• Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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    3 hours ago

    Allow me to repeat myself:

    The Soviet Union wasn’t a dictatorship. Read Soviet Democracy. It lasted as long as it did because it had tremendous GDP growth while lowering wealth disparity, free and high quality education and healthcare, doubled health expectancies, full employment, and over tripled literacy rates to 99.9%.

    Read Blackshirts and Reds.

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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        15 minutes ago

        Yep. Democracy doesn’t mean “choose between parties,” it’s about the actual impact you can have on policy. More people in China feel that they have a voice in politics than people in the US, despite the US having 2 parties.

        • ambidexterity@lemmy.world
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          7 minutes ago

          Regarding the impact you make, ppl you vote for can be undemocratically removed from the party by party leadership at any time and therefore must comply fully with the will of the party.

          Btw, Kalinin’s (the head of the state) wife was held hostage in prison camp by Stalin (party leader). I guess that says as much about great Soviet democracy.

          • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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            2 minutes ago

            You can feel free to read the sources I listed, rather than posting unsourced anecdotes as “gotchas.” Further, the ability of the party to purge Nazis ended up being important.