Enkrod

Uh… I don’t know why I would have to “out” myself. I’ve never been shy about where I stand politically. I’m a green progressive social democrat (to put it into terms even americans can understand) and it says so in my profile:

You’re somebody who unironically uses “nerd” as a slur, which is something I find far more damning and revealing.

No, they’re looking at what life for regular people is like under a capitalist regime.

And I agree with that. Living in a capitalist hellscape is shit! Doesn’t mean it was better back then though. It sure was different, better in some ways but worse in others.

And the West didn’t shoot at people trying to flee and in the west your neighbors didn’t rat you out to the authorities for listening to radio from the other side. And it wasn’t the west that tore my family apart when the wall was build.

It’s always the people who got theirs and have zero empathy for the needs of others who praise the transition to capitalism in post Soviet states.

I have in not a single sentence praised the transition to capitalism, nor will I. What I do praise is the end of an authoritarian regime that oppressed it’s populace. And I have criticized the rose colored glasses of those who didn’t live in it. And to be clear: the west didn’t bring freedom and democracy to the GDR. The citizens demonstrating in Plauen and Leipzig and Berlin did that. (Which btw. is a good point against it being an illegitimate state, because reforms could have been possible if the old guard hadn’t resisted civil rights as much.) The GDR failed just when it’s citizens had enough of it and tried to reform it and civil rights activists gained more influence. Maybe it would have been a better place when it could have existed longer and reformed but the unwillingness of the old men leading the country to accept ANY change led to its implosion before it cozld fulfill its promises.

That rise is such bullshit, they’re looking at it through rose colored glasses. Yes, some things were better, the absence of predatory capitalism comes to mind first and foremost and even the Stasi knew less about us than Meta and Alphabet. The difference for me is in the how. Alphabet and Meta don’t bribe your friends, family and neighbors to actively spy on you and most importantly don’t disappear you for thought crimes. And the things that were great in the GDR… nearly none of that was due to the government. People stuck together and cooperated, you looked out for each other, if you found fresh beef at the butcher you’d get enough for your neighbors too, so they’d look out for you when they came across southern fruit or womens tights or west-cheese. And this feeling of community, of trust was actively undermined with the VEB Horch & Guck (“The peoples own company of Listen and Watch”, a nickname for the Stasi).

Holy shit I remember the wall coming down and how the former GDR was ransacked by western capital afterwards (because capital will always ruin everything) but I’d rather cut off my right foot than be trapped behind the no-mans-land of the death strip.

I was alive when eastern Germany was still the GDR. Citizens weren’t starving.

The usual quote was:

“Es gibt alles, nur nicht immer, nicht überall und schon gar nicht, wenn es gerade gebraucht wird.”

You can find everything, but not always, not everywhere, and certainly not when you need it most.

The GDR “economy of scarcity” knew some scarcity, mostly citrus and coffee. There was always enough potatoes but rice and pasta was scarce, good cuts of beef and pork were always quickly sold out, sometimes you had to know someone who knew someone to get some. Broiler or bad cuts were easier to get. Cheese was a pain in the ass… you could hardly get Emmentaler or Gouda, what you could get was processed cheese (“Schmelzkäse”).

Breadlines existed basically only directly after the war when everything was still in ruins. But oranges, bananas and other “Southern Fruit” were mostly a Christmas special when the party bought some from the class-enemy to supply citizens with those little luxuries.

Clothes on the other hand… oh boy, if you wanted some fine women’s blouse, you better knew someone in the FRG.