this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
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The reforms didn't just allow for "political dissent," they worked against the Socialist system, that was based on central planning. Rather than running in a more efficient manner, it ran against itself.
Further, nobody says the Soviet Union was a "worker's paradise." It had tremendous strides for workers, but it wasn't perfect by any means.
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.
Bit of a non-sequitor, I could bring up Kent State and use that to say the US isn't a democracy. The US has a far worse track record than the Soviets.
Numerous mass killings and/or genocides in Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, Guatemala, East Timor, Cambodia, and much, much more.
Can't really call a civil war against Tsarists and fascists "killing their own civilians." Moreover, the US bombed Cambodia more than any other country on the planet. Pol Pot wasn't a Communist, but he was stopped by the Vietnamese Communists.