United States | News & Politics

Admit it, you just want infinite memes

Probably when you're supposed to be "hustling" or "grinding," or whatever the nomenclature is now for trying to make survival sound cool.

When, I think of “socialism,” I think of modern day Scandinavian health care, not Soviet-era Russia.

One of the upshots of the Great Patriotic War producing so many invalids and disabled veterans was a Soviet state dedicated to providing top quality public services for its veterans. An entire municipality - Rusinovo - was built to cater to the blind, in order to accommodate the number of Soviets who had lost their sight to chemical weapons and other injuries. It became a model for a host of disability-friendly improvements to cities the world over, and you can still find them if you know where to look. The Tokyo subway adopted the Rusinovo model for raised, guided pathways, for instance. And audible signals at crosswalks and in city metros are common mass transit features globally.

After the fall of the USSR, much of the country was privatized and subsequently looted by the Yeltsin-friendly oligarchs who endorsed the coup against Gorbachev. Rusinovo was one such target for looting. The school for the blind was defunded. Factories specifically geared to allow blind workers to participate in the manufacturing center were shuttered and stripped for parts. The transit network was gutted.

Who do these pants -wetting idiots think they’re scaring?

Post-Soviet Eastern Europe is regularly held up as the consequence of Soviet Economics taken to their logical conclusion. So you'll routinely see Western politicians point to states like Estonia or Solvakia or the shattered remnants of the Yugoslavian Republic as proof of the Failed Socialist Experiment.

What you don't typically hear is the rapid deterioration that occurred after the USSR was dismantled and partitioned off under Yeltsin. Or how much of the Soviet Era wealth was stolen by mafiosos and corrupt agents operating on behalf of western business interests and rival espionage agencies nce the Iron Curtain was torn down.

In some sense, its a lie. "Look at how awful it is now! That's because of the socialism they did back then."

In some sense, its a threat. "Try socialism again, and you're next."

Some more about why the Nordic model isn't socialism:

• What about social democracy / democratic socialism / the Nordic model? Isn't Sweden socialist?
• Scandinavia's covert role in western imperialism

Scandinavian healthcare isn't socialism though, that's part of the problem.