unknownuserunknownlocation comments on What are your thoughts on the German Democratic Republic as a country.

[+] unknownuserunknownlocation@kbin.earth -15 points 1 week ago (5 children)

East Germans got fucked by annexation.

Not quite that one-sided. Yes there were plenty of cases where the west had their noses in the air. At the same time, for example, the west poured a large amount of money into rebuilding and bringing the east back up to the modern standards - see the Solidaritätszuschlag.

Also, interesting how you first try to discredit the idea that there is any overlap between people wanting the DDR back and fascist supporters, and then suddenly have a whole bunch of excuses as to why those people there support fascists.

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[–] OrnluWolfjarl@lemmygrad.ml 12 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Not the person you responded to but:

At the same time, for example, the west poured a large amount of money into rebuilding and bringing the east back up to the modern standards - see the Solidaritätszuschlag.

Rebuilding what? West Germans poured money into making banks. That's it. They closed down or sold off (and then mostly closed down or downscaled) all publicly owned industry. East German unemployment is double that of the West German unemployment. They privatized state-owned homes, then let them dilapitate or raised the rents to extraordinary levels. The life of the average East German was much better in 1988 than it is now, by any metric: access to services (education, healthcare, etc), buying power, coloric intake, life expectancy, employment, happiness, housing, vacation time, etc.

They didn't pour money to "modernize" East Germany. They gave money to industrialists, bankers and politicians to perform capitalist shock therapy on the East Germans. The results were massive profits for a few West German and the impoverisation of the entirety of East Germany

suddenly have a whole bunch of excuses as to why those people there support fascists.

Those are not excuses. Those are reasons. I don't like them either, but doesn't make it less true.

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[–] unknownuserunknownlocation@kbin.earth -4 points 1 week ago (3 children)

West Germans poured money into making banks. That's it.

Sorry, that's just patently false. Have you even seen what things looked like towards the end of the DDR? Façades were blackened from pollution. Many buildings were falling apart. Many of those buildings have been fixed up. I've seen it myself personally, the difference is night and day, and there is plenty of evidence of that to go around.

Those are not excuses. Those are reasons. I don't like them either, but doesn't make it less true.

To be fair, excuses was an overstatement. My point was that if the commenter first demands citations for what I said (insinuating it to be false) then suddenly has a very detailed explanation for it (correct or not, but making it clear he accepted it's true all along), there's pretty clearly some bad faith there.

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[–] knfrmity@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 1 week ago

there's pretty clearly some bad faith there.

No, I just get pissy when liberals from other instances come in here and just regurgitate anti-communist bullshit, and then get all upset when there's pushback.

More generally you're also making bad faith misrepresentations of what I wrote but I won't go into that for the sake of my own well-being.

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[–] OrnluWolfjarl@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 1 week ago (1 child)

Oh, they fixed some buildings and cleaned them. My bad! Totally makes up for all the destruction they then caused to the local economies and the population, and the money they made out of it!

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[–] unknownuserunknownlocation@kbin.earth 1 point 1 week ago

Jesus Christ, shit was falling apart. We're not talking about minor repairs on just a few buildings. And the repairs were an example to show that your statement is flat out false. But of course, you then just switch to the next topic with more questionable statements, hoping to distract from your previous falsehood.

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