quoting Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev at what became the zenith of the nuclear arms race
In order to restore order to an increasingly chaotic world, we have no option but to hearken back to some of the greatest men to have ever walked the planet.
Reagan and Gorbachev are two of the worst people to have ever lived.
Yeah I was being sarcastic
I figured :)
Ok, I’m not saying I agree, but I at least understand why you’d put Reagan in there. Why would you lump Gorbachev in with him though?
Gorbachev oversaw the destruction of USSR that was one of the greatest humanitarian disasters in history. Forcible conversion to capitalism cost 3-7 million lives, and I personally had to live through that horror. All I can say is fuck Gorbachev.
Gorbachev oversaw the destruction of USSR that was one of the greatest humanitarian disasters in history.
I don’t think I could reasonably dispute that it was a great humanitarian disaster. Or that Gorbachev was in charge at the time.
How was he responsible? Was he only responsible in a “well, he didn’t prevent it” sort of way? I’ve considered that a valid criticism of politicians I myself support… if you’re in office when it happens, it really is your fault. Sort of.
If so with Gorbachev, I’ll just leave it there and I guess I agree for as much as that’s worth.
Or is it more? Does he have more culpability even than that?
Gorbachev actively worked to undermine the system. He was responsible for the push for things like glasnost and perestroyka. He fostered the start of privatization which was ultimately what led to the disaster. He was an active driving force in creating that disaster.
Forgive me, it’s been a long time since the 1980s. Isn’t “glasnost” something like “freedom to criticize”? For that matter, wasn’t perestroyka “we don’t want to keep threatening mutual nuclear annihilation”?
How are those things bad?
The privatization I at least get, others have criticized it in various places and times before. Or is there some causal link I’m not seeing, where those things led to or caused the privatization?
Things aren’t always what they sound. Glasnost basically allowed private outlets to start pumping pro capitalist propaganda, and perestroyka paved the path towards privatization. None of this had anything to do with preventing nuclear annihilation. This is a pretty good discussion of what happened under Gorbachev.
Now they just need to let actions follow their words and dismantle their fucking bombs.
Yeah, it’s absolutely insane how US and Russia are sitting on a literally world ending amount of nukes right now.
