This person tried to tell me peanut butter was illegal in the Soviet Union because they saw it on stranger things. Like…. you know you can fact check that right? You just believe whatever the tv tells you??
It’s even FUNNIER cuz they were talking about how much they hate the 4th, USA and capitalism… like bestie that was kinda the Soviet unions whole thing. What’s worse is I ask them: what makes them evil? And they answer: because the soviets are evil.
Honestly it’s just sad because people are just so content in their lil ignorance bubbles. Learning about communism from corporate media, being led a stray from any actual class consciousness.
We must never stop explaining in this upside down world. ( lol get it)
Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, but I think they used a Latvian Nazi base as a set in the show and it was supposed to be a “Soviet Gulag”. Like literally the Red Army Fucking FREED Holocaust survivors there, how are you gonna anti-comm that?
Also the guards were unable to tell that one dude was an American speaking Russian with a bad accent. I don’t even speak Russian and I could tell. They just couldn’t help but portray the soviets with over the top incompetence.
I’m from the US but I know an ok amount of Russian. Bad accented Russian is easy to spot because of how they pronounce Х,й vs и vs ы(dont even get me started on -ый -ий pronunciation) and my favorite, the letter Щ. If an English speaker tries to pronounce these letters and word patterns for the first time, they’ll sound off. So that is a pretty funny detail to miss as a Soviet guard. And given the way that English language is spoken, they’d probably put emphasis on the wrong syllables if they learn it quickly. Just a lil Linguistic Nitpicking on my part
I watched it and the second they said that I searched it up and no, it was not illegal (obviously). It just wasn’t common. I wonder if americans would also think this is illegal in Brazil bc I have never even seen such a product here, it looks like something essentially from USA.
What is sad is that the first season of the show the main villains are the american government in a small town. It’s a nice setting. The russian thing bothers even people who are not communists bc its shit and 100% unrelated
Exactly my point, the Russians had barely anything to do with it. Now they started blasting that shit in. It just ruined the whole show. The first season was good because it did show how the U.S government does lab experiments on children and use them, and how corrupt the system is, especially with the police in the other town and how they cover up evil things Hawkins does.
You can 100% bet that the ClA stepped in to make sure the script writers stopped with that anti-USA shit and made them put in anti-Russia and fascist propaganda for the 2nd season
The first season probably only made it through with an uncensored script because it wasn’t popular enough to be vetted until it got released
Yeah, start making shows where the CIA to doing horrendously fucked up things to children and you start to get too close to actual truth. Even if what the CIA actually did was magnitudes worse than what goes on in the show. Gotta throw in how the real big bad is Russia somehow and that torturing kids was necessary to stop them.
Which makes people think “America is bad but they do bad things for our own good!!” Shows like this just promotes the propaganda. I’m honestly glad someone made a post about this, because I noticed this shit but couldn’t find a sub to put my opinion on the show in.
I don’t think CIA even needed to step up tbh. Anti-Communism is something so consistent in Netflix and american movie industry that its very likely the directors themselves just decided to do it bc yes
I agree but to go from anti-USA to anti-Russia from one season to the next is a massive swing in the opposite direction that’s sus af
true
Can’t say “US bad” without adding “Russia worst” amirightfellas?
But really, the soviets parts really make the show worse even for non communists, its simply cartoonishly evil people doing shit because yes. It goes completely against the vibe of the show.
But even when trying to make them the stupid evil villains, Netflix somehow made the USSR look like more competent than the US (Spoilers ahead if u care) I mean the soviets got the fucking mind flayer and 1 bazillion demogorgons corpses and amerikkkans cant even kill 1 of them without eleven holy shit.
LMAO oh my god you’re so right. They try so hard to make the soviets look bad but actually make them look more powerful
That show sucks ass. I am sorry but it does. Imagine being nostalgic for a timeframe you didn’t even live in. Imagine being nostalgic for a time that Reagan was in charge. Also imagine thirsting after children. The audience for that show sucks too
The first season was great, second season ok, but I see no reason to keep watching it
Everyone keeps talking about that show. Stranger things this, stranger things that. I decided to check it out myself, and it was pretty interesting. Then they started talking about Russian this, Russian that, and spreading anti-communism propaganda. I just couldn’t get past season 2. It’s flooded with that bullshit.
Sucks because it’s actually a pretty well written show otherwise. Scratches that Stephen King itch big time if that’s your thing.
It was so good in season 1, then it just went downhill in season 2. I literally can’t watch it without feeling disgusted at how they use the popularity as an opportunity to spread anti-commie propaganda.
In the soviet Union peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are just jam sandwiches 😔
Good. Peanut butter is disgusting anyway.
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You didn’t try the good stuff bro, I swear to God, I have trouble stopping myself from eating it directly from the jar with a spoon …
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What’s the bad peanut butter? Mixed with corn syrup or something?
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Oh
Ngl I’ve done this before as well 😔
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Sigh…you’re not alone in your experience with that friend, and it’s not exclusive to westoids unfortunately.
Just this week a Russian friend (who grew up in the USSR!) brought up Stranger Things to me and I said I do my best to avoid watching U.S. anti-Soviet/anti-Russian propaganda…even after explaining the whole thing as well as the U.S. Department of Defense sponsoring countless media projects she has the gall to say something like: “oh it’s just good stories, who would believe any of that?”. I told her she clearly doesn’t understand how propaganda works.
