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Stoyan Pavlov's avatar

So true. I have grown up in a totalitarian society during its final decades (I am from Bulgaria). In the last several years, I have been saying that today's cancel culture is not much different than the totalitarian brain washing and silencing of free criticism. While the imprisonment and the labor camps were undoubtedly the most horrific creations of the regime, they were only the tip of the iceberg. On a population level it was much worse what people did to their neighbors, friends , relatives etc: for every imprisoned for their ideas and criticism, there were hundreds that suffered complete social exclusion just because they dared to say or think something controversial, or just because their relatives or friends were voicing "decadent prowestern ideas" or were "sympathizing with the enemies of the People". So, the people either had to live like social pariahs or out of fear from falling into this vacuum to participate in the crime. The plague and exclusion by the "comrade court" was probably the most destructive (even if not the most horrible) manifestation of the totalitarianism. The most appalling fact is that all this was not done by the totalitarian state (although they facilitated it). It was done by the people ; by the same people that suffered under it - like a vicious circle eating through all the good in the society: morals, friendship, love ... all gone in the face of the horrors of social exclusion...

1990 was like awakening from a nightmare, like coming to your sences from a paranoid psychotic trance. We were so full of hope and decisiveness not to allow this ever again...

It is so much painful now, to see it happening again.

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Ute Heggen's avatar

How perfect! This is the story of how my parents met after Pearl Harbor, and married in Jan. 1943, to fight for us. Do not, ever, think freedom is not worth fighting for:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIKuCQVaKqQ

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JGP's avatar

What an extraordinary woman. Excellent show!

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Andrew Heard's avatar

Are you familiar at all with an academic named Steven Kotkin? He's not necessarily someone who disagrees with her or her view of the world but he's a good person to talk to. He's been writing a 3 volume book on the life of Joseph Stalin. Supposedly he actually got access to high level Soviet records for the government at the time. If you're looking for an understanding of Stalin and his thinking, you're probably interested in talking to him.

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David Smolinski's avatar

Musk has been a + and -. He freed the bird, but has been censoring on h1-b.

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Abigail Starke's avatar

Such a great podcast, such good truths!

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Abigail Starke's avatar

This encapsulates the whole thing to me when she says: “I want the freedom to get things wrong!”

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Steve's avatar

What We Saw: ‘An Empire Of Terror’ (Trailer)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CM4FoHmSArs

Mar 5, 2024 #DailyWirePlus #DailyWire #Politics

Join Bill Whittle as he journeys through the history of the Soviet Union to understand present-day Russia.

______________________________

Behind the Daily Wire paywall...Well worth the money spent.

Bill Whittle Reveals The True Horrors of The Soviet Union

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbO9EIzhCOM&t=110s

May 1, 2024 #Lenin #SovietUnion #Stalin

Writer and Historian Bill Whittle joins us to discuss his new series 'What We Saw: An Empire of Terror', where he dives deep into the history of Soviet atrocities throughout the twentieth century, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Soviets were unmatched in their totalitarian cruelty.

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Peter Boghossian's avatar

I've not seen it. Thanks for pointing it out.

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Steve's avatar

I thought I knew about the USSR. (Those 3 words we all SO love to use) I...Was...Wrong. It is well worth the cost to subscribe to watch them.

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Scott Newell's avatar

I guess Hitler and Stalin don’t exist to this generation

Time for some History Lessons

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Andrew Heard's avatar

Funny enough, I just came across an analysis that might be relevant.

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