[asciilifeform]

food available in US supermarkets was a point of amazement for them.

How much will this eye-pleasing superficial variety matter once you and I can no longer afford to buy anything tastier than petroleum-based "cheese product" (if the latter is even available following petrocollapse...)

And of just how much use to you personally are the two hundred brands of toothpaste? I'd rather have access to free basic health care and free education up to the Ph.D. level, as my parents did.

History has already given its verdict on the USSR. It was an abysmal failure.

History is in the process of issuing its verdict on Anglo-American-style market economies. Don't change the channel! It will be quite exciting. And, I'm sure, quite surprising to you.

People were poorer, corruption was worse, shortages of necessary goods were more widespread...

Yeah, compare the Western nations (with centuries of experience in industrialization, the thorough "domestication" of their masses, and centuries of accumulated rewards from the plunder of militarily-weaker foreign lands) to an empire created out of agrarian savagery and thin air in just a few short decades.

its perceived strength and unity of focus... turned out to be based on myth.

All societies are based on myth.

The experience of having your own foundational myths (say, financial success as a reward for hard work or clever enterprise) shattered should prove very educational. Remember my words in the coming years.

What's your point?

That Russia and its satellites were raped and plundered, rather than "civilized" as many Westerners seem to believe. That this was the specific goal of the West since at least Napoleon. That impoverishment-via-massive-theft of a whole nation is at least as heinous an act as that of a man who picks your pocket. That it is obscene that this is even a controversial position.

[sili]

Try spending more than an hour visiting every produce store in your (hypothetical) town to find a loaf of bread because they all out of stock by mid-morning, and than tell me that a well-stocked supermarket near by is of no use.

Try going to your free dentist for a filling and have their drill bit break in half while inside your tooth.

Lastly, quality of many food products available outside of major cities was not much different from "petroleum-based cheese product".

[asciilifeform]

Oh, I will try. And so will you. In a few years.

Does a high-quality American (well, probably Japanese) drill bit enter your teeth if you can't pay the dentist?

And what will you eat from the (temporarily) well-stocked market shelves once your bank account is empty?

[burgerbrain]

You seem to be harboring a lot of anger. What is really going on here?

[asciilifeform]

You seem to be harboring a lot of complacency. What is really going on here?

[burgerbrain]

What makes you think I am complacent?

[guard-of-terra]

What makes you think he is angry? He has a point. It is consistent. It might be false, might be true but most certainly it is partially true. He doesn't need to be angry to state his point.

By demonstrating certain naive views about soviet union, people here motivate him to try and shake their world picture in hopes that it would somehow fix itself a little.

Not that I agree to all the things he writes, but many Russians would. Many would not, but that's what pluralism is about.