The exchange really bummed me out to say the least.
oh it’s just good stories, who would believe any of that?
It takes time to notice these things. Especially if your friend, like so many of us here, had grown with 80-90’s Hollywood blockbusters on VHS.
As I mentioned she grew up in USSR, so I don’t think Hollywood is the reason. More likely a reactionary ideological drift in response to coming of age during the dissolution of the SSRs, in combination with a lacking education in Marxist-Leninist theory during that time period and ever since. In short, she thinks she is a communist but by her own articulation of her views she is barely a social democrat with a neolib and pro-Western tilt. In other words, you’re not going to get a very accurate POV from anyone born in the USSR who is younger than 55-60, unless you’re asking them about the collapse itself. Best to find and talk to those pensioners and babushkas if you want a more realistic perspective on the USSR.
Best to find and talk to those pensioners and babushkas if you want a more realistic perspective on the USSR.
Ironically, the most staunchly anti-Soviet, pro-West person I know is a pensioneer old enough to remember Stalin.
Oh verrrry interesting!
Yup, and when you start noticing there is no turning back lol. Its really damn hard to find a piece of western media that doesnt do some sort of anti-communist, anti-russia, anti-china propaganda.
Yup. “Predator” is a fun movie, until you realise it is literally about a group of CIA mercenaries, on a mission to slaughter some non-descript “rebels” and several Soviet officers that are helping. So basically anti-communist death squad type shit.
Even when movies go out of their way to portray China somewhat positive, they still can’t help but do it in a condescending fashion. See “The Martian”.
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Lol! Did they think Reptile was kicking it in the background when there was a full moon?
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I watched it but I am rooting for the giant spider shadow monster
Peanut butter…
Peanuts were invented by capitalism.
George W. Carver literally invented peanuts
Made me chuckle
After season 3, I gave up on the show. The underground soviet bunker was so stupid that I couldn’t bear to watch a season with even more stupidity.
I am absolutely fascinated with the cultural response to this show…I’ve never seen it but I’m tempted to watch it for curiosity’s sake, though what I already know about it I don’t like very much.
There seems to be a lot of casual misogyny in the show (Eleven, Max, and Joyce mostly existing to be shipped). A few years ago I watched a Pop Culture Detective YouTube video about the trope where a boy/man stalks a girl/woman he likes until she caves. Apparently that trope is in Stranger Things, with a black boy stalking a white girl. So there’s a racist element to that, too.
Another thing I can’t stand in media is when it’s set in a certain era, yet doesn’t seem to say anything about that era. Why is Stranger Things set in the 80s? As best as I can tell, it’s because the directors are nostalgic for their childhoods. I feel like this show is also the prefect example of how nostalgia is often incidentally or explicitly a tool for fascism. Like, they have to put ~Cold War~ stuff in there and be relentlessly anti-communist. Why? Because the 80s were like that! And people are like “it’s just accurate to the time!” Maybe so, but why choose to include this specifically? There are also people using this excuse to be rather homophobic, claiming that gay people didn’t exist in the 80s, or weren’t as common. AIDs pandemic aside, this also proves how nostalgia is a tool for fascism. The general public has very warped views of what certain time periods were like, and it’s not totally due to ignorance on their part, it’s because an agenda has been pushed, typically by the far right. Also apparently the two gay characters in the show (one canon and the other heavily implied) were treated like garbage in the most recent season. So there’s that!
Eleven is the only character in the show who really interests me, since she seems cut from the same cloth as characters like Rei Ayanami, Anthy Himemiya, Crona Gorgon, etc. which I am an absolute sucker for (in case my pfp didn’t make it obvious). But I genuinely cannot do high school romance (with one exception…Revolutionary Girl Utena my beloved…and that show is less about romance and more about cycles of abuse and how these fairy tale ideas of romance perpetuate them), especially when the narrative makes it seem like the be-all-end-all. Like, isn’t Eleven a girl who escaped from a lab where she was being tortured and experimented on? I feel like with that premise there’s so much to explore with this character and yet they shoved her into a relationship and made that her main deal, as best as I can tell. Like, when I was in high school I had a massive crush on one of my closest friends but now that I’m several years out of high school I can’t believe that actually happened. It seems so, well, juvenile. Every few weeks I remember the whole ordeal and I’m like “was that real?” Lol.
Sorry for writing a novel…I guess I just needed a place to collect my thoughts about this show.
I think they are really nostalgic for 80s culture, and happen to anti-communist. When I first heard about the show it was because of how nostalgia laden it is, if that makes any sense.
Well written, comrade. This deserves a Marx’s coat award.
Thank you, comrade!
Tv shows like that play a role in brainwashing
This person tried to tell me peanut butter was illegal in the Soviet Union because they saw it on stranger things. Like…. you know you can fact check that right? You just believe whatever the tv tells you??
Do you know they have no word for “freedom” in Russian?
American’s will believe anything…
I mean the whole us va them, good va evil mentality was basically the only thing bith sides did during the cold war.
Communism isn’t necessarily evil, it just doesn’t work.
