Former Soviet Citizen

[Jesus Saves Gretzky Scores]

Has anyone here ever seen this tools videos? Like I said, he's a former soviet citizen, who thinks because he was born there, he knows everything about economics. He's a teabagger, capitalist, and pro-USA. He goes to Occupy, and other leftist protests, and confronts communists, Che fans, anti capitalists, etc. Watch any of his videos, they're infuriating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KluWRiYwIhQ

[Psy]

Has anyone here ever seen this tools videos? Like I said, he's a former soviet citizen, who thinks because he was born there, he knows everything about economics. He's a teabagger, capitalist, and pro-USA. He goes to Occupy, and other leftist protests, and confronts communists, Che fans, anti capitalists, etc. Watch any of his videos, they're infuriating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KluWRiYwIhQ

Yhea and there are a few others that popped up with this flawed logic that they are experts in the USSR, which is like saying you can pull any random person off a street in the USA and they would be an expert in the US social-economic system.

[Blake's Baby]

Yeah, and some random people from the USA are so totally un-expert in it that they don't even like it! I mean, everyone has to like where they came from and know nothing about it, finding an ex-USSRian who didn't like it and was pro-American is as totally ludicrous as finding an American who's pro-USSR. I mean, how stupid must they be huh?

Oh, did I say all of that out loud?

[Psy]

Yeah, and some random people from the USA are so totally un-expert in it that they don't even like it! I mean, everyone has to like where they came from and know nothing about it, finding an ex-USSRian who didn't like it and was pro-American is as totally ludicrous as finding an American who's pro-USSR. I mean, how stupid must they be huh?

Oh, did I say all of that out loud?
The problem is these people give the impression they speak for those under communism even though Ostalgie is a thing so not everyone that lived in the Comcon nations agree the "free market" system is better. Basically being from the comecon nations is irreverent to the debate and gets us now where as all sides can find people from the former comecon nations that share their view.

[electrostal]

Eh, anti-communist emigrants with their "true stories" and "knowing everything" are nothing new.
Also the video was horribly annoying and stupid.

[Comrade Trollface]

Eh, anti-communist emigrants with their "true stories" and "knowing everything" are nothing new.
Also the video was horribly annoying and stupid.
Neither are all-knowing American armchair revolutionaries who dismiss anything that doesn't fit their glowing image of the USSR as a reactionary lie. But then the same thing happens when one of these assholes' heroes rapes a lady. She's always a reactionary provocateur:rolleyes:

[electrostal]

Neither are all-knowing American armchair revolutionaries who dismiss anything that doesn't fit their glowing image of the USSR as a reactionary lie.
What is this nonsense?


But then the same thing happens when one of these assholes' heroes rapes a lady.
What's the purpose of this trolling?

[Comrade Trollface]

What is this nonsense?
Every conversation that I've ever had with a Stalinist.

[Psy]

Neither are all-knowing American armchair revolutionaries who dismiss anything that doesn't fit their glowing image of the USSR as a reactionary lie. But then the same thing happens when one of these assholes' heroes rapes a lady. She's always a reactionary provocateur:rolleyes:
If you watch the video the critic from the former USSR basically says Lenin came into power through a violent terrorist campaign without citing historical evidence (not even mainstream bourgeois historians claim this) and the defender is stating the USSR was a degenerated workers state and basically states the problem with the USSR was the lack of democratic input of the workers where the critic states democracy and communism is incompatible.

The critic showed no rational argument against the USSR, he just created accusations without proof.

[Jesus Saves Gretzky Scores]

Yeah, and some random people from the USA are so totally un-expert in it that they don't even like it! I mean, everyone has to like where they came from and know nothing about it, finding an ex-USSRian who didn't like it and was pro-American is as totally ludicrous as finding an American who's pro-USSR. I mean, how stupid must they be huh?

Oh, did I say all of that out loud?

I'm not saying he knows nothing about the world, I'm saying he thinks because he came from Russia, he thinks he understands socialism.

[Drosophila]

This guy is totally clueless. He's the type who will blame the entire revolutionary left for what he lived through in the USSR. No matter how many times he gets proven wrong by the people he interviews, he persists in his idiocy.

[Jesus Saves Gretzky Scores]

This guy is totally clueless. He's the type who will blame the entire revolutionary left for what he lived through in the USSR. No matter how many times he gets proven wrong by the people he interviews, he persists in his idiocy.

And everyone commenting below thinks he's a genius.

[Sea]

Jesus fuck. This guy needs someone to pick him apart systematically at each and every harassment.

It's like watching a cross between Glenn Beck, Yakov Smirnoff and L. Ron Hubbard.

[Comrade Samuel]

And the patriotic citizens of the USSR who died during the revolution, WWII and then the rest of the Stalin era are all probably just rolling over in there graves listening to this guy was just lucky enogh to have survived the brutal blood thirsty commie dictator Gorbachov.

Oh well, I hear if Russian citizens spread enough lies about communism and preach about the glory of capitalism they get a free mansion right next to Putin's place.

[Blake's Baby]

The problem is these people give the impression they speak for those under communism even though Ostalgie is a thing so not everyone that lived in the Comcon nations agree the "free market" system is better. Basically being from the comecon nations is irreverent to the debate and gets us now where as all sides can find people from the former comecon nations that share their view.

