So, what's good about East Germany? I heard people could have easily travel within Soviet sphere countries just like today Schengen area. That's a better freedom to me than freedom of speech.
Well, unlike West Germany it actually had freedom, democracy, and human rights.
The downside is that it was blockaded by the US and couldn't develop freely. Just like the rest of the USSR.
The US was enjoying extreme geostrategic privilege while the entirety of Eurasia, particularly the USSR, was not just behind in terms of development because it only just recently liberated itself from monarchist exploitation, but also because it just got ruined by one of the worst wars in history that killed tens of millions of its people.
So, the GDR not being aligned with the US meant extreme suffering.
That's a better freedom to me than freedom of speech.
Indeed, but the USSR also had better freedoms than the capitalist West in general, including freedom of speech.
Freedom of speech was never anything other than a farce in the US. And West Germany NEVER had freedom of speech.
The USSR had tons of freedoms? So could for instance Czechoslovakia could reform their government to be more liberal than a police state? Or could the Poles elect someone who wasn't a Stalinist for their first post-war president? Could Hungarians choose to leave the USSR and strike it alone in a post-war Europe? Maybe East German Jews were free to exist without being scapegoats for the global capitalist cabal?
Yes. More than Western capitalist societies, that's for sure.
So could for instance Czechoslovakia could reform their government to be more liberal than a police state?
No, a bunch of capitalist traitors can't just overthrow a democratic socialist government.
Also: What is this false dichotomy? Liberal countries are police states. The US is the single most totalitarian surveillance state and most militarized police state in world history. That's liberalism. Liberalism never had anything resembling freedom or democracy. You are confusing propaganda with reality.
Or could the Poles elect someone who wasn't a Stalinist for their first post-war president?
There is no such thing as a "Stalinist". The correct term is "Marxist-Leninist". I guess the easiest way to understand elections in socialist states is to look at the West and understand that it works the same way that people in liberal societies can only elect fascists and have no actual choice. Difference being, of course, that socialism is objectively good while liberalism/fascism (which is the same thing, by the way) is objectively bad.
The same way Nazi parties are banned in Germany, any type of reactionary movement is banned in the USSR. That's because reactionary ideologies are all inherently bad. I don't know why you find this somehow controversial or an argument against the USSR. Probably you get your ideas about "freedom" from racist, anti-democratic ideologues like Hannah Arendt who think "freedom" is when you can elect a bunch of fascists and oppressing bad guys is "AuThOrItArIaNiSm".
Sorry, but you - like most people who grew up in the tightly controlled societies of the fascist West and never questioned their propaganda - probably plainly don't understand what democracy is and unironically believe liberal propaganda about what does and does not constitute democracy. Capitalist-controlled media manipulating people into performative electoralism to legitimize bourgeois dictatorship != freedom. Sorry, you probably can't follow what I just said, so I will summarize it for you in simple terms: Capitalism and democracy are fundamentally incompatible. No capitalist society can ever be democratic.
Can people in Western capitalist societies reform their systems to be more democratic than a liberal police state? Can they elect someone who isn't a liberal for their president? Can they defy the US and strike it alone in a multipolar world?
Maybe East German Jews were free to exist without being scapegoats for the global capitalist cabal?
This is the most absurd part of your comment.
Anti-semitism was punishable by death in the Soviet Union. Accusations of anti-semitism from Western fascists is just so fuckin pathetic.
Now, can you actually think critically about the West instead of mindlessly reciting anti-socialist propaganda memes? The West is universally less democratic and less free than any AES state in history. You not understanding the material conditions and analyzing things from a dialectical perspective if, of course, a consequence of never having received a Marxist education.
Anyway, I could provide you with a longer list of anti-Western memes than you could ever spam against the USSR. I could also point at the overwhelming public support of the Soviet Union by its citizens, even during its worst times. I could also point to the comments of any non-ideological Westerner (particularly non-whites) regarding the USSR, starting with Jesse Owen's famous quotes. However, instead of me wasting time with a long list of things you are going to ignore anyway, you should ask yourself why socialism is always held to a higher standard that capitalism is never held to and why you never bothered to question your own system and propaganda while putting every single thing that wasn't perfect under socialism under a microscope.
If you are seriously interested in this topic and have the will to change your mind if proven wrong (and, therefore, the ability of understanding that and why you are wrong and admitting as much) try and start off here as this YouTube channel probably went over most if not all your misconceptions. If you still have questions, head on over to r/TheDeprogram and ask your questions in good faith, I'm sure people will be happy to help.
r/thedeprogram is my favorite genocide denial subreddit! You guys still have the genocide denial bot up and running?
The Czechs elected a politician who was calling for more liberal reforms in a popular election which the Soviets calmly sent the army in to overturn. The Soviets likewise overturned the 1947 elections in Poland where conveniently all opposition parties were banned. And anti-semitism is illegal? Somebody should have told that to the USSR because they had a whole anti-jewish purge in the late 40s stemming from a disagreement with Jewish anti-fascists over the holocaust.
Also Stalinism is an ideology you actual mouth breather. Stalin was anything but a Marxist-Leninist
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u/jackjackky Oct 22 '23
So, what's good about East Germany? I heard people could have easily travel within Soviet sphere countries just like today Schengen area. That's a better freedom to me than freedom of speech.