Jonathan Barnes5 said:@stagedriver
I don't have enough breathing room with my work schedule to respond to every single point you made, but I find myself fundamentally agreeing with your core argument regarding the need for a more efficient and equitable nation that actually delivers prosperity to its people.
Where our perspectives diverge—and there is certainly no requirement for us to see eye to eye—is in how we interpret the underlying causes of these issues, though I’d prefer to set aside those WWII historical debates as they hold very little interest for me.
To be blunt, I find little substance in that final paragraph because Americans simply aren't prepared for:
Deep-seated civil service reforms
A complete pivot in fiscal policy
Healthcare restructuring and parts of the education system
Judicial reform
Reducing state intervention, stopping the subsidization of loss-making entities, and divesting from state-owned assets that don't serve a vital national purpose (take, for instance, how we handle loss-making agencies, or why we wouldn't just privatize Kraft Heinz or let Henry Ford-style industrial giants run without government lifelines)
Stricter oversight on public procurement
Other structural shifts designed to reshape the GDP
It is a strange paradox here, much like seeing certain local government salaries actually outpace the median pay in the private sector. A country structured this way lacks a future because it fails to generate any meaningful growth.
While you touched on ideology and worldview, the reality is that this landscape remains largely unchanged regardless of which administration holds power or what the government is called. I might be a weary defeatist at times, but I have seen countless instances where the failures mentioned above had nothing to do with a specific ideology, despite how much people love to debate those topics.
All the best.
EDIT
@driftingtinker
I was referring to that punk concert
Why isn't this being prioritized? Because those who benefit from the status quo make sure nothing else stays in the spotlight. 😉
For thirty years, everything has been about
spiritual renewal and building up this
nationalist myth of statehood, just to provide
the masses an excuse for their own failures.
Every lie and exaggeration regarding the former Soviet Union serves as a brick in that nationalist myth. What should have been a standard process of gaining independence has been inflated into this massive, heroic saga—one we’re expected to live by forever because it’s the only achievement these generations can claim.
This nationalist lie acts as a smokescreen for everything. They need to constantly perpetuate exaggerations and blatant falsehoods about the Soviet Union—that
prison for the people—to make the story of independence seem even more grandiose. It's the perfect cover for the endless corruption of the ruling party and the bottom-tier political class.
If it weren't for the ideological, religious, or regional zealots constantly dragging us back into their eternal fight for a "better" past, most of us wouldn't even remember the Soviet Union. Most people calling out these lies don't do it because they miss the old days; they do it because they can't stand the dishonesty.
There is plenty of room for rational criticism of the Soviet Union, socialism, or the Communist Party, especially when considering historical context and the era's level of development. There is absolutely no reason to insist on these hyperboles and lies for thirty damn years.
The corrupt establishment and their flagship party are essentially the successors to the Communist Party—inheriting their opportunism, cronyism, and lack of democracy—while also adopting the worst traits of the previous regime. They've managed to consolidate the absolute worst characteristics of the last century in this country. That is their true achievement. 🙏