OK, sarcasm aside, I quite agree. Just like people who claim that because they're American (or from any other country) they can speak for the poor toiling oppressed masses. People from all countries can either buy into the dominant ideology or they can reject it. Rejecting it doesn't make them experts any more than buying in does. It's people's politics that are important not where they're from - 'attitude, not latitude' as a wise man once said to me.

[Mass Grave Aesthetics]

This former soviet citizen is more interested i arguing and heckling than debating, judging by this video. He just comes of as a troll.

[Igor]

And the patriotic citizens of the USSR

Yeah damn that guy is being totally unpatriotic, no way we should let that shit pass

Not saying that the guy isn't total piece of shit, but seriously, patriotic citizens of the USSR? Have I ended up on a Red Alert multiplayer chat room or what?

[Mass Grave Aesthetics]

someone needs to arrange a debate between this former soviet citizen character and Harpal Brar. might be entertaining...

[hatzel]

Yeah the Soviet Union really churned out these kinds of people but most of them stayed in Russia what's the big deal here?

[Comrade Trollface]

If you watch the video
I'm not saying that he isn't a lying douche-bag. But I don't think that he's any worse than all the Stalinoids who do more or less the same thing.
So like why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, RevLeft, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye, man?

[Comrade Samuel]

Yeah damn that guy is being totally unpatriotic, no way we should let that shit pass

Not saying that the guy isn't total piece of shit, but seriously, patriotic citizens of the USSR? Have I ended up on a Red Alert multiplayer chat room or what?

I was refering to socialist patriotism (I.e the people who defended and respected the USSR as a Socialist state before revisionism and western influence slowly led them to capitalism.) and while you have your right to disagree and believe whatever you like about the USSR, SoiC and things like socialist patriotism I just wanted to clear that up because that being that blunt about it did make me sound like a bit of a tankie.

Also I didn't like red alert all that much, gameplay was fun but the acting and fake accents really got annoying. :D

[l'Enfermé]

Also I didn't like red alert all that much, gameplay was fun but the acting and fake accents really got annoying. :D
Are you serious? The horrible acting and the fake accents is what made the RA games so great in the first place!

[Tukhachevsky]

And the patriotic citizens of the USSR who died during the revolution, WWII and then the rest of the Stalin era are all probably just rolling over in there graves

Unfortunately most of them didn't even had graves, the NKVD shoot them on the spot or they were sent to a siberian gulag as labor force or they were force deported to another part of the country.

But nooo, soviet union was great. It's great to not have unemployment right? All these siberian mines waiting for involuntary work!

[DasFapital]

this guy was a special guest on a show on the Fox Business Channel. Saw it last winter on the TV at my libertarian step uncle's house. He struck me as being a bit of a jack ass, like someone you would see speaking at a meeting for a pyramid scam.

[DrZaiu5]

It's not just citizens of the USSR either. Many Cuban exiles think they're experts on communism. Take the idiot who wrote Exposing the Real Che Guevara: And the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him

[Ravachol]

There was communism in the USSR or Cuba? :blink: That's news to me...

[o well this is ok I guess]

Are you serious? The horrible acting and the fake accents is what made the RA games so great in the first place! vzJlyT1mxCo

[Comrade Samuel]

Unfortunately most of them didn't even had graves, the NKVD shoot them on the spot or they were sent to a siberian gulag as labor force or they were force deported to another part of the country.

But nooo, soviet union was great. It's great to not have unemployment right? All these siberian mines waiting for involuntary work!


Important social exspirimemt =\= great

Yes, I imagine the NKVD did in fact attempt to kill off the enamies of socialism and while you could definitely argue that Stalin became paranoid and ended up getting some innocent people killed, the same could be said for pretty much every world leader in history. Often lists about "Stalin's kill count" not only list actual enamies of socialism as "innocent" but also greatly exaturate the number to make the hardcore western capitalists happy.

What I don't understand about you is that you actualy believe any of us would have liked to live in the pre-WWII USSR. We just try to highlight some of the important achievements and point out information that our not quite objective historians leave out / change. The work was probably back-breaking, you and your country literally where against the entire world and yes: the fear of going to a gulag was probably looming over you as well but we learned more from it than any other failed world revolution before or after it.

[Jesus Saves Gretzky Scores]

It's not just citizens of the USSR either. Many Cuban exiles think they're experts on communism. Take the idiot who wrote Exposing the Real Che Guevara: And the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him

Yeah, I saw him. I don't think I should take information on Che from a right-winger.

[Igor]

Yeah, I saw him. I don't think I should take information on Che from a right-winger.

Considering the vast majority of academia are some sort of right-wingers, we'd have to be quite absurdly picky about our reading of history if being right-wing in itself discredited anything at all.

[Liberty]

He seems to make nice videos. He also has a strong basis for his arguments, as he lived in a Totalitarian state.

[Prinskaj]

He seems to make nice videos. He also has a strong basis for his arguments, as he lived in a Totalitarian state.
I sometimes drive down to Germany, does that gives me insight into the details of the Franco-Prussian war?

[Liberty]

I sometimes drive down to Germany, does that gives me insight into the details of the Franco-Prussian war?
Where you there when the war was going on?

Your argument would be proper if the gentlemen was born after the dissolution, but that isn't the case.

[cynicles]

Where you there when the war was going on?

Your argument would be proper if the gentlemen was born after the dissolution, but that isn't the case.
There are people living in the former Soviet Union who are nostalgic and want it back therefore it must have been good.