I Lost My Past (2017) • Hacker News Board

Re: I Lost My Past (2017)

#161

Post by sofixa » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 5:48 PM UTC

justsomehnguy wrote: post #112

sofixa wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Means the total loss of Russian Army, in the most literal sense Not really, every part would retain the troops and armaments located there, like how Ukraine inherited all long range strategic missile bombers ( Tu-160) of the Soviet Union, and how Transnistria inherited an army which was one of the main factors of them claiming independence and thus blocking Moldova's potential future as a part of Romania

> like how Ukraine inherited all long range strategic missile bombers Along with hundreds of T-60/72 and all the infantry and vehicle munitions. But you can't bring Tu-160 to a local mafia dispute. You can bring a tank there if it's only a couple of hundred dollars and nobody /can/ stop you. > how Transnistria inherited an army Now imagine various small unaffiliated armies all the way to Ural.

> Now imagine various small unaffiliated armies all the way to Ural.

So a bloodbath? Like the breakup of Yugoslavia, just with almost no ethnical divisions, with nukes and much bigger scale?

Re: I Lost My Past (2017)

#162

Post by selimthegrim » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 6:20 PM UTC

gostsamo wrote: post #138

selimthegrim wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In West Curtain is popularly understood as “Stettin to Trieste”

The west can have its opinions, but I don't think that it is nuanced enough when it comes to stuff outside of its boarders. Yugoslavia is not the Warsaw pact, and the Warsaw pact countries were different from each other and from the USSR.

Yes later in maps YU is usually drawn as outside Iron Curtain and Albania inside but this was after Tito-Stalin split

Re: I Lost My Past (2017)

#163

Post by chx » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 6:37 PM UTC

torginus wrote: post #137

_ugfj wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have spent weeks and months even on and off since 2009 in Hungary. Last visit, albeit just two days long, ended today, actually. I am well versed in the neofeudalism that Orban has wrought. And yet, look at my dates -- Orban is a symptom of much worse. I do not know where you grew up but the playgrounds were fucking dystopian. Do you remember the ping-pong tables? I do. I remember them all too well. They were raw c…

Regardless of the particular merits of Socialism/Capitalism, I think we agree on the main point - the replacement of the Soviet system didn't significantly (if at all) improve the lives of it's former citizens - the main advantage seems to be it's easier to emigrate from it.

I vehemently disagree with this. Yes, life still sucks to an extent but not living under the boot, velvet wrapped or not, still matters quite a bit. And there are quite a few comforts of life now available which you couldn't even dream of back then. It's really not even comparable.

I needed to re-learn what sort of foods I like or not because I was eating such crap for the first half of my life. You can buy much higher quality food and in much bigger selection. There are restaurants worth going to. Life really did get better.

Re: I Lost My Past (2017)

#164

Post by tasogare » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 7:09 PM UTC

sofixa wrote: post #82

refurb wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the story that is told, but one can’t avoid the similarity between the South’s alliance with the US, AUS, NZ, Korea and the North’s with the USSR and China (which had many soldier stationed there). Without material support the USSR and China provided, the North never could have won the war. There was no “rightful” liberation. It was a civil war in its essence with two opposing groups of Vietnamese fighting fo…

> This is the story that is told, but one can’t avoid the similarity between the South’s alliance with the US, AUS, NZ, Korea and the North’s with the USSR and China (which had many soldier stationed there). Without material support the USSR and China provided, the North never could have won the war The difference is that with no outside meddling and support, South Vietnam wouldn't have existed or would have existed…

Just like South Korea. It's sad so many lives were lost and the current situation is impossible to solve because of former US involvement.

Re: I Lost My Past (2017)

#165

Post by vidarh » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 8:39 PM UTC

luckylion wrote: post #156

vidarh wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your own numbers don't support the claim that most would be affected.

I have no idea how you come to that conclusion. If you kill 4% of the population, you will have lots of people losing a relative. What's that moving of the goal post about?

When you kill a large portion of a specific ethnic group in specific geographic regions in a society that still had major tribal tension, most people outside of those groups and regions will not be affected.

In any case you're the one mong goalposts here - this started with simply making the point that it's unread jable to assume a single experience captures the experience of a people.

Nevertheless you've provided nothing to justify the idea that Saddam's purges affected anywhere close to a majority of the population, even if that is itself a distraction.

Re: I Lost My Past (2017)

#166

Post by gigel82 » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 9:20 PM UTC

trasz wrote: post #72

gigel82 wrote: post #60

I have friends that immigrated from Romania, and I was surprised by their very different stories of living as a teenager in the 80s under communism. One was enjoying vacations abroad, imported goods and generally mostly living a western lifestyle while the other was struggling to survive. Later learned that the former's father was an informant for Ceausescu's secret police (Securitate) - a butcher by profession but a…

Quoted post unavailable.

It was mostly about availability of such luxuries. Even if you were "rich", money in a controlled economy was pretty much useless. Everything was rationed (one car per family, 2 breads, 1 bottle of milk per day, etc.) unless you were in the right circle (which meant being actively part of the secret police or a snitch for them). Also, travel abroad and imported goods (unless imported from USSR or a few other select communist countries) was strictly forbidden for the plebs.

Re: I Lost My Past (2017)

#167

Post by dang » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 10:59 PM UTC

Findeton wrote: post #34

Well the Soviet Union was imperialism, wasn't it?

Please don't post unsubstantive comments to HN, and especially please don't take threads on predictable ideological tangents. They're tedious because they're so repetitive, and they usually turn nasty too. Not what this site is for.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: I Lost My Past (2017)

#168

Post by dang » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 10:59 PM UTC

trasz wrote: post #72

gigel82 wrote: post #60

I have friends that immigrated from Romania, and I was surprised by their very different stories of living as a teenager in the 80s under communism. One was enjoying vacations abroad, imported goods and generally mostly living a western lifestyle while the other was struggling to survive. Later learned that the former's father was an informant for Ceausescu's secret police (Securitate) - a butcher by profession but a…

Quoted post unavailable.

Please don't take HN threads further into flamewar like this. It's not what this site is for, and it destroys what it is for.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: I Lost My Past (2017)

#169

Post by dang » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 11:00 PM UTC

elurg wrote: post #29

[flagged]

You've been repeatedly breaking the site guidelines. We ban accounts that do that. If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it.

Note this one:

"Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. It tramples curiosity."

and this one:

"Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community."

Re: I Lost My Past (2017)

#170

Post by dang » Sat, Dec 25, 2021, 11:02 PM UTC

gostsamo wrote: post #25

[flagged]

You can't post like this to HN, regardless of how right you are or feel you are. Perhaps you don't owe the people you're referring to better, but you owe this community much better if you're participating in it. Comments like this point directly to its destruction—so we don't allow them.

If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.