The West was freer during the Cold War. The USSR was a huge dystopia that served as an example of what not to do.
@verretor Yep. That's why the public schools apparently stopped teaching about it after the fall in 1991. In 2006, out of 150 students in my intro philosophy courses, only about 4-5 knew what the Soviet Union was. The rest of them had apparently not heard of it or only barely recognized the name. I think that's why there are so many running around now that think socialism/communism is a good idea, because they were never taught about how it actually went in practice.
@Aurelius_17_6_313
Where are you teaching? Where I am I think most <30 people are not very familiar with the USSR history, but they have at least a few notions, like it was communist dictatorship and Stalin was scary.
Maybe younger people are clueless though idk
@verretor
@Sosthene @verretor Was teaching, I'm no longer in academia, I can't stand the culture and politics of the environment as it stands these days. Not to mention struggling to figure out what students are even learning who can't write coherent sentences.
I taught at a state university and later at a community college. I now work for myself in a completely unrelated industry.
@Aurelius_17_6_313
@verretor
I mean which country? I'm in France and while the intelligentsia is very complacent toward the USSR, at least I never met someone that had no idea what it was.
@Aurelius_17_6_313 @Sosthene Same in Canada.
@verretor @Aurelius_17_6_313 @Sosthene which is weird considering a lot of people who grew up in the USSR immigrated to the US and Canada and still do every year.
@lucash_dev @Aurelius_17_6_313 @Sosthene I think there's not enough of them. I can tell you, I don't remember my teachers saying a word about the USSR.
@verretor @lucash_dev @Aurelius_17_6_313 @Sosthene My economics teacher did... not a required course though...
@verretor @lucash_dev @Aurelius_17_6_313 @Sosthene Ha!
Mine did a very good explanation of fiat money. Even described inflation as a tax on savings.
@pete @lucash_dev @Aurelius_17_6_313 @Sosthene My economics teacher told us governments can't print more money than they have gold.