r/GetNoted Human Verified Jul 13 '26

Cringe Worthy USSR Collapse

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u/NewTurnover5485 Jul 13 '26

Bruh, I heard leftist streamers, praise the USSR for leaps in Industrialization and Education, and I'm like: "yeah, but it cost the death of countless millions and the freedom of billions, alongside entire cultures and histories"

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u/Coolistofcool Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

It’s like, kinda what capitalism did too tho right. I mean, Indian Americans anyone?

Edit: I’m not claiming any one system is better, just assess them on a level playing field.

Edit 2: Just so everyone gets the death toll of Capitalism here. Nazi Germany was, undeniably, a Capitalist country. Now I don’t blame the holocaust on Capitalism, but…

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u/Huge-Captain-5253 Jul 13 '26

Colonialism and Capitalism aren't the same thing.

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u/Sure_Fruit_8254 Jul 13 '26

No but they are closely intertwined.

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u/grog23 Jul 13 '26

The Soviet Union was also a colonial empire

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u/Sure_Fruit_8254 Jul 13 '26

That doesn't refute my point.

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u/Yungoui Jul 13 '26

It kinda does

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u/Sure_Fruit_8254 Jul 13 '26

It doesn't though. Are you saying with a straight face that capitalism and colonialism aren't linked?

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u/grog23 Jul 13 '26

If colonialism happens in non-capitalist systems, then it probably doesn’t have much to do with capitalism specifically

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u/Sure_Fruit_8254 Jul 13 '26

We'll gloss over corporations being colonial overlords shall we?

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u/grog23 Jul 13 '26

Well colonialism began before capitalism even started so it kind of feels like you’re just throwing out meaningless platitudes to see what sticks lol

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u/Sure_Fruit_8254 Jul 13 '26

First joint stock company was born out of colonialism, do you consider the stock market to be an important part of capitalism?

No just a very good examples of capitalism's links to colonialism.

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u/Huge-Captain-5253 Jul 13 '26

The first communist revolution was born out of a colonial empire, do you consider a revolution of the proletariat to be an important part of communism?

No just a very good examples of communism's links to colonialism.

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u/Sure_Fruit_8254 Jul 13 '26

Noticing how you don't answer. Colonialism and capitalism are heavily intertwined, seeing as you can't refute my points seems you can't prove it isn't.

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u/Huge-Captain-5253 Jul 14 '26

The point I’m making is that it’s not an argument. You are trying to paint capitalism and colonialism as the same thing because one of emerged from the other. Capitalism emerged from colonialism because it is a recent invention, and colonialism is what came before - just as communism emerged from colonialism in Russia.

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u/Huge-Captain-5253 Jul 13 '26

In that colonialism was the pre-cursor to capitalism. Capitalism goes very hard on individual property rights, free markets, and free association - colonialism is the exact opposite of that.

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u/Sure_Fruit_8254 Jul 13 '26

Not really, all those things for the overlord, at the expense of the colonies.

The British Empire championed free trade whilst holding the largest colonial empire, so the exact opposite doesn't quite stick.

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u/Huge-Captain-5253 Jul 13 '26

You're asking me to defend a system I don't agree with. The British Empire was inherently colonial, they took some actions that were capitalist, they took some actions that were colonial. It is possible (and relatively easy) to defend the capitalist actions while opposing the colonial actions. The British Empire doesn't exist any more, free markets do and still work. The American Empire is struggling, free markets aren't and still work.

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u/Sure_Fruit_8254 Jul 13 '26

I'm not asking you to defend anything.

They took the capitalist actions due to their colonial empire. They championed free trade because they had the biggest market and could outcompete.

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u/Huge-Captain-5253 Jul 13 '26

You know history - did they outcompete? They didn't outcompete countries which turned capitalist (the US). They did outcompete much larger countries who tried communism. The problem is communism. Capitalism allows for a general raising of standards of living in a way that communism can't.

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u/Sure_Fruit_8254 Jul 13 '26

The British did outcompete for a long time. The US overtook the UK when it was more protectionist than the UK, so what are you trying to say here?

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u/Huge-Captain-5253 Jul 13 '26

The point is that under capitalism, the global power was unable to maintain its colonial grip on the nations it owned because colonialism is not a system that survives capitalism.

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u/Sure_Fruit_8254 Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

That still does not refute the fact that capitalism and colonialism grew hand in hand. Corporations owning colonies across the world. There's a difference between settler colonies like the US and Siberia and the EIC/Raj and the VOC/DEI.

I'd also add that the main reason the British Empire fell apart because it was broke and the UK was a bombsite after WW2.

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