Autism, exploitation and Capitalism

[kandrathe]

Interestingly enough, I did not suffer. When everyone around you has the same almost nothing, you don't feel poor. I had a good first 12 years. I did not hate the country, I was simply too young to know any better. I celebrated along with my classmates the story of Pavlik Morozov, a boy who gave up his parents to the local police in the 1920s because they were making a little more money than the bare minimum that their collective farm allowed. Evil Kulaks. Hero boy. Such a sad ending... *sigh*. Propaganda is a wonderful thing, ain't it?

A danger, with the reach of global/social media, we are only now beginning to see in the US. I fear random successes by amateurs in disinformation and propaganda are emboldening the masters of the art in manipulating US opinion. I believe Russia, China, and others are now more engaged than ever in manipulating US political thought.

It is only after I left and started doing lots of research and talking to my parents and especially grandparents, that I started realizing the full extent of the true evils of communism. Besides, it's not like my elders were about to tell me anything while we still lived there. One slip up in class, or at the park or with a friend, and I'm an orphan (well, in the 70s not strictly an orphan... they would just have been jailed for 15 years, no biggie, like during Lenin or Stalin), so yeah.... they did not tell me anything until we came here.

I do however remember, how when my parents bought me a nice warm "imported" coat from Bulgaria (they had connections in a clothing factory), when I was about 8, they told me that if anyone asks where you got the coat, you tell them "I don't know". This was stressed to me many times.

That is communism. So I'm not biased. I just understand things.

I understand better now. Forgive me for my ignorance of *real* Russia. My experience has been shaped too much by popular fiction, especially Anton Chekhov.

I've only ever witnessed from my sheltered (also biased) view here in the US, the communism that has existed elsewhere. It is hard to objectively contemplate the ideological fantasy described by its ardent advocates. I didn't mean to imply prejudice on your part. With your first hand experience of being in a communist system, and then leaving it, you are in more of a position to judge than am I.