news
Welcome to c/news! We aim to foster a book-club type environment for discussion and critical analysis of the news. Our policy objectives are:
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To learn about and discuss meaningful news, analysis and perspectives from around the world, with a focus on news outside the Anglosphere and beyond what is normally seen in corporate media (e.g. anti-imperialist, anti-Zionist, Marxist, Indigenous, LGBTQ, people of colour).
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To encourage community members to contribute commentary and for others to thoughtfully engage with this material.
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To support healthy and good faith discussion as comrades, sharpening our analytical skills and helping one another better understand geopolitics.
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Newcomm and Newsmega Rules:
The Hexbear Code of Conduct and Terms of Service apply here.
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Low effort material: Avoid memes/jokes/shitposts in newscomm posts and top-level replies to the newsmega. This kind of content is OK in post replies and in newsmega sub-threads. We encourage the community to balance their contribution of low effort material with effort posts, links to real news/analysis, and meaningful engagement with material posted in the community.
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American politics: Discussion and effort posts on the (potential) material impacts of American electoral politics is welcome, but the never-ending circus of American Politics© Brought to You by Mountain Dew™ is not welcome. This refers to polling, pundit reactions, electoral horse races, rumors of who might run, etc.
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After the end of the USSR, all post Soviet countries experienced a massive drop in quality of life comparable to war time. Unemployment sky rocketed, government social safety nets were gutted, organized crime skyrocketed, and wealth inequality rise in kind. Western capitalists accelerated the liquidation of post-Soviet governments with IMF loan sharks and neoliberal austerity, which made a few people incredibly rich at the expense of millions.
And we're still seeing the remnant of the system crumble (in the form of healthcare & schooling). I am not saying the crunch that Eastern Europe is facing is clearly the Soviet Union's fault. I am saying it is a one-two punch, that probably started before the first communists came to power in the Soviet Union.
Again, no advocating for capitalism from this lemmyng. I wasn't alive for most of the communist times, but from the shows and movies produced around and after the hardest times, you can get a good sense of what problems people faced. Most are ingrained into humanity (craving power, yaddayadda). Sure, we can all have a hate boner for Bezos&co, but that won't fix our problem.
This place is pretty radical sometimes for my taste, but I hover around, as I do feel kinship. I am happy for the dialogue, despite all the shade.
I appreciate you engaging. People here are just a bit on-edge about contrary takes because it's tough to tell who is in good faith (we've had a huge amount of trolls and bad faith bullshitters over the years)
I think you need to learn more about why we have our perspective on this issue.
For instance the reason why most of us would say there was no liberation after the fall of the USSR is because it was a giant mess that indirectly killed millions and impoverished tens of millions more. The former Soviets found out that a good deal of the ambient hostility coming from the Capitalists wasn't just anti-communist or because they hated the Soviet government but the natural hostility of capitalism toward the working class. A hostility that previously they had been protected against. It was a hell of a shock to find that out. And again, that shock killed millions. So we tend to think that despite the flaws in execution the Soviets had the right ideas about who the enemy of their citizenry really was.
Thank you for the tone.
I'm out on a limb here a bit as well. I'm usually on the other side of this argument.
I'm not too familiar with the history of the core soviet states, just the one satellite. I am sure of the harm the 'free' market style world view causes, but as I do with anyone just bashing communism, I raised word here too, when I noticed a blanket statement that didn't feel right.
Again, thanks for the words. I'll stick around and check in. I've never seen anything like hex.
I know I was pretty snarky in the other comment but as the other user said we get a lot of bad faith around here
Hehh.. It almost feels like a right of passage.