this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2026
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[–] Riverside@reddthat.com -1 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (1 children)

Romania's GDP grew 550% from 1989 to 2026

So half the growth rate lmao. About 4% yearly during the socialist period and 2% during the capitalist period. Not looking great for your argument, especially when you consider that the distribution of wealth is abysmally worse now and the poor people get fucked while the rich take 90% of the wealth.

By 1989 Romanians were starving. Supermarket shelves were empty. Money meant nothing.

You're confusing the post-communist inflation period with actual socialism. You know, the point when people lost their jobs, when the industry of the country was dismantled, when the rural infrastructure was left to crumble, and when people had to massively start leaving the country!

And, hey, where were all the disabled people?

That's good and honest criticism, thanks for bringing it up. I wasn't aware of the treatment of people with disabilities in socialist Romania, and it's good that you showed me the article about it. You see, that's how you do criticism, not by making up nonexistent genocides.

Political opposition? Freedom of speech? None of that

Dude, I live in Spain. There has recently been a plot that destroyed the leftist party Podemos in Spain by cops manufacturing false documents of funding by Venezuela and Iran, and leaking those fake documents to all media, which echoed it incessantly for years until it was proven fake. Before that, we had the GAL, a secret paramilitary corps of the ministry of internal affairs that was murdering pro-independence Basque activists and tossing their corpses in lye to melt the evidence.

My uncle can attest to that. Oh wait, he can't. He spoke ill of the regime while in compulsory military training and they "took care" of him.

Wow, almost as if that's the history of countries with a fascist past! My great grandfather got murdered by the reds behind the frontlines on the civil war, and I'm not praising Franco for killing the reds. You know what? Because my great grandfather was fascist scum and he likely deserved it! Romania also has a fascist past, and it was necessary to rid the country of fascist elements.

But maybe my grandfather can tell you about his career as a police officer-ohnowait he got canned

Oh, your grandfather got canned for having a dissenting political opinion in the police, something that totally doesnt happen at all with modern police in Europe aye? Ffs my cousin is a cop and he's constantly harassed for being a leftist, and communists are systematically purged of public life and employments for the sin of being reds. Get off your high horse and look at the current reality.

Healthcare? Let's ask my aunt. Oh shit, wait, we can't. She died at 5 of pneumonia cause there were no doctors in her village

Surely she would have survived her pneumonia if the USSR had allowed the fascists to remain in government in s fucking backwards peasant country, huh? Dude, you're blaming communism for the lack of medicine in a fucking village in 1970, in a country they industrialized themselves. If it weren't for the communists, your aunt wouldn't even have been born because the Nazis would have ethnically cleansed your homeland!

Industry? Pollution

Oh you're right, Romania should have invented solar photovoltaic modules in 1955, totally communism's fault that they didn't! You're ridiculous! You can also thank Chinese communism for Romania's 47% of renewables, I bet half of that is achieved with solar panels, of which China manufactures 95% of the world's supply! And likely another significant part of that 47% comes from hydroelectric stations from the communist times of Romania ;)

My parents lived through it themselves and I live in Romania today

So capitalism literally uprooted your family from your homeland for 30 years and you're still licking the boot? That's absurd levels of cognitive dissonance! Your family literally had to leave the fucking country because of the horrifying 1990s capitalist crisis, and only now can you move back to a somewhat stable Romania (likely highly educated and in a high paying service sector job of the top 10% of the population, correct me otherwise) being one of the few wealthy people enjoying the fruits of someone else's labor in capitalism.

[–] SethTaylor@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

If you do more research you may have one or two more revelations when it comes to Romania

The wealthy are not taking 90% in Romania. If the far-right and right keeps growing though... maybe. Same goes for the MAGA-friendly socially conservative kleptocratic social-democrat-in-name-only party we have here. There's a new green social-democrat party that's the real deal. It's growing. Fingers crossed. I don't think we need communism to keep things in check. A solid social-democrat party with a few democratic socialists here and there should do just fine. If the country goes far-right though... we're fucked.

The thing about supermarkets being empty is real. That was literally one of the things that triggered the revolution. People tend to stay put if their basic needs are met, which is exactly what the communist regime promised to do and did not. Ceausescu sucked at socialism, basically, if you wanna put it that way. He ran the country like a business and didn't care about the employees. He only cared about himself and his oligarch friends. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980s_austerity_policy_in_Romania

My uncle was not a fascist. Far from it. Look at who MAGA calls terrorists and "radical far-left lunatics" these days. It was like that. If you disagreed with them, you were a "fascist".

What my grandfather did was he refused to beat up a guy for information. He was just a regular cop in a small city. Just a guy who needed a job. He didn't want to play a part in political oppression. That's how he got fired.

My family didn't leave Romania. I did. And they've been fine. I left for university. I did Film & TV in the UK cause I liked English-language entertainment. As for other people being uprooted... People didn't leave Romania in its communist years because they weren't allowed to, not cause they liked communism. Plenty escaped. Much like North Korea today.

Also, you keep using socialism and communism like they're synonyms. They're not. I'm down with democratic socialism. I am not down with the clusterfuck of oppression and poverty that was the Ceausescu regime. If you feel the same, I'd kindly suggest you don't associate with it either, cause it is a bottomless can of worms. The more you read, the more shocking it gets. And that goes for plenty other figures of the 20th century. This new generation of progressive democratic socialists is a completely different and much better thing.

(Edited a thing or two for clarity)

[–] Riverside@reddthat.com 0 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

The wealthy are not taking 90% in Romania

Brother the gini coefficient in Romania is 34 and in Russia it's 35, you are at Russian levels of kleptocracy...

There's a new green social-democrat party that's the real deal. It's growing. Fingers crossed

Keep them crossed lmao those parties are de facto forbidden in Europe. Mark my words: the party will be disintegrated in 10 years. It happened in Spain with Podemos (type of party you're supporting), it happened in Greece with Syriza... You're 10 years late to the party, the EU will literally not allow for anything left of corrupt socdems. Mark my words for when in 5-10 years your party is all but forgotten. Electoralism does not work.

The thing about supermarkets being empty is real. That was literally one of the things that triggered the revolution

Sure, the supermarkets got empty in all of the eastern block at the same time, thats why all countries abandoned socialism. I'm aware of the austerity policy in the 1980s, but that's not because of oligarchy, it's because Romania took on debt to further invest on its industrial sector, and had to pay back the debt. It caused inflation, but the real shit happened in the 1990s, because capitalism destroyed the economy. Wealth inequality skyrocketed, you complain about oligarchs but it's literally an order of magnitude now than before. Please, since you speak Romanian, try and find numerical information of wealth inequality in 1975 vs 2025.

What my grandfather did was he refused to beat up a guy for information. He was just a regular cop in a small city

That's literally cops everywhere. ACAB exists in the west, too. The good souls are kicked out of the police or corrupted.

[–] SethTaylor@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

Your brain is washed squeaky clean

Enjoy your "revolution" that you will defo do from your mom's basement

[–] Riverside@reddthat.com 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

Talk to me in 10 years when you experience the EU"s systematic destruction of leftist parties and the rise of the far-right