealthy and well-connected Russian can receive world-class medical care, while ordinary people are reduced, much like in Soviet days, to having to buy their own disposable syringes and pay cash for nursing care in the hospital. The left-wing in the USA is in full-on live action roleplay mode (LARP). Anyone who isn't trolling cannot possibly say the Soviet Union, a country that murdered tens of millions of people for thought crimes by sending them to gulags or just shooting them in the head, is even remotely close to the USA, where our media feels free to mock and criticize Trump (as they should!), which is unlike the USSR or present communist China. My wife's family fled communism, and my father in law would read this and shake his head. It is so unfortunate in this country that rich, educated people sip their lattes and use their Macbooks and then have the audacity to rail against the capitalist system as if it's Soviet Russia! Absolute insanity.
- bigfudge 6y ago
  The title is ‘post-soviet state’. The article doesn’t liken the US to soviet era Russia, but rather to 90s era. > The intentional institutional ineptitude and callous nihilism of contemporary Russian society is the product of a seventy-year Soviet totalitarian experiment—or so I have long believed. No such experiment took place in the United States. So how is it that the pandemic has made the U.S. resemble the post-Soviet Russian state?
- neutronicus 6y ago
  They're drawing a comparison to current-day (post-Soviet) Russia, not Stalin's Russia. I'll admit it's muddled, though, since they're referring to Chernobyl.
- happytoexplain 6y ago
  Try to make a criticism without accusing 40-80 million people of "LARPing".
- enkid 6y ago
  Woah there, that's a lot of generalizations. Do you really think that either 1.) All people making these comparisons have Macbooks and drink lattes (whatever that means), or 2.) that all people who have Macbooks and drink lattes rail against capitalism? And if they did, I have to wonder, why does that matter? Does that actually make their argument any less true? The truth is, right now it seems like the United States government is not making decisions on the way the world is, but rather on the way the president wants it to be. This is bad governance. This is the type of bad governance that directly led to the fall of the Soviet Union. That's what the article is talking about. If you don't like that, attack that portion of the article, instead of the imaginary people who are making this argument.
- chasd00 6y ago
  i couldn't agree more. " I spent most of my professional life writing about: the Soviet Union and also the Russian state that was born after its collapse but which couldn’t shake many of its traits." I'd challenge the author to meet and get to know someone who has spent most of their professional life living in the Soviet Union and the Russian state that was born after.
  - baal80spam 6y ago
    I live in a country that felt the proverbial Soviet boot and after reading "articles" like the one in the OP I am pretty sure that the author has no idea what he's talking about and needs to change his history book provider.
    - agency 6y ago
      The author was born and raised in the Soviet Union and lived in Moscow from 1991 to 2013. Perhaps it is you who needs to work on their research?
  - agency 6y ago
    The author (Masha Gessen [1]) was born and raised in the Soviet Union, moved to the US in 1981 as a refugee, and returned to Russia in 1991 and lived there until 2013. That sure makes them seem qualified to make this comparison to me. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masha_Gessen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masha_Gessen
- datameta 6y ago
  The unstoppable urge to exclaim "Aha!" and point out how famously the comfortable and well-off have been misled by the author might keep one from seeing the big picture. Nobody is likening the current state of the US to the USSR of 1937-38 mass executions fame as is evident if one reads the article. The parallels that are being drawn are all too familiar to my family and reflect attitudes from the latter half of the 20th century that have remained in the cultures of most post-soviet states. The tremendous pull to value appearance over substance is ever present in the current U.S. administration.
danbolt 6y ago
This article might not be the most fun read for folks, but I think it does paint a good argument of a culture that encourages presenting good news to your boss even when there is none isn't a healthy practice.
acephal 6y ago
Isn't this, put another way, Taleb's ethical precept of "having skin in the game?" - Post-Soviet and Trump Administration governments both demonstrate a complete lack of stakes in the outcome of the common person. The only place they have "skin in the game" is in the reified virtual reality of an insular bureaucracy.

23 points by colinprince 6y ago

> One similarity that unites them, however, is radical inequality. In the Soviet Union, members of the Party élite lived in a different universe than the rest of the country. They had their own neighborhoods, schools, roads, resorts, stores, and, of course, their own health-care system. This is still true. A wealthy and well-connected Russian can receive world-class medical care, while ordinary people are reduced, much like in Soviet days, to having to buy their own disposable syringes and pay cash for nursing care in the hospital. The left-wing in the USA is in full-on live action roleplay mode (LARP). Anyone who isn't trolling cannot possibly say the Soviet Union, a country that murdered tens of millions of people for thought crimes by sending them to gulags or just shooting them in the head, is even remotely close to the USA, where our media feels free to mock and criticize Trump (as they should!), which is unlike the USSR or present communist China. My wife's family fled communism, and my father in law would read this and shake his head. It is so unfortunate in this country that rich, educated people sip their lattes and use their Macbooks and then have the audacity to rail against the capitalist system as if it's Soviet Russia! Absolute insanity.

bigfudge 6y ago
The title is ‘post-soviet state’. The article doesn’t liken the US to soviet era Russia, but rather to 90s era. > The intentional institutional ineptitude and callous nihilism of contemporary Russian society is the product of a seventy-year Soviet totalitarian experiment—or so I have long believed. No such experiment took place in the United States. So how is it that the pandemic has made the U.S. resemble the post-Soviet Russian state?
neutronicus 6y ago
They're drawing a comparison to current-day (post-Soviet) Russia, not Stalin's Russia. I'll admit it's muddled, though, since they're referring to Chernobyl.
happytoexplain 6y ago
Try to make a criticism without accusing 40-80 million people of "LARPing".
enkid 6y ago
Woah there, that's a lot of generalizations. Do you really think that either 1.) All people making these comparisons have Macbooks and drink lattes (whatever that means), or 2.) that all people who have Macbooks and drink lattes rail against capitalism? And if they did, I have to wonder, why does that matter? Does that actually make their argument any less true? The truth is, right now it seems like the United States government is not making decisions on the way the world is, but rather on the way the president wants it to be. This is bad governance. This is the type of bad governance that directly led to the fall of the Soviet Union. That's what the article is talking about. If you don't like that, attack that portion of the article, instead of the imaginary people who are making this argument.
chasd00 6y ago
i couldn't agree more. " I spent most of my professional life writing about: the Soviet Union and also the Russian state that was born after its collapse but which couldn’t shake many of its traits." I'd challenge the author to meet and get to know someone who has spent most of their professional life living in the Soviet Union and the Russian state that was born after.
- baal80spam 6y ago
  I live in a country that felt the proverbial Soviet boot and after reading "articles" like the one in the OP I am pretty sure that the author has no idea what he's talking about and needs to change his history book provider.
  - agency 6y ago
    The author was born and raised in the Soviet Union and lived in Moscow from 1991 to 2013. Perhaps it is you who needs to work on their research?
- agency 6y ago
  The author (Masha Gessen [1]) was born and raised in the Soviet Union, moved to the US in 1981 as a refugee, and returned to Russia in 1991 and lived there until 2013. That sure makes them seem qualified to make this comparison to me. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masha_Gessen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masha_Gessen
datameta 6y ago
The unstoppable urge to exclaim "Aha!" and point out how famously the comfortable and well-off have been misled by the author might keep one from seeing the big picture. Nobody is likening the current state of the US to the USSR of 1937-38 mass executions fame as is evident if one reads the article. The parallels that are being drawn are all too familiar to my family and reflect attitudes from the latter half of the 20th century that have remained in the cultures of most post-soviet states. The tremendous pull to value appearance over substance is ever present in the current U.S. administration.

danbolt 6y ago

This article might not be the most fun read for folks, but I think it does paint a good argument of a culture that encourages presenting good news to your boss even when there is none isn't a healthy practice.

acephal 6y ago

Isn't this, put another way, Taleb's ethical precept of "having skin in the game?" - Post-Soviet and Trump Administration governments both demonstrate a complete lack of stakes in the outcome of the common person. The only place they have "skin in the game" is in the reified virtual reality of an insular bureaucracy